MTB rebuild

[Cubist]

It's a little pimple in Sport which can be rubbed down with some ICC Cricket and a match fix or two and then polished with some Premiership flim flam. Not to be confused with American rugby called football, which is also imported into this country and is an inferior rugby product. You probably know something about it from your holiday there.

Never mind all that, just a quick squirt of penetrating oil will do the trick.....

 

[Zoiders]

Oh, thanks for the detailed instructions! I take it then that making my own mind up about who is and who isn't tiresome is no longer an option (again!)then?

Zoiders, as a completely disinterested outsider, may I point out that you are a very strongly opinionated poster who will sometimes wind folk up. You have an abrasive manner (if you pardon the pun) on occasions, and come across as a bit "hey, listen to ME, I'm right and the rest of them are out of step."

I have no intention of joining in the fun, but if we were to score the number of times my hackles have risen when reading your post versus the same effect by Mickle, then I'm afraid you are Leicester Tigers to Mickle's Leeds Carnegie.

I would really like to know at what stage in this thread I started being abrasive.

I quoted no person, I aimed no comment at any one person, I didn't have a go at any individual, I wasn't trying to start an argument, I did not acuse mickle of being wrong before he started a pointless flame war - Mickle was just being rude.

Point the finger else where in future thank you.

 

[mickle]

Stop being an agressive pedant and shitting up yet another thread, so you spent a gap year in states bully for you.

Late 80s early 90's a lot of steel was still US manufactured so stop making sweeping comparisons with the state of the industry in 2011.

Try actualy working on the older bikes and witnessing how they degrade and stop commenting on stuff you googled.

 

[dellzeqq]

Erm, gents, can you please put your wanger's away and stop waving them about at each other (and I'm sooo glad we don't have a smiley for that!! [and don't anyone else go posting one either, thank you!!!] ).

Seriously, please, let's not fall out.

Thanks,
Shaun

this post is useless without pics!

 

[GrumpyGregry]

keep it original as far as you can whilst making sensible mods. Magura hydraulic rim brakes, pace elastomer forks, that sort of thing

(well it is what I did with mine...)

 

[Cubist]

Stop being an agressive pedant and shitting up yet another thread, so you spent a gap year in states bully for you.

Late 80s early 90's a lot of steel was still US manufactured so stop making sweeping comparisons with the state of the industry in 2011.

Try actualy working on the older bikes and witnessing how they degrade and stop commenting on stuff you googled.

Errr, it was this bit........

Leave it now, I can't be bothered!

 

[Angelfishsolo]

+1

Errr, it was this bit........

Leave it now, I can't be bothered!

 

[User482]

My 1993 Marin, made from True Temper steel, and used every day on my commute come rain or shine, is rust free. My 1992 Breezer, made from Ritchey Logic steel also completely rust free.

But Zoiders is completely right, obviously.

Back to the OP: I think it's already been said, but trying to turn a vintage MTB into something it's not, is expensive. Enjoy it as it is (or flog it on retrobike).

 

[VamP]

HAHAHA! This thread has taken on a life of it's own.


I am definitely keeping the bike and as original as possible. Thanks for all the on topic comments, as well as the off topic entertainment.


For the record, the frame is completely rust free - and no it's not had a completely easy life.

 

[Zoiders]

My 1993 Marin, made from True Temper steel, and used every day on my commute come rain or shine, is rust free. My 1992 Breezer, made from Ritchey Logic steel also completely rust free.

But Zoiders is completely right, obviously.

Back to the OP: I think it's already been said, but trying to turn a vintage MTB into something it's not, is expensive. Enjoy it as it is (or flog it on retrobike).

And I have binned three otherwise perfect Treks from the period for rusted out chainstays bridges and a few Marins as well, I put forward ano pinion, I didn't write paragraphs about it or have a go at anyone in the process, I think the original post I made consisted of maybe 2 lines.

I am seriously getting titsed off with being the bogeyman here as it wasn't me who pushed the thread towards aggressive pedantry, this isn't the politics board so if anyone has a problem go and see the mods. As I said - up until Mickle going off on his little mission to prove what an expert google merchant he is all was fine with this thread.

 

[Alembicbassman]

Buy some new slick tyres and tubes, regrease bearings, replace cables and use it as an urban mtb.

 

[User482]

Zoiders, you put forward an opinion masquerading as fact. That's why you get peoples backs up.

 

[henshaw11]

Apart from any custom handbuilt frames (and I may, of course, be wrong) I'm not aware that US or UK bikes (mtb or otherwise) generally had frame saver lobbed in them. So to that extent, they're all potentially prone to rust. My '02 Orange P7 doesn't, and a mate's 95 or 96 Nickel finish P7 didn't either. Even a handful or more years ago Brant Richards (On-One blokey) used to recommend just rinsing the frame tubes round with engine oil in the event that anyone was that worried about corrosion on their frames.

I'd guess one of the worst but inspectable places on the rockhopper is likely to be at the bottom of the seattube - water gets chucked up by the rear wheel and some of it ends up there. (I used to have to empty out my ~89 'dale after every wet ride, despite the fact that the seatpost seemed a close fit). I guess have a good look down - likewise in the headtube, BB shell etc - with a torch and see what it looks like.

Re old suspension forks - yeah, you'll have trouble finding anything worth riding, or at least anything you want to ride regularly and not care about, IYSWIM. The latest early (if that makes sense) decent ones that you might find relatively easily would be Rockshox Mag 10 or Mag 21.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RockShox
- those'd be 1" (not sure about ahead or threaded...I'm sure there's a wiki somewhere). If you *can* find any old Pace forks the elastomers will almost certainly be stuffed - my mate with the P7 gave up on his ~2001 or so (my P7's the one he replaced it with) because they were knackered and he couldn't get replacements - even from Pace. By 96/97 they'd move to coils/damping cartridges. I've got a set of those (MXC I think, 60mm or 70mm travel - there was a long travel kits which added 20mm) on a '96 M2 Stumpjumper, I think I bought the forks in 97 (I bought the M2 rigid).

I'd stick with the rigid forks - they were intended to have flex anyway, not up to today's sort of riding but probably fine for an awful lot - I did more than a few trailquest events on my 'dale. Even any rigid forks you can find nowadays with disk mounts are probably going to be too long axle>crown race (istr there was a 'standard' length of about 420 or 440 mm - try measured that on your frame and see what you come up with - if you want I could measure my old rigid 'dale and see what that is, that *definitely* predates suspension).

V -brakes would be decent upgrade tho' (the parallel-push XTRs are/were some of the best - you can still buy them but they're not cheap) - but Avids or LX/XT should be good - it ought to be possible to find some on ebay for not a lot.

If you've got to buy wheels anyway, it *might* be worth buying them with rim brake rims and disk hubs if there's not much £ difference - if you then buy another bike with disks you've got a spare set of wheels.

 

[MacB]

So what have we learned here? steel frames, exposed to the right conditions, and care or lack of, can rust? There is a product, well several actually, you can put inside steel frames that will mitigate/stop this? Older frames never had this treatment yet some rusted and some did not? Many frames are still made without internal protection being added?

 

[lukesdad]

Rugger anyone ?