My main trail ride for the last couple of decades and still my favorite for riding tight trails. It started life as an Stumpjumper M2 FS, and was quickly stripped for it’s components by some, more money than brains guy, who was going to use them to build up a Cannondale Headshok bike. I gladly bought his “useless” frame for some at the time amazingly expensive price. I then began to transplant every component from my decked out Specialized Hardrock, and the super light M2 Franken Jumper FS came to life. It was alive.
The Franken Jumper is really all about it’s solid frame. I’ve continuously upgraded anything and everything as money and parts became available. This included, by SunTour XC-Pro gearing and shifters, my Proto-type Scott UniShocks ( because I knew someone) and my wonderfully new Shimano V-Brakes. Since it began life with me in this way, I’ve had no thoughts nor reservations about not keeping it stock. The M2 Franken Jumper has evolved as needed.
The Franken Jumper has gone through many generations of upgrades including trash canning the Uni-shocks, installing RockShox Quadra, then trashing Quadras and installing Rockshox Judys, then upgrading Judy guts to coils, then trashing those Judy’s for the current Judys with disc mount. And there were in fact many repetitions of trying to make the Scott uni-shocks work, but i grew weary of the every other ride rebuild ritual and the shocks don’t work ‘cause it’s cold excuse.
The drive train finally made the switch to Shimano as SunTour replacement parts became more and more expensive. I did really like the indexed thumbshifters. I’ve since acquired some NOS SunTour stuff and will someday drag the Hardrock frame out of the attic and build some sort of tribute to my first mountain bike using Suntour.
Brakes went from LX cantilevers, to LX V-brakes, to XT V-brakes, to XT front disc and I think it’ll stop there.
As the Franken Jumper sits now with Shimano XT & XTR gearing and brakes, it is just a great bike to ride. I haven’t weighed it ever, but to ride it, is to know what a light quick bike is like. And being a hard tail it climbs real nice.
