Originally Posted by
jyl
Hard to install a rigid fork, would change geometry radically, just leave the suspension fork and adjust to lockout or max firmness. Tires for sure.
It doesn't necessarily have to change the geometry, there are suspension corrected aftermarket forks available. I've done it before, my girlfriends 1996 GT Pantera is superb with a Tange Infinity rigid fork now and I'm in the process of doing it for an early hybrid for myself with one of the Rivendell unpainted forks. One can actually take the opportunity to purposefully change the geometry a bit at this time, in our case, we went a few mm's higher and tamed it perfectly from a moderately aggressive mountain bike into a perfect city bike/light tourer.
There are good threads here on converting an MTB and going to a rigid fork. The forums' search function doesn't work, but if you google "bike forums" + "show me your MTB conversion" and separately a query on rigid forks on MTB's you'll get a couple of excellent threads here.
Fenders could be hard to install, but possibly can rig something up.
There are options for fenders out there.
Several good options for racks out there.
Disagree. With slick tires, they'll quickly want a 46 or 48 tooth front chainring.
Or, sell it and buy a more street oriented bike.
This would be easier, and probably more economical and definitely less of a bodge. Depending on where you live, you can probably pick up a mint condition, high end, 15-25 year old full rigid mountain bike that would make a better basis for a conversion for about a hundred bucks.