Mountain Biking - The Mysterybike

I've inherited a bicycle and I know neither its make nor its quality.

from what I can tell it has not seen much use, though it was put into storage wet (judging by rusty chain)

so I busted out my camera and took some pictures. maybe you all can help me pin the tail on the donkey, or, rather, pin the make/quality on the bike. :D

here is a picture of the bike from a distance: http://www.lowta.cx/upload/P1010103.jpg
Larger version here (http://www.lowta.cx/upload/P1010112.jpg)

In the interests of dialup users (like myself) i'll link to the pictures so you dont have to wait till the cows come home before the pictures load.

here's a Tubular Intersection (http://www.lowta.cx/upload/P1010104.jpg) (frame meets fork downtube, or something)

Intersection of seatpost, top tube and the one that terminates at the dropouts
click (http://www.lowta.cx/upload/P1010105.jpg)

closeup of rear sprocket, derailleur in shadow, and some welding. click (http://www.lowta.cx/upload/P1010106.jpg)

If I was chasing you, this (http://www.lowta.cx/upload/P1010107.jpg) is what you'd see. front shot of cycle.

Whatever turns your crank, baby (http://www.lowta.cx/upload/P1010108.jpg) (crank from non-sprocket side)

she's a dropout (http://www.lowta.cx/upload/P1010109.jpg) excuse the artful angle. (rear dropuout)

hubba hubba, she spoke (http://www.lowta.cx/upload/P10101010.jpg) (shot of front hub, and some spokes too)

very large, very closeup view of downtube/welding. (http://www.lowta.cx/upload/P1010111.jpg) (if there was such thing as bike porn, this would be hardcore)

if you have any questions, or would like a picture of a certain part, please ask. :) I apologise for any incorrect terminology, too :)

Thanks in advance for any help/input.

I have no idea as to the make but there is what looks to be a crack in the welds by the drop out.

Wow! Good eye...

I have no idea either...sorry :confused:

No idea.

I'm not sure that is a crack by the dropout, I think it's just a small shadow from the beads of the welds, but you should still take a closer look at it.
Looks like it could be a good project. Good luck with you ID search

I took a close look at what appeared to be a crack.

it's not.
(I don't think)

http://www.lowta.cx/upload/P1010114.jpg

and

http://www.lowta.cx/upload/P1010113.jpg

what sort of things constitute a good frame? and what sort of things would raise red flags?

Perhaps a photo of where the serial # is could help.

good idea :) I'm surprised I didn't think of that.

http://www.lowta.cx/upload/P1010115.jpg

I checked in the dropouts as well, but as far as I could tell nothing was stamped there.

I'm just surprised that save for the serial# there appears to be nothing stamped on the frame. anywhere.

Yep, that's a mystery bike alright. No doubt about it.

It looks like an early 90s (ca 1992-1994) Cannondale. The fork looks to be an MRC fork.

i was thinking cannondale but did they have internal cable routes? and also many of their bikes had the headshok system in the 90's.

Originally posted by tFUnK
i was thinking cannondale but did they have internal cable routes? and also many of their bikes had the headshok system in the 90's.

I don't think Cannondale did internal cable routing on their frames. I didn't see any internal cables on the mystery bike. It seems to have all top-routed cables. Also of worthy note is the roller at the base of the seattube to accomodate the down-pull front derailleur. This type of arrangement really only existed for a couple of years when the combination of top-routed cables and the lack of top-pull front derailleurs were the norm... and those years were between 1990-1992. Shimano started coming out with top-pull front derailleurs around 1993 to provide bike manufacturers with cleaner cable routing.

And I think the Headshok system only started becoming available on the higher-end models sometime around late 92 or 93. While this bike has a DeoreXT rear derailleur, it looks like it may not have been top-of-the-line. The brakes look like DeoreDX rather than DeoreXT (mixed group commonly found on the one-step below top bikes).

The straddle cable and holder looks to be of the thinner variety leading me to believe the components and possibly the bike date closer to 1990 or 1991. Later Shimano cantilever brakes (ca. 1992+) started coming with thicker cables and a round straddle holder rather than the "thong-wedgie" one you see here.

