A New Life for Old Mountain Bikes

We have mountain bikes that we love. But they are a little along in years. They came into our lives in the '90s. They're hardtails with front suspension forks, titanium frames made custom for us by Seven Cycles. We put these bikes to very good use for many years.

Eventually we realized it was time for us to give up off-road and technical stuff. It was bone-jarring, just too much for our aging joints. We decided to keep the ti mountain bikes, making minor changes to them so they were more suitable for gentler rides on trails and pavement. They're slow but very comfortable, sturdy but elegant as mountain bikes go. In other words, nice second bikes for us.

This month we decided it was time to bring the old mountain bikes forward in time, to modernize them a bit and give them some new life.

So we walked over to our local bike shop and had a conversation. Could he make some changes to our old bikes?

• Replace the front suspension fork with a rigid titanium or carbon fork; and
• Replace the outdated triple chainring mountain bike setup with a single chainring (1x) groupset, one with electronic shifting.

We talked about how the bikes would be used, and he made suggestions about the chainring and cassette sizes. He took notes. He wanted to make some calls and pull together an estimate. We agreed on a time to get back together.

Walking home from the bike shop I realized that this is almost more fun than buying brand new bikes.