Like every hack, this one has a starting point. I'm not sure where exactly, but a few months ago I saw an old Rivendell All-Rounder, which may or may not have started this one off. Or it may have been when one of the local used bike dealers called up, and we worked out a trade. I gave him a completely overhauled low end Peugeot from the eighties, and he unloaded a set of Campagnolo derailleurs, A pair of Blumies' fenders, and an old Belt leather saddle in pretty nice condition on me. He immediately sold the not-so-great Peugeot for 125$ and I got some cool old parts I could mess around with, so we were both happy.

"I've got a bike I'd like to give you" he said. "It's an old mountain bike, and it's been sitting in my yard rusting for six months now. No one wants mountain bikes-- they all want to build fixed gears; I'll never sell it. You're the only person I know who might be able to do anything with it. If you want it, it's yours."

I am no big fan of mountain bikes in general. Last one I had was a 1984 Trek 850, which I fixed up, almost never rode, and then traded for a 1958 Raleigh Lenton Grand Prix (there was an easy trade), Most MTBs I see are too small (the Trek was), not lugged steel, and pretty much crap. However, I'd been entertaining the idea of building a fixed gear ice bike out of an MTB frame, so I went and looked.

Oh my. The bike lacked horizontal drops, but it was entirely lugged steel and one of the bigger MTB frames I'd ever seen. It was in rough shape, but I could see the potential. Tange seamless cro-moly double butted MTB tubing, cro-moly forks and stays. Lugged. Three (!) bottle mounts; braze ons for rear racks. Early Deore derailleurs, Nitto bar and stem, friction thumbies, Suntour XC sealed bearing rear hub. Shimano crank with Biopace (you can't have everything) in 180mm and no front wheel. No matter, I'd found a pretty nice 26" wheel in the trash a few weeks before. The stem's clamp turned out to be 26.0, not the MTB size, perfect for my plans.

I took the offered bike, it was too cool to pass up, easily the coolest and bestest MTB I'd ever seen. The build fell together quick. I replaced the bars with drop bars, as I've never liked straight bars. I had the Suntour shifters and the set of interupter levers, as well as the fenders and a tubular steel rack that fit the bike pretty well. The new crank, virtually unused, came about because I bought a parts bike in order to build another bike for a friend's employee. She warned me any bike I built would likely be stolen, so when I saw a virtually unused 48-38-28 Sugino crankset in 175mm, I kept it, replacing it with a more worn crank on the soon-to be stolen bike. I figure the crank was worth the ten bucks I paid for the parts bike alone (it also coughed up a nice steel JIS headset and some parts for the giveaway bike before I trashed the broken frame).

I bought the Cane Creek levers from Nashbar during their recent free shipping sale, then Nashbar was stupid enough to offer me free shipping again, and I bought the tiny but cool front rack. New Kool stop pads, chain, a replacement freewheel from the parts pile. The MKS GR9 pedals came off ebuy, the toe clips from the parts pile, as well as some slighly later deore derailleurs (still pre-index). 26 by 2 tires, in a semi-slick. It rides well and handles the gravel alleys around RVA far better than the rest of my fleet.

I'm unsure if I'll keep it; I still need to match and touch up the paint and replace the straddle cables, but it is a great little ride, I think. Maybe if I ever buy that cottage on a lake in rural Maine I'll take this one along...