My road projects have fallen by the wayside because I found a beater to ride around the city (dads free spirit from ~87) and I've got my trek otherwise, but some friends ride at hartwood every week and I'd like to join them. So now I'm building a mountain bike and need some help, just to know what I'm looking at. Tax return came, so its time to buy some parts.
I got a GT frame for free from a friend (I have an FSA crankset too, but I'll get to that later).
It's rear suspension which brings me to my first question - is it unheard of to have a rear suspension frame with a rigid fork? I'm trying to build as cheap as I can, so I would either be able to get an decent rigid fork, or an alright suspension fork.
I've also never had to pick out a fork/headset before.
The ID of the bearing is 1 1/8", but I'm not exactly sure what I'm looking at here. I'm thinking the bearings need to come out and be replaced with a new headset? Sheldon tells me I'm looking at a threadless headset, but I don't know much more than that.
Thanks for any wisdom.
If you are setting up a bike with rear suspension, I would suggest front as well.
why do you think the bearings need to be replaced? looks like you have a chris king headset, probably worth servicing. if it is indeed a king check here
http://chrisking.com/tech/tech_headsets#service
I wasn't sure if I had the entire headset (I've never installed or serviced the front of a bike before, basically, so I had no idea what I I was looking at.
So from what you're saying, I could service whats there, slip in a non-threaded 1 1/8" fork, spacers, cap, and call it a day?
basically yes.
The headset also consists of a base plate, bearing cap, star nut, stem cap and screw, along with any spacers. However the installation of the bearing cups, which are shown in your photo, is generally the hardest task. The base plate (a.k.a. crown race) may be included with the fork, can't remember.
here's a link to an exploded king headset.
http://chrisking.com/files/pdfs/NoThreadSet.pdf
Most LBSs should be able to get these for you if you don't have them laying around. You may also want them to install the star nut for you. It's pretty easy to bend the flanges if you don't get it in squarely. I doubt they will charge you.
My suggestion is check to make sure the bearings are good...is the rotation smooth? no grinding?
If the bearings feel good then the most you'll need is to buy whatever parts you are missing. It will cost you about $35 or so for the base plate, bearing cap, star nut, and spacers.
For that price, maybe, you could buy a new cheap headset...but it will be in no way as good as a king headset...even a used one. So I would suggest staying with the king if possible.
Hope I helped out a bit.
I'd think twice about building up that frame. It is GT's 1st foray into full-suspension, the RTS. At the time it was cutting edge, but honestly, I would rather ride a hardtail.
How are the pivots and shock working? I'd be surprised if there wasn't something seriously wrong with at least one of them.
My advice? Sell that for whatever you can get for it and buy a rigid frame.
Also, are you set on building u a bike from scratch? If you aren't, a good used hardtail would have you riding much sooner, and with much less outlay of cash and time. Starting with a bare frame is going to be a time and money pit.
Good luck!
Don't take this as me trying to talk you out of it, building a bike up from the frame is good fun.
If you do decide to go with a hardtail, I have a really nice aluminum frame, it's on the large side, It was in with some other frames/parts I bought, I'm not going to use it and I'm not going to sell it, It's really nice, never been painted, no decals, I don't know who made it but I know it's a quality frame. If you want to build it you can have it. If you wanna see some photos email me timito@gmail.com
by the time you are done buying parts and building up you would be better off going to see chris and picking up a redline monocog or se stout.
What Eric and cburch said. Especially what Eric said about the RTS. Full suspension has changed a whole lot since the early/mid-90's when that was made.
Building a bike from scratch isn't cheap unless you have boxes of parts around or really generous friends. You will learn a lot if you get into it, but if you're not sure if you have a complete headset or not you may be looking down a long, expensive, frustrating road.
If you do decide to build up that frame you'll want to get a fork as close to the length of the fork originally spec'd on the bike, which I'd imagine was a 2-2.5" travel RockShox Judy. Get something any longer than 3" of travel and it will handle like a truck, and not in a good way.
and a rigid 29er with big tires and low pressure will give you damn near as much suspension as that frame will...
Building this up isn't so much about acquiring a mtb as much as building a bike. I was actually at Thick on friday toying with the idea of just buying a bike, but I can only stand being a consumer so long. I build prototypes for a living - its in my blood, I've just never built a bike before.
As for the frame I'm grabbing the one Timito has and I'll give that a shot first - meddle with the GT later.
I also have a double wall rim with a disc that you have to take with it.
timito is a shining example of one of the many reasons I love the pittsburgh cycling community! Thanks dude!
