khs montana comp

You are looking at a 1993 KHS Montana Comp, and it's an entirely adequate mountain bike, not necessarily worthy of a lot of words. However, let's talk about it in the context of a current Instagram contest and how it fits in with what I do with old bikes....

I picked this up as frame, fork, and headset for $30. It seemed like a good buy, probably because that iconic paint made me think of the True Temper-framed Team model. This Comp is Ritchey Logic tubing - some of it anyway. I had most of a 7-speed Shimano LX groupset that I thought would make a great match, expect for one sticking point; I couldn't find a stem with a cable hanger so that it could run cantilever brakes.

So instead, it got mismatched V-brakes and mismatched shifters. Truth be told, I'm not particularly happy with it. But being one of the mid-level Montanas, I didn't expect it to get a lot of interest as a nearly catalog spec bike, so I tried for a build that might appeal to a wider audience.

Of course looking at it now, I really didn't meet that goal.

And that brings us to the Cheap Bike Buildoff 2025. An excellent idea in which you put together a bike with a budget of US$150 (CDN$217 and rising daily) and use no Amazon/AliExpress/Wish.com parts. This is what I've been doing for 20 years! All you need to do is provide a list of your cost, and for parts you already had, use what your local bike co-op would charge. So here's my list for the Montana;

Wheels - mixed - 30
Crank - Shimano LX - 20
BB - Shimano - 11
Brakes - mixed v-brake - 22
Levers - Shimano - 11
Shifters - Shimano - 25
Cassette - Shimano - 11
Derailleurs - Shimano - 22
Seatpost - Kalloy - 11
Stem - Giant - 11
Bar - no name - 11
Tires - mixed - 22
Grips - no name - 11
Seat - no name - 11
Pedals - no name - 11

The total, is $252, and that my friends, is a fail.

It's pretty weird to look at this bike and think that $252 went into parts for it, since it was all stuff I've had sitting in bins for years in some cases. I guess I should try to look at it as a "I'm worth a fortune in bike parts!" situation, instead of being depressed that I know I'll have trouble selling it for $100.

Starting from a frame is not going to cut it. Even if you got a frame for free, you're going over. So, I'll have to start from scratch with something complete, and make minimal changes.