Author Archives: Justin Fox

I hunted down some Rock Shox Mag 21’s. They look damn clean, but as expected they don’t work too well. Definitely more plush than what I had on there originally, but they don’t bounce back to where they should (they need air? Probably a lot more than just air). I swapped out to a shorter stem and a super beat up $10 SDG Bel Air DH saddle I found on eBay. Also a silver Chris King style headset (the old was one crunchy as) and silver seatpost clamp and Acor front brake booster.

I’m thinking I’ve done a bit too much all at the same time, but that’s how I like to work! I’ll most likely get a longer stem back on there, put the slimmer and lighter Tioga saddle back on and I’ll start looking into what it’ll take to get the fork working smoother.

Got a bit grilled, as expected! View the S5 segment here.

I was on the vodka during the build the other day, and soon after taking the last photo late in the afternoon I decided I couldn’t wait for my AliExpress brake levers to arrive so I raided the Extralite brake levers off my fixie.

By the time I was done it was night so I strapped on some lights and went for a blat around the block. I felt right at home on this thing! It’s so playful that I found myself rolling down stairs instantly, then I started rolling up stairs, did some rad skids, wheelies, then I thought I’d huck some stairs and well, the front quick release skewer somehow (blame the vodka?!) slipped enough for the brake pads to lock against the tyre and I had a good stack in front of the local barber shop (he was very amused!).

With a bloody knee, elbow and dented pride I rolled down to the local burger haunt for a feed to contemplate what had just happened. This bike makes me feel like a kid again, but I’m 50! I need to chill.

This morning I got up and instead of joining the guys at the park on my SL8 Tarmac I thought I’d hit the trails instead! And yeah… more revelations. This bike is so fun in an urban environment, but on the trails? Not so much. Some of the bits had rocky steps and I was bouncing around so much my feet almost came off the pedals a few times.

I could get fatter tyres, run lower pressures and SPD’s too, but nah, this is underbiking! It’s sketchy and exactly what I wanted. Having said all that I think the bike would be fine on gravel trails, the weekly grocery shop and night rides to the pub.

NOS stuff. How rad is the packaging!

Kool Stop salmon pads and Schwalbe Billy Bonkers!

Silver DMR pedals (I love them!).

microSHIFT Advent 10-speed shifter and it’s all working perfectly!

Having WAY too much fun with this. I’ve spent more time researching stuff than riding or building. I’ve gone down a lot of rabbit holes; single speed conversion? Eccentric bottom bracket? Magic Gears?! Rigid fork? Mullet set-up with a 24″ wheel on the back?! Ah it’s been so fun!

26″ is pretty much dead though. It’s basically impossible to buy an off-the-shelf 26″ wheel with a 9-10-11-12-speed cassette. I’d have to custom build one if I wanted something lighter and all silver (I’m not a fan of the red anodised wheels).

The microSHIFT 10-speed Advent groupset is shifting so damn well. The shift unit is WAY better than the road lever/shifter so I’m super happy with that. I’m just waiting on brake levers, then I can go ride and see if I can live with such narrow flat bars out on the trails, and whether I might want to invest in some wide riser bars + shorter stem (and finally maybe sprinke some purple anodised bits for bling).

New Old Stock!

Tonka tough.

Last night I went down to the storage cage in my unit and dug through plastic containers in search for bits and this is all the stuff I found. Pretty hilarious that I’ve been holding on to this stuff for 15+ years!

The fat Maxxis 2.3 High Roller front and fast rolling 2.1 Kenda Small Block 8 on the rear was how I liked to run my old dual suspension bike. Took me ages to dial in that combo. Lots of grip at the front in corners, and the tail would slide out when leaning hard at speed which really suited my riding style. The WTB Rocket V saddle must have come new on my old Giant Reign 1. The Tioga saddle and bottle cage are rad, so too the weight weenie Maxxis tubes.

I think the tyres are overkill, but I had to at least put them on to see what they looked like and to check clearances. Still nowhere near refining how this bike is going to look, and still waiting for brake levers and a shifter to come in the mail, but man I’m having a blast going down the 90’s MTB rabbit hole.

Stripping down an old bike is always fun!

After a lot of elbow grease, needs a hell of a lot more.

Low spec forks, might replace, might not.

Microshift Advent X 10-Speed 1 by groupset stolen from my Kona Jake the Snake.

Every man, woman and their dog was at Bunnings (local hardware store) yesterday. Sandpaper, scouring pads, autosol, McDonalds, bottle of cheap wine, Pearl Jam and elbow grease.

I’ve had SO much fun stripping the bike down and having so much fun starting to put it back together again. It’s been so nostalgic and so rewarding. No tirque wrenches necessary, it’s all about feel, and man I got pretty lucky with the stripdown as nothing was seized (ever tried removing a siezed seatpost on a steel frame? Not fun!). Grease everything people’s! Might save someone a lot of pain in the future!

As I was stripping down the bike it became pretty clear to me that I wasn’t going to go for a full restoration on it. The frame has a dent in the top tube and downtube, and whilst a full all out resto on my 80’s Paino road bike was rewarding, in the end I ended up turning that bike into a weight weenie neo retro thing anyways, so the restoration feather is already in my cap, been there done that.

