Flying Merkel

Here's the bars that came off my '85 Stumpy Sport. I looked at some catalog scans and saw the dreaded words "components specifications subject to change without notice".

Specialized 1985 Stumpjumper Handlebar | eBay

oldskoolwrench

m3rle,

It's a quantum difference in ride between your '90 Stumpy and one of the old timers. Not only frame construction, but in frame geometry as well.

Bikedued

Ditto! Mombat should have that in the archives.,,,,BD

oldskoolwrench

Most kind of you to say, bikedued and noglider! It was, quite simply, the most epic bike ride I've ever done.

turky lurkey

Hi folks, I recently posted my what I believe is an '84 (not positive about the year) Stumpjumper Sport in another thread and likebike23 suggested I post the pics here. I just picked this thing up a couple days ago. It's really small with 24" tires and a 17" frame.

The Golden Boy 

Son of a ***- with the same handlebars!!!


I was going to say *****, (like Ralphie in A Christmas Story when he reads "Be sure to drink your ovaltine"), but it x'd out *** anyway.


As an aside- Like mine- your RD was replaced with an XT- so the Mountech must've failed and replaced it with the good stuff.

oldskoolwrench

Mine did as well. Of course, that was back in the day when a new XT derailleur only cost $34.99, so I changed all of the components over to XT M-700,
except for the Tomaselli brake levers!

The Golden Boy 

Mine has the M700 brake levers.

neo_pop_71

Wow, that Stumpjumper has never seen the light of day! The paint and components look great but the give away for me is the rear spoke protector, it's still and hasn't yellowed. When was the last time you saw one of those that wasn't some degree of amber in color? Thanks turky lurkey for sharing your time capsule Stumpjumper! What are you going to do with it? Any short relatives in the family?

The Golden Boy 

The world needs more risermooses.

turky lurkey

That is interesting. On one hand it's a little disappointing that things aren't completely original, on the other hand it's hard to be too disappointed with Shimano XT.

Thanks Neo I'm glad you like it, I do as well. Unfortunately it's not in quite as good a condition as the pics might portray. The components for the most part will clean up nicely, but the frame is pretty scuffed up. No dings, dents or major rust though and it seems straight.

I really don't know what to do with it. I actually briefly put it on craigslist yesterday advertising that I wanted to trade for something similar in a bigger size but I changed my mind and took the ad down. In a way I think it's pretty neat how it has 24" wheels (sort of gives it a bmx type feel). Even though it's 17" frame is small for me, the smaller tires make it look more miniature than it actually is so I could cruise around on it a bit. I might just hang on to it. I have an 18 month old son and another on the way. In another 10 years or so when they are ready for a bit bigger bike the stumpy would be a pretty awesome 40 year old bike for kids.

The Golden Boy 

As kind of a history dork, having "old" things allows me to experience pieces of history. For you and I, we came across these bikes and we see the result of the Mountech being unreliable. For both of us, apparently, the Mountech lasted a little shy of 10 years, but gave it up in the late 80s/early 90s. But the owners new they had good bikes and spent the money getting good replacement parts.

I have a 1965 Fender Jazz Bass. It's been horribly refinished a walnut stain. Very poorly. The person who did it was proud enough to initial and date his work in ball point pen. 1-1-72. The bass had been Fiesta Red- kind of a salmon pink color. Around 1972/74-ish, the big guitar companies were offering walnut and very natural colored instruments- because that "naturalness" was en vogue at the time. I can't think of a color more opposed to that than salmon pink. So the owner (I'm guessing a kid) sanded it down, and brushed on lacquer with a house painting brush.

To me, it speaks of the time that instrument went through.

Same with bikes- and, probably unfortunately my wardrobes...

starground

Necropost: Loads of NOS B801's on UK eBay (£10).

NITTO B801 CYCLE HANDLE BARS 25.4 mm VINTAGE MADE IN JAPAN 70 mm RISE CrMO | eBay

And no, I'm not affiliated.