rentedmule
Retro Guru
I bought a 1999 Komodo sight-unseen from the original owner for the equivalent of 45 pounds and had it dropped at a relative's garage a while back. It looked ok in pictures and had good parts (XT/XTR), but it was in rough shape. It was covered in a fine black overspray from when he had painted the front Mavic 517 for some parade float thing, both the Judy XC and XT brifters were locked up, and it generally looked like it had been ridden hard and put away wet for many years!
20250627_143715 by Rented Mule, on Flickr
20250627_143653 by Rented Mule, on Flickr
20250701_202305 by Rented Mule, on Flickr
I'd originally planned to part it out, but decided to see if I could refurb it to give away to a friend first.
I stripped the Judy and the elastomers came out as a fine powder, as they usually do! I had a set of Speed Springs laying around, the damper cartridge was surprisingly fine, and the stantions were perfect, so I just cleaned everything, coated it in slickoleum, sanded, primed, and painted with whatever I had on the shelf, and stuck it back together. I didn't want to pay for reproduction decals, so I used some Thomson stickers to break up the silver paint.
Every moving part was bone dry or gummed up - I rebuilt both LX hubs and the headset, stripped the shifters and flushed/oiled them, changed all cables and housings, pulled the drivetrain and degreased it, sanded, primed and painted the XTR M900 crankset (it was VERY rough), and the swapped a few parts to make the riding position less race-oriented. Even though the drivetrain is pooched (the chain maxed out my wear indicator!), it all works together and doesn't skip. It even shifts pretty well!
The most satisfying bit was removing the black paint - the overspray came off the frame with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and a detail sander took it off the front wheel.
20250708_182938 by Rented Mule, on Flickr
20250708_182947 by Rented Mule, on Flickr
20250708_183008 by Rented Mule, on Flickr
The only part I "down-graded" was the brakes - I took the XT's off and put on no-name V's, but only because the pads were worn on the XT's and the no-names were assembled and ready to rock.
It was fun to do a "build" that cost almost nothing but elbow + actual grease and to do it start to finish in under a week, instead of the normal year+ and many $$ I usually take!
20250627_143715 by Rented Mule, on Flickr
20250627_143653 by Rented Mule, on Flickr
20250701_202305 by Rented Mule, on FlickrI'd originally planned to part it out, but decided to see if I could refurb it to give away to a friend first.
I stripped the Judy and the elastomers came out as a fine powder, as they usually do! I had a set of Speed Springs laying around, the damper cartridge was surprisingly fine, and the stantions were perfect, so I just cleaned everything, coated it in slickoleum, sanded, primed, and painted with whatever I had on the shelf, and stuck it back together. I didn't want to pay for reproduction decals, so I used some Thomson stickers to break up the silver paint.
Every moving part was bone dry or gummed up - I rebuilt both LX hubs and the headset, stripped the shifters and flushed/oiled them, changed all cables and housings, pulled the drivetrain and degreased it, sanded, primed and painted the XTR M900 crankset (it was VERY rough), and the swapped a few parts to make the riding position less race-oriented. Even though the drivetrain is pooched (the chain maxed out my wear indicator!), it all works together and doesn't skip. It even shifts pretty well!
The most satisfying bit was removing the black paint - the overspray came off the frame with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and a detail sander took it off the front wheel.
20250708_182938 by Rented Mule, on Flickr
20250708_182947 by Rented Mule, on Flickr
20250708_183008 by Rented Mule, on FlickrThe only part I "down-graded" was the brakes - I took the XT's off and put on no-name V's, but only because the pads were worn on the XT's and the no-names were assembled and ready to rock.
It was fun to do a "build" that cost almost nothing but elbow + actual grease and to do it start to finish in under a week, instead of the normal year+ and many $$ I usually take!
