Classic & Vintage - A few questions about a 1990ish Fisher Supercaliber...

Today I found an old Gary Fisher Supercaliber at a yard sale...I stripped it down to the bare frame, and have some questions that hopefully someone has answers to...

First of all...is it worth spending any time and money on? It's covered with scuffs, scratches, very bad chain slap/suck... It looks like it was originally a neon yellow, but has faded to a mustard... It has a 1 1/4" head tube, which is kind of annoying, since all the parts I have on hand are 1" or 1 1/8"...

I've tried to figure out what year it is, going by this chart... http://www.firstflightbikes.com/fisher_specs.htm

But few of the compnents match up, so I'm assuming they aren't original... It came with Deore XT M739 derailleurs, hubs are only labeled Suntour...freewheel, not freehub... One crank arm is a Sugino, the other is Suntour... Brakes are Acera X, shifters and brake levers are low end... Fork is rigid, Fisher Evolution...True Temper label on the steerer.

The bottom bracket was worn out, it uses sealed cartridge bearings, held in with spring clips. I found replacement bearings on ebay, and I think I can reuse the spindle...but how should I go about reinstalling the bearings? Are special tools needed to press them in? (I'm ashamed to admit that I beat the old ones out with a hammer...)

I weighed the frame, bare except for the headset cup and cone...4 pounds, 11 ounces. (It's a 21" frame) How much does a DB cromo frame of the same size weigh? (I don't have any bare frames to compare...)

Any information/thought/ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Can't help you much on identification. I can almost guarantee that you'll be able to reuse the spindle, and pressing the bearings in can be done with a stack of washers that will bear on both the inner and outer race at the same time. Use the spindle bolts themselves to move the bearings in. The bearings should be a standard 6003 IIRC, 35mm o.d. and 17mm i.d., same as used in Klein and Viscount. Alternative spindle sources include Phil Wood and Klein (probably dealer old stock at this point), if you are changing crankarms (square taper only).

Good luck

Mel

The frame appears to be aluminum. As beat up as it is, I wouldn't trust it, and wouldn't build it back up.

Thanks, I didn't think of using the spindle bolts...I'll try it once the bearings get here. Do I need to use loctite or something similar? It looks like there's some kind of hard residue left in the BB shell...

It's AL...I understand how old, abused lugged/bonded/glued AL frames could fail; where would a TIG welded AL frame tend to break/bend/etc?

It's AL...I understand how old, abused lugged/bonded/glued AL frames could fail; where would a TIG welded AL frame tend to break/bend/etc?


The reason I said what I said in the earlier post is that the overall condition of the frame seems to indicate it's been not only used, but abused. There seems to be a sizeable chunk of aluminum missing from the chainstay just behind the bottom bracket, also. Maybe it's an optical illusion, I don't know. But overall, I just think there are surely much better, less risky frames you could spend your time on-

You saw correctly...there's a good sized gouge on the chainstay. I haven't been able to find much of anything around here, though...I'll probably just transfer parts from another "beater" I have over to it...