Contemplating: "Blast from the Past" (or "I've been at this a while")

My First MTB: A Steel framed Kona Lava Dome, circa 1993-1994
That rear wheel is one of the few I built myself.
Still true after all these years.

When recently asked, my non-biking friends seemed agreeable to some gravel rail trail riding. Problem is, the Bride and one of our friends don't have bikes. No problem, I just needed to get some of my old bikes in order.

The Bride was easy, she got my old Turner. The only changes I made were to put the old Specialized house brand disk wheels back on (the King hubs on the new RIP 9), get a shorter stem, switch the seatpost for a non-layback to shorten up the cockpit, and put on a woman's saddle.

A loaner bike was a bit trickier. I thought about resurrecting my Specialized FSR Pro, that was a great bike. But it would have required new disk wheels or going back to rim brakes, which I just couldn't muster much enthusiasm for. Plus, I wasn't even sure I could find the old canti posts for the rear wheel.

In the end I decided to fix up my old Kona, which was my first mountain bike. It was actually almost rideable when I dragged it out. Only problem was the fork, a RS SID that had barfed up oil all over itself. I always hated that fork so I swapped it out for an old Manitou SXR, which is worlds more reliable and lower maintenance. Compared to modern (i.e. made in the last 10 years) forks, the SXR is pretty low rent, but compared to the the SID it actually seems to do something besides leak air and oil. Looking back, the SID was just a heavy, expensive rigid fork.

Now all the bikes are ready, we just need it to stop raining so we can all get out.

Retro: Rainbow Ti spokes, Ringle hub.
Matching rear wheel broke a long time ago.
Not a big loss as it had an XT hub, I couldn't afford the Ringer rear hub.

Remember these? It's called a Travel Agent IIRC.
It allows you to use linear pull brakes with non-linear pull levers.

A few new parts:
The Thomson stem is from the Turner (yeah it's too long, I know). The bar is a new Sunline (super-cheap and it weighs a ton). The OURY grips I found in the bottom of a box of bike crap, completely unused. No idea when or where I bought them, but score!

I went through a phase of color coordinating everything I could on this bike. Sadly these anodized chainring bolts lost their color when degreaser got on them.

An old FSA Conix Star-Fangled Nut replacement. I was surprised to learn they still make these. If weight isn't a concern, then these are a lot easier to deal with than a SFN.