Bike advice

[lordsummit]

Recently I’ve been going out with my lad on my positively ancient mountain bike. It’s built around a Coyote Ultralite aluminium frame, and was pretty expensive in 1996! I think I paid about £600 then.

I don’t use it loads, but I do like a good canal tow path bash, and can see myself doing a little more of that, maybe once or twice a week. It is though a little tired. The fork has collapsed, Tony L very kindly gave me a Rockshox Judy fork, but I’ve no idea as to how to go about fitting it, and what would be needed to do it! Would I need new brakes? How much longer than the head tube do the top of the forks need to be? I can ,masure it later, but Im not sure there’s loads to play with.

Other issues are the middle derailleur is erratic. This is an old XT one. I squirted it with WD40, and now I have two out of three rings working, but not the highest ring.

Is it worth trying to sort out the issues, or do I need to save up for a second-hand replacement, or investigate the cycle to work scheme? Are there bits of my bike worth saving, or best to take whatever I can get for it, and start afresh? The world used to be full of cheap bikes, but now they seem to have all gone to ground. I’m a brassic musician as I’m sure most of you know! I’m really looking for the cheap solution. I’m open to different ideas, even if it may take a while to put into place.

A few pictures for context.

 

[PhilofCas]

It looks like a nice bike, looks a lot of life left in that.

I’d go to a local independent bike shop, ask them how much a good fettle would be, get a price for them to swap the forks, sort the gears, change the brakes (V brakes would be a good upgrade from those centre pull ones) and take it from there.

 

[slavedata]

Just been out on my bike post service by independent guy in a nearby village. All the gears work no clicking or ticking, no other noises from the bike. Shame about the noises coming from the fat lump on top of the bike! Still I got round my circuit without getting off for any hills which is a result.

 

[cutting42]

I love the bike, my mountain bike is 1998 Spesh Stumpjumper FSR XC and I would not change a thing on yours except maybe fix or replace the front mech. I replaced mine with front XT rear XTR about 10 years back for about £70 off eBay. I did go disc as well but I would not bother for a towpath bike TBH.

The Judy is a great fork, correct era but I have not done much fork swapping. I am sure others can help with that

 

[cutting42]

 

[lordsummit]

That’s a fabulous looking machine. Must admit I saw this on eBay and remembered the bikes of old when I bought mine!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1996-GT-Zaskar-Medium-Frame-/392982848636?campid=5338728743

 

[Tony L]

The Judy is a great fork, correct era but I have not done much fork swapping. I am sure others can help with that

The thing that confused me is Richard’s bike is of a very slightly earlier generation to ones I’ve worked on and the stem mount is different. The Judy T2s are a standard 1/8th” threadless Ahead type, i.e. clamped into place by bolts on the back of the stem, Richard’s has a older ‘quill’ type stem. I assume that means it is a totally different headset type, but I do have tools to knock headsets out and press new ones in (again I’ve only worked on ‘Ahead’ types). I suspect the rest of the bike can be addressed with a new set of cables, tyres, brake blocks etc, maybe a new front mech. I doubt there is anything too badly wrong.

 

[Copperjacket]

That’s a very nice lightweight frame and well worth some tic.

I wouldn’t rush to change the brakes as a well set up set of cantilevers will work fine especially with Kool-stop salmon pads.

Ideally the forks you have from Tony will be both cantilever compatible and threaded. If so measure the steerer on the existing forks and cut as required.

As an alternative, check the dimensions spacing on the stanchions ie the uprights with a view to simply swapping them over by undoing the 2 Allen screws on the top of the yoke.

If not you will need new brake levers, a new headset etc.

 

[SteveG]

It the bike has 1 1/8" quill stem (i.e. not 1"), and it looks to me like it is, then it looks like it'd be possible to change it to use threadless forks by changing the headset and getting a new stem. Not something I've done before though.

If it was mine, and I'd owned it for that long, I'd probably go for it. I'd probably put a front disc on at the same time and maybe a 1x10 drivetrain (although that's the start of the slippery slope as that probably needs a new rear wheel as the current one is likely for a screw on cassette). I'd probably end up using the frame, seatpost and seat clamp and replacing everything else with modern stuff. My builds do tend to get a bit out of hand though - especially as I usually have all the bits needed in the spares bin anway. I've been known to start building a cheap hack bike for commuting/tow-path use but end up with a mostly XTR build!

 

[Woodface]

Will cost more to service than it’s worth, especially via a bike shop. Bike parts are quite expensive now.

If you just want to do tow paths, a nice hybrid or cross bike will work well.

