Flying Merkel

Good eye. That's the beach at the end of the river trail. I remember looking at FSR's at Supergo in Fountain Valley. One of the mechanics who worked at Supergo just opened his own shop 1 block away from me called Cycle Tech. The fork has a mount for a disc, go figure.

jmeb

Rad I was thinking of doing the same match-up: Smoked chrome High Sierra to VO fenders. Which VO fenders did you go with? Hoping I can fit some VOs over my 2.15 Big Apples...

CPublik

After finding the Norco for myself that I posted a few weeks ago, it was time to find an older, decent MTB for my wife. After a couple of weeks of looking on Kijiji, I found a 1998 (I think) Rocky Mountain Cardiac that's a good size for her. It's in pretty good shape.. needs a cleaning, and probably new tires (so they match) but she's happy with it.

m3rle

Big fan of building commuter/tourers out of vintage steel mountain bikes. Here's a couple I've built recently. Love how they ride.

1988 Shogun Trail Breaker II

1990 Specialized StumpJumper Comp

bane

That's awesome, looks like a modern Ibis carbon full suspension bike.

Sixty Fiver

Or the Ibis looks like a 15 year old RM prototype... D:

Was chatting with Al tonight and he was telling me how they built those Race Face carbon cranks, the carbon insert is mechanically joined to the aluminium casting which has a lattice framework with no element being thicker than about 5mm.

He said they tested those on the same equipment they testing their top forged crank sets which would run 25,000 cycles under a 200 Newton / 500 pound crank load... the carbon composite cranks went nearly 70,000 cycles before failing.

I have two sets of these, one is branded and the other is a road ready, unbranded prototype.

bane

lol, that's what I meant to say...

The Race Face stuff is amazing.

tombc

The design of the suspension linkage on this bike is great. The cranks are on the wrong side of the pivot. Imagine landing a big hit on the saddle instead of your feet.

CastleDerosa

A while back i had a chance to buy a '1989-90 GT KORAKORAM K2' in blue/black color , perfect original state(components) but i passed ...had brand new rims installed also !

Just wondering if it was a good deal considering the bike was in such a near perfect condition for the price - $300 !?!

Sixty Fiver

The Karakoram was an upper mid range GT and in perfect shape it would have been $300.00 well spent considering what $300.00 would buy you at the LBS... if the new rims / wheels were of good quality that would have been a sweet deal.

I had one from that era and it was an awesome bike that I rolled as a fixed gear assault vehicle.

Sixty Fiver

JJPistols

Fantastic machine!

Sixty Fiver

Thanks... she has been such a good bike for such a long time.

I swapped the boots yesterday and matched up the derailleurs to some older XT 8 speed bits... it was more to match things up and make it look better and the shifting really could not get any smoother.



After that I found another matching '87 Cascade frame and fork so it was a very good day.

jtgotsjets

SixtyFiver. I've been meaning to post a picture of the Kuwahara Cascade I picked up about a month ago. I think I pegged the year as 1986. Quite a bit different than yours in a lot of ways, but seems to be an equally capable tourer. I already have it set up with drop bars.

Sixty Fiver

I have LHT owners tell me that this was a better bike...

Kuwahara really bumped things up in '87 and '88 with their top of the line Cascade and Shasta being handbuilt on some very good tube sets; the '87 Cascade is Ishiwata quad butted which is a heavy duty frame set and the workmanship on the frame is very high and it is a very stiff frame which makes it a very capable touring bike.

Kuwahara never made a bad bike and the earlier models were also well built and well equipped... the serial number for Japanese bicycles should be on the lower side of the seat tube on the non drive side... the first two numbers are the year.

Taiwan built Kuwaharas have different serial numbers.

ofgit

Had mid/late '80s Stump Jumpers, Rock Hoppers, etc when I was in sales and a mechanic. Will get some pics eventually of the vintage steel MTBs I still have. They are: '85 Specialized Rock Hopper, '88? Ibis Mtn Trials (26/24) and TrialsComp (24/20), '95 BD Apex w/ Manitou shock, mid '90s Haro V2 and there may be a couple more but they have been in storage for the last coupla years. Outa sight outa my mind.

jtgotsjets

Mine doesn't have the Handbuilt sticker and is built from triple butted Ishiwate EX. Not that I'm complaining, it rides great and I doubt I could tell the difference between triple and quad butting. This is basically my poor man's Cross Check/LHT. Loving it so far; I should be so lucky as to find a second one like you.

