I restored my 20 y/o S-Works mountain bike. - Episode 3 

Looks like a solid build my friend. It was fun seeing you at the Sedona bike festival.

It's funny listening to you at the beginning of this making it sound like this S-Works is completely obsolete. It worked 20 yrs ago, so it would still work now. You're just use to more modern bikes that have improved the experience of riding trails. I have been riding mtn bikes for 30 yrs and rode my 1998 Barracuda XC up until 3 yrs ago. Yeah, my 2020 plus hardtail is a major upgrade in the handling department, but I still miss the old bike at times. It drew alot of looks and newer riders were keen to ask questions about it. BTW I have a friend who has a 2001 Stumpjumper FSR w/ full XTR and Fox suspension front and rear. He swapped out the front to a 1x and still shreds on it

"will these rim brakes even stop me?!" Well, all of us who used to ride rim brakes survived to see them replaced by discs, so I'd say that was a bit sensationalist. Other than that, really liked the build. Reminds me of my old XC Pro!

The people complaining about the bike don't seem to understand the purpose of this build at all. This isn't just for a low budget bike build, this is a test to see how an older but very high end bike of it's time compares to today's modern standards. And currently as it sits, the original setup just doesn't cut it for Evan's riding style. It's not that it's a bad system, this was the leading edge when it was new. But there have been massive improvements in today's cycling standards since then. As someone who's loving and building up an older bike myself, I can appreciate the love you obviously have for this bike. You don't just completely repaint a bike from scratch that you're not planning on going the full distance with. I for one, am highly excited where you're planning to go from here. I'm seeing atleast a new rear shock, a 1x drivetrain and maybe even a dropper. You change those up and your going to rock that trail! Can't wait for the next episode!

After over 3 years of watching Seth, I just discovered your channel, Both my dad and I love watching your videos and love the old bike restorations. Before my dad got his new bike last year he was riding a trek 1997 carbon hardtail, so this brings back the memories of us upgrading his bike.

A hack we use at the shop I work at is when a shifter isn’t engaging we blast it out with white lighting degreaser. The pawls usually get stuck in place from the old grease and that will free it up.

That bike was my wet dream when I was a kid 😍 I actually had the same S-Works frame years ago in a metal flake gold colour. I'd ride that round all day. Love it.

Soooo I have the same bike (except with disc brakes) Sat in a basement for 15+ years. Literally every step you’re having trouble with, I can confirm and been there. Things I found: 1. Even after rebuilding the fork, it was shot. This had to be replaced. 100mm fork made the head angle better too. The original Duke XC flexed a ton too. 2. The rear float shock was a PITA to rebuild and they are very specific in regards to weight and fluid. Anything lower than 80W would get past the seals. Now it’s great. 3. Bite the bullet and purchase a dropper; The bike cannot be ridden without one as the seat post cannot be lowered more than an inch. Biggest flaw of this frame. Use the front derailleurs routing and ditch the front mech. 4. I upgraded to 1x9. Even with a clutched rear mech, the slap is horrendous. Wrap the back linkage with bar tape and use felt tape to quiet the chatter from the chain and cables. Makes it much better. 5. Frame bearings were shot from age; these needed to be replaced for the rear to track right. 6. You can’t fit a tire larger than 2.2, I’ve tried. Skinny for today’s standard, but thats all the frame can except. After all that and standard maintenance (headset, new BB, brake fluid flush, hub rebuild, tubeless conversion, indexing) it’s solid, I sling rollers and drops and no one even realizes I’m on a 20 year old bike! But a LOT has to go into these older bikes to make them huckable! Also, best to pick up a “lightly used” one as many of these were ridden hard and fatigue strength of the aluminum can be detrimental; the right chain stay is prone to crack over time! Hope this helps anyone wanting to pick one of these up!

I restored my old Felt Virtue One last year. I absolutely love the bike, and there is something satisfying about throwing a leg over an old 26er every now and then.

With that bike you should go into the next Specialed Concept Store and ask for an appropriate bottle holder. Watch the faces of the sales guys in disbelieve while the new intern frantically checks the computer for that new S-Works model... which he can't find in the database. Pure gold! :D))))

That's actually a quite good looking bike, even by todays standards. Awesome paintjob! Just needs a bit more travel upfront, dropper post and a 1x drivetrain. Sure it's not economically sound, but where's the fun in that ;)

we should call this series Evan's house customs or something like that

The paint is unbelievable! Great build!

