Gary Fisher Wahoo 2006

[dimrub]

This old hardtail XC caught my eye on FB market, and since I'm still waiting for the Alpina's parts to arrive, and since it was only 200 shekels (slightly below 50 euros these days), and since I have the itch, I jumped on it. Something to keep me busy I guess!

From the reviews, I gather that it was a pretty good bike for its time. It's in a reasonable health for a bike that was apparently neglected for quite some time. The seat is a goner, and one spoke on the rear wheel is missing, but other than that at the first glance it appears to be a straightforward "take it apart - replace cables - clean and grease everything - put it together and tune". Even the tires appear to have plenty of miles in them still, which is a pleasant surprise in our climate.

Oh yes, one reflector is missing. The other 3 are in place.

But here's something that surprised me, not being an expert:

That's right, it's disc-ready! The rear wheel even has a thread on the non-drive side of the hub, where the disc goes:

The front wheel does not have a thread, so perhaps a new hub is needed? Anyway, I think a new hub and a set of mechanical disc brakes is a reasonable upgrade, don't you think?

 

[dimrub]

Stop me now. I started looking at hubs, and "up to 11 speeds" caught my eye. Are you thinking what I'm thinking? One-by! Sure, it's a much bigger upgrade: 1x11 would mean, on top of the hubs, a new cassette, derailleur, chain, crankset, perhaps BB, certainly shifters, but that would be a whole different bike! Maybe a new fork as well?

 

[Cycleops]

A bit crusty but not a bad buy for the price you mention.
I shouldn't get too carried away. You initial plan would be the best route IMO. Discs won't be that simple and the Vs are absolutely fine, probably better than budget discs.
Clean it, ride it and enjoy.

 

[fossyant]

That rear hub is not disc compatible, sorry. I have XT parallax hubs and they are for rim brakes.

 

[Spiderweb]

You’re a braver man than me!
It looks as though it has been dredged from the bed of a river.
Good look with it, I’ll be watching this thread to see how you get on with its transformation.

 

[Cycleops]

Something else you might put on your list is removing the bearings from those Parallax hubs and greasing them, they're bound to be dried out after all those years.

 

[dimrub]

Something else you might put on your list is removing the bearings from those Parallax hubs and greasing them, they're bound to be dried out after all those years.

Absolutely. I intend to strip it down to the frame and clean/grease the hell out of everything.

 

[dimrub]

So I took a better look at my find in daylight. Good news: it's not a spoke that is broken, but a nipple. The rear tire needs to be taken off anyway, because it was mounted the wrong way, and badly at that.

Speaking of tires, they are not just in a good form, they're brand new: there's no way in hell those are from 2006. Too bad whoever replaced them, didn't splurge for a 2.2, I've got 1.95, but sure, why not.

The brake cables may have been replaced recently, but do I trust a mechanic, who cuts his cables this close to the caliper?

Or this far?

The shifters do not operate properly. Most likely they just need a good clean, but maybe a replacement in the cards, we'll see.

A whole bunch of rusty bolts, of course, including a rusty seat clamp fastener - those will all be replaced, but that's peanuts.

So here's what I'm going to do. Get it to fighting trim as it is, then consider the upgrade again. I'm really tempted by the idea of the disc brakes, if only as a tinkering project, and I can get it done for another 40 euros or so. If I end up needing to replace the brifters, I may even consider hydraulics. And once there, if at all, I'll think about that 1x again. I don't like the 3x8 setup at all, very old school, very annoying, and with this bike, I think the right approach is not authenticity, but rather bringing its full potential to the fore.

Oh and I don't plan to ride it. It's too small for me, and I don't need a hardtail. I'll figure out what to do with it once I'm done with it.

 

[dimrub]

Checked the shifters. As expected, they'll be fine once cleaned (it is possible that a small family of spiders will need to be evicted). Pity about the rusty cover screws, I'll need to find new ones - they are tiny but highly visible.

So here's my shopping list for stage 1:
- Calipers (nothing is functionally wrong with the old ones, I just don't want to deal with those rusty bolts and noodles).
- Seatpost clamp
- Grips (I didn't notice it before, but they are torn)
- Pedal reflectors
- Valve caps (because they're pretty)

Total of $19.34, shipping included.

 

[Spiderweb]

Checked the shifters. As expected, they'll be fine once cleaned (it is possible that a small family of spiders will need to be evicted). Pity about the rusty cover screws, I'll need to find new ones - they are tiny but highly visible.

So here's my shopping list for stage 1:
- Calipers (nothing is functionally wrong with the old ones, I just don't want to deal with those rusty bolts and noodles).
- Seatpost clamp
- Grips (I didn't notice it before, but they are torn)
- Pedal reflectors
- Valve caps (because they're pretty)

Total of $19.34, shipping included.

