What rigid forks for this late 90's Stumpjumper? Possible retro content

Opinions wanted please…check my late 90’s Stumpjumper! He’s being used for commuting regularly now. The forks I’ve been running on him are very rough now and the rims on the wheels are running very thin from the v-brakes. So time for a change all round up front. I’d like to put some rigid forks on. I would like opinions on two directions please:

26″ keeping it as honest as possible. So which forks should I fit which will take the bike to it’s original spec?

69er – Also fancy putting a 29er wheel on the front with a rigid fork. What 29er rigid forks do people suggest?

445mm exotic carbon..

something arround 400mm or less

445 and 400mm or less? Are these the ideal axle to crown heights for a rigid fork on a 26″ bike? Are they suspension corrected lengths or will that steepen the front end even more?

Yunki, exotic carbon, why that fork in particular?

445mm exotic carbon – only cos I’ve got one and love it really.. nice and compliant rather than overbuilt and dead, and sells at a much higher price with different branding..

445mm is the right a to c for suspension correction on a 100mm travel fork I believe, and about the smallest a to c that you can comfortably fit a 29er in..

the exotic is also pretty cheap for what it is

Steel or M2?

Ah got it. Penny has dropped not. So a 445mm fork will give the same HA and bar height with 26″ wheels and 100mm forks (approx.) and you can squeeze a 29er wheel in! Nice. I’ll go and measure the axle to crown of the current fork and see what I get…
Thanks!

Marty – it’s steel. Been told it’s the ‘metal matrix’ frame…

It’s either steel or metal matrix (m2). The metal matrix was aluminium alloy with some sort of ceramic in it. Made for a very light, stiff frame.
As far as forks go I had a 97 m2 stumpjumper and if I remember rightly it had 63mm travel forks on it. The 445mm rigid s maybe a bit long – a 425mm might be better if you want to keep the right geometry.

RC31’s or Kona project 2’s, nothing else will suffice 😉

This is one I built up a couple of years ago. I got the frame off somebody on the retro bike forum – it was a 2000 model M2. They used to make them in the USA back then – not long after they did a?ay with the M2 frames when they started making them in Taiwan. The forks are Pace rc31’s.

As it happens I’ve got a pair of RC31’s lying around from the Sanderson I bought. I thought they were a bit too short for the bike and swapped them for my other RC31’s I had lying around.

They can come with or without V brake mounts.

Email in profile if you’re interested

Here’s a pic

MarkLG – In that case my friend who mentioned metal matrix was getting carried away, as i’m pretty sure it’s steel. I’m no 90’s bike expert, so looking for advice there as well. It looks, rides and sounds like steel. There is no material logo on the frame, except on the seat stays it says taper butted oval section. So it’s steel.

The fork on there now is adjustable, 85mm to 115mm. It feels awful above 100mm and lovely down at 85mm, so a shorter rigid fork is probably going to be better and I think the 69er idea may be out of the question. I think it may just handle like a dog. Also I have a lovely xtr hub on the front, so rebuilding a 26″ wheel with a light v-brake rim will make good use of that….now to find a suitable fork…

MarkLG, just seen your post. It’s deffo steel, but there is a badge that says made in Taiwan. Did they make steel frames in Taiwan?

Eyerideit – I may well be in touch…

I’ve owned several late nineties Stumpers. Used with 80mm SIDs, Manitou SXs, also 80mm, Project Twos and an RC31. The RC was 1st generation; I can’t remember what length they were, but 419mm springs to mind. Anything much longer than that will make it feels weird.

I have first gen RC31’s on my 1994 Marin Indian Fire Trail frame, built as a ss road bike for the past 10 years as i knew if i continued to ride it offroad it would result in tears and injury due to frame fracture, the forks are 420mm crown to middle of dropout. I used to run this bike with Manitou 3’s which had 2″ of travel and had a crown to dropout of 380mm if memory serves me well – they’re still in my shed so i might dig them out.

The very original alu pace rigid forks (RC30) were 385mm or 395 mm if i remember correctly

salsa cromotos, i had a 1997 stumpy m2 which I put the salsa’s on felt very good and responsive. 445mm a-to-c. can get them in 425mm (i think) which is 80mm suspernsion corrected and they have v brake and disc mount.

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/salsa-cromoto-rigid-forks/

I have just bought from a guy on here a 97 M2 Stumpy. It came with 130mm Vanilla forks with a spring too firm for me so I had a dig around the garage and found a Reba 29er 100mm travel fork and a Hope/Crest wheel doing duties on my CX bike. I just bunged it all together and took it for a ride thinking I would turn it back to normal at some point.

But I love it! With a low stem it handles fine albeit not as chuckable as a modern bike, but with a degree of finess, it’s got a lot more grip than you would expect. Plus, for some reason it really annoys people 🙂

MarkLG, just seen your post. It’s deffo steel, but there is a badge that says made in Taiwan. Did they make steel frames in Taiwan?

As far as I remember it was just the M2s and the S Works stuff that was made in the USA, not that it makes a lot of difference.

I have just bought from a guy on here a 97 M2 Stumpy.

I bought one of those new in 97. The original forks were 63mm RS Judys, which I replaced with Pace rc36s.. They handled beautifully in standard trim – the one in the picture looks offensive 😯