I recently took possession of my daughter's Ross bike- it has been her train station bike for the last eight years or so. I upgraded her to a Cannondale city bike with a bambino seat on the back. Anyway, I bought this from a forum member as a bare frameset back then, already painted flat-ish black, which was perfect for the intended application, and built it up with an appropriate dog's lunch of components. It's been a great back and forth piece of transportation for her.

However, before I give it to the co-op, wanted to find out what we had here. A few pictures are attached, although with this crazy new forum format I never know where they will show up in a posting. Has some nice solid lugwork, star/diamond shaped bottle cage braze-ons, a chain hanger, under the BB cable routing, no tubing seams that I can see inside of the steer tube or seat tube, takes a 27.0 seatpost. Nicely mitered tube joints, plain tube style brake bridge, recessed brake mounting. Dropouts look to be nice, but no brand name on them. Easy clearance for 700 X 28's, possibly even 32's. Serial is 1184100360, no RA on the BB. BTW, the serial was hidden beneath the plastic cable guide. Spacing is 126. Pictures attached.



Any guesses? A 290 series?
Thanks for looking.
Doc

It was built in November 1984, so it's a 1985 model. The post size is consistent with Ishiwata 024 as used on the 294S, as is the integral crown fork and dropouts with eyelets. The only thing that doesn't match are the recessed brake bolts but the crown wasn't counter-bored to recess the head, just drilled out to accept the shaft of the Allen nut. I think this was done by the previous owner and that it is a 294S, as the Triad didn't use an integral crown or have dropout eyelets. However, to be sure, remove the front wheel and check inside the bottom of the steerer tube for the five helical ridges that would be present on a Triad's Columbus steerer tube.

+1, the 1985 Ross 294S was only catalogued in black with silver head tube.

Seems like you've got it pegged. As I was looking at the pics, it looked identical to the 292s I just finished.