I had an '05 specialized crossroads XC. It worked okay, but was AL and had a cheap suspension fork. It was heavy beyond belief, and the trigger shifting was picky. Worst of all, it wouldn't trigger traffic lights, so I often sat waiting for cars or nervously running lights. I started my search for a steel upright bike. I asked in the mtn bike thread and they gave me 1k+ bikes, or 1k+ bikes being sold at $800. My budget was $600. I then found a place in town that does bike trade-ins and has a large used inventory. What I found blew me away.

They had a NOS Gary Fisher triple butted cromoly Nirvana rigid mtn bike that they built up with XT SIS thumb shifters (FD shifter is friction, RD shifter is indexed, with a switch to make it friction). XT RD, tectro v-brakes and one heckuva smooth ride. I still want to put a rack on it, as well as some cane creek ergo grips, but for the most part, she is as she will be.

Here are some pics (I'm not a photographer): (the last pic is the hybrid I traded)

Sweet! I love friction shifters. I need to convert my MTB, I really miss the friction shifting on my old 80s Schwinn MTB.

yeah...bikes like that I miss...like my old Bridgestone mb4....had Suntour thumbies on it...ever since that bike I haven't rode anything with integrated shifting in ages it seems.

That Fisher is cherry! Congrats...I'm sure you'll get years of service from it...

Nice bike! It looks like a hell of a ride!