Mountain Biking - retro fitting Suspension fork

I just got a free Mountain Bike, its an old GT Talera. 7 Speed, rigid frame, but a little TLC and its in great shape.

Yes its steel, yes its heavy, yes it was free. I changed the cables, cleaned out the insides of the Alivio shifters,they werent catching the shift pawls everytime, this seems to happen to all my old shimano shifters, both MTB and road. I open them up douse them in Pro-link and the start working again. I think the grease in there just gets too hard after a while.

I want to put a suspension fork on it, is there a decent quality one that will fit an old steel frame? I believe its a 1" head tube or so.

There is a couple still made in 1" , I believe by Marzochi or Manitou it would cost more then the bike is worth to be honest though. You can scour e-bay see if you can find one cheap. WHy not just keep it as is and keep it as a rainy day bike? You also have to factor in buying a new headset and stem since the fork will most likely be threadless. And I bet the current one is threaded.

Id second the advice to keep it as is. It makes a good commuter/utility bike/tourer and you can ride it off-road without front sus.

Marzocchi EXR might still come in 1" (it did in 2002) and the fork was only around 200$ cdn. But I agree with the above. It probably isn't worth it to the bike.

i was browsing earlier after buying my new mech and i saw this.... Its Marzocchi... and is probably abit steep if its going onto an old bike...

If I were you id practise on your rigid and if you really get into ridn buy a new better bike...

heres the fork anyways... Sorry for it being on a british site... But i cant help that :)

Marzocchi MX Comp 1" (http://www.bikedock.com/posit/shop/index.php?category=29&group=5)

Just look for the marzocchi MX comp 1" on that list...

make it a SINGLE SPEED!

one gear is all you need.

Thanks all!

I will probably keep it the way it is unless I find a steal on ebay. Even at cost plus 10% through my LBS it still going to be too much $ to be worth it.

Im always partial to retro stuff, I like the lines of the old Triple Triange Frame.

I have to agree about the tripple triangle frame, I still regret selling my GT ZR 1.0 frame and it's been almost a year now. My favorite bike to ride right now is my GT Pulse frame which is a tripple triangle frame.

I've had several GT's great bikes!

I had a Karakorum ('92 vintage) and a Rebound ('96 vintage) my wife still has her Backwoods (also '96).

The triple triangle was sweet looking, strong, but heavier than other frames. I drooled after a Zaskar for years.

L8R