Newbie cant decide on steel Hahanna or ally firemountain

Hi, im new around here, not really ridden mtbs since a teen in the late 90s. After recently having a go on a friends carbon fibre boardman I decided I wouldnt mind giving mountain biking a try, nothing serious. Being a family man i havent got 1000s to spend on pushbike so headed to ebay.

I ended up buying I believe an early 2000s firemountain for 79 quid, ive spent about 30 quid on it and have a "useable" bike , although it doesnt have disc mounts, the forks are terrible and the clearcoat has spiderwebs all over the place, its ok for £110.

In the process of buying spares for the firemountain I bought a job lot of old mtb spares mostly junk, for 25quid, included was a 96? Champagne / gold steel hahanna and p2 fork in a terrible state, the seat post was well seized in and the paint was knackered, no chance of polishing it up it looked terrible.

Having been hovering around retro bike, and having a bit of a love for old konas back in the 90s I decided to take the frame into work and stripped it, loads of elbow grease and im left with a brushed steel frame thats solid underneath.

I have fallen in love with this bike and cant decide weather to spend /update the firemountain

Sell them both and put the money toward a newer bike

Or attempt to restore / modernise the Hahanna and use the fm as a doner and to ride whilst doing it?!

I feel myself drawn to the latter, ive a few ideas im a little unsure of (I know somebody in a bodyshop whocan clear coat it for free, im aware this can be a bit dodgey on raw steel but i love the look and its got to be worth a try!?)

Would it be worth it?, would it be better to look for an old cindercone or similar or do you think I could make a decent enough bike from the Hahanna?
Cheers

keep em both,when i started on here i had one bike,now i have too many to count,so may aswell start collecting now.

I would go for a steel frame every time, I have one aluminium bike and while stiff it is just not as nice to ride as my steel bikes with their springy supple frames and less harsh ride.

there are a suprising number of hahannas on here, they are loved it seems, but they were entry level and the further up the range you go the better the metal used and the nicer the ride .

you have one rideable bike, albeit aluminium, so bide your time and get parts for the hahahanna, most if not all parts will swap straight over to a cindy, or lava dome which use the same frame or even the higher end kilaeua or explosif when the right frame comes along.

and as said. who says you can only have one bike

One thing you should consider during the parts swap is how many size specific parts may not fit - particularly seat posts front mechs and seat collars. It may not be an easy swap given that alu and steel tube diameters are usually quite different.

Cheers for the tips! Was think about leaving a single chain ring on the front so would hopefully not need a front derailleur. Still looking for inspiration. Hopefully want to keep the frame raw steel with clear coat and any alloy bits in black.

Has anybody been the braze on disc mount route? Is it worth doing?

My Explosif in my sig. below is 'in the raw' and it's lasted ok so far two years down the line...

...and I'd rebuild the Hahanna with whatever you have to hand; I had one of the 'Colin Macrea' alloy Fire Mountains for a little while, it soon went to make way for something better.

The Explosif looks awesome!! Just had a read through the thread, think ill just rebuild the hahanna with v brakes, depends how carried away I get with it!

I have a steel Lavadome (1994) and a 1999 Cindercone which is the first year of Alu.
Frankly they are both great to ride, and I have the Cindercone as a rigid singlespeed. I'm 70kg so not heavy and I don't find I get bashed about by the Cindercone frame - I often do 40-50 miles off road on it.

I can see why people get addicted to the retro bikes, I wonder if I should wait for something higher end to come along. Been watching a few frames on eBay there's a cheap more modern cindercone on that's tempting, but every time I see the Hahanna sat there raw, I really want to stick some half decent wheels on it and use it, think the skinny framed steel konas can look awesome , it didnt cost me hardly anything, why not?!

Why not indeed?