Im looking to revitalize my 1998 Dean Colnel. It’s a titanium hard tale that I built myself when new. It’s been upgraded a bit over the years but nothing in the last 20 years or so.
Any ideas on what I should do to it to get me back on it again?
I already have a Kink Drifter, Origin8 drop bar gravel bike, Felt road bike and a cruiser bike. I would see this as something I’ll bomb around with my 5 year old son on his bike.
It has a Duke XC shock, Shimano XT V brakes, and a mix of XT / LX drivetrain.
by Familiar_Living245
12 Comments
It looks dope as hell. I’d put fresh shift and brake cables/housings on it and ride the heck out of it.
It’s going to be hard to do much modernization. It’s a 26er, no disk tabs from the looks of things, and no tapered head tube. Other than shifters / derailleur, you’re kinda locked in to what you’ve got. Personally – I’d just lean in on what you’ve got, it looks great. Maybe some fresh tires, new cables and brake pads if you need them? Otherwise it’s a nice vintage bike. If you really wanted to throw money at it, a newer 1x drivetrain and new cranks – pick up some EEWings 🙂
You could just give it a tune up and ride as-is.
You could also shorten the stem by a little, get some wide modern mtb bars, swap the 26 suspension fork for a 440mm-ish rigid fork, run a 650b or 29 on the front with a mechanical disc brake, swap the rigid seatpost for one of those 27.2 droppers with the lever on the saddle, and get one of those angleset headset things to slack out the front a bit.
Two options.
>Any ideas on what I should do to it to get me back on it again?
What is preventing you from riding it as it is now? What parts don’t work any more?
I’ve done the short stem and riser bars to help with the bar to saddle height on old bikes that were set up like flat bar road bikes back in the day
I would put a bunch of bougie stuff on there like Paul’s Components v-brakes and levers, some nice hand built wheels, a rigid carbon fork, slightly shorter stem, Paul’s cranks or some Ee-wings, you could get a Madrone Jab derailleur allowing you to run a modern sram or Shimano 1x drivetrain of your choice… It would be epic
Hello fellow late 90’s Dean Owner! There’s a couple of us!
I just did some updating on my Colonel!
My build goal was to make this a comfortable bike with an upright position for my spinal recovery. I also went with colorful parts using my memories of 90’s Nickelodeon as my guide. This has been a work in progress over 4 years.
Started with Rockshox Judy Silver TK fork as an entry level fork, Alexrims DH19’s 38 spokes for durability and affordability. Origin 8 seatpost for my preferred offset (zero), and a brooks B17 to pamper my bottom.
I recently picked up some Schwalbe Billy Bonkers tires in 26” x 2.1 and those have been a blast.
The recent upgrade was a full drivetrain rebuild as the cranks were too long for me, the BB was dying, and derailleur had lost too much spring so it dropped the chain every time I hit a big bump.
I opted for Microshift Advent MX mostly for the value, and it has performed well beyond my expectations. 11-50 on the cassette. I figure I can upgrade that if it ever bothers me enough, but it performs surprisingly well. I opted for Raceface Turbine cranks and a Raceface 34T chainring in blue because pretty colors. I needed brake levers because the levers were integrated with the shifters so I decided to go with the pretty Paul Love levers in purple. Definitely not a cost saver there. I picked up some Surly sunrise bars for the upright position for my back, those are great, but it turned out I needed a different clamp for my bars. Low and behold its a hard to find size, and the Paul Boxcar Stem was perfect and matched the stupid expensive levers so I YOLO’d on that. Is it stupid that my stem costs more than my derailleur? Yes. Yes it is. Feel free to judge me. I judge me. Opted for Shimano EH510 pedals.
I don’t have a current photo as the project is 95% complete.
Post and saddle
90’s hardtails are great for doing just what you propose. There are better mountain bikes now, but slap some wide riser bars and a short stem, maybe a dropper without a remote, 1x drivetrain and it’ll be a great (and hella cool) ripper for chasing your kids around.
If it were me, I’d keep the fork, brakes and wheels, put a 40 mm stem and some klunker bars, remove the front derailleur and shifter then evaluate the ride before doing more drivetrain work.
Check out Stridsland_journal and schoolyardprojects on IG for inspiration.
Well, what don’t you like about how it is now? Get parts that fix that.
Find a shop to service the fork, which may be a little difficult if its period correct, but I’m sure there’s some options. That is such a classic and well sorted bike, I really don’t think it’s worth putting new components on it.
Fellow dean, nice. Grab a sram nx or deore 11 speed groupset and modernize the handlebar setup/cockpit. Id go shorter stem and with riser bars. May need a fork rebuild or grab a new one. If you want light and nimble, find a suspension corrected rigid fork and it will be loads of fun