Originally Posted by cooperryder

Somebody stop me!
Please.


I have been at it again the last 6 to 8 weeks with 3 vintage mtb rebuilds.
Well, actually four 26'er builds if you count a 4th that is not supposed to be a 26"er but that's a whole other story not for
the 'faint of heart/'traditional build mindset'.

As you can see in the pics only 2 of these 3 have drop bars.

I begin with a tale of 2 Treks circa 1990.
I had to include the 1990 Trek 850 as that bike is a blast to ride
with those high Soma Sparrow bars on it. I have done two 40 milers on it and it did very well.
It is set up with a 1 x 8 drive train , 40T chain ring and the cassette is a 12 x 30 I think.
When I get to juggling more than a couple of bikes I tend to forget what's on which.
I really like the Maxxis DTH 26x2.15 tires on it which were the lightest I found in this width.
Would be interested in knowing of others.

The black one is a 1990 Trek 7000 aluminum frame with it's original 3 x 7 triple drive train.
It is sporting some 26 x 2.35 Michelin Pilot Sports (weigh 800 g's) that I have used on other builds in the past
which measure 61mm and just barely clear the chainstays.

To this point my Peugeot Orient Express has the widest chainstays and can run 2.35 tires with room to spare.
It's also one of the heaviest frames I have had.

The other blue one with drop bars is a 1991 Specialized Rockhopper running for now a 1 x 7 gearing set up
also with a 40t single chainring.

I stripped both the 850 and Rockhopper to bare frames before building up and on the 7000 just changed the cockpit for now.

I weigh the frames/forks when they are stripped down and so for 10 to 12 mtb's have passed through since
I started with all this craziness after reading the beginning of this thread.
(my first is on here, a couple of years back)( a dark blue Univega Rover Sport or something).
I had so much fun with that one I just kept going.

This blue Rockhopper is my lightest frame/fork to this point, even lighter than my Cimarron frame at 7.30 vs 7.65 pounds.
The 850 frame/ fork is 8.0 even.
The Rockhopper seems to have decent double butted tubing due to it's weight and according to it's tubing decal
but I can't say I am impressed with the neatness of the welder/builder. However inside the bottom bracket it looks perfect.
Go figure.

Once I start building them up they get fairly heavy fast like 28 to 30 lbs but that Trek 850 is setting at
25.75 lbs right now, not terrible in my view and it's my fav to ride right now which of course is subject to change.

For me it's not a terribly expensive endeavor as I look for pretty good deals on the bike and
then the cockpits are most critical factor to me and I usually invest about $150 average in the cockpits,
sometimes a tad more if they are sporting bar ends and cross/inline levers.
If the bars are not up high enough I just can't get comfortable riding the bike(s)
so that's the first thing I get dialed in to my liking.

So for around $250 to $400 depending on parts, I have a bike(s) I love to ride.
Now that I have a number of complete cockpit parts on hand I can just swap around or mix and match as needed.

It helps to have built up a bit of a parts stash which reminds me what does one do with all those old mtb bars and too short stems?

These fatter street tires on mtb's just do it for me at this point.
The cheapest new bike I saw in my LBS was about $450 and I prefer these made over rigid mtb's over any I saw there.

I am looking forward to trying a set of Compass Bikes forthcoming fat 26" tires on one of these machines which should most definitely be lighter than the Maxxis.

Ok, now to go ride one...which to choose???