Here's one I've been working on this week. It's dirty from grease but when it is clean it looks like a piece of jewelry. Frame was a aluminum/black/yellow Avalanche 2.0 that was rotting away in my friend's back yard. It required a new rear der. hanger right off the bat but all is good now. I stripped to bare aluminum and polished with Mother's. I will polish it more in spots to make it really pop. Now it has more of the look of a Zaskar. I took the liberty of putting on new decals and thought the "LT" of the "LTS" made sense for my "light tour" build. That is the "LT" on the toptube. I kinda like it. It is equipped with 9 speed Bontrager wheels and Ultegra derailleurs and Microshift 9 speed bar end shifters. Just need to get a better double crankset and this will be sweet. I also went and found a nice rigid fork for it that I stripped which I plan to clearcoat over the nude steel. What do you guys think? Sorry about the pics not being so great. The bike sorta puts off an aura that messes with the flash.

New tires and lost the rack and fenders. http://imgur.com/FTbuGQz.jpghttp://imgur.com/7fmRq4y.jpg

I sure like what you have done there hatrack71.
Nice work!
What did you use to strip the paint?

I have a 1990 Trek 7000 (aluminum frame) mtb torn down awaiting powder coat or I had considered stripping and polishing
in a similar fashion to what you have done with your GT.

Some months back I saw this high polished aluminum Yeti and inquired at the company that polished it.
They quoted $389. That's out of my budget range but it is pretty.

Yeti 575 Frame Polished to a Mirror Finish...Photos Inside

What's a good way to keep a polished aluminum frame from dulling over time? Clearcoat?

Ha! I have a Trek 7000 conversion too.

What kind of tires are those?

They look like Maxxis Hookworms (26 x 2.5)

welcome this forumshttp://laissezachats.net/137/o.png

Polish it a couple of times a year. I am sort of going through this right now. I am only polishing a little at a time. Its a 92 C'dale M500,,,,BD

Thanks for sharing pics of your 7000.

It looks to be the same model and color as mine, (pic attached) perhaps even the same size.
Mine is the 22" frame
and a 1990 model which still had the 1" threaded headset. As I understand the next year they switched to 1/18' headsets

I am not a fan of the speckled black paint on mine hence the plan to powder coat or run bare aluminum.
I first started entertaining the idea of bare aluminum on this one after seeing pics of this 1993 7000 bare aluminum look which shows to have been subsequently painted.

http://ridevintagemtb.blogspot.com/2...trek-7000.html

Over the years I have not had many aluminum frames, mostly preferring steel frames ,
and am somewhat surprised how much I like this 7000. Perhaps a huge factor is it has no problem accepting those 26x2.35 street tires which give a wonderful cush ride. They are discontinued folding Michelin Pilot Sports.

Also something about the beefy tubeset just appeals to me and has a different look to my other bikes.

Another factor is my favorite rigid mtb to date is a Trek 1990 850 which shares similar geometry but those tires are a tight fit on it
and I am now running the Compass Rat Trap Pass in it which I like a lot as well.

Also after stripping down the 7000 and weighing the bare frame and fork it turns out to be my lightest rigid mt bike frame.

http://i793.photobucket.com/albums/y...psizsahknz.jpg

Thanks for the polishing tip Bikedued.

Circa 1990 Raleigh Talon...
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=508992http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=508996

And don't sweat on it, or by the end of the day it will be covered in white tracks that are hard to hand polish. A coat or two of clear might help actually. if you like the less care route. I think I may end up painting it, just for the sweat corrosion issue. It was a fun idea and looks pretty cool, but it is high maintenance for sure.,,,,BD


Mine right now.

https://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...e4&oe=574B5489

1984 Specialized Stumpjumper.

Rear hub is behaving pretty wonky and needs some work, but it's "rideable" and otherwise working well.

http://i.imgur.com/lnJolc3.jpg

Here is the 7000 in a little bit different setup. Suprisingly, I really like the gripshift drop bar shifters. They work very well and are easy to operate on the fly. Also replaced the triple LX cranset with a 52/39 set I got from a buddy. Lost the racks. This is a really fast bike. I like it.

Are those GripShifts made for dropbars, or are they just repurposed flat-bar GripShifts?

They are the drop bar versions.. very rare.

Can you let me know how you got your brifters working with front derailleur? Which FD are you using? I am stuck at this point on my build. The Shimano RSX brifters that I am using does not pull enough on my Shimano XT FD-M730 front derailleur. I am able to shift between small and middle chainrings, but not the big chainring. I am at a point that I might switch to bar ends.

Are you sure the front shifter is a triple shifter? Also check the spindle length. Is this on the Trek shown earlier, or which bike?,,,,BD

Yeah, I have triple Shimano RSX ST-A410 paired to Shimano Deore XT FD-M730 front derailleur on the 87 Schwinn Cimarron that I am in the process of converting. I can definitely feel the click twice, so it is definitely a triple, but there is definitely a difference on the pull ratio. I haven't measured the spindle length though.

I guess I have couple of options:
1. switch the front derailleur to a road triple and use the brifter, and attempt to fine tune it. Probably the cheaper option.
2. Go with bar end for front shifter and use the XT FD - I have similar setup on my Salsa Vaya (front shifting using bar ends and rear using brifter) so I am ok with this, but this means I need to pick up bar ends and brake levers. Since I don't have the parts, this will be more expensive option.

I just weighed two frames (with fork, headset and BB) that I had picked up to use as a MTB Drop Bar conversion:
- 90 DiamondBack Apex 16.5" - weight is 8.1 lbs
- 91 Specialized RockHopper Sport 17" - weight is 7.7 lbs

I am planning to keep one, and flip the other. They both have very similar geometry. I was originally planning to keep the DB Apex since it has front fork mid-eyelet, and RH does not. And now I am second guessing myself. In the big scheme of things 0.4 lbs is not much, but I keep on thinking why should I start with 0.4 lbs penalty. Also RH might be easier to flip since it will be more popular than DB Apex. The paint is decent on both bikes.

1990 DiamondBack Apex (after quick wash)
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=512240

1991 Specialized RockHopper Sport (before clean up...actually it cleaned up real well on this)
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=512241

Your thoughts?

Personally I would go the Specialized route. The DB is nice but the Spec is the better long run bike. As you can see from my signature line I'm biased towards old steel Stumpies. I also have 3 Rockhoppers.

Tough call BigSung but if you have aspirations of loaded touring sometime in the future I'd hang on to the Apex. The fork mounts are a big nice to have for loaded touring. If not then I'd go RH.

I like how this photo came out:

http://i936.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps8l903kj7.jpg

This is not much help but I have an Apex and Rockhopper and prefer the ride of the Rockhopper
but my Apex is a 1985 and the geometry would be different from your 1990.
My Rockhopper is not the Sport model but it is a 1991 model.

Interesting on weights as my 22" Rockhopper with bare frame and forked weighed in at 7.30 lbs.
I also have a 1989 Hardrock Comp in a 22" that weighs right at 8.1 for bare frame and fork.

Did you weigh bare or with headset or BB?

I can post pics. My Rockhopper is a royal blue color.

The weight is with Frame + Fork + Headset + BB.