Who makes a 90's style rigid 26er with a threadless steerer/ht?
 

Hi guys! It seems that the only cyclists who still ride 26" wheels with canti brakes are the guys touring around the world so I figured this would be a great spot for my question.

I want a bike (or preferably a frameset) that has a geometry for straight bars, can fit 26"x2.25 tread, and uses rim brakes. I'd just grab an old MTB off craigslist but I hate threaded headsets/stems. So I'm hoping to find a frame with two modern touches: threadless headset and downtube waterbottle braze-ons.


Any recomendations would be greatly appreciated!!!

On and off I've wanted a surly troll for this reason. But old school MTBs are cheap and can be converted to threadless. Adding waterbottles if you want to go past 2 is easy enough.

I would say get an older one. Threadless headsets (Aheadset) were invented in 1990, so you should see them on many higher end 90's mountain bikes starting around 92-93

The Surly Troll (already mentioned) or Surly Long Haul Trucker if you're not going to take it on rough roads or off-road. Looks like all frame sizes of the LHT can now be purchased with 26" wheel compatability.

I'm looking at the troll right now. Thanks guys.

This is new info for me. Thank you.

I've seen a Jamis Diablo, which has what you're looking for, but the fork doesn't have mounts for low-rider pannier rack. It also has un-housed cable along the top of the toptube, so you'd have to find some way to mount a frame-bag (maybe just add housing to that cable - I have no idea why certain cables are un-housed).

My 94 Bridgestone was still using quill stem but had the brazed fittings for water bottle cages.

On my early 1960s Italian racing bike I switched to threadless using a threadless to quill adapter. And changed handlebars and brake levers to more modern ones too. I found the threadless to quill adapter worked just fine. See photo.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...131f53099a.jpg

If the bike is for touring, I see no reason to not use a quill adapter, but if you wanted it for hard riding on mountain bike trails where bike strength could be an issue, I suspect that the threadless steerer tube might be stronger than the adapter.

I think your reasoning is flawed. There are plenty of people touring around the world or just around their areas on bikes with 700C and cantilever brakes. I don't see wheel size as being a huge issue. But a 90s mountain bike isn't just a bike "that has a geometry for straight bars". There is a whole lot more to a 90s mountain bike than just being able to take straight bars. And those differences make for lousy touring bikes.

80s mountain bikes had long wheelbases, long chainstays and very slack head tube geometry. In many ways, they resembled touring bikes of the era. But, as an off-road machine, they left a lot to be desired. The slack angle made them front wheel flop on climbs. The long wheelbase and long chainstays made it difficult to keep traction on the rear wheel while climbing. The overall length of the bike made maneuvering on tight trails difficult.

By the early 90s (mountain biking was 8 to 10 years old by then), the geometry of the bikes had changed radically. The bottom bracket...already high in 80s mountain bikes...raised up a little more moving the center of gravity a little higher. The head angle steepened to reduce wheel flop and to move the rider more forward. The wheelbase shortened so that it could do tight trials better. The chainstays shortened to put more power to the wheel while climbing and the front geometry lengthen a little to center the rider over both tires so that the front end stayed on the ground but the rear wheel still got traction.

The lengthened front end of those old 90s mountain bikes make them uncomfortable for long distance riding. The shorter chainstays almost guarantee heel strike on all but the smallest of feet. The steeper head angle makes them a bit twitchy and the higher bottom bracket adds to that by raising the center of gravity. None of this is a problem for trail riding but day-in/day-out riding gets old fast.

There's nothing wrong with taking a true touring bike like the Surly LHT, for example, and putting flat bars on it. The geometry doesn't suffer if you use a flat bar. Handling doesn't suffer either. Your hands may suffer from riding a flat bar for extended periods but that's a lesson you'll have to learn yourself. The LHT can take fat tires, can be built with rim brakes and is a much better touring machine. You can even get it in 26" versions.

Whoa! I appreciated the detailed reply and history lesson. I like what you said and Im rethinking the LHT now although Im not actually building this for touring. I moved to the middle of nowhere SD and aside from a few yearly gravel races there is noone around who rides bikes. So Im building a comfort bike for weekend riding and bikepacking on gravel and crappy roads. I just want a bombproof bike, nothing fancy, just something that works even when I havent tuned it all year. I sold all my old bikes to fund this build and currently enjoying the upright flat bars of my dad's comfort bike, thus the reason for wanting to stick with flats.

I like my ‘95 Cannondale Killer V for touring. The only thing it’s missing is braze-ons for low-riders on the forks. And it has a thread less steer tube & headset, for what that’s worth. 😉

Just look over a potential buy good, before you buy it. Fit & comfort for your particular body varies by user, so get what YOU like. 🙂

This 92 Marin had a stock original rigid threadless fork. I swapped it out for a more modern suspension fork.

https://live.staticflickr.com/7853/4...6c7cda50_c.jpg


This frame has done everything from commuting to mtb to loaded touring. It's been an excellent platform. Because I have a fat bike now for off road touring I plan to convert it next to a single speed mtb.

https://live.staticflickr.com/7802/3...6af9df77_c.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/1862/3...41966b0e_c.jpg

Selected early to mid 1990’s, upper end MTB’s are threadless. I have a couple Trek 930’s and a Marin Pine Mountain that are threadless. I buy them at thrift stores and swap out the cruddy suspension forks with rigid forks.

