1993 KHS Montana Crest - Now for sale.

[dadstardeluxe]

I picked this up on eBay a little while ago for £20. With a little help with friends on RB, KingBling picked it up and dropped it off for me today on his way up north for Christmas - what a hero.

I have another KHS Montana (this time a Pro), which I built for my wife, so I know they ride well. With this one, it was the stars, red and blue paint job that caught my eye. The low-end groupset and wheels didn't really worry me because I have an LX groupset and nice wheelset which I plan to use on this. So I will work on bringing the paint back up to scratch, after a full stripdown, then with a few new additions, it should be ready for action in 2016.

My intention is to do a proper thread for this, I have done a stack of builds in the past, but I always go in super fast and finish it before I get chance to post the full build - I'm kind of impatient like that, but this time I will take my time a bit more. So any input welcome in direction would be welcome.

 

[dadstardeluxe]

Stripdown begins

I have stripped this already - no messing about. Loads of it has gone straight in the bin - cables, bars, seatpost, headset etc etc. Will keep the BB as it is fine with no play and free movement. I am going to t-cut the frame and forks, then touch up the few stone chips in red, blue and white - then give it a liberal coat of polish. Pics to follow.

 

[Minifreak]

Re: 1993 KHS Montana Crest

£20 bargain I'd say. Looking forward to seeing this progress

 

[Dare]

Re: 1993 KHS Montana Crest

Nice bike and plans! Looking forward to seeing some progress photos

 

[dadstardeluxe]

Stripped to the waist and ready to fight.

So here it is stripped to the bare bones. Am looking to keep it fairly cheap and cheerful, but stylish. First job is to clean all the crud off with white spirit, then give it a good T-cut before touching up and digging around in the parts bin to see what headsets I've got. I think I've got a Ritchey Logic in 1" flavour, and I have an Uno stem to replace that bad high rise original - the only problem is The Uno is silver, would prefer a 1" quill in black, will have to have a look around.

 

[dadstardeluxe]

Progress

So I had a window of time after the Christmas madness. Got busy building the Montana. Cleaned up the frame and touched up, fitted with a Ritchey Logic headset, and Deore LX M550 crank, cantis & rear mech. I also fitted Deore DX Thumbies, levers and front mech. gave them all a good clean up and autosol.

 

[dadstardeluxe]

Progress progressing

I had a set of Wolber black anodised wheels laced to LX hubs which seemed to be a good match, so I added a used Panaracer Smoke & Dart set. I am waiting on a black stem and black seatpost to come in the post which I'll fit a well used Flite Ti to. The bars will also probably go, they are really narrow - uncut, just narrow. Would like some blue or red Renthals maybe. Will keep my eyes open for those. See what you think so far - any suggestions welcome. Quite liked the blue and red cable housings to match the paint...

 

[unit3]

Re:

Looks great so far

Love the stars design on this, looks like it could easily carry off much higher spec components if you so desired, and a nice mag21.

 

[mynchiboy]

Re:

Looks great so far

Love the stars design on this, looks like it could easily carry off much higher spec components if you so desired, and a nice mag21.

^^ Totally agree

I've always had a soft spot for KHS, I owned a Montana Pro for a while which rode great. I seem to recall that the frames were often quoted by reviewers as being a good basis for an upgrade.

Out of interest what is the frame material on these? I'm assuming True Temper tubing of some type as with others in the '93 range?

 

[dadstardeluxe]

Tubing

It's Liteconcept, double butted Chromoly - the bottom of the tree in '93. It's miles lighter than it was though with that heavy Altus crankset.