I ride a vintage Sid with 28 mm stanchions. They do flex too much! But I'm a very light guy and ride cross country mostly. The ultra light weight makes it super fun and agile on narrow turns It's just about doable in heavier terrain. Glad you went for v brakes!

I've got a similar bike. 2000 S Works M4. Flat black anodized. Full XTR. I've run it with disc brakes and V brakes. They offered a kinda funky rear disc adapter , it bolted to the brake boss. Also got the carbon fiber e plate derailleur mount. And the Risse long travel rocker linkage. Judy SL fork. It was and still is a fun bike on tight windy single track. Outdated yes. But still fun. 23 pounds with v brakes and just under 25 with disc brakes. Contrary to popular belief people could actually still mountain bike back then. Prior to all the ever changing standards of today. I can't deny that modern bikes are superior in virtually every aspect. But old bikes are still alot of fun. I got my first mountain bike back in 1986.

I have that bike and still use it at my parents home from time to time. Your wheel is probably not flexing but slipping in the dropout that's why it touch. You should use a strong QR and crank it a lot. Riding without dropper is defentely not a really fun experience anymore so i use one. You have to find a small travel one because not much is exposed. It's still not meant to be ridden aggressively but it makes for a pleasant casual ride. The orginal main pivot bolt are super fragile and will snap. I use something standard in strong steel and it just work.

Preciosa bici y hermoso trabajo de restauración y pintura mis felicitaciones. A disfrutar con su belleza 😍

Youn should build a budget carbon xc hardtail

Yay, new video! Man, that thumbnail is so good Evan!

We must see it again. If my 2009 gary fisher v brakes can stop my 260lb frame in southeast tn. I know you can get that beautiful bike back to peak performance.

when i saw those wheels I thought we are going backwards with mountain bikes now Those wheels are the go I have always wanted thick spokes like that for my rear wheel I am constantly breaking spokes in my rear wheel and how the spokes screw straight into the rim with no spoke holes make tubeless so much more reliable and easy. wow.

Don’t give up this bike. It’s not obsolete and it will perform if you get everything tuned correctly. You may need to hang some more modern parts off that frame first. Try taking a few links out of your chain because you shouldn’t be dropping it like that. I can’t wait to see part 2 of this build.

Thanks for this video, I got a stumpjumper from that era that im fixing but I've hesitated because I didn't wanted to ride with pads.

My day just got better

Excellent video. This brings back memories of my first mountain bike. Subscribed. Thank you.

Well that's a shame it doesn't seem to be working. I have a 99 Stumpjumper FSR XC that I revived and it handles the trails well, even the blacks, but at a moderate speed. I swapped the 3x for a Micro Shift 9 speed, 11-42 with a 32 up front, what a game changer. No slap and smooth shifting with plenty of low to get up everything. I put a 740 bar and 35mm stem, and yes, a dropper. The dropper was the hardest to find, had to get one short enough to clear the suspension. Had her recently at the local bikefest, and boy did she get some attention, lol.

I have two of these similar frames but older by 2 and 5 years (FSR XC StumpJumper's). I totally disagree with you regarding the stems. Today's frames are long and slender with a natural head tube that is pitched upwards hence the shorter stems can be used. To get the same effect. I use a 110MM with a 35 degree rise to it which gives me length and height that I need. But most importantly, I have dropper that is a game changer for these bikes. Bummer you painted it too... I think you were right about some of these things, but may have missed the mark with others. These bikes are super fast and number and ride great, so much in fact that I think my 29r tires feel to big sometimes and I wish I had went with 27.5's on my new Giant Stance. Anyway, great to see you working on the older bikes, as I completely love them and in many ways perfer them over to other frame designs. I would love to watch rebuild one of these old SID's from scratch - that would be great!

Ilove restoring old bikes

For your front xtr shifter open it up and spray some wd40 in it. It worked for me in the past with these Shimano shifters

I was waiting for this video for so long and it is worth it. This Specialized build series is what brought me to your channel and since then I watched almost all of your video. SO happpy for every new you make. Its a bit sad, that the bike doesnt work very well, I hoped it'll be a xc machine. Still super video

Very sensationnalist video... V-brakes are working great when it's dry and rims are trued, tires are rubbing because the section is too wide for an old bike. The rims were never meant to be used as tubeless... the valve hole issue should have been spotted on the first mounting try (and has been isn't it !? that's a massive lump of aluminium missing). If I were an old grumpy cyclist, I would remember when people were riding on the same trails without even a suspended fork or indexed transmission... and then cringe about your comments. You seem to be a very knowledgeable and skillfull bike mechanic.... so I suppose you purposefully add free drama to this video. Sure, the modern bikes are better suited than old ones, but does it prevent them to be used on trails ? No, there's no question about the ability, they had been used for that at the time, the only real question is : "how much better the modern bikes are ?" in a fair and square comparison? and this video doesn't delivers that.