Add 2 new tyres, they’re old and have badly perished. Although they don’t look that worn they both have splits in the side walls and splits between the tread.
The fork looks knackered, might be expensive to replace?
You could go with a cheaper option of a rigid fork?

 

[dimrub]

Add 2 new tyres, they’re old and have badly perished. Although they don’t look that worn they both have splits in the side walls and splits between the tread.

Good catch. Recently I've been dealing with tires that are so much worse, that it didn't even register. Well then, here's the chance to upgrade to 2.1 or even 2.2.

The fork looks knackered, might be expensive to replace?

Nah, it looks like it had better days, but I believe I can give it a second life. Maybe even repaint it. It doesn't look great, but it's smooth and fully operational.

 

[dimrub]

Here we go then:

The things to go are on the left, the things to stay are on the right and front.
The keen-eyed among you may notice that the pedals are still attached to the cranks, the front derailleur is still attached to the chain which is wrapped around the chain stay, and the fork is still there too. Yes. Everything is seized to an incredible degree. It took me probably around 2 hours to get to this point, and at least half an hour was spent on the chain and the pedals. I've sprayed it all with the magic potion - 40, and will try again in some time, after it had time to work its magic.

Ah and yes, the axles and the BB are not taken apart yet either, I'll do that once I've caught my breath.

P.S. took apart the axles and the BB. The freehub seems to be in a good shape, so I think I'll let it be. Also, finally managed to break the chain. The pedals and the fork still refuse to cooperate. We'll see about that tomorrow. As for the pedals, worst case I can service them while still attached to the cranks, but the fork needs to come out, that headset needs to be serviced.

P.P.S. At last! The fork agreed to separate from the frame! What a beast of a fork - and so heavy too! Now it's just the pedals. I can move on to cleaning and servicing.

 

[dimrub]

Did some cleaning yesterday and today. The handlebar had some strange tan lines: black where the grips, bell and headset were, gray-ish elsewhere. I'm not sure what is that about: original color that faded? Someone's botched attempt at painting it? Whatever. I recently dug up a can of black spray paint I bought years ago for God knows what purpose, so it came handy now: I went ahead and painted the said handlebar, two coats, an hour apart. It now looks... well, better than before.

Did both wheels, including hubs and the cassette, front derailleur, headset, all kinds of bits and bobs as well as one of the shifters. I took it apart down to its atomic level, cleaned everything, then put it back together. It took me forever! Who knew shifters are such an amazingly complicated component - over 30 elements!

Amazingly, it now works. There are just two problems with it. First, the plastic window through which the gear number is seen is completely opaque. Personally, I think it's a good thing: it's not a good idea to be looking on one's shifters while riding. Second, I thought to maybe paint the exterior while it was disassembled, then didn't do it, and now I regret that: it has that same strange combination of black and grey - but now, in the fully assembled state, it's much harder to paint. I might do it still.

Anyway, this one shifter took me forever - and I have another one to service! It will be an amazing waste of time if I end up switching to 1x. OTOH, I now know how a shifter works.

Next up - the other shifter (sigh), polishing the frame and then the big one - the fork. I'll try cleaning it first, and if it's still looking like shoot, I'll repaint it. Will have to recreate the decals - I couldn't find a set just like this one on the Internet ready to use. I thought of taking the fork apart and servicing it, but perhaps it's a bit too ambitious - and also, unnecessary.

The BB is sealed. It was also extremely dirty on the outside. I cleaned it, making an effort not to drip water into the ends - I don't trust it fully. It seems to revolve smoothly, so I might grow to appreciate it.

 

[Cycleops]

You're a braver man than me to disassemble a bar shifter, I'd have just flushed it with WD40, that usually cures it.
If the sealed BB didn't have play it's probably okay, they can go on for intergalactic mileages.
Keep it up.
Have you tried H.Lloyd for the decals? They have most.

 

[dimrub]

You're a braver man than me to disassemble a bar shifter, I'd have just flushed it with WD40, that usually cures it.

I had to take the cover off - to remove the cable, and the deal was sealed the moment I saw the amount of crap underneath. I doubt WD-40 would have managed to solve this, but even if it did, I'll always know it's still there.

If the sealed BB didn't have play it's probably okay, they can go on for intergalactic mileages.
Keep it up.

Thanks!

Have you tried H.Lloyd for the decals? They have most.

I took a look at their site, out of curiosity. They do have the Rock Shox decal, but not the Dart1, so close but no cigar. Regardless, shipping from UK to Israel is prohibitive - there's a reason for my insistance on AliExpress: they ship for free most of the time, and when not, the fee is very reasonable.

Again, out of curiosity I checked how much H.Lloyd will charge me to ship a slip of paper. It's £5, same as the price of the decal being shipped.