I was on the lookout for a smaller size MTB for quite some time, to build a bike for my wife. Something indestructible and reliable, not too flashy, but not ratty either. Colour was a mas quite a major deciding factor of course, so options were pretty limited. One day Fortuna smiled upon me and I’ve found this Nakamura Mountain Tool Escape Triple Track for sale locally. Has quite a ring to it. It was listed for so cheap that I was almost certain it’s going to have a myriad of issues. I couldn’t have been more wrong. This thing was an absolute time capsule, completely original and basically unridden.
It came with a pretty forgettable 300LX groupset, and it’s made out of plain-gauge CrMo tubing. Pretty much perfect for the task. The receipe was 1x drivetrain, upright bars, and brakes that actually work. Super simple, and most of the parts were in my stash already. All I needed were handlebars and a stem.
What caught me off-guard was the 1 1/4″ fork. Honestly, I should have seen it coming from that absolute beast of a headset. Stems, and even threadless adapters for this size are rare as hen’s teeth. And since I already bought BMX bars, it was the adapter route for sure. You see, the shaft of the stem that gets inserted into the headtube needs to be 28.6 mm in diameter. Nitto makes one such adapter, that costs about twice as much as I paid for the bike and all the new parts for it. Absolutely out of the question.
The solution? Use a standard 1 1/8″ threadless adapter with a 25.4 mm quill and a 28.6 mm head, and shim the quill part. Luckily such shims are readily available – so that was the one, and only challenge of this build solved. The bike came together really nicely, and it rides as you would expect it to ride. It’s as heavy as a boat anchor, but completely issue-free.
Oh yeah and kickstands rule, baby.
Components Table
| Component | Brand & Model |
| Frame | Nakamura |
| Forks | Nakamura SRF 1 1/4″ |
| Seat Tube | 42 cm C-T |
| Top Tube | 54 cm C-T |
| Headset | 1 1/4″ threaded |
| Crankset | Shimano Exage 300LX (FC-M300) + 36T chainring |
| Pedals | Cheap |
| Rear Derailleur | Shimano Exage 300LX (RD-M300) |
| Shifter | Shimano Deore XT (SL-M732) 7-speed |
| Brakes | Avid SD 2.0 |
| Brake Levers | Avid FR-5 |
| Wheels | Shimano Exage RM50 hubs, unknown rims |
| Tyres | Kenda Kwick 26×1.95″ |
| Handlebars | Promax BMX bars 650×190 mm |
| Stem | Zoom BMX stem 50×22.2 mm |
| Saddle | Selle Royal Freccia |
| Seatpost | Ergotec 29.4 mm |