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@WimVDD
My brother asked me last week how I felt about participating in next years Grand Raid Cristalp (for those who don't know: a 125 km and +5000 m mtb-race in Switzerland - one of the hardest things you can do on a mountainbike on this planet, I guess). As we are both former competitive mountainbikeracers, he won that race back in 1997 or 1998 (in the Espoir category) and I never got that far to do a race, I instantly liked the idea and agreed.
But I don't wanted only to partcipate like that, I wanted to make something special of it (as far that is still necessary when one's on +2000 m surrounded only by cows and stones) and so I decided to race it on a bike from "my" era.
So, this is what I've got: two mid-nineties Colnago mountainbikes and 1 Suntour XC Pro Microdrive groupset (7 speed). The first is a 1995 steel Ibex (Tange Ultimate Prestige tubing), the second a 1994 Master Alloy. I'm thinking of rebuilding both but one will be "for fun", the other one for the Cristalp.
I'm still in doubt about how to build the Cristalp bike: shall I go for a complete nineties bike (cantilevers and an "early" suspension fork) or will I just keep the frame and finish it with a modern group and forks (and move the Suntour group to the "for fun" bike)?
Suggestions welcome!