So I asked this in Mnt Bikes and only got one reply from someone with not much experience so I brought my request over here as many of you guys restore/rebuild vintage bikes all the time.

I have a very rare Gary Fisher Promethious titanium mountain bike. It was thier top shelf bike the year it was made and only for one year. It's in great shape (as a working/riding) bike. I want to dumb some money into it. I don't know if I should modernize it or try to NOS it. I can find very little on the web about it. I don't even know what year it was made and can only find a few pics of them, and then mostly converted to SS.

I will post some pics in a few days but I was hoping to get some imput from you guys. Also any pics of yours or links to websites about them would be great.

Thanks

Ryan

What drivetrain/shifter/suspension components does it have now? Are they all original?

Well, from a quick search the bike was made somewhere from '88 to the early 90's and had a 1-1/4" threadless fork on it. So, whatever for is on there, you're pretty much stuck with. If you can tell us what components are on it, someone here will likely know if they are original or at least period correct for the bike. If nothing else, as long as you don't modify the frame, I don't see any harm in going with newer stuff if you enjoy riding the bike.

Some specs info on the drivetrain would be very helpfull. The cost factor for restoring with NOS doesn't really make since I would go with good used or modernize. Since it's in great working shape there is also a question of do you really need to buy a bunch of stuff. There is a very good chance that with a little effort most of the parts on the bike can be cleaned up and serviced to look and run almost like new.

Since this is going to be a working/riding bike, I don't see the point in spending tons of money on NOS parts. What's the rear spacing? 130mm? That may limit the option to use modern MTB groups since Ti should not be respaced/cold-set. Also, I don't believe these frames came with braze-ons for disc brakes.

I vote seeking out a lightly used Deore XT group (ideally from a a donor bike, since it's a buyer's market for used MTBs).

Example build of one in the 1988 magazine article at;
https://mombat.org/MOMBAT/BikeHistoryPages/Fisher.html

Another compounding factor against upgrading is that the bottom bracket is a sealed bearing design that press-fits into the shell (unthreaded), you are pretty much stuck with a square taper BB spindle, a newer hollow axle cranks cannot be retrofitted.

As the frame geometry was designed around a short ridgid fork, trying to put a somewhat modern suspension fork would seriously screw-up the handeling.

Frame OLD is 135mm per the magazine article. Frame design predated widespread adoption of disk brakes by about a decade so definitly no disk mount though if fork were switched, disk could be added to front. If the bike still has an original titanium ridgid fork, that alone is likely somewhat valuable/collectable.

Not only is the Ti fork valuable if orginal it is something I don't think should be changed on the bike, putting a different fork on it would kill a lot of the bikes classic value and change it from a classic to a bit of a frankenbike.

It's 1-1/4 most likely, so upgrading the fork is a moot point really.

I don't see why just cleaning up and lubing the old stuff isn't an option, if it hasn't all been beat to heck.

I would not separate the frame and fork. Today a fork is just a part, but in those days, the fork was engineered for the frame.

To your original question, NOS or new? Neither. NOS carries a hefty premium, 3 to 5X lightly used equivalents. Since you plan to ride the bike, that premium disappears the moment you mount them onto your bike and ride.

Lightly used components are widely available, either individually (costly option) or in the form of a complete bike (low cost option). For the price of a couple of used components on ebay, you can find find a complete bike with those components and a lot more. Depends how resourceful you are?

Late 1980s mtbs go cheap, even high end ones.

It has a complete XTR groupset on it. A Manitou Mach 5 fork. Mavic rims laced to XTR hubs. It says it A prometheus R5, or RS on the decal on the seat tube and another decal say "Eveloution" on it. I was told they only made it one year. The very first year Fisher came out with titanium frames and that the frame builder was someone special.

The guy I bought it from was original owner. I didn't know crap about bikes when I bought it so I didn't know/care about it that much. I rode it, felt good, was clean and I could afford it so I bought it. If I remember right I paid 12 or 1400$ maybe back in 1994 or 95. I'll post pics if any one wants to see it.

I guess mostly what I would like to accomplish is to make it weigh a little less.

Does anyone know where I could buy some new decals,,, find some info on it, and what grit steel wool I want to use to bring up the luster on it?

By all means post some pics!

Cheapest and biggest weight loss can come from tire replacement. I saved almost TWO pounds on tires alone. XTR is great stuff, not much savings potential there. And newer top end components are not cheap. Next place to look are pedals and saddle. Depending what you have there, you could save another pound or two!

Get the hubs serviced. My 90's Fisher has the XTR group with original hubs. The cones were replaced, the races of the hub are still excellent. Give a good old fashioned spring cleaning. Splurge on some super high end folding tires. Leave it bonestock.

What tires do you advise to loose weight?

Absolutely not true. You can buy a nice headset conversion for a 1 1/4" bike that converts it to 1 1/8" the common standard now. Off the top of my head Chris King always made these available.

Why do people propagate misinformation like this. Just because you aren't aware of a solution, doesn't mean there isn't a commonly understood one.

To the original poster, believe it or not the components on that era of mountain bike are better than almost anything you can buy today. I've got lots of bikes from lots of eras. My modern XT and XTR and X0 level stuff is plasticky garbage compared to the quality of parts from that era. You can't even begin to compare fit, finish, and technical quality of the current "Wal-Mart" era of cheap crap that gets passed off as high end to the era of when stuff was top-drawer.

Get a chance to look at Superbe Pro someday from the Suntour era and compare it with top shelf Shimanoculture stuff today. A modern Dura-Ace group today looks like it came on a $200 bike in comparison. I love XT from the 7 and 8 speed era. XT thumbshifters I acquire whenever I can find them. The wider spacing on the cogs on 7/8 speed means the shifting is less finicky and problematic. There is really essentially no gain from the extra cog to 9 speed. You change cadence so much on a mountain bike the argument that you need the extra cog is just inane. It makes no sense to compromise chain strength by going to a chain with thinner outer plates and that you need to tighten the shifting tolerances to get a cog you'll use one-ninth of the time. Heck, I almost makes no sense to go from seven to eight speed, but at least that only affected wheel dish, not chain strength or shifting tune tolerances.

If it was from that era be it Kooka, Nuke Proof, Ringle, Bullseye, XT, XTR, XC Pro, Mavic mountain group (yes there was one - 8 speed indexing in fact), whatever that was top-drawer stuff. Today's stuff is garbage surrounded by marketing.

I am pretty sure all bikes to day are engineered around particular fork geometry. By pretty sure I mean definitely they are.

Dude, that is some pretty serious hyperbole. Common, the aesthetics have changed yes, but the quality of XTR and Dura-ace seems just as good if not better to me. Yeah the old stuff was a little beefier with more metal, but the components of today and amazing. It's all about performance and composites have come a long way and make for some very strong and even longer wearing parts.

I trust you've never been wrong about anything, ever. I thought the King adapter (the only one I've ever seen) is out of production and had been for a number of years. I wasn't able to get one for a customer about five years ago, and assumed there wasn't a sudden resurgence in the market for 1-1/4 adapters. My apologies if I was mistaken.

Ryan, From what I found on the bike (1990), it's not original now as it's listed using Suntour bits. Basically just service it and ride it.

Brad

Looks like the Devolution conversion kit is still available directly from Chris King: https://chrisking.com/parts/conversionkits

My usual parts sources didn't have any in-stock but Cambria appears to have at least one: https://www.cambriabike.com/Chris-Kin...ess-Silver.asp

I finally got back home to look at my beast again.

The seriel number is FSoo12. Is there any way to chase this number down?