Sundayjumper
Specialized Fan
An Attitude ? On a budget ? Well, it's relative isn't it ? 
Basically I don't want to spend more than it's worth. If the worst happens and I have to sell up, I want to feel I'm not out of pocket. So I'm not going mad with the NOS and I'm not going for any exotic bling. I'd like to stay close to the standard XT build as far as possible. And apologies for the lack of photos, I've not taken many so far !
Anyway. I've always wanted one of these. I remember going to the bike show in London when they first came out (end of '89 ?) and WOW. It was literally the best thing I had ever seen. I came home and told my parents about it. I kept writing "ATTITUDE" in that italic shadow font in the back of my school notes. But to a young teenager they were impossibly expensive. IIRC they were £2k. The following year, having saved like crazy while working in my LBS during weekends & holidays, I had £900 and spent it on a CR7 reduced from its £1200 RRP because it was last year's model. That was a pretty flash bike but an Attitude was still more than twice the price. Never an option.
Fast forward <ahem> "some" years and occasionally they have turned up in my size but never quite at the right time. So when I got the opportunity this year I claimed it was a special birthday present to myself and went for it. A frameset freshly refreshed by jonrock. So exciting.
It sat in the lounge for a week, just so I could stare at it !
Next, how to acquire the right bits ? Doing it piecemeal could take forever. A huge stroke of luck and a suitable donor was found with a vgc 1990 XT groupset that would provide almost everything I needed. I got stuck into that yesterday. This era of XT was mirror polished and it still comes up lovely. Here's the front brake after a quick polish. It's better in real life.
Not NOS quality, but pretty close. 26 year old brake blocks might be interesting to ride !
Brakes cleaned & polished. Shifters & rear mech too. Need to source the correct band-on front mech. Fitting the gear cables.... BLOODY INTERNAL CABLE ROUTING !! Jon had fitted new liners, but I like to cross over the gear cables so that the outers don't rub on the headtube, which meant removing & reinstalling the liners. Massive PITA. But I did it eventually. Front brake fine, rear brake cable just a touch too short so a new pair ordered. Chainset dismantled and every tooth individually cleaned. Any normal person would give me a funny look right now, but I'm sure you guys are just nodding approvingly XT pedals cleaned & polished, Specialized toe clips fitted from one of my other bikes. And here I'll mention one of my pet peeves - otherwise obsessively period correct bikes without toe clips. They were ubiquitous BITD (unless you had the brand new, groundbreaking SPDs). That's why so many pedals are asymmetric, they have a "right" side to put your foot on. If one side is cut away on the outside edge, they're meant to have toe clips !
Next, the wheels. M730 & M732 hubs in great condition laced to M231CD rims that look almost unused. A couple of rides max. Lovely. But bizarrely 36h front & 32h rear. I think the donor bike was a Friday afternoon parts bin job. The nipples were all discoloured with age so I've ordered new ones, stripped the wheels down today and will rebuild them later in the week when I have new nipples. Shiny hubs & almost unmarked rims:
Next d'oh moment - the rear hub is 130mm and the Klein frame is 135mm. Longer axle ordered. And then I realised that means the XT skewer won't be long enough either. So as the only modern component I'll use on this bike, I'm using Halo Allen key skewers. They're cheap & neat. I use them on a lot of my bikes.
There's still work to do, but I'm waiting on parts for a few days now. Saddle will be a Turbo I think, I always found them comfy, but a Flite seems to be the default choice by everybody else building one of these. I'll be using a modern seat post until I find either an XT (which seem to be very expensive if they're even slightly black) or something nice from the right era at the right price. This is a budget build remember !
So that's all for now. I'll hopefully be ready for the big reveal at the weekend !
Basically I don't want to spend more than it's worth. If the worst happens and I have to sell up, I want to feel I'm not out of pocket. So I'm not going mad with the NOS and I'm not going for any exotic bling. I'd like to stay close to the standard XT build as far as possible. And apologies for the lack of photos, I've not taken many so far !Anyway. I've always wanted one of these. I remember going to the bike show in London when they first came out (end of '89 ?) and WOW. It was literally the best thing I had ever seen. I came home and told my parents about it. I kept writing "ATTITUDE" in that italic shadow font in the back of my school notes. But to a young teenager they were impossibly expensive. IIRC they were £2k. The following year, having saved like crazy while working in my LBS during weekends & holidays, I had £900 and spent it on a CR7 reduced from its £1200 RRP because it was last year's model. That was a pretty flash bike but an Attitude was still more than twice the price. Never an option.
Fast forward <ahem> "some" years and occasionally they have turned up in my size but never quite at the right time. So when I got the opportunity this year I claimed it was a special birthday present to myself and went for it. A frameset freshly refreshed by jonrock. So exciting.
It sat in the lounge for a week, just so I could stare at it !
Next, how to acquire the right bits ? Doing it piecemeal could take forever. A huge stroke of luck and a suitable donor was found with a vgc 1990 XT groupset that would provide almost everything I needed. I got stuck into that yesterday. This era of XT was mirror polished and it still comes up lovely. Here's the front brake after a quick polish. It's better in real life.
Not NOS quality, but pretty close. 26 year old brake blocks might be interesting to ride !
Brakes cleaned & polished. Shifters & rear mech too. Need to source the correct band-on front mech. Fitting the gear cables.... BLOODY INTERNAL CABLE ROUTING !! Jon had fitted new liners, but I like to cross over the gear cables so that the outers don't rub on the headtube, which meant removing & reinstalling the liners. Massive PITA. But I did it eventually. Front brake fine, rear brake cable just a touch too short so a new pair ordered. Chainset dismantled and every tooth individually cleaned. Any normal person would give me a funny look right now, but I'm sure you guys are just nodding approvingly
XT pedals cleaned & polished, Specialized toe clips fitted from one of my other bikes. And here I'll mention one of my pet peeves - otherwise obsessively period correct bikes without toe clips. They were ubiquitous BITD (unless you had the brand new, groundbreaking SPDs). That's why so many pedals are asymmetric, they have a "right" side to put your foot on. If one side is cut away on the outside edge, they're meant to have toe clips !Next, the wheels. M730 & M732 hubs in great condition laced to M231CD rims that look almost unused. A couple of rides max. Lovely. But bizarrely 36h front & 32h rear. I think the donor bike was a Friday afternoon parts bin job. The nipples were all discoloured with age so I've ordered new ones, stripped the wheels down today and will rebuild them later in the week when I have new nipples. Shiny hubs & almost unmarked rims:
Next d'oh moment - the rear hub is 130mm and the Klein frame is 135mm. Longer axle ordered. And then I realised that means the XT skewer won't be long enough either. So as the only modern component I'll use on this bike, I'm using Halo Allen key skewers. They're cheap & neat. I use them on a lot of my bikes.
There's still work to do, but I'm waiting on parts for a few days now. Saddle will be a Turbo I think, I always found them comfy, but a Flite seems to be the default choice by everybody else building one of these. I'll be using a modern seat post until I find either an XT (which seem to be very expensive if they're even slightly black) or something nice from the right era at the right price. This is a budget build remember !
So that's all for now. I'll hopefully be ready for the big reveal at the weekend !
