Mountain Bike experts...
 

I have an original Marin Palisades Trail from 1987 (before most of you were born, I know!).

It still has it's original fittings - all Shimano - and it all works. The bike is a bit dirty and could do with a complete overhaul.

Is it worth getting it rebuilt - it is no superlight - but I liked the frame and it rides well.

Should I just get a new bike, should I restore this as a classic or rebuild on the frame with new components?

As a fairly low spec model it wont be worth much and to be honest mountain bike kit has come on so much its not worth building it up with better kit.
Now classic top of the range stuff like Tioga disc wheels, Ringle or Syncross stuff is becoming quite valuable

I would if its sentimental, I have an old 1990 ish Diamonback Topanga, been around 20 years, cant get rid of it.

ditto, I have an early 90s Marin Eldridge grade which I want to make into a decent bike, but can't, but won't skip.

Trout

To me it depends on what you are planning to do with it.

Just pottering=then a good clean up, service and a few new components possibly and cables to replace anything seized.

However, if you are planning really getting into mountain biking then obviously things have moved on and you would enjoy your riding alot more on a newer lighter bike with better stoppers, suspension etc

I'd not bother M8, i've got a Marin Pine Mountain from c1990 in the back of the garage, did once try to get rid of it on Fleabay but had no interest. Bike & componery desgin moves on so quickly that to spend a shed load of cash changing groupset, wheels (as your hubs won't support disc brakes or a 9 speed block on your exisiting freewheel, just aint worth it. You'll still be left with a over heavy bike that will be way behind what you can get nowadays.

I sold mine for £60 on ebay, but it was a bit 'used'. Still all original parts though.

Part of me said I should have kept it, put some thinner tyres on, and used it to go to the shops/gym etc. I'd not feel happy doing that with any of my other bikes.

I've got an old orange prestige from 1993. I spent time putting v-brakes and gripshifts on it as I couldn't use the original rapidfire/sti or whatever they where called combined lever and shifter with the v-brakes. I used it a bit but recently went for an orange crush on the ride to work scheme. I intended to keep the prestige, fit slicks and use it for road use but since getting the crush it's just feels so much better to ride that I havnt even used the prestige. I had to fit flat bars to the crush though, just can't get used to riser bars!

I've still got a Diamondback Sorento from circa 1994 - must finish single speeding it!

Giant Escaper, circa 1990 (?) all XT'd up and still my preferred weapon of roadie baiting, as it has a Pace 50 T large chain-ring for a 51 mph Vmax....

dunx

Over in France is my "special" bike, a Raleigh Special products Titanium frame, rebuilt with full XTR before they went with the daft stuff they have now, the solid stuff that came before, and disc brakes all round, Hope XC4's. The front fork is a Pace carbon-fibre rigid and the rear disc mount was made for me from an original Raleigh drawing out of Titanium the correct thickness by a specilaist who was also a bike nit, and welded in place by a guy who does specialist welding for BA at Brough.

All in all incredibly retro, but bang up to date, and very light, a real one-off. It weighs in at just over 22lb.

Editted to say, I also have a Scandium MTB frame here in the garage, in it's box, bought off e-bay brand new with the intention of making a really lightweight beast here, but prices of components have soared and it now looks like it won't get done.

Mine was intended to be the bike to leave outside the gym, on slicks, SPD pedals, rack and some HID lights, looks great (I think) but its stuck in the shed with my Cannondale Bad Boy, Kona Bear and Old Peugeot racer, my road bike gets all the use.

Ok, technology does change but most of a bike, if its fully functional as it left the factory is the rider anyway, I can go pretty much as fast on the old Pegeot racer as the Specialized, its not better or worse, just different, the Spec is more pointy and the Peugeot has an endearing loping quality to it, its only a cheap one like I had when I was a kid (this example was J4ckos mates) but it took me right back riding it, skinny bars, friction shifters, jumpers for goalposts, isnt it, enduring image, marvelous....

