Aemmer

You know me better than that. Needs to be era correct, although in this case quite modern for me at 2000. the newest bike I have ever taken time to restore. Figure if I am ever going to try a 29er, an old Willits is the way to go.

Your DB looks nice so far, and I like the way that stem made the drops accessible in the dirt.

pizzamania

Thanks guys! I'm lovin it so far.
As far as the shifters go, they are indeed thumb shifters. They are sunrace friction units. For my purposes they work pretty well! Shifting sometimes requires a bit of planning since you have to choose between the brakes or the shifters for your hand position, but it is fairly easy to get accustomed to. It isn't a perfect system, but for the price they are tough to beat, and it definitely hasn't slowed me down or inconvenienced me in a material way.

peazweag

here is mine not done yet as I just got it today.1987 Miyata Path winder.More pics when its done.

ricklp

And I too have most of my parts gathered. I realized tonight that I need some in line cable adjusters for the gears. I know technically I only need one for the front but I prefer the symmetry that two will give me. Here is the $20.00 GT with $35.00 wheels. The studded winter tires cost exactly double what the bike did.

ricklp

And here is an after picture:



I used some Modolo wide drop bars. The crankset, shifters and derailleurs are from an RSX groupset I got off Ebay. The tires are Continental Studded tires. I used Problem Solver travel agents to adapt the V brakes that were on the GT. I ended up driving around all morning to find some Jagwire inline cable adjusters to make the shifter cables work. I wrapped the bars with Specialized Bar Phat bar wrap.

My first impression is that I need to be a bit less stretched out. But it works nice in the ugly snow we got today.

ricklp

Is that fork, the same as what seems common on eBay when you search 26" mountain fork? What do you think of it?

Thanks in advance

Number400

Yup, cheap aluminum ebay fork. It's very, very light but seems to be holding up so far. Overall fit and finish is good. The graphics suck and are cleared over but otherwise a good buy.

Medic Zero

Nice to see someone else repurposing and old Outpost! Super nice execution!
A bit off-topic for this thread (sorry, I don't do drop-bars), but here's a couple of shots of my '93 GT Outpost:



I ride this bike at least three days a week to work and back, and the pic below is on return from a short (four day) trip with my girlfriend (on her converted GT ), staying overnight at hotels and bed & breakfasts. A little messy, overloaded with loot from shopping and with my sweater tucked untidily under the longflap of my big saddlebag. I wish I had taken some proper glamour shots of the bike at some point over the past two years, but I guess it's too late for it in this iteration as I killed the fenders* and I've got 2.15" Schwalbe Big Bens (in grey) and SKS Longboard fenders on the way in the mail for it. In the meantime, I'm probably getting wet tomorrow morning!

* Under tension + missing a rubber spacer + horrible roads = crack and fail



Although not a drop-bar bike, and looking rather citified, this bike has seen its share of gravel and dirt trails, although the last one I took showed me I need to trim the front fender a little higher. Nowhere near as clean or nice as your build, but it's served me extremely well over the past two years and about 6,000 miles. I'm in the middle of building up a 1993 GT Corrado almost identically to my Outpost to take over its duties, I'm hoping the lighter tubeset is going to be a little easier on all the hills here, but I have to wonder if it is going to be as stiff and stable when loaded down.

Aemmer

For some reason I don't see the owner of that bike as much of a weight weanie.

simpleton.

Thanks for the kind words! My Outpost has gone through countless revisions and I think this is the best looking version but the drops didn't last long. I rode it like that for a couple of weeks but I was too stretched out and didn't like the hand positions. This is how she's set up now. I'm rocking a nitto dirt drop stem with some cheap Nashbar Moustache bars. This picture doesn't do it justice. it looks much better in person.

Chitown_Mike

These older GT frames really makes me wish I snagged the Palomar I was eye balling a few months ago for real cheap. Oh well, I'll have to find something this season to tinker with.

ricklp

I agree, I think these GT's do look pretty good. I got a stem with less reach for it and it feels much better. Mine had/has a bad rattle can black paint job just sort of sprayed all over. I took acetone to the brakes to make them silver again. That went well so I started wiping it down where the decals should be and I have uncovered most of them. I am liking the look. I picked up some tom slick tires and am going to look at some better wheels this afternoon. I think this bike might be a good way to ride with slower friends and still get a workout.

I'll try for a couple more pics tonight or tomorrow,if I get the wheelset/s.

jdpt

Just finishing up this GT Timberline. Going to change the handlebars to short reach, but otherwise the fit it good and it's fun to ride.

bobotech

So I'm kind of bored with my Rockhopper drop bar conversion. It is fairly heavy and I'm looking to lighten it up a bit. I would love to find a nice alloy frame designed for rigid forks but that is rather hard to do. I do have a ratty Klein that I posted about but the frame needs a lot of work. One thing i know I can do is to put a lighter fork on my Rockhopper.

Are they any budget minded (ebay? Nashbar?) 26" rigid forks that are either alloy or carbon with canti posts?

frantik

^ what wheels and tires do you have? tires are the quickest way to drop weight.

bobotech

On my main wheels, I have a set of 26x1.5 panaracer tires and the rims are Mavic X221. I know they aren't the lightest but they are strong as hell. I hand built the wheels myself wanting super strong to withstand my 350 pound butt. The hubs are just nice Deore hubs, normal Shimano fare.

I'm just bored and want to change the frame and fork. The rockhopper frame isn't anything special and it weighs quite a bit and is ugly (black with scrapes and surface rust all over it).

realestvin7

What size frame do you prefer?

bobotech

It depends but generally I can ride 19 to 21 easily with drop bars. I like longer top tube because I have short legs but long arms/torso.

realestvin7

56cm top tube too short?

bobotech

That would work.

realestvin7

I have a 1988 Cannondale SM1000 frameset I'm about to list. Far from perfect but rad and light. It was Cannondale's top offering that year.

ricklp

PM Sent. Lighter could be nicer.

wrk101

FWIW, I cut almost 6 pounds off my Cimarron by changing wheels, tires, pedals and saddle. The only thing I bought were the pedals, the rest came out of the bin. Saved 1 1/2 pounds just with the tires! With some appropriate changes, you should be able to get the weight of a vintage steel rigid frame mtb under what a similar era touring bike weighs.

If you have a suspension fork, I would attack that as well.

Personally, if I was getting that deep (changing the fork), I would just keep an eye out for a replacement mtb instead.

Don't overlook other parts as well. Many vintage mtbs came with steel stems. Easy enough to find an alloy dirt drop style stem at a low cost.

bobotech

No suspension on this bike. It weighs about 32 pounds right now. Stem is adjustable but is alloy (need to change it). Tires are pretty light, 26x1.5 panaracers, pedals are heavy but the best I can do, they are Odyssey BMX pedals, I like big wide pedals. Saddle is a WTB mountain bike saddle.

No suspension on this old early nineties Rockhopper.

wrk101

32 is on the hefty side. Does that include racks? Most of the decent mtbs from that time were 30 pounds. Shedding weight from there was relatively easy.

The Panaracers are on the heavy side for that size tire. The Panaracer High Road V weighs in at 607 grams each. Same size Nashbar Streetwise weighs 430 grams and the Nashbar 1.25 inch slicks weigh 346 grams each.