 

[Tony L]

Here’s an ancient picture of the Judy T2s on my old alloy Kona (I’ve since built a real old-school steel Explosif with rigid P2s!). I guess there is some debate as to whether the steerer will be long enough assuming the diameter is correct.

Another way of looking at this is whether it is possible to save the existing yellow Rock Shocks? As I understand it they have collapsed, i.e. whatever was once springy is no longer springy. I think Richard tried googling-up spares and failed, but whether there are other options there I don’t know. No point swapping them out unless there is good reason to as I don’t think they have structural damage.

 

[Copperjacket]

On reflection, those forks have elastomer suspension which has deteriorated and gone hard.

The most cost effective solution would be a strip and rebuild - see YouTube videos - using a £30 elastomer kit from eBay.

 

[stevec67]

Go for it. that's fixable and a great towpath bike. As others say you may need a new stem and convert to Aheadset from the quill type now fitted. Measure the old and new fork tubes and within reason add/subtract spacers. You may need to cut to length. The brakes are, well, adequate for a towpath bike. However you have the integrated shifters and brake levers so if you were to change to V brakes you'd need new shifters as well as brake levers. It's not worth it.

Cheap bikes are scarce post lockdown. In any case getting a scratter for bits would probably not give you a working fork, they are often a deal breaker on an old bike.

A LBS will be able to fix up your old bike and get it running again at modest cost, or plenty of us can advise on here. It's worth it.

 

[Copperjacket]

That Muni-Mula frame is very nice Tony - do you still have it?

 

[lordsummit]

Another way of looking at this is whether it is possible to save the existing yellow Rock Shocks? As I understand it they have collapsed, i.e. whatever was once springy is no longer springy. I think Richard tried googling-up spares and failed, but whether there are other options there I don’t know. No point swapping them out unless there is good reason to as I don’t think they have structural damage.

That would be the easy way, but I couldn’t find a solution. I’ll set my Google-fu on it later...

 

[sean99]

Will cost more to service than it’s worth, especially via a bike shop. Bike parts are quite expensive now.

If you just want to do tow paths, a nice hybrid or cross bike will work well.

I'd be surprised - a hybrid of decent quality has got to be > £500.

I'd be wary about trying to put in Tony's fork - you'll be looking at a new headset and stem at minimum, plus labour for an old fork. I'd rather be looking at trying to renew the existing fork, or swap for a non-suspension fork. After that the usual consumables - new chain, brake shoes, maybe tires.

 

[lordsummit]

Go for it. that's fixable and a great towpath bike. As others say you may need a new stem and convert to Aheadset from the quill type now fitted. Measure the old and new fork tubes and within reason add/subtract spacers. You may need to cut to length. The brakes are, well, adequate for a towpath bike. However you have the integrated shifters and brake levers so if you were to change to V brakes you'd need new shifters as well as brake levers. It's not worth it.

My concern is the steering tube on Tony’s may be too short, it will have been cut once already, when it’s light tomorrow I’ll measure again and take some more pics. I don’t mind coughing for a new head-set, but adding on new brakes etc is going to be expensive isn’t it?

 

[SteveG]

I'd be surprised - a hybrid of decent quality had got to be > £500.

I'd be wary about trying to put in Tony's fork - you'll be looking at a new headset and stem at minimum, plus labour for an old fork. I'd rather be looking at trying to renew the existing fork, or swap for a non-suspension fork. After that the usual consumables - new chain, brake shoes, maybe tires.

For a towpath type bike I'd go down the rigid fork route - probably with a set of Pace RC31's. Saves a lot of weight as well as looking good.

 

[cutting42]

Another way of looking at this is whether it is possible to save the existing yellow Rock Shocks? As I understand it they have collapsed, i.e. whatever was once springy is no longer springy. I think Richard tried googling-up spares and failed, but whether there are other options there I don’t know. No point swapping them out unless there is good reason to as I don’t think they have structural damage.

Easily, there are elastomer kits and even a spring kit available I believe. Might take some searching as they are old

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NOS-Rock...Kit-Part-59028/254796640499?campid=5338728743

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rock-Sho...fur-Elastomere/293903788587?campid=5338728743

 

[Woodface]

I'd be surprised - a hybrid of decent quality had got to be > £500.

I'd be wary about trying to put in Tony's fork - you'll be looking at a new headset and stem at minimum, plus labour for an old fork. I'd rather be looking at trying to renew the existing fork, or swap for a non-suspension fork. After that the usual consumables - new chain, brake shoes, maybe tires.

Depends how much it needs. Chainrings are expensive & cassettes have gone up a lot. Can end up spending a couple of hundred quid & still not having a reliable bike. If it needs wheels or hubs etc?