Here are my two current retro rides. 1990 and 1995 Klein Attitudes in 'team' paint colours.

The 1990 frameset that is currently in single speed form weighs in at 6.0Kgs - a fraction under 15LBS.

http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/8761/cimg0440sml.jpg

http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/5193/cimg0422sml.jpg

Cheers :D

Were they expensive new, not heard of them before. The paint jobs are, er, striking !

Does the SS one need the chain adjusting an oiling ?

They were very expensive when new - well out of reach of the average rider. 3.5K + in the UK depending on the spec. Klein paint jobs are legendary as is the build quality. The 'pre-Trek' framesets are very sought after and collectable these days.

Some useful background here:

http://www.oldklein.com/Attitude.htm

Whoa, three and a half grand in the nineties !!

I had the feeling they might be price, though I have to say, to the unintiated they probably dont look that expensive, but then I suppose you dont want them to and the uninitiated buy seventy nine quid full susser because they do look expensive. Are they worth much now then ?

Do you ride them much ?

Remember the Klein Attitude well, M8 of mine had one back in the day. Proper work of art they were, that is before Trek bought them out and spoilt things :(

I do have to admit the current xtr gear is a pale shadow of stuff several years ago, sure it's lighter but cheaply made, i took a faulty shifter apart and was shocked at how cheap it felt.

I have an old xtr, possibly m952 rapidrise mech, one of the last good xtr runs and it's a thing of beauty and feels incredibly solid, im half tempted to replace my xtr shadow with it.

That was on my wish list for a long time, lovely :thumb:

Totally agree the new XTR may look the nuts but it's so minimal that the build quality really has suffered. Wish I'd not got rid of my Specialized S Works M5 Hardtail sometimes. Full XTR that would survive whatever you could throw at it. Sold it after owning it for three hard years, including numerous trips to north Wales and maybe 20 sports races and everything still worked perfectly.

I have a 1985 Raleigh EX in my shed. It was Raleigh's top of the range road race bike back then, Reynolds 531 tubing frame, Shimano's top EX 10 speed group set, tubular tyres on Mavic rims and only 23.5lbs. It was a lovely ride, supple steel alloy frame rather than the harsh aluminium that followed. I paid £300 for it new. It still runs, my brother did a couple of triathlons on it a few years ago and apart from replacing cables and tyres it was good to go.

Indeed shimano has gone too far this time around, the only two xtr bits i like is the chainset and the rear mech everything else is meh.

Come 10 speed im switching to xt shifters, i've now had three xtr shifters fail on me, they're just too flimsy to be reliable yet i have deore on for now and ok shifts nowhere as good but it's solid and gets the job done.

However i can't fault my giant anthem x, the frame simply put is awesome i never fire of it.

Oh i have old xt combo shifters/vbrakes and the bear trap dx pedals, a coyote ht5 in very good nick and possibly my old marin pine mountain frame, kind of metallic orange colour and still in decent shape.

Im terrible for hoarding old bike bits. :D

Me too m8 got boxes of them ;)

Only problem is I'm now mountain bikeless for the first time in 15 years :(

Wasn't using them so I'm purely on Road bikes again.

Me too m8 got boxes of them ;)

Only problem is I'm now mountain bikeless for the first time in 15 years :(

Wasn't using them so I'm purely on Road bikes again.

:thumb: indeed... :)

Here's one going for auction on US Ebay atm.

The description says it all:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...T#ht_500wt_928

:)

Very nice!

i have an original cannondale sm 600 mountain bike 1985 model in storage mint and unused in black with the odd sized wheels awsome bike .never part with it.

UB, do you have any modern Mountain Bikes ?

LOL look at those lovely Kleins.... :notworthy

Envy ! :nono:

Back in 1991 I passed a locally sponsored bikeshop "pro" on mine, his face was a picture.... and his excuses even more so. :lol1:

dunx