For a brief time, I had a 1983-84 Takara Highlander, a very early MTB with cro-moly main tubes and probably hi-ten everything else. I trashed the chainstays and it ended up on the scrap heap but I miss that old bike and would like to someday get a higher quality repack geometry bike.

I know that the early Stumpjumpers had longer forks than the Ritchey MountainBikes that inspired them and thus, slightly different handling characteristics. Did other early-to-mid 80's MTB's also share this characteristic? Based on experience, what are some of the better handling MTB's from this era? I'm not holding out for a Ritchey or anything of that caliber but I would like to eventually find a decent (ie, all cro-moly, preferably with a bi-plane fork crown but not required) mass produced frameset I can have powdercoated and then build up with mostly modern components. How long did the Repack geometry last? 1985? 1986? 1987?

I know that Specialized, Schwinn, Trek, Univega, Mongoose and Ross all made Repack style MTB's. Are there others I'm missing and can keep an eye out for?

Here's the Takara that I miss: