Old full suspension 26'' mtb vs modern hardtail 29er?

[Zambam]

I'm finding out that the air shock on the rear of the Giant XTC nrs has no replacement. The one on the bike is working great, that is after I bought a shock pump. I'm having more of an issue with the Fisher, it clunks when it unloads?

Haha what a coincidence. I saw a similar Gary Fisher bike at Recycle-A-Bicycle | New York City Bike Shop yesterday that Chalo told me about this shop a while ago. A little research I think it's a 2003 Sugar 2+ disc BicycleBlueBook

This Gary Fisher had the same clunk on rebound. I asked the shop mechanics about it. They tried pumping the rear shock up but could not get rid of the clunk. The bike feels pretty light (around 27 lbs small size). I was looking for a FS bike to eventually move my TSDZ2 mid drive over to for a better ride on the bad roads here. Here's a pic of the Gary Fisher with my mid drive Raleigh in the background. Let us know what you find with the clunk. I know nothing about suspension bikes either, it's all new to me.

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[99t4]

Giant NRS has some pedigree, incorporating Horst Link design. Highly regarded in its time. The rear shock may be rebuildable.

The Eternal Giant NRS

www.mtbr.com

Mountain bike of the year

www.newtownbike.com

 

[gromike]

If you can fit your TSD into a lightly used full suspension bike, you will never go back.

Yeah, the rebound clunk seems to an issue on the Sugar 3 (also cracks in the chain stay up by the bottom bracket). Maybe it's just an issue with the shock, for which there are no rebuild kits that I can find, and a suitable replacement would cost twice/thrice the price of what I paid for the bike. And all those pivots and their parts! (Just an excuse for me to buy a mini lathe, all that I need is money.)

Refurbishing an old bike is a time and money thing, and these hi-end MtB seemingly eat money on their road to resurrection.

I bought these two lightly used twenty-plus year-old 26" FS MtB's with an eye to installing a DD hubmotor on them. I did that with an old FS Navarro Ponderosa. That was more of a wanna be MtB, but with torque sensing and regen braking (thanks Grin), it is a really great ebike, IMHO. At ebike speeds and weights I believe good suspension is a life saving must.

As my ebike road use doesn't require the extremes of off-road I would like to ditch the air shocks and forks and go with coil spring/hydraulics shocks, because I believe they might be more reliable for day to day service, and less expensive.

At the moment I'm riding the bikes and fitting them to me. Tires, pedals, seat, grips, new stem and/or handlebars are just the normal costs of doing that. You would think that you would get paid when buy a used bike in the rough.