I know the Mt Rainier was in the middle of the mountain bike product line, above the Mt Washington and Mt St Helens. Not sure if it was above or below the Mt Hood though, but i know it was below the Whitney and McKinley.
I think if we go purely on elevation of those mountains, the Rainier was just above the Hood. But seems like they made the Hoods in chrome, though maybe those ones weren't as good of a frame as the Rainier?
someone will enlighten me in the comments!
I just wrapped up restoring this bike, it was the bike i bought when i delivered newspapers as a teenager. So i've had this thing nearly 40 years! It was stolen in Savannah GA in college in 1992 but recovered by the police, so i actually got it back!- which rarely happens. However the thieves had really abused it and it took me forever to do the restoration. I had to track down some replacement Suntour Mountech derailleurs, give it a full tear down and rebuild, and even though i put new tires on it, the freewheel is a bit gravely and the rear rim has a few dings in it that probably won't be fixed with a spoke wrench. But it is what it is, and I'm trying to keep it as original as possible. Like suntour hubs and weinmann concave rims for mountain bikes- how rare of those in a world of shimano and araya mountain bike wheels?
Yes, the fenders are original too- it was that way as purchased from a Massachusetts "Lechmere" store. I recall it was around $300 at the time, which was probably late 1986 when i bought it. It's nice to have this old friend back. I sanded out a lot of the scratches and rust on the frame, painted the scratches with black rustoleum, wet sanded everything to blend it all in, hand painted touched up the decals and then spray cleared it with a 2k clear coat. It's far from perfect, but it seemed like a good way to preserve as much of the original paint as possible. Otherwise i was unable to find replacement decals so i worked around them. The "Mt Rainier" decal was beyond hope though, so that's not there any more.
It's ready to tackle some more trails and walls, though it gets babied as it's almost a museum piece now!
-Tara
