Advice around investing money on restoring / upgrading a mtb

slavedave

HI, I own a Saracen Rufftrax (pre-1998) with a non-sus front fork. I have done 1000's of commuter miles on this bike over the years and then I lent it to a friend for a while. I upgraded my ride to a Boardman hybrid and have used that since.

I now have the Saracen back in my posession, and I forgot how good a bike it is. However, it needs some tlc now.

- The seatpost is stuck fast (I have tried leverage, lubrication, heat, voodoo etc to no avail). I want to be able to adust on trails.
- Needs a new front derailleur due to play in the swing arm.
- needs a new rear wheel
- want to upgrade to a front suspension so I can use it on trails with my son in Ballinastoe
- Drive train is STX RC (if you remember that!) and probably needs to be upgrade.
- two off road tyres


So the question is.... should I even bother? The frame is gorgeous, but I am beginning to think upgrading /replacing is going to be just too much wonga and work, even if I can work out if I can get parts for a near twenty-year old model.

I know there is a Saracen restoration club in the UK since I have searched on the net for pointers but they tend to want to get the bikes back to original spec with original parts - I just want to get a bike that is going to be fine for batting down some single track without splashing out too much cash.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

07Lapierre

Only if you can get the seat post out. Clamp the seat post and use the frame as leverage. If that doesn't move it, nothing will.

Mec-a-nic

slavedave wrote: »

I just want to get a bike that is going to be fine for batting down some single track without splashing out too much cash.

I'm kinda in the same boat, rebuilding a ~20 year old MTB. It was never a production model so there's no "original" spec. I took my time and eBayed a load of new-old-stock Shimano parts - so the gruppo is mid 1990's XT/XTR mongrel - they're all interchangeable 7/8 speed. Anything else, I just bought cheap generic parts from rose.de - should be complete next weekend. I'm retaining the solid fork, as 1 inch suspension forks are either very old or very expensive. I'll eventually fit old Rock Shox when I finish rebuilding them in a couple of years...

Re Seatpost - I have the opposite problem - can't get the correct size post to fit due to very slight ovaling - going with a size down and a shim (crosses fingers).

Buchaill_Mor

My take on these things is to think about more of a project for the love of the bike and a thing to look at and say I did that. There is something about cycling a bike that you have essentially rebuilt yourself. Never look at it from the financial view point because the sums will never add up. Now you need to decide on full restore or restomod.

Esroh

Op to do any of this you are going to have to strip it down and to extend its life with its present components you would still be best to strip and clean. So I would do that and once you have the Bottom Bracket out seal the top of the seat post as best you can with cloth and lots of pvc tape . Then pour in oil in from the BB end and leave to soak.keep topping it up over a few days and then do as 07Lap says.
I have done a few High Nelly refurbs this year and the Handlebars and seatposts are the biggest problems and time and working from the opposite end has been the only way.

Re the whole job. Your own time will be repaid in full with the satisfation you get. Your money spent only you can say if its a viable option. But most of all you will learn so much you will not be afraid to take on maintenance of your newer bikes and will save in the longterm.

slavedave

Thanks for all those posts. Decisions... decisions.

I am a total dabbler / fixer so that side of it floats my boat. Unfortunately, I don't have bags of time.

I have a few basic additional q's though.

How do I know what size of components to start looking for:
Fork diameter (tapered or not), seat tube (can measure that easily enough with calipers). BB size, cassette type, freewheel hub etc. Are there standards that stay the same through the decades? Will the old parts be marked up in some way to indicate this?

Thanks again for any help you bring to the conversation.

Mec-a-nic

slavedave wrote: »

Thanks for all those posts. Decisions... decisions.

For the age of these bike frames, you have to remember that bleeding edge technology was 9 speeds and v-brakes - a lot of the component sizes were standard across all bikes:-

Fork: no tapering, just one of two steerer diameters - the road standard 1inch or the 'new' larger 1 1/8inch for MTBs using the then new Ahead headset. 1inch suspension forks are not easy to source.
BB size: almost certain to be a 68mm wide, english thread, square taper spindle, all-in-one-sealed cassette - still widespread today.
Freewheel hub/cassette: Shimano ruled the day and their standard is still stock - you just need to decide if you want 7, 8 or 9 speed (depending on the shifters used)

Will the old parts be marked? They may have the relevant dimension listed, but if not, google is your friend once you have the part number.

slavedave

Mec-a-nic,
Really appreciate your reply. I think I will strip everything down one weekend (when I can lay my hands on a few bike specific tools), get them de-gunked and see what I have got to play with.

Will a good clean in petrol be sufficient to get years of grime off? I think the front derailleur has had it since there is a lot of play in the part that the chain goes through. They seem relatively cheap.

With everything off the frame, I can have a go at the seat tube. I did measure the tube (but don't have the diameter to hand) but noticed that you can buy tubes 1mm smaller. Would that be okay to use as a replacement in a cro-mo frame? There were matching diameter tubes but none on sale at the time.

It definitely has an ahead set - I remember that being in the sales pitch so I guess it is 1 1/8th. That is good news in terms of sourcing a sus fork.


Thanks again.

Mec-a-nic

slavedave wrote: »

petrol...
1mm smaller...
an ahead set...

NP - my MTB project has been running for years so I'm glad to put my arcane knowledge to use. (It's a nice-to-have bike, the other 3 bikes do the work). As for this project: fast, cheap, authentic - pick two, you won't get them all.

> Will a good clean in petrol be sufficient to get years of grime off?
I used to be a fan of this, but it is not good for cleaning as it evaporates leaving the gunk behind (as well as the danger of fire, it wrecks your lungs/skin and is not good for non-metal parts). Concentrated citrus cleaner is the way to go, or white spirit at a pinch for the drivetrain.

> Seat tube size
A 1mm smaller size would be way too small I think, it could either wreck your frame or just not grip. I'll be trying a 27.0mm post in my 27.2mm tube this weekend so will let you know how that works.

> Aheadset
Lucky you - you have much better choice of old/new forks to go with.

Esroh

Slavedave. I feel it is a requirment of this thread that you must post Pics. We need to see it now and then we can keep you under pressure to get it started and finished.
;-)

slavedave

Explain how to post pics and I will get on to it! Thanks