A MTB without shocks?
 

I want a MTB without any sort of shocks, or suspension. A bike like my old 1986 Rockhopper, but with nice componets and about 7 pounds lighter. But I can't find any. I look at the internet sites for various makers but all the high end bikes are shock equiped. I don't want to buy a bike with shock forks and switch them out, I want stock rigid forks. Does anyone know a bike or websight they can point me to. My budget is to $1500.00, maybe a bit more if I really like the bike.

Thanks

EBB

If you're into single speeds; Kona, Bianchi, Cannondale, and a few smaller makers do make rigid SS's. Multi-geared, I think that you may be SOL with a stock bike, but I know that a few makers do make custom bikes, made to order. Spicer cycles has nice rigid forks for MTB's, too. For 1500, you could buy a very nice hardtail and order up a Spicer fork...

The only bikes I could find without a suspension fork were comfort bikes like this one:

http://www.supergo.com/profile.cfm?L...604&referpage=

I think your best bet is do what trekkie820 said and buy a nice hardtail with a suspension fork then replace it with a rigid. You could sell the front shock to get a little money back.

I believe you will be stuck (if you want quality) buying a bike and replacing the fork.

If you can find a 2002 KHS rigid one that was a quality street bike that had no suspension.

Why not do a frame up build? Pick a nice hardtail frame like a Pace RC200F8, add a rigid fork like a Pace RC31, mix in some SRAM X9 components with a little sprinkling of Shimano DeoreLX or DeoreXT, serve it all up on a pair of Mavic Crossmax wheels and you'll have yourself a very nice cross country machine.

I too have noticed the demise of the non-suspension MTB. About the only alternatives I can think of are

1) Build one up from scratch. Since most frames are spec'd for suspension forks, you'll have to sub a suspension corrected rigid fork in. $!500 would be more than enough to build a killer bike.

2) Scour the area stores for old stock.

3) Find a good used one, either at a dealer or garage sale. If it has a suspension fork, swap it.

4) Go single speed. Its a whole new world and quite enjoyable. Jenson USA has the KHS Solo ('03) for a couple hundred on closeout.

5) Think about a cyclo-cross bike, if it fits your needs.

Did your old Rockhopper look like this one? I've been trying to determine the model year of this one.

With your budget of $1500, the best suspension free mountain bike experience I can absolutely recommend to you is the Surly Karate Monkey. Frame comes in 16", 18", 20" and 22" to accomodate the gamut of sizing needs. You can get the frame/fork anywhere from $350 to $450+ on the internet from web dealers. That leaves you over $1000 for wheelset, tires, drivetrain and all your components.

Here's the Karate Monkey frame/fork. It comes in black or campstove green:

http://www.surlybikes.com/karatemonkey.html

Here's some of the available tires for the big 700c hoops (which the Karate Monkey takes):

http://www.universalcycles.com/shopp...p?category=196

No need for suspension with the 29" tire experience as these wheels soak up most things you encounter in your typical singletrack and trail riding.

Check out this thread as you will find a lot of Karate Monkey builds to get ideas (mine included):

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=4274

Here's one within your budget:

http://forums.mtbr.com/attachment.ph...tid=3461&stc=1

Here's my Karate Monkey build - which due to the Race Face cranks, carbon bar and BB, SRAM X.0 derailleur and shifters, Easton seatpost, italian saddle, Mavic wheelset and Avid disc brakes took the project up to the $2000 price point:

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.ph...33078#poststop

Of the 8 bikes I own, the Karate Monkey is absolutely the best singletrack bike I have and have ever used. Hard to argue with the frame/fork price, either.

BB

Here's an upgraded 2001 Kona Lava Dome on eBay... Looks like a sweet bike, although I guess I'm a little biased... I love my Cinder Cone. The seller has put some XTR components on the bike and shown plenty of pics.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...672101914&rd=1

I just thought of this: the Cannondale Bad boy is a rigid MTB frame, with MTB scomponents, but slick tires for commuting. You could get one of those, and swap the slicks for knobbies!

I'd like to thank everyone for their responses. I think I may have to build up a bike from scrath up, which I kind of was hoping to avoid.

As for the Rockhopper pic, I bought mine back in 1986 and would say yours would be after that as they only had solid colors when I got mine and there was no sticker on the seat post tube, I'll take a look for a picture of my bike to do a better compairison.

Thanks again everyone.

Find the bike you want, buy it and put a Surly rigid fork on it (around $50) and sell the suspension fork. Swapping a fork is an easy task and buying a pre-built bike will definitely save you coin over building one from scratch.

Soma is another small workshop, like Surly, making sensible, high quality frames.

Stop me drooling, the way to go for the money and the bike you want, especially with the pace frame, Just like I wanted 10 years ago but still can't afford. Kona "P" forks still available and still the best rigid.

Find a nice Hardtail, ask the salesman to trade out the fork and you get the discount. The Singlespeed idea is good too. I have the Kona Unit, $738 out the door at my LBS, with the rigid fork. I upgraded later though, put the cushy fork on it.

The final outcome: First I learned that no companies seem to make MTB's without shocks. The Atlantis, which I had been looking at for a few years was just to much for me, so I took MichaelW advise and ended up getting a Soma Groove frame and outfitted it with the Shimano XT from Cambria Cycles.

Thanks again everyone.

Ritchey does not sell assembled bikes, they do not sell suspension forks. They do still make mtb frames.
http://www.ritcheylogic.com/