Crazy Horse

I've found a Rock Shox Mag 21 fork that will fit my '91 Klein Rascal (1" steerer tube) Are re-build kits still available from someone? Rock Shox doesn't seem to carry them anymore.

luker

Ya, I know. Mag 21's truly are vintage, although mostly this forum is mostly road, antique, and a little ballooner. There doesn't seem to be much of a groundswell for vintage mountain bikes yet (I suspect that most vintage mountain bikes are consumed before aging sufficiently to be vintage).

I've got two 21's in a corner slowly oozing their bodily fluids away. They've been hammered and I'm saving them for an as yet unplanned major work of art, completely made of old, oozing bike parts.

I've seen the rebuild kits on eBay in the last year, but they can't be gotten from a dealer (unless he has NOS laying around). Try this thread over in Mountain Bikes - someone over there may have some squirreled away...

TheOtherGuy

I recently found a NOS Mag 21 SL/Ti at Montrose Bikes; they didn't have the long travel kit, but I didn't ask about a rebuilld kit. You might want to give them a try... You might also want to try https://www.hippiesuspension.com/hippietechsuspension/ .

luker

wow! and right here in Idaho...maybe those mag-21's can be saved. They really were pretty good shocks. I have one of the very first edition rock shocks, oozing in that same pile. Wonder if they'd like to fix that?

Of course, I really did have high expectations for my bike part sculpture...

TheOtherGuy

Hey; those babies were meant to be used! I bought the Mag 21 SL/Ti to use on this vintage Ti frame:

luker

That is cool! Is that your current state-of-build, or do you have it all together?

I think that vintage mountain bikes are an interesting, undervalued part of vintage collecting - I'm currently working on a ?'91? Klein Rascal - bought the frame and fork for Patti last year and am just now getting it to the "ready to assemble" stage - there was no paint on it when we got it (just the frame and fork). This paint job is like no other that Klein ever did (at least as far as I know), but I wanted to play with colored panels...and in its next incarnation this is gonna be a single speed for Patti to commute on, so the retro look is okay with the skinny tires, etc.

TheOtherGuy

I love old Kleins...! I sold a late '80s Pinnacle earlier this year; neon orange. It was beautiful, but way too tall for me (an extra large frame), so I kept all the components that were like new, and eBay'd the frame. I'd really like to find another Pinnacle with a wild fade paint scheme (like "gator"), but they get snatched up pretty fast.

That yellow Ti frame is still unbuilt, but here's another one of those I bought as a complete bike, also from Montrose Bikes. These were Russian Ti frames built early '90s, and Montrose still had a couple of NOS complete bikes, and a bunch of NOS frames. They're a pretty good deal if you like vintage.... Lots of mountain bike buyers don't want last year's stuff, let alone stuff from 10 years ago... These "KGB" bikes were marked way down in price, so I couldn't resist.... This polished one rides great, is a 3.3 pound frame, and also has a Mag 21 SL/Ti fork, though it's a bit sticky... Super light fork though!

luker

I had a specialized SL from about 1996 that weighed 2.6 lb. 2.5" travel, as I recall, but that was really good in 1996. Kinda noodly, but really, really light. I know where that bike is; I might try to get it back someday (when I have fewer bikes, or more room for bikes...) Instead of monopolizing this thread, I think I'll start a vintage MTB thread, and see how many people are collecting these things...