Here it is... My old school mountain bike!!! My 'GT Pantera' started life in year 1997... After doing some research, I can confirm that it was from year 1997 because of the front shock... 'Rock Shox' launches the 'Indy' series in year 1997 and my bike came with a 'Indy XC' hence I can confirm the date it was born... Not bad for a 14 years old bike... Everything still intact and running smoothly...
Last week I send my bike for some maintenance on both the front and back derailleurs... The shifters got jam up and I'm thinking of replacing the cables but the trusty bicycle shop managed to fix it without breaking a sweat!!! (sorry about the dirty chain!!! will degrease it when I'm free!!!)
Perfect shifting now!!! Both my front and back derailleurs are from 'Shimano'... Sadly the model (Shimano STX-RC) had been long discontinued...
Besides fixing my derailleurs, I asked them to true my wheel as well since the back one was way out of true!!! Both rims are straight now and the brake pad have stop rubbing the rims... Finally!!!
The only problem that I have with my bike right now is the 'Rock Shox' front suspension... The damping is way too soft and totally no rebound!!! So when I'm riding, the 'Rock Shox' seems more like a rigid fork to me... Anyway I've been toying with this idea... Replace the front suspension with a carbon fiber rigid fork!!! I know a lot of you will said a mountain bike suppose to have at least a front suspension... But I don't really see the point in my case... Because nowadays, I don't go offroad anymore... I'm riding on road now... So what is the point of having a front suspension when it will be totally under utilize!!! Furthermore, do you know how much the front suspension weight??? HEAVY compare to a carbon fiber rigid fork!!!
But finding one with 'Vee brake' mount is going to be tough as almost all mountain bike gone disc!!! Not going the disc route as I find them really heavy... a 'Vee brake' is so much lighter in comparison... Again I don't go offroad and I'm not going to ride in the rain so I believe I don't really need the extra stopping power of the disc...
Change my brake pad as well... The old one was all worn out!!!
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