Sixty Fiver

My Shasta frame was EX and was a little lighter than the Cascade with the same size frame and geometry.

The Shasta was the top of the line model for a few years with the Cascade running second but they switched that up in '87 and '88... the '87 Cascade was originally fitted with Deore while the Shasta was Exage and the Cascade came with a nicer Deore / Araya wheelset.

The nicest Kuwahara wheelsets actually date to the early 80's when they used high flange cartridge bearing hubs laced 4x to Araya rims and were equipped with a mix of Suntour and Shimano groupsets... the '85 High Siera came with a Shimano Deore Stag's head group and still had an Apollo badge.

I had this one for a little while... if I was to recoat my Cascade I think this colour is high on my list.

JJPistols

This is a late 80s Jamis Explorer I've just gotten back into riding shape after watching it sit on CL for a couple months. Far from a high end bike in its day, it has straight gauge chromoly tubes and ovaltech cranks. I dig the thumb shifters and motorcycle levers, but changed the heavy riser to the arc bar pictured. I also added the modern seatpost and wtb saddle, as well as replacing the dept store plastic pedals with these cool alloy bear traps. I'm thinking about some fenders for it. It's not a very light bike, and feels a bit slow compared to my others, but I'm enjoying the cruiser feel a lot.

DEW21

Just picked up this Hardrock on CL, had the rims trued,new rubber, regreased bearings and cleaned all up. Took it for a 30 mile test ride today and am very impressed. I don't know if its the chrome molly frame or what but it rides nicer than my 2012 Giant Escape 2. The shifting of the Suntour XCM components even feel nicer. I added the stock seat and pedals off the Escape. I'm guessing this is an early 90,s Hardrock but Bikepedia dosent show Suntour XCM components used on this bike. For $120 invested, I'm really digging this bike!

jbchybridrider 

Disregard the seat, post clamp and lock on grips that don't work with Onza bar ends but all these parts will be yellow with a chrome post bolt.

Sakae bars are stainless. The bars and stem I bought separate on ebay but are supposed to be part of a kit sold new with the frame including a seat post a clamp, rear drops and decals, assorted bolts.

Elev12k

Awesome. I have weak spot for bonded mountainbikes. My 1st proper bike was bonded and they look distinctive, so that is probably why. Unfortunately never encountered the right Litage on the Dutch 2nd hand market, but would love to own one.

likebike23

Making progress

I am finally getting the motivation to get started on refurbing my 1986'ish Ross Mt. Hood. It was in pretty rough shape with rust spots, decal adhesive all over the frame and fork, and in bad need of a complete rebuild. The other night, I stripped all of the parts and began cleaning the frame up. I used aluminum foil, brass brushes, and barkeepers friend on the chrome. Not perfect, scratched her and there, but pretty nice overall. The decal adhesive was a total PITA. I ended up using goof off, finish line degreaser, and ,rubbing compound. None worked really well until I used scrapers made from shards of CD jewel cases. Last night I cleaned and repacked the headset and bottom bracket. Everything went well with only one problem, the head on one of the rack bolts on the seat stay boss broke off. Looks like I'll be buying an extractor set. I'm thinking of going with the slingshot stem/bar combo instead of the stock stem, any thoughts? For the saddle, I'm going with a Honey Brooks Flyer and some faux leather grips that match pretty well. Now for the pics:

turky lurkey

That Ross Mt Hood is looking great likebike. I would love to come across a good deal on one of those.

I just picked up this '84 Stump Jumper Sport a couple days ago. It is way too small for me with it's 24" tires and 17" frame but I couldn't pass it up as it was pretty inexpensive. I'm not sure but I think it's mostly original other than the saddle and maybe the rear derailleur (I'd appreciate any insight anybody has). I don't know what do with it. I currently have it listed on Craigslist priced a bit high because I'm not sure if I really want to sell it or keep it until my 18 month old son is old enough to use it. I started taking it apart today to overhaul and clean it up. It's a bit scuffed up but I think it's a pretty cool bike for a kid.

likebike23

@turky lurkey: Thanks, a good deal it was. That Stumpy is cool. Neo pop started a thread about those handlebars:https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...oto-heavy.html. I'm not sure if they're the same, but he may appreciate the info.