Classic & Vintage - You'll never guess what fits on a Bridgestone. MB-5!

Weinmann centerpulls and 700's!! Sorry for even bringing this up without pics, EH.:p. I will get some soon. I'll have to get some of those vacuum line cap things to cover the canti posts. You know, the things for cars. Otherwise it worked very well. The wheels came from a Cannondale, and the brakes from a Peugeot Avoriaz. I've had the bike up on CL for weeks now, I think it just became a keeper. I may even drop bar it with some SR modolo anatomics I just picked up.,,,,BD


The stays are so steep it rides like a road bike anyway, so I decided to make it into one, hehe.

Not too surprising. Back before there were good 559 road tires, Bridgesone made a big deal about the ability to run 700s with road brakes on their MTBs. They were just careful to put the brake/fender bridge and the hole in the fork crown the appropriate distance from the axles.

Hey that is pretty cool, and I just found out by accident. Never heard about that. Maybe the bigger deal is that the frames were slightly widened road bike frames, more than they were MTB frames.;)

I have 35's on the rims right now, and I'm no sure how much smaller I can go without being too narrow for the rims. They're hybrid style. But, the handling is much better than the fat ATB tires I had on the MTB single wall rims.,,,,BD

You're going to put car parts on a bicycle? Hmmm, I think I have not seen that before (well, except for Schrader valves).

East Hill

The rims have schrader valves on them, hehe. Actually these things I'm speaking of, are a piece
of rubber hose with one end molded closed. Used to seal off unused vacuum ports after switching intakes or carbs, etc. It will be the cleanest way to make them safe for ankles and knees. It will also keep them dry and rust free if I ever decide to go back to mtb rims.,,,,BD

that sounds neat for sure. i have a recently acquired MB-6 and i have an older 700c with a wide rim and schrader valve and bonty 35cm on it to try. need to find a front tho. it will be interesting to compare it to my X0-3 which has 26" wheels and hybrid tom ritchie slicks. if your MB-5 is a '93 or '94 and you are looking for any info on it i have the catalogues for those years.

I also have an X0-3, small world huh? I'm not sure what year the MB-5 is. It's a bright eye popping
green with orange graphics.,,,,BD

This is before the rim and brake swap, obviously.....

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n267/Kustombyker/Cleanstone.jpg

The X0-3, love it for around town runs.

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n267/Kustombyker/Bridgebrook.jpg

It seems to me that all you would achieve is reduced braking power and lousy handling due to raising the bottom bracket height. What's the advantage?

The advantage, is that it will cease to be a MTB. I have several, and was on the verge of selling this fine specimen. Reduced braking power? One of the best stopping bikes I own is the 74 SS with Weinmanns and Kool stop pads. Reduced to the power of a nice road bike maybe? I took a few measurements of other bikes in the garage. G to C (Ground to center of spindle) It was an inch higher than most of my road bikes, and 1/2" higher than an 84 Trek 830. 1/2 to 1 inch of BB height difference equals lousy handling? I guess it does if you say so. I never really though about it that much. I will use the bike more, so it's a trade off to being sold or sitting in the back of the garage.,,,,BD

nice X0-3. mine is the dark green but looks identical, dummmy levers and all.
the 1994MB-5 came in a colour called April Green,. there were two MB_5s one was called the MB_5-SUS. had a beefed up fork different headset etc. the mb-5 had a YST 8002G, THE MB-5-SUS had aYST 717 SW. the Sus had a handlebar with barend, the regular mb5 did not both hsin lung.

Skinny 26" slicks makes more sense to me.

http://inlinethumb56.webshots.com/7159/2963330850068014369S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2963330850068014369ktbnjX)

... G to C (Ground to center of spindle) It was an inch higher than most of my road bikes, and 1/2" higher than an 84 Trek 830. 1/2 to 1 inch of BB height difference equals lousy handling? ...

