In the beginning there was a 1994 Parkpre Pro 825 mountain bike, and it was sweet. I have a friend whose brother was a rep for them and I got a great deal. I was 20 years old and this was way more bike than I needed. I rode the hell out of it for years. This bike was well appointed with a 17 inch "Tange Ultimate Superlight MTB" frame in a "Ti plated finish". The bike had full XT components with combination shift and brake levers, Critical Racing cantilever brakes (before V-brakes), Pullstar Hubs, a Manitou 3 front elastomer shock with a 1 1/8 threaded headset.

     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.


    At some point last year I decided to start looking for a new bike. We had started to trailer the kids around on the bikes and I was not at all happy about the comfort of the old Parkpre. After researching new bikes in my budget and not being very impressed, I decided to overhaul the old Parkpre from the ground up! After all, it's a great steel frame that still looks and feels amazing.

 





 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!