The most indicative portion of the bike that leads me to date it to pre-1992 is the bottom bracket which looks to be of the older non-cartridge bearing type. I believe Shimano went to cartridge bearing BBs (at least for anything above Exage) in 1992.

I also notice a slightly raised front end (assuming this isn't an optical illusion) as compared with what was (I'm assuming) supposed to be a horizontal top-tube which leads me further to believe that this bike was retrofitted with an aftermarket suspension fork that was pre-threadless. That also narrows down the years some although I know many fork manufacturers offered threaded and non-threaded versions for quite some time throughout the 1990s.

While I can't be 100% certain, the large aluminum tubes combined with big fat welds and the "dating" of the bicycle via its components to around the very early 1990s strongly points to it being a Cannondale.

Those welds don't look too great. And the front tire is on backwards ;)

My first though was like Khuon's that this is a Cannondale. After looking at the close-ups, I'm almost certain.

My room-mate in college had nearly an identical bike but without the suspension fork. I'm guessing late 80's or early 90's vintage. I graduated in '93, and at that point, his frame was a good 4 to 5 years old.

His was painted, and stipped to raw aluminum. Looks like this was done to this frame as well.

Send Cannondale an e-mail and see if the serial number matches up with any of their fabrication numbers.

L8R

Thanks for the insight khuon and psyklnut :)

one thing that might be important to note is that the fork is NOT suspended, but could still be aftermarket. (it doesn't look conventional)

The brakes are XT (at least that's what it says on the pads)

early '90s sounds about right for this bike, I think.

and live 311... the front tire is on the right way now ;)

EDIT:

I just called Cannondale and from what they could tell me the mysterybike was not made by them; the serial number is in the wrong format for any cannondale manufacuturing year.

Originally posted by Seth
Thanks for the insight khuon and psyklnut :)


This is actually kind of a fun game. |8^)



Originally posted by Seth
one thing that might be important to note is that the fork is NOT suspended, but could still be aftermarket. (it doesn't look conventional)

Okay... I figured out what the fork is. It's one of a variety of Tange forks that could also have been marketted by Bontrager.



Originally posted by Seth
The brakes are XT (at least that's what it says on the pads)

The arms looked like DX because I thought the XT arms were black but I guess they could have been offerred in either colours.


Originally posted by Seth


EDIT:

I just called Cannondale and from what they could tell me the mysterybike was not made by them; the serial number is in the wrong format for any cannondale manufacuturing year.

I remember Supergo trying to unload a bunch of no-name fat-tubed frames around the early 90s. Could this possibly be a generic frame-up build?

Originally posted by khuon
This is actually kind of a fun game. |8^)

Okay... I figured out what the fork is. It's one of a variety of Tange forks that could also have been marketted by Bontrager.


There is a "B" logo on the front of the fork, and on the top of each leg. Bontrager it probably is :)




I remember Supergo trying to unload a bunch of no-name fat-tubed frames around the early 90s. Could this possibly be a generic frame-up build?

Anything's possible.

I called up the person who gave me the bike (not sure why this didn't occur to me earlier.) He couldn't tell me much more than "it's an American. Good Bike" (He's a Swede with limited English skills)

i don't know whether he meant the bike is American made, which would sort of go without saying, or if a company named "American" manufactured it. I only know of American Eagle and American Maverick, so I fired an email off to both places.

we'll see.

It looks like a early '90s Caloli.

I've finally got some closure on this.

in my inbox this morning:



Hello Seth,

Thank you for your e-mail and question. Your bike is an "American". The American manufacturing group produced aluminum hardtail mountain bikes all through the 80's and 90's. They also produced frames for many other brands.


They were cool. Maverick American did not produce this bike.

Best Regards,

Tim Johns (T.J.)
Maverick American


now does anyone know anything about " The American Manufacturing Group?"

Originally posted by Seth

now does anyone know anything about " The American Manufacturing Group?"

American Machine and Foundry... AMF... as in AMF Roadmaster?