The better to accommodate 180 mm crank arms. :D

Actually, that does raise the center of gravity considerably, but unless you're going to be doing extreme riding, this shouldn't be a factor. After all, bikes designed for criteriums are a bit higher in the BB to help them avoid striking pedals when pedaling through tight turns. The more upright geometry helps gain them back some of their responsiveness. On that MB-5, you'll still be fine. Just be aware that the guy on the Colnago will smoke you through the corners. ;)

Maybe you could just bolt a rack to the canti bosses, like a porteur rack or one of these little jobs....
http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?category=6000112&subcategory=60001079&brand=&sku=17192&storetype=&estoreid=&pagename=Shop%20by%20Subcat%3A%20Racks

With a skinnier set of 700's and a narrower tire, it may not even be an issue?(BB height that is) The tires on it now are the Nashbar cheapy touring tire in a 35. It makes a 27 x 1 1/4 look like 23, lol. The front reflector bracket was buzzing on the tire a tiny bit before I removed it to install the brake.,,,,BD

As for the rubber boss caps, I was thinking mainly to keep them rust free in case I ever change my mind again.

Finally snapped a pic. Had to work Friday and Saturday till after dark, and constant rain didn't help. No front brake pads yet, and it may get a stem swap and moustache bars.,,,,BD


http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n267/Kustombyker/MB5-update.jpg

I have to admit that it looks good.

Now I'm tempted to try tubulars on my MB-2.

Somewhere I have some shorter reach centerpull Dia Compe's off an old Azuki I parted a couple of years ago. Maybe they'll work(look) better. You can probably tell there's a LOT of adjustment slot under the pads.,,,,BD

BD,

Looks great. You've given me some inspiration to do something with this MB-4 I picked up at my church yard sale last spring. The front shock is shot, but I have a chrome fork as a replacement. Maybe I'll turn it into a road bike?
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p71/pastorbobnlnh/Bike%20Scenes/BStoneMB4.jpg

BD,

Looks great. You've given me some inspiration to do something with this MB-4 I picked up at my church yard sale last spring. The front shock is shot, but I have a chrome fork as a replacement. Maybe I'll turn it into a road bike?


OOOOHHHH*

Stop making me drool. gee whiz.

BD,

Looks great. You've given me some inspiration to do something with this MB-4 I picked up at my church yard sale last spring. The front shock is shot, but I have a chrome fork as a replacement. Maybe I'll turn it into a road bike?
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p71/pastorbobnlnh/Bike%20Scenes/BStoneMB4.jpg

Not to take over Bikedude's thread, but some how after reading it yesterday, I got to poking around in Sheldon Brown's "Sheldonpedia" :D and found the Bridgestone catalogue page for the 1994 MB-4. I was shocked that this old bike, which I brought home from the church yard sale, originally retailed for $750. :eek: I donated $65 (which at the time I thought was too high). I guess not!

So is it worthy of a restoration? It feels like the front Tange suspension fork needs to be rebuilt. Can the elastic/rubber absorption material be easily replaced and is there a source for this type of rebuild? Thanks for any guidance or suggestions.

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/bridgestone/1994/images/34.jpg

No problem on the hijack. I like my Bridgestones, and anything that gets the message out that these were nicer than most people realize works for me. I'm quite surprised that the MB-4 didn't come with friction thumb shifters mounted on top of the bars. Both of mine did, well the XO is indexed at least. The MB-5 got converted with help from a dead Rockhopper. I was going to put road bars on the 5, until I realized it would drop them too low to be comfortable. With the really long top tube, moustache's may be out too, unless the stem moves the bars up and back. The stem from the dead hopper is taller and a higher angle, maybe.......?,,,,,BD

Bike dued

I'm down with whatever you want to do with good old bikes, as long as they get more good miles, but I have an alternative to road-biking em.

I am a pretty large guy; my road frames are 60-61 cm. I'm looking for a mountain bike, and most feel like minibikes with 26" wheels. How wide a tire do you think you can fit on 700c wheels inside the stays and forks of the bridgestone? 38mm? 45? You may help me find a budget 29er.

And I'd ride a 29 mountain bike with drop bars just because, I like 'em.

I believe these are 35's, and I had to pull the front reflector bracket because the tread was buzzing on it. I doubt anything much bigger would fit, unless you got a canti brake 700 fork. Worth a try though.,,,,BD

I like drop bars on offroad bikes too. It keeps the "normal" people guessing.

Ah, well. Either I pay for a 29er, or just run 38 or 42 contacts on a smallish road frame then.