Classtime 

I think these are vintage: no suspension, no electronics, no disks.

I'm looking for the MTB equivalent for a Nice mid 80s road racing bike. I only want one MTB (seriously?) and don't want to experiment. The 80s MTBs seem too long for me. I like my road bikes to have steeper angles and shorter wheelbases and figure that my preferred MTB would occupy a similar position on the spectrum of MTBs. I'm looking for higher end, XT or XTR steel bikes but I don't have a budget for a collectable. Ritchie P23s are out of the question.

What makes and models should I search for? I intend to ride this long and hard (think Leadville) and as fast as I can. I don't expect to be comfortable.

Piff 

Are you absolutely sure you don't want to experiment before you decide to forge ahead? Riding long and hard on non-tubeless 26" wheels (higher psi) with no suspension is likely to be quite uncomfortable if we're talking 100 miles. I know you say you already expect this, but have you ridden an old rigid mtb from this era before?

Classtime 

I've ridden 134 miles on a road bike over mixed terrain (Belgian Waffle Ride) with 22mm Gatorskins pumped to 100 psi. Then on 4 subsequent rides on the same course I used 25s pumped to 90. So I think I know what I am getting into. Sort of Eroica MTB.

Piff 

Okay, okay, I just wanted to caution you since it seems you haven't ridden an 80s or 90s mtb.

Hudson308 

My first thought was Klein Rascal, but they're pretty spendy. Trek 930?
Why don't you set up a late-80's road bike as a flat-bar gravel grinder or cyclocross steed?

clubman 

What size frame? Some nice mid-90's bikes with suspension-adjusted rigid forks...I'm thinking Kona Kilauea and others. Abundant and not too expensive.

Classtime 

Yea. Klein are up there with the P23s
I've considered a Trek 970 but missed out. Is there much difference in racy-ness between the higher end Treks and say the higher end Schwinn PDGs or Marins?

And lets not get in the way of N+1. I made up some EroicaMTB rules and they call for a legit MTB.

katsup

Depending on your budget, it may be difficult to find XT/XTR bikes. Most of the people that have them know what they have and price them accordingly or part them out. By the mid 90s, a lot of the higher end bikes had front suspension which will make your search more difficult unless you are OK with replacing the fork.

I am not the best with geometry so I can't help you there.

What size bike do you ride? I believe the only Trek 9xx that came with XT was the 990 and those are sparse.

Chris Chicago

trek 950,970, 990. maybe a stumpy or rockhopper. diamondback apex
early 90s should get you the geo you want too. check out the vintage mtb thread or the drop bar conversions. there's a crapton on there.
if you're patient you may find something nice for around 100 bucks

edit, just saw xt minimum. that might make your odds longer. I think 970s came with dx

due ruote 

HarborBandS

My thought was also mid-1990's Trek 970 or 990, or a Specialized Stumpjumper Comp.

Also, the bonded (glued lugs) aluminum Trek's from the mid-90's were sometimes a project with Easton that were really very light (Trek 8000?). Or an Aluminum Klein might be nice.

I had a 1995 Trek 8700 back in the day (bonded aluminum lugs/stays with carbon main tubes). It was like 21 lbs and I loved it. I did 80 miles on a crushed limestone rail trail using this bike, and it was great.

Classtime 

The Kona looks like a good candidate. I'll put it on my list.

oddjob2

I find that my 5'9" body is happiest upon the ice red 850, the purple 930, or the parakeet green Miyata. The other frames or stems make me feel I need to reach too far. I currently also own Schwinn MOS, High Plains, PDG 40, and a Stumpjumper. Also have had a Hard Rock, Rockhopper, Univega, Giants, and other 930 iterations.

bikemig 

So I love 80s and 90s MTB. The 80s (which the OP doesn't want) do tend to have longer top tubes relative to their seat tubes (compared to the 90s era MTBs) which makes them, by and large, good candidates for drop bar conversions.

For 90s, the lugged Trek 900 series are pretty darn nice. I'd take a long hard look at a specialized stumpjumper and a bridgestone MB 1 as well. The MB 1s and stumpies are, IMHO, classy bikes.

beicster 

If you can find a reasonably priced early 90's Paramount, they were made for racing. My 93 Series 50 is lugged Tange Prestige, has a relatively short top tube and a 71.5 degree headtube.

USAZorro

Trek 990 , Gary Fisher, Stumpjumper, Bontrager Privateer with a substituted fork... Stealing a Giant Iguana fork would give you a stupidly sturdy replacement for a suspension fork.

canklecat

Check out the mid-'90s Kona "Race Light" models. I recently saw a Kona Lava Dome Race Light, rigid fork version, that was the first MTB that really caught my attention. Weighs about 24 lbs. All chromoly steel.

Kinda want, although I'd use it only for our reasonably well maintained gravel and not-very-technical single track courses. I'm too old to learn new tricks.

crank_addict

I would buy this vinti Cannondale Silk Path 700, XT equipped, hydraulic cantilever brakes. $250 or best offer plus shipping. Super all around versatile bike for long term use.
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?m...2F143149246546

A flat bar hybrid but I consider it the original 'gravel grinder / 29er' whatever.

700c ready for a variety of tire choices, has a short travel with optional lockout Headshock and way cool Magura hydraulic brakes.

If you convert to a road drop bar, you might desire a shorter stem. Exclusive to the Headshock but they're on eBay too. If you freak about a failing Headshock, theres specialist to help OR just buy the conversion kit for rigid.

I have a low line Silk Path 300 and converted to an STI dual control road drop. Added Continental Speedride 700x42c rubber. Beastly fun bike.

3speedslow

Classtime 

All good suggestions. Simple is better. I have recently tried to revive a suspension fork in need of a rebuild and that has turned me away from anything related to bicycle suspension. I imagine hydraulics would do the same.

TiHabanero

Mid-eighties Miyata mountain bikes do not have long top tubes. Although not especially light frames, they are wonderful to ride. I have an 85 Ridge Runner and will never part with it.

madpogue 

There's the rub. The "higher end" you go, the more likely you are to find only bikes in "collectable" condition (even if only in the mind of the seller). The 900 family is a prime example. Minimal / moderate differences in the frames, but to get into the upper atmosphere wrt. gruppo, you're looking at 970/990. Fewer of them made BITD, and fewer still being let go these days. You may have to (1) adjust to a more accessible / available level of componentry, or (2) grab up a mid-level bike like a 950 and amass the higher end components as they pop up.

Classtime 

I was hoping that there could be an undervalued brand/model that was "as good as" the more desirable/collectable bikes. Like some suggest a road bike such as _________ is as good or better than the Colnago, Bianchi, Paramount, Pinarello, etc., and maybe this MTB that I hope exists is plentiful and I don't know how to recognize it. And If one of the other mentioned nice bikes shows up on a list, maybe I can get there first.

Lemond1985

I've owned a GT Timberline and a couple TIG welded 930 Singletracks from the mid 90's. The geometry on those bikes really sucked, I thought, so I got rid of them. They might have been OK for really steep technical stuff, but for the kind of dirt road riding I do, I found that kind of geometry slowed the bikes down quite a bit and wasn't needed. YMMV, of course. You may want to do more technical stuff than me, not too familiar with Leadville, isn't that fairly non-technical dirt roads?

EDIT: I would suggest some sort of 650b conversion from a bike that originally ran 27" wheels, something like an old Peugeot or Raleigh, but that's just me.

canklecat

In my area, and some others, the sleeper would be Univega. The late 1980s-early '90s Alpina models were good and often seem to be priced lower on the used market than other comparable brands.