I just really want to ride (thrash) this thing, and so I’ve decided to just clean up the frame a little and rock the patina. The wheelset (no logos but could be Velocity wheels and a small sticker says DT Spokes) still spin well and run true. They’re heavy but I don’t think I could find ready made alloy wheels that would be much lighter (would have to build some up). I’ve taken the SRAM TruVativ XX crankset from the Kona Jake the Snake (perfect as it’s a MTB crankset thus no need for spacers on the GXP BB) as well as the 10-Speed MicroSHIFT Advent X rear derailleur (re-used chain and cassette too, just need the MicroSHIFT Advent shifter which is cheap as chips).

The fork has 110mm of travel which raises the front a fair bit. I’m much more used to this laid back position coming from an “all mountain” dual suspension bike, but part of me wants to lower the front end to stay true to what mountain bikes were like when I was younger. It’s a lower end fork too, so the temptation to track down something better is strong. For now I’m going to try to re-use as much of the parts as I can, but a shorter stem and some really wide riser bars would make for a much more capable bike on the trails. We’ll see.

Specs so far:

1996 GT Avalanche

Frame: 15″ (1748g)
Fork RST Delta Comp (1850g)
Hanger: (19g)
Headset: Aheadset (110g)
Stem: KORE (173g)
Handlebar: KORE (168g)
Crankset: TruVativ XX 170mm (530g)
Chainring: Wolf Tooth 120 BCD 36T (54g)
Chain: Shimano 10-Speed (252g)
Rear Derailleur: MicroSHIFT Advent X (313g)
Wheelset: (888g/1083g)
Quick Release Skewers: Zipp (77g)
Cassette: Shimano Deore 10-Speed 11-36T (365g)
Lockring: ZTTO (6g)
Seatpost Clamp: (8g)

Parts on order:
– microSHIFT Advent X 10 Speed Trail Trigger Pro Shifter
– ODI Ruffian lock-on grips (my fave grips from back in the day!)
– DMR V12 Pedals (also my fave pedals from back in the day! Though I had the lighter magnesium ones back then)
– Schwalbe Smart Sam 26×2.1″ front
– Schwalbe Billy Bonkers 26×2.1″ rear (I always ran a faster more slippery tyre in the rear)
– Litepro V Brake levers

Livin’ the dream.

Original KORE bars and stem.

Nothing a bit of WD40 won’t fix lol.

Brake booster even!

She’ll buff right out!

Oh sheeeeiiii. I really need to stay off FB Marketplace…

I’ve finally gotten quite comfortable with being in lycra, but getting back out on the trails was always inevitable. That small taste of gravel on my newly acquired Kona Jake the Snake instantly took me back to riding a rigid 90’s hardtail. I was looking for vintage brake boosters on eBay last night then this popped up on Marketplace today for $120 AUD.

Looking at the listing photos it looked like a small (15″). I messaged the seller and asked them to measure the centre of the top tube to the BB and BAM! It was a 15 inch! I offered $100 AUD cash and if he accepted I could pick it up right now. He accepted and welp, now it’s mine.

If this was a car it would have a rats nest in the engine bay. The bike is in pretty rough shape, but these things don’t break and man I’m so excited to strip it down and start polishing the frame.

Weight if anyone is interested is 12.98kg’s. Having done a full restoration on my 80’s steel Paino road bike, then eventually turning that into a weight weenie build I think I’ll skip the full resto job on this, leave some patina and go for style points with a sprinkling of weenie. We’ll see!

Still sorting my fit out on the Kona Jake the Snake and thought I’d test it out on Centennial Park’s gravel trail late yesterday afternoon. Man… talk about under biking. There’s some gnarly tree roots on the section of trail I chose to do, stuff that I’d bomb over willy nilly on my old dual suspension MTB, but even hopping up a gutter on this thing is more challenging.

I was going slow, real slow, and I had to pick lines. There was quite a lot of soft sand and I’m surprised the thin 35C tyres tracked just fine, but then I scored a flat, and well, that was the end of that.

I’ve never had an issue with flats all those years riding MTB’s, but I was running butyl tubes back then. I doubt I would have scored this flat if I ran butyl tubes, but 150g vs. 35g TPU tubes got the better of me with the build.

Need much more testing time, but I’ll look into tougher gravel specific TPU tubes with butyl tubes as a backup plan, and if butyl doesn’t work I’ll look into going tubeless (but I’d rather not).

I was so close to picking up a 90’s MTB before pulling the trigger on this bike. I like the concept of underbiking, but after yesterday’s ride I’m not so sure anymore. IE: I would have had a lot more fun on my old dual suspension trail bike.

As is, the bike is fine for easy gravel trails (Gina wanting to hit some chill gravel trails in the mountains was the catalyst in the first place), and out of all my bikes it’s also the only one I would comfortably lock up outside the local grocery store so it makes for a good pub bike (which would stop me from going too far with bling bits!) and with eyelets all over the frame it would make for a great wet weather bike too.

But hey, this is what testing is all about, and I’m sure with more testing I’ll figure out where I want to take this bike.