1997 fire mountain

last week i was kindly given a very sorry for itself fire mountain. thanks to you guys it has been dated as a 1997. here is a really poor picture the day i got it...

there was a picture here but for some reason it has turned into quite a scary picture of a bride???

it was absolutely covered in mud and grime. after a couple of washes and a change of wheels and tyres i present you with...


given my current financial state and the effort involved in creating something truly stunning this is going to be a hack bike and a bit of a long term project. i plan to get it up and running on a very small budget for tomorrows sherwood pines ride (£8 so far) and just enjoy it. i may repaint it and i think the chainrings have set a bit of a theme as i quite like the clash of the red and blue. the saddle hasnt been chosen because of its flash of red, its because it was the best one i had laying around!

sadly i have had to remove the chainset as the middle ring is kippered and i dont have a spare so it is currently running a 1999 lx chainset to keep it going.

the only really noteworthy bits on the bike are the wheels and tyres, grey/white psycho tyres( on back to front, how mbuk told us to roll back in the day) gold tech rear hub and pace carbon front with non matching mavic rims.

seems to ride ok but we'll see after tomorrow!

the plan will include a paintjob at some point, a change of forks and not a lot else really. watch this space...

kippered, lol

yea looks nice, i like the red chainrings with the blue frame too

qiuck update. i am really impressed with how this is riding, so much so that i am riding it more than my newly built on one. because of this i am thinking of changing the tyres so as not to wear them out too much. anyone fancy a swap?

plans are to also change the grips and saddle as both are proving uncomfortable to me. i have a few sets of grips in stock and saddle choice is either my old turbo matic titanium or a pretty mint flite but that might be a bit too good for this old beast. no longer going for a colour theme. been there and done that. this is going to be a rider so more bothered about comfort and performance than looks. (and it looks way better with a black and silver chainset!)

changed the tyres this evening. choices were nos amberwall psychos, rear smoke/front farmer john(!) combo or these grey psycho copies. ideally the nos psychos are going on the rts and the smoke is pretty mint so i am saving that for the khs so i was left with these kenda psycho copies. not too keen on them but i'll run them till they are no more then stick something else cheap and cheerful on. changed the grips for some kona jack sh1t's i had in the shed and altered the angle of the saddle.

tomorrow i'm taking it for a ride so hopefully the tyres wont be too shonky and it'll be a bit more comfortable.

next on the to do schedule is polish up the v brakes and fit some new pads. might also have a go at removing the anodising off the rims so they match a bit better!

got a few more miles in on the old beast now including reuniting it with its first owner! he jumped at the chance to ditch his modern full suspension specialized and have a go on it!

the tyres look significantly better with mud on them and i can confirm that they are actually reasonably good. they dont clog massively with mud and have plenty of traction. i'm pretty impressed.

the saddle has to go though. its quite wide in the nose which i thought would be a good thing for my lardy ass but aparently not!

Very nice

Not too keen on th tyres but I have prety conservative tastes i.e black lol

Charge spoon saddles look pretty good on retro rides, got them on both of my Konas

Aye they are really comfy too. Tyres are going to get swapped at some point. Might go for some of them cheap black onza porcs on ebay.

double dup

finally changed the tyres. went for the ebay special kevlar black onza porcs. impressively light. looks loads better now. replacement saddle on the way from cannondale king. still loving this and riding it more than my inbred!

seatpost is really high in the pic as my mate borrowed it and didnt drop it down again.. how rude

just been plotting some ideas for the future of this bike.

i have 2 sets of forks to consider judy xc'c or sl's. i think i have finally decided on the xc's so the rts can house the sl's.

the xc's are a lovely pale grey/silver and i am going to "match" this to the frame by stripping the paint off the frame and getting some plain white decals.

i have just received a beaut of an xt headset from cass (also the supplier of the forks) so that is that sorted. into the head tube i am going to slide a good old velocity stem. not the lightese piece of kit in the world but certainly purposeful.

as for the wheels i will either try and identify what rims i have front and rear so i can make them a matching pair or i will break out the drain cleaner again and remove the finnish of both rims as they are a very similar profile to one another.

thats all i have thought about at the minute!

it just came to me in a flash so i thought i'd commit it to the internet