Narhay

Hello. I posted this over on retrobike as they have a more active retro MTB community but haven't received any feedback...plus I thought some of you might appreciate this one. If you could help me ID the year and let me know about some of the parts I am unsure of I would appreciate it. It has a set of Deore XT Deerhead M700 derailleurs and shifters, a lugged steel frame and a few other bits of note. The frame and fork are relatively rusted and I don't think anything short of a repaint will do which I will not as it doesn't fit me so unless this is a very unique bike I will probably part it out.

Frame: 48cm Rocky Mountain Sherpa lugged steel

Fork: Rocky Mountain

Headset: Tange Falcon
Stem & Handlebar: Some sort of bullmoose bars with rust.
Grips: Cheap replacements

Brakes: Shimano BR-MC70
Brake Pads: Garbage
Brake Cables: Rusted
Cantilever cable hangers: Shimano BR-MC70
Brake Levers: Suntour XC Sport

Shifters: M700 Shimano Deore Deerhead XT
Front Derailleur: M700 Shimano Deore Deerhead XT
Rear Derailleur: M700 Shimano Deore Deerhead XT
Derailleur Cables: Rusted
Cassette: 6 speed freewheel of unknown origin
Chain: Going to be tossed
Cranks: ? Possibly specialized made by Sugino
Chainrings: Specialized
Bottom Bracket: Tange?
Pedals: ?

Hub Skewers: Solid axle
Rims: Saturna X28
Hubs: ?
Tyres: Cheng shin
Tubes: Shraeder

Saddle: Ripped

Narhay

gaucho777 

Narhay's bike doesn't need a repaint, just needs an oxalic acid bath, Meguire's Scratch X (or similar), and a wax. Narhay's bike will shine again!

Narhay

Har har, I see you're using my third person title scheme here.

The frame itself isn't so bad other than the bottom portion of the bottom bracket. The white fork, however, is not very good in the areas I did not show.

Bikes and Jeeps

It's a nice bike.
I have my own Rocky Mountain - 1992 that I am building.
If you decide to part it out let me know, I need a few things.

ish

Cranks are Specialized. They are the early "flag" design. Somewhat sought after. Prone to cracking unless you shave off some of the material.

BluesDaddy

I've seen a number of Shimano hubs which have lost their label. See it you can find the small 2-letter date code stamped on the flange.

Narhay

Thanks for the info. Someone else commented the pedals might be suntour xc-ii. I will be working on this intermittently this week and weekend, time permitting.

Someone spent a pretty penny on this way back. Only thing I am confused about is the seat post and wheels. Clamp fluted seatpost and solid axle hub? I saw a mid 80s stumpjumper had the same rims so maybe it was OEM.

The Golden Boy 

Yeah, that looks like a quality bicycle. It seems specced similarly (but better) to my 1984 Stumpjumper Sport.

To echo Gaucho's sentiment- it really looks like rust removal would do a world of wonders for ths bike.

arex

I know nothing about oxalic acid, but wouldn't using it to remove the rust booger up the paint job? I understand that the acid won't directly affect the paint, but wouldn't the rust "fizzing off" tear up the paint around the rusty spots, leaving large bare spots? Or is the process a lot more gentle and clean than I'm picturing in my mind?

mongol777

Bumping old thread. Picked up my Sherpa today - almost identical to Narhay's except mine has red bullmoose bars and MKS foot jaws pedals. Already started rebuild but will snap couple more pics tomorrow.
Based on components I assume it is 1983-1986. Does anyone have link to pre-1987 catalogues? I checked mombat, retrobike, all usual suspects and oldest is 1987 (when SIS was introduced on RM bikes)

Narhay

Mine had KC dated components so March 1986. The frame could be earlier or a bit later but I'd peg it at 1986. I sold the frame on recently as the wife didn't want it and it wouldn't fit either of us well.

mongol777

Mine looks clean in pictures but really all covered in grime. Will be cleaning up tomorrow and will look for dates.

mongol777

Components on mine are KC as well. Paint on bars was chipped and was not exact match to the frame. Plus created too much red (did I just say too much red???) so I stripped the paint today, will be priming and painting bars white to match the fork. Bars are actually Nitto so super happy about it! Every time I tried to buy Nitto Bullmoose handlebars - ebay auctions were ending up with astronomical numbers.

Still hoping someone has 1986 RM catalogue.

I surely overpaid for the bike but looking at components condition (most of them) under the grime, handlebars and pedals - well worth it. Seller was hardcore "lots of wd40" type flipper - he posted it last week at $95 and I immediately jumped on it as I was looking for Sherpa for a long time (pretty much next day after I sold mine :-)). He almost immediately replied with "sold" and I figured there is another crazy person like me who drove all the way to St Catharines to get it. Couple of days later he posted it again at $135, no budging on the price, very basic English, no additional info on what was done to the bike. He has garage full of them and upon taking Sherpa apart - looks like his approach to bike refurbish is to dump them in WD40 and go over with rug and steel wool. Looked all nice in the pictures but oh man - it will be a long build.