Originally Posted by
Kapusta
I would not drop $1K+ into mediocre parts for a 22 year old hardtail.
If you want to keep riding this, skip the new brakes and wheels and skip the 1x (try a 2x plus bash ring conversion)
What fork is on there now? Can it be rebuilt?
The fork is probably the main problem, it is a Nashbar rigid fork - I swapped out the original RockShox at some point. The modern suspension fork option for 26" + V brake is basically the Rockshox recon silver tk 26 which might be ok.
Other than that the XTR shifters do not always work, but I think this is an issue that can be fixed just by taking it apart and cleaning and re-lubing them.