I have not purchased a bike since then. I would ride the Parkpre here and there but the older and more out of shape I got, the less comfortable it was. I did make a few "upgrades" over the years. I swapped out the Zoom flat bar for a cut down Profile Design riser bar, the seat was replaced with a WTB Speed V and I've replaced the Manitou elastomers several times.
Then I got married, bought a house and had a few kids. The Parkpre hung upside down in my garage for years. Several times I contemplated updating the bike. I just wanted to do little things that would improve my comfort and efficiency. The problem was, the bike was just old enough that most of the original technologies and standards had changed. I couldn't switch brakes because I had short throw cantilever levers on the combo XT shifter/levers and I didn't want to switch the whole thing out. I couldn't switch out forks because I had the odd threaded headset (thank god it was at least a 1-1/8). I also couldn't just switch out the stem because mine was a threaded dinosaur.

So, here is my project. I didn't really take any before pictures, but I have tons of after ones. The project turned out way better than I even imagined it would. Here she is!
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