I’ve done two versions of this post:

1) If you’re NOT a bike geek:
I’ve just managed to get hold of my dream bike very cheaply, and having spent about nine weeks lovingly stripping and rebuilding it, it’s now finished. And it’s lovely.

You can stop reading now.

2) If you ARE a bike geek:
I’ve only managed to get hold of a bloody LTS! I saw a 1998 LTS-2000 advertised for £130 recently, and it was too good an opportunity to pass up. I’ve always liked the look of them, ever since I started riding years ago, and when Steve Peat was riding GT. I made the leap and paid the money; it looked like this when I got it:

It was obviously DH-oriented with the triple-clamp forks, chain device hiding a single big ring, and crazy-wide 2.4″ tyres. The spec at that point was:

• Frame: GT LTS-2000 (1998 model year)
• Forks: White Brothers DC118 triple-clamps
• Brakes: Magura HS33
• Wheels: Mavic D321s on XT / Funn hubs

There were, however, reasons it was so cheap: no movement at all in the back end, only about 3 or 4mm of travel in the forks. Both wheels buckled. Frame very tired (cosmetically). I promptly sold the brakes on eBay and managed to make back over half the cost of the bike! I stripped the forks down, but corrosion on the stanchions meant they were useless. After re-building I got about half an inch of seemingly uncontrolled travel out of them, but they soon went on eBay too.

I then proceeded to strip the frame down, which turned out to cause much more heartache than anticipated. The first stumbling block was the general dilapidated state of the various bushings, trunnion travel chips etc. Secondly, I couldn’t get the bolt out of the lower shock mount – the problem turned out to be that the previous owner had obviously bottomed-out the travel very hard at some point. The bolt was banana-shaped as a result, along with the sleeve that goes over it, so they took about three hours of frantic pulling and prizing apart. The rest of the dismantling process was generally OK, although the bottom-bracket pivot is a bit cryptic. With the frame entirely stripped, I was able to give it a good clean down. The rear end took an awful lot of polishing to get back to a reasonable state! The bushings actually came up alright after all the crud was taken off them. Dad provided some magic wonder-polish from the garage, which brought the front of the frame up a treat; I toyed with the idea of getting it powder-coated but the budget dictates that a polish is all that will be happening in the near future.

With everything clean and tidy, it was time to re-assemble. I swapped the 750lb shock spring out for a 500lb version, because I’m not the heaviest bloke in the world, and Chris managed to sort out a replacement sleeve for the bottom shock mount. The fork I chose was a Rock Shox Psylo XC with 125mm of travel, primarily because I found someone selling it for £35. I fancied some Z1s but this was a budget build and even old pairs still seem to fetch around the £60 mark. I had planned to use the wheels off the jump bike, but vanity got the better of me and I shelled out for an all-black set of Bontrager rims. Now I’m getting old I don’t think they’ll get as much of a beating as my old D321s had to put up with back in the day, so hopefully they’ll be robust enough. Here’s how she looks now…

The general spec is:

• Frame: GT LTS-2000 (1998 model year) w/ RS Super Deluxe shock
• Forks: Rock Shox Psylo XC U-turn (85 – 125mm)
• Wheels: Bontrager disc-specific rims & hubs
• Drivetrain: Race Face / Shimano Deore / XT< / DMR V8s/li>
• Brakes: Shimano DX levers / Hayes cable discs

I’m very happy with it. I seem to be getting the full travel out of the rear end, which is suprisingly plush now I’ve got the proper weight spring on there. It’s weird to finally own a full-susser! It’s performed very well at Sherwood on it’s maiden outing this morning, but the suspension still needs setting up properly. It was quite a relief to get out on it, as I’d worried since buying it that it might be a bit too big, or that I just wouldn’t like it. But she’s brilliant. I’m itching to ride somewhere a bit rougher now, like Llandegla, where I think the benefit of the full bounce will be more noticeable.

Finally, major kudos goes out the following people:

• Gareth M: For lending me all manner of parts and tools, repeatedly, and without question.
• Chris H: For doing a custom job on the creation of the sleeve for the bottom shock mount.
• A number of people from the Retrobike forums(particularly Gary for help with the rear shock).
• My bro: For getting me some kickass pedals for my birthday. :)