Progress at long, long last.
During the strip down I had a problem with one of the bushings. They are very rudimentary by todays standards, and one of the them on the main pivot was particularly tight. It was a pain to remove and on closer inspection, at some point during it's life, it had been damaged, presumably through poor maintenance. It meant the rear triangle wouldn't budge at all. A downhill hardtail!
My new LBS, Carn Bikes (Stuart is the don-dapper) has a lathe and my theory was that he could put one of the metal bearings on it, and evenly sand it to reduce the friction. Thankfully, it didn't need that treatment and instead he repaired the damaged plastic insert.
With the reconditioned shock, we have a moving rear triangle. It really shows how tight the clearance is on the pivot to top tube and the top of the shock on the top pivot. I will need to add some foam inserts to prevent any further paint loss.
So with a operational frame, I could finally fit the front-end. I'm using the Hope headset it came with since it's period correct or at least looks the part. It's a little rough but she'll be getting light use so I can live with that. I'm super stoked with the Mister T's. They are really bad-ass and even though Tomi never used them, they are period correct and perform much better than Boxxers. Light they are not...boy it's a heavy front end!
The stem I scored a long time ago. Tomi used the proto-type of this model, the X-Lite Fly, in red. Red would look odd with the orange forks so when I saw an orange one, I had to have it. Whilst it's not an exact colour match, I think it works really well.
Finally the bars. Again, Tomi used X-Lite G-Force, this exact version with the black brace. I was very happy one came up for sale here a few weeks back. It's been a long time since I scored any components from here. Whilst they are cut - everyone did it didn't they - they are still wide enough to look the part.
Are you meant to have the spacers above or below the shock plate? Does it matter at all? Sliding the stanctions down is out of the question as they are two-piece and join at the shock crown.
Now she needs a good clean and polish, ready for the Malverns next week where she'll be on display at the Kona tent, with a parts wish list I've cobbled together in the style of a 1997 Kona catalogue, because right now, this is as far as I can go with the build.
My question about callipers and rotors is still out there, so any advice or feedback would be appreciated. This was a discipline I was never really into other that a casual observer.
A mish-mash bike, as it was sold, all 50 of them 
