I'm kind of done with road biking. I've tried all kinds of road bikes and sizes and never could find something easy on my neck. So I thought maybe I could start mountain biking. Nothing too crazy, but I'd love to find a rigid mountain bike that I could also use for biking on MUP maybe 20 ish miles.

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/849175434024221/?mibextid=dXMIcH


My concern is the age and the fact that (from what I have read) these frames are bonded aluminum.

Obviously I'm not trying to fly down mount Everest. Just beginner stuff for now. If it isn't a candidate, I guess I could just put slicks on it and call it a day.

The other reason I'm looking at these is that some of our nice MUP are actually wood planks. With the falling leaves/needles and rain these can get kind of slick. In fact a friend of mine just broke his arm trying to use his skinny tire road bike on these. I've been doing the same and now I'm thinking that's another reason to look at mountain bikes.

I think it would be a decent choice. While bonded aluminum in general has a bit of a reputation for failure, Trek seems be an exception, these things hold up great. I can't say I've ever seen a broken one despite them being incredibly common around here.

In had/have one. It's the model year prior to yours. I bought mine new in 1996 when red was the only color option. The color places yours as a 1997.

They ride about as well as any other rigid from that era. The same frame came as rigid (as pictured) or with a suspension fork with an eye watering 60mm of travel. You'll notice the rigid fork has quite a bit of clearance above the tire. That's because it is effectively a 700c with the brake posts moved down to 26 inch brake height. Which was & still is common practice.

The original rear wheel was for 135mm dropouts & was freewheel type making it quite unsuitable for actual mountain biking or heavy rear loads. That never stopped me from abusing it and replacing the rear with a cassette type hub after a few axles and a taco or 2.

I think it came with 3x7 Alivio which had more than enough range.

The 130mm quill stem and 1&⅛ threaded headset make for an easy conversion to thread less and mates well to a RockShox Recon shortened up to 80mm of travel. Longer travel forks make the bike ride a bit boat-y on account of the change in head tube angle. For obvious reasons a big change in HTA also unnecessarily stresses the head tube/down tube junction.

I never felt like the bike held me back any, and for most jumps of less than 3 feet I never felt the need to be particularly careful. It is squarely within what the kids call "cross-country" these days. It's probably best left in OEM uses. But it would also be easily suited to "Gravel" with a +30/+45 degree stem and short reach highrise drop bars.

I think it's a quite capable bike. You could do a lot worse.

Here is a picture of mine with the fork set for 100mm of travel and done in 1x11 Monstercross style. I liked (but no longer use) the Schlumpf speed drive and repurposed the front derailleur stops for an external dropper post.
by https://www.flickr.com/photos/145063776@N04/, on Flickr

Thanks for all the info! I also found a 2000 Giant Iguana for $100 but it's an hour round trip to get it. Supposedly works ok, except the gear indicator doesn't work. Supposedly shifts in all gears which is weird. Would that be better for a new mountain biker or is it basically the same? It's aluminum without the bonded deal. I can get pics of that would help

I have read about free hub vs free wheel but why would the freewheel be worse for mountain biking?

Gasp, someone on BF admits Road Bikes are neck brakers? Mostly Vintage in my experience. I road several for 10 years. Outside of a flip I have no interest for self use.

For those interested, here's the Giant Iguana

I wouldn't expect the Giant to feel significantly different, maybe the geometry of one might feel nicer than the other. The one in the pic looks like mid 90's rather than the year 2000. Wouldn't be surprised if it actually is a steel frame. The tiny pin that connects the indicator to the rest of the shifter is fragile, but it breaking off does not impact the ability of the shifter to function, unless it is rattling around inside and somehow gets jammed in the mechanism somewhere. Removing it would then fix the issue.

Freewheel hubs have the driveside bearings sitting further inboard, which places increased stress on the axle, leading to increased chance of bending or breaking the axle when riding the bike hard. A cassette hub has bearings that are closer to the end of the hub, placing less stress on the axle, making it much less likely to bend or break. I would consider a cassette hub to be an important feature to look for, and the Trek 6500 and the Giant Iguana likely have them.

​​​​it would be chromoly steel, though?

Yeah, might even be butted too, but it would definitely be cromoly. I've done a fair bit of mountain biking on a fancier Giant ATX 780, both with a rigid fork and with suspension, it was very lightweight, fun, and versatile, it also got setup for use as a winter commuter bike at times. I'd expect the Iguana to be a bit heavier, but still a decent frame to work with.

If you are riding smooth flowy stuff a rigid is ok. It is when you get into a place with tons of rocks and roots you really start wishing you at least had a front suspension. For a MUP path a rigid is about perfect but wet wood with leaves and pine needles is still going to be like riding on ice.

Cool. He's letting me have it for $90 which I think is worth it for a working bike. I don't know how hard it would be to put shocks on the front but Imay look into that

Front suspension of acceptable quality would involve swapping the fork, headset, stem, and most likely the front brake. Current fork is 1 1/8" threaded, so you would need to convert to threadless. I'd look for a fork with 80mm travel, Rock Shox offers the Judy in an 80mm version if you don't mind converting to disc brake up front, otherwise there are plenty of used forks out there, though you will want to find out if it is still possible to get service kits for whatever fork you find. Cost wise, if you want front suspension, it is probably a better idea to get a bike that already has suspension, though if used parts are cheap and plentiful nearby you might be able to pull it off at a reasonable cost if you do the work yourself.

If you stick with rigid, I'd prioritize new tires to get much better grip, and swapping to a shorter stem and wider handlebars will improve handling and give you a bit more leverage when climbing. And those plastic pedals don't look like they would have a lot of grip.