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@M_V
Riding a modern mtb was pretty amazing, especially jumping from a fully rigid singlespeed into it.
I had no idea how good clutch mechs were, pretty much no chainslap noise and it climbed so much better than I imagined a full sus bike would (especially when I reverted about the gears!).
I had been thinking about upgrading to something like the bike I hired and had I not crashed and broken my collarbone I’m sure that hitting that bike would have convinced me but getting carried away and exceeding my ability was one thing that concerned me so instead of spending my off bike time shopping for a new bike, I’ve come up with a new project.
I’ve bought a modern 150mm travel Fox fork and an ancient, low speed GT LTS500 frame for it to go with!
Obviously there’s some incompatibility there so I’ll be building a new front end for the LTS frame which will accommodate the new fork with its much longer travel and tapered steerer.
I also need to modify the seatstays a bit to accommodate a larger tire. I’d hoped I might e able to fit a 27.5” rear wheel in but that would require major surgery so I’ll settle for a 26 x 2.4 wheel abs tyre combo. The front will be 29” (I think, I’ve still to buy the rim for that wheel so maybe I’ll go 27.5”) so it’s a mullet set up.
The shock mount will get moved slightly, mainly for tyre clearance again but also I’m dropping the position on the rear dropouts to give less bb drop. What this means for how the suspension will work is anybodies guess. There’s the travel chips in the linkage and the shock can be screwed up or down in the trunion mount so I’m hopeful I can make it work. I mean, it is around 20 year old suspension design so it probably never worked that well to start with!
I did think about adding a disc tab to the frame but I’ve got a nice rim brake 26” wheel with a singlespeed hub so I’ve bought a Magura HS33 to run on the back. Mullet wheels, why not mullet brakes!
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