0:23 I LOVE LEAN 💜💜💜💜💜

In regard to the Chris King headset, making bearings is very hard. Chris King is absolutely worth every penny and seem to last twice as long and are easy to service.

The bike actually looks great.

Thats how all those old forks worked for me. Up until last 4 to 5 years, I never got functional full travel from any fork.

I love this bike. Cheers from Greece...

Can’t wait to see you throw a dropper, 1x and some disc brakes on that bad boy!

It is crazy how much better bikes are now

ohh it turned out not good but i think u can make it trail ready!

beautiful color choice .

that end was a cliffhanger

Seeing you on the bike, makes me think the bike is much smaller then i originally thought.

You can spray brakecleaner into the front shifter that should make it work again👌

I really think standard disk brakes vs v brakes are like blue ray vs DVD. Both are way better than before but they're not massively far apart in performance. The higher end disk brakes are another thing altogether.

I think it's not so much the geometry but more so the older components just not working at their fullest potential. I think this bike as a restonod project would be better. Of course that's more expensive but you'd have more fun during the process and with the final product. 🤘

Interesting build! Some funny quotes re the older tech too. 😅 I built up a slightly earlier S Works recently too. XTR, RaceFace, Hope etc. Kept the original width bars and long stem too. No complaints here round my local trail centre.

These old XTR V brakes are the best v brakes I have ever used. I have a set on a race bmx bike and my late 90’s stump jumper. I have a couple of sets of these brakes and am looking to buy more

Oh i love how you aren't done with it. If i got this far with these results, id have given up already

I cant imagine this bike isn't capable of riding modern trails. I have a 94" raleigh titanium and use it to ride everything i ride with modern bikes too besides big jumps ofc. Its a hardtail only. Specs: Manitou Answer 4 coil conversion. Full XTR drivetrain. Mavic crossride rims and hubs. 2.35" magic mary front tyre and a 2.25" nobby nic at the rear.

I had one of these forks with XT disc brakes. Front wheel literally meets rear wheel 🤣

A old Bike still works so in many ways tubes are a good thing and V brakes the ones on the Specialized work good Flat pedals also are a good option

I've never clicked on a video so fast

Awesome videos

Good stuff man I'm enjoying the cheap bike builds maybe a build under 300 dollars with upgrades would be cool 😁

Looks amazing dude

I still ride my '01 GT iDrive 4.0 (heavily modified) and it works just as well as it did when i bought it new.

Would've loved to see a crazy high end AXS build!

it looks the bomb

It's so beautiful

Dude the video and editing is awesome and the build is awesome besides some flaws and the paint job is Beautiful

Got a 2005 Giant NRSC2 what a bike Got it for 400$ spent 400$ more Replaced tires to Maxxis DHF AND DHR2 ( Made it tubeless ) 26x2.3 Rebuilded fork Fox F80RL Changed bars , Stem greased components Man what a machine you really don’t need the most modern bike The bike is Carbon And it weighs SUB 24LBS and it is extremely zippy

The v-brakes are the best made in it's time. Find a manual and completely disassemble and lube them. Use a high quality Kool Stop pads. Next, ditch that over priced SID fork. They were shit then....and shit now. Definitely replace the rear and front shocks to say a Recon and a Fox float...great videos..

looks great dude!

Looks great mate 👌

Careful with the corrosion on the mavics. I exploded a mavic crossmax slr because a crack started to form at the valve stem area

This was a top of the line bike back in the day. I doubt the trails have changed so much that they now render this bike useless (I'm talking XC trails only of course, since that would have been its intended use). Also, you probably could have just gone 1x9.

This is a xc bike, even when it was sold, it wasn’t made for intense DH riding. Use it for xc style trails, I’m sure it’ll be awesome. I rock a 92’ trek rigid, it shreds all modern trails, just takes a little better line choice and some arm pump.

