also, it’s 9/8 straight? should be able to find a 27.5 native disc fork
There’s a cost / messing with kool vintage stuff matrix to keep in mind as well.
I do wonder what the most modern 9/8 sus fork available is but don’t know anything about that older stuff.
Nah I meant the lil back squishy boi.
These kind of soft tail designs always struck me as… not worth throwing money at, despite however high-end ti forever bike they might have been at the time. It’s not going to perform anywhere near what a modern offroad bike does, and it won’t be as good as any rigid bike at any of the stuff you’d do with a 26" rigid bike in 2022 (basketbike, dirtbag poopbarn, etc.idk). What I’m saying is: Orlove, I think you might have ganked yourself a liability.
stealing [abandoned] bikes is now TAF
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manitou markhor is really the only thing I know about.
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I double checked the rear clearance with my calipers and there’s 6.6 mm of air between a 650bx48 and the nearest point, the seatstay wishbone. If I stuck 27.5x2.1s in there, that’d be roughly a … 1mm gap.
when I first saw this bike I was like wow not only is that the ugliest bike I’ve ever seen, I’m sure it would be an absolute nightmare to work on. I want nothing to do with it. But when I saw it was in the process of being stolen, my heart warmed up, and now I even kind of dig the look, too
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I agree it isn’t anywhere near a modern mtb, but I do think that a refurbished front/rear will make for a fun and funky bike.
@turpentine the Markhor is the only one I found as well. Seems like a really good fork!
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just run the 48s then, with a modern xc 584 fork up front and drop bars. instant gravel vibes
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Markhor is pretty good. Compression damping can be upgraded to nicer (R7?), rebound does stuff, fork isn’t too heavy.
Don’t listen to the naysayers. That bike’s a ditherers paradise, and it will outlive you. My Litespeed is a 93 and it has had an in incredible workload. I have dithered all the way back to rim brakes on mine.
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I’ve got a WTB Sendero 47 on the back of my ditheridoo that barely fits real mtn tires. It’s good for faux mtn biking.
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I don’t see why we all shouldn’t have at least one obsolete MTB.
This one is a fine choice.
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…with a painstaking and expensive conversion to modern bits that ultimately make it just a rentable faxmachine of a low end mtb from two years ago but with panache
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You seem to have lots of money and time to spend on bikes nobody else wants. I don’t have anything to add. Just an observation.
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For maximum content generation, i highly recommend finding a crusty old aerospace welder to stick an IS tab onto the frame for disc brakes. The end result is going to be a lot better than trying to make brake posts placed for 26" wheels to stop acceptably with a 650B rim brake wheel. Also you’ll have real rim choices instead of eyeing $$$boatanchor$$$ cliffhangers.
A friend of mine did this (finding the crusty aerospace welder, not doing the welding himself) on a very wiggly Litespeed road bike; he toured Japan with it and has been commuting on it for 7 years and it hasn’t failed yet.
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I am not a magura person, but I was pretty sure my first LBS mechanic did this easily on his 26 inch Ti Merlin. 27.5 rear wheel with Magura rim brakes, do they have some latitude in them for this?
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