Which old steel MTB frames should I be looking for?
I always figured that if God wanted me to ride a mountain bike he wouldn't have invented asphalt. Consequently, I stick to the road, and know nothing about mountain bikes.
However -- having sold a bike on Saturday, and with a huge void in my garage just waiting to be filled -- I now think that I want to get an old school steel mountain bike frame to convert into a bike for touring, rough weather and light gravel. A number of threads on the touring forum, and over at CrazyGuyonaBike.com, talking about people buying "old school" 80's steel mountain bikes (no suspension) which apparently have frame geometry suitable for touring, plus braze-ons for mountain racks and panniers.
These threads always seem to say, "Get something like a Specialized Stumpjumper."
Ok, but what else? There are tons of old MTBs on the local Craigslist but I don't want to spend forever talking to folks who might not even know what their frame is made of.
I've seen a Nishiki Colorado in the bike rack at work that would be fine. I think there is a Trek model (the Antelope) that might do.
Are there other models I should be looking for?