Another awesome video 👏

Im pretty sure those rockox forks were 2007 only. Blackbox i think they were called. They made the rockshox boxxer blackbox 2007 which looks amazing with those triple crown gold stancions

Wait until you put some disc brakes on that fork. It will auto steer you to the left when you brake, it's that bad. Put some narrow tires on (like 1.95") and fix the rear wheel, I could see at least one spoke not straight. XTR V brakes were actually very good, in the dry.

nice berm peak jersey bro!

V Rim brakes work awesome.... when they're dry.

Naaa, that bike is trail worthy... I have the same bike (unfortunately sans S-Works and that sick red paint job). You should swap the front fork to a Reba with 32mm stanchions and with disc brake and you are ready to shred the trails. Huge difference.

05:57 You could replace the crank's chainring to a 1x narrow wide chainring, then add a chain retention device for fairly cheap. I did this for my 3x Deore crankset on a GT Avalanche

Just would like to point out. The end of the video was a anticlimax. The bike isn’t exactly designed for steep downhill or jumping. It’s designed for 50km rides through bush land and single track.

This is cool I have an old 2009 jamis dakar xc as my first real mtb before its a full sus bought it for only 300$!! Rockshox tora fork upfront And an xfusion spring shock at the back Its still rides real nice today the only bad thing is its a 3by but its really good on trails real nicee

V brakes or cantilevers both work just fine. Been riding them for decades without issue. I just upgraded to discs though and what a pain in the ass keeping those rotors clean. Not to mention the banshee wail they make if they get wet. Are discs really better?

I have never seen ultrasonic cleaners used with jars like you showed. Hmmmm??

V-brakes still work good on mtb's if properly adjusted. They can work and be as powerful as disc brakes.

if you want better braking performance without going to discs you should check out magura hs33 hydraulic rim brakes. Heavy touring bikes use them for descending with 35kgs of stuff. trails bikes use them to.

i would love this kind of bike i now ride fully rigid bike on "todays trails no problem"

Good job man love the video! 👌

hi my friend. If the bicycle gave you a smile 20 years ago , why shouldn't it do the same even today? did your fun changed somehow? I would love to see this bike not renewed but modernised with some contemporary components. It is always interesting, (more interesting in fact) to see how older bikes perform with new components, new forks and wheels.

can you do a teardown video of the maxxlite air fork,im planning to buy one but before that i need a inside inspection from my favorite youtuber!!

I run less than 700mm bars on my mtb, I'm very small so any wider is uncomfortable and I think that's an important thing to consider as well.

Maybe try and find some magura Hydrolic rim breaks?

I cringed a bit when I saw you put purple degreaser on those parts. It destroys aluminum parts in the ultrasonic cleaner. Do some searching to see how it reacts with motorcycle cabs (hint: not good). I've had very good luck with Zep green and Simple Green, both mixed 50/50 with water and the heater on. Good luck and nice build!

Phew! That was a close call with the leaking rim... Almost had to scrap the whole build 🤔. Or, just use an inner tube

Bro this bike look so spicy

Sick dude. I am building old down hill bike trying to make it work

that a nice looking bike

Isn't those chainrings removable? They don't loon riveted in. If so, easy conversion right away

Does anyone know who sells replacements spokes for those Mavic wheels? I have a set w a couple broken spokes. Want to use your build series to help w my current one, thank you and nice job! For the front shifter you have to spray tons of wd40 and after the old grease is cleaned out there is a pin that engages the gears. This pin needs some help to move w a tiny hook type tool while shifting to get loose.

That's really cool and I'd kill to do a rebuild on a old bike but I don't know how to fix stuff and can't find any

my 2001 non s works epic had hydrolic brakes, it is interesting that that this model does not

so are you going to convert it to 1x, maybe get a better drivetrain, get a different wheelset and hydraulic disk breaks? or no does this bike not feel good on you or not worth upgrading.

Umm when will I get my coffeee shout out

Those brakes should work absolutely awesome!! Forks ha e too much flex ?? Budget headset on a $6k bike ?? . Man lol .

Yeah, I learned the hard way that straight degreaser in ultrasonic cleaner will remove anodizing. I now dilute degreaser with water 50/50 and some guys just use water and Dawn dish soap in an ultrasonic cleaner.

It’s in the restored state so I didn’t really expect it to perform well, but what if you update the parts and make it more like a modernized old bike?