Normally pay $30.00 or less. Often get them at half price at the local thrift store.

Love my Trek 930’s.

When I was living in Minneapolis craigslist was full of them. Now though, it appears that there are a few guys who travel around and buy up all the cheap bikes, adjust them, put on new tires, and then resell them for $200+.

As mentioned, there are threadless frames from that era. My rockhopper from probably 97 is threadless, and headset still in good shape after mucho years and kms ridden.

it will come down to budget, I have and love my troll, but from what you describe, you could be happy on many a bike.
I like 26in for certain reasons but it's certainly not necessary.

a new ish bike is going to be easily a grand or more , I assume you are American, but let's face it, the immediate future in our countries are going to be very fraught economically, to what extent we don't know.
as a Canadian I have rather grave concerns about how things will pan out for the States.
Obviously if someone can help you with learning and doing bike mechanics this will make a big difference money wise, but frankly if you are American, you guys have some pretty serious stuff in your near future.
I hope to heck I'm proven wrong.
good luck with bike project.

I am also sure the Minneapolis area has a bicycle collective or two that you might be able check out to find a frame to build on.

By "off-road" I hope you don't mean simply unpaved roads.

I've got plenty more like these:


https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...913a2d823.jpeg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d5b236d38.jpeg

If you drive up to the Maah Daah Hey trail to go riding, a front suspension might be nice but probably is not an absolute must. Even riding gravel roads in S Dakota, a suspension front fork might not hurt.

It’s probably possible to do the Maah Daah Hey Trail on a rigid bike but it would be a tough ride. Maah Daah Hey is a pretty rugged mountain bike trail.

Yup.

I do not have a mountain bike, I fitted a suspension fork to my expedition bike and used that for day rides while car camping in the NPS campsites. That fork helped.

I usually do not use a suspension seatpost, but I added one of those cheap telescoping ones you sometimes see on hybrid bikes, it did not add much.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...8abe84b136.jpg

Plenty of 26" wheeled Surly LHTs have been built with MTB components and "straight" bars. They are sold as framesets for $515 MSRP - order from your nearest LBS. I would add some type of bar ends for positional flexibility.

https://www.google.com/search?q=lht+...w=1280&bih=645

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...fc1bb905cd.jpg

The Surly LHT is the only bike I would buy new given my love of early 90’s rigid steel MTB’s.

i bought a 26-inch wheel frame last year as my “new” bike. Built it up with wheels and components swapped off
a 90’s MTB. 7-speed drivetrain, v-brakes, and trekking handlebars.

Rides like butter.

The Surly LHT is the only bike I would buy new given my love of early 90’s rigid steel MTB’s.

i bought a 26-inch wheel frame last year as my “new” bike. Built it up with wheels and components swapped off of a 90’s MTB. 7-speed drivetrain, v-brakes, and trekking handlebars.

Rides like butter.

LHT is limited in tire width compared to a Troll.
If off road tendencies are in the books, go with a frameset that can go up to 2.5 2.75ish for older frames, and up to 3in front and back in the 2017 and newer frame design.
Its neat to have a frame that can be changed into diff types of bikes with tire widths and bar types. Mine has been a mtb setup, trekking bars and dropbars. Ive run 1.5 to 2.5in tires on it, from slicks to mtb knobbies, and like how it handles and rides in all guises.

there is of course aesthetics, the troll looks pretty goofy with 1.5 tires on, heck even with the 2in slicks Ive had on it for years now, if it didnt have the fenders on, it would look even more goofy than it does due to the huge extra space especially in the front fork.
and it has a mtb looking frame with sloping tt , so if you dont like that and a longer exposed seat post, then thats a negative. I dont mind it.

again, I'm responding to buying a new lht or troll frameset, so both probably similar prices.

and then of course, there is a bridge club model, which is reasonably priced, but they did change it to a 1x , so not as versatile for touring

Interesting ideas.

I find the 80-90's rigid mtb to be so close to the LHT that I would be hard pressed to buy a new frame set when they (older mtb's) are so plentiful and cheap. But then again, I like the pastime of re purposing stuff. I usually strip the frame down to bare metal by hand (with chemical stripper and wire wheel/steel wool) but just did a frame at a U blast It sandblasting shop. Cost $100 but I could half that if I did more initial prep ahead of time (I went with intact old hard paint to see what the process was like). Strangely satisfying from an OCD pov :)

The only downside to older mtb's is they don't have all the barnacles a modern bike does, if that maters. I currently have a nice KHS frame set that fits quite well (why I am retiring my old Marin back to mtb status) and am considering taking it in to get fork and underneath downtube cage mounds added. Another option I am considering, that also addresses the wide tire issue, is to buy a modern Surly fork, like the Bridge Club, with barnacles and add it to the older bike. That would allow 26x3, 27.5 and 700x47 plus disc brakes up front.

Anyway, lots of room for inventiveness within this genre which I like as it allows for more creativity and diy solutions.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...81d6d228_c.jpg

Did I need to buy an LHT frame? No.

I did it to satisfy my curiosity as to how much different the rigid MTB and the LHT ride was. I wanted to
feel for myself how it compares to how others describe the ride of the LHT.

The other reason was chainstay length for panniers.

I could have gone on quite happily with my stable of 90’s MTBs.