Originally Posted by Happy Feet

Too funny.
After reading your rundown and posting mine I decided to go down and do some maintenance on my bikes. Got totally frustrated with the commuter that used to shift up into its 40 cog but now won't so I pulled out my old 26 mtb which had been sidelined lately. While I occasionally want to dismiss it because the frames a bit too small that old bike has served well in a few incarnations.

Originally a rigid 92 Marin Pine Mountain from a thrift store I picked it up because of the light double butted Chromo frame and decent components, I converted it to a touring bike and rode it across Western Canada and several 1-2 week tours after that. I wanted lower gears so I swapped out the crankset for a 42/32/22. A while later I got into hill climbing and added an wide range cassette. Then I swapped out the rigid fork for a suspension I had laying around and began using it for bike packing and mtbing. My endurance and fat bikes have taken over the tour/mtb roles and I think of selling it off as redundant but then again, a bike sometimes feels like an old friend that way.

Long and short, that bike could serve as a capable off road tourer no problem. If it could fit 3" tires for sand and was just a bit bigger, I would probably invest in having some more bottle cage barnacles added to it in the places I want. Eventually, if anything, the thing that would limit it's potential is the fact that it doesn't have disc brake caliper mounts. I could add a modern fork but that still leaves the rear. At some point it' just better to start with a new frame.