Originally Posted by Bikedued

The only bad thing is that on a level top tube "vintage" mtb, a suspension fork will be too tall, and screw the handling all up. Believe me I rode a Schwinn Sierra that someone put a 100mm Rockshox on. It was hard to ride it effectively in a straight line, as the fork wanted to flop to either side instead of staying straight ahead.

An early nineties steel frame might already have a suspension fork, but very small travel... Make it a late nineties and you're probably good to go I have a mid nineties Marin that I am going to try and build up in the next few weeks. The last time I had it built up, with heavy wheels etc< it was around 27.5 pounds. Not horrible even today as a lot of mid level bikes still seem to hover in that range.,,,,BD

Now that I have a 3 pound Spinner fork, and everyone is dumping their lightweight 26 inch wheels like they have some kind of disease, I should be able to get it in the lower 20's