I rescued a Schwinn Moab from, a garage sale for a song. Not a very good one at that!!! The stamp on the BB reads 4AC24912. To me it didn't look that far gone. A side from battle scares it's pretty straight

I know it's not rare but, I think it's a cool older bike!!!

It is a nice bike - But is that drive side chainstay supposed to look like that ?

My first thought too. Did a quick image search and it looks like yeah, that's on purpose. Reducing chain slap maybe? I dunno. Odd.

That chainstay design looks similar to Univega's "Max Mudroom" design. Intention is to bring the BB up some.

Can you get a focused pic of the headbadge. Number on that badge will indicate manufacture date. But it's '90s, canti brakes, threaded fork/headset, square taper, rapid-fires, so yes, squarely a C&V MTB. They'd put sub-Deore-grade components on a quite nice frame, to keep the cost down. Top tube cabling is a nice touch.

Get that kickstand off, and look for crimped stays. Frame paint will most likely be damaged there.

Those can be incredibly useful!

Crimped stays??? It came with kickstand. I did tighten it up. I'll take off the kickstand and take some more pictures. I didn't think to look for numbers stamped on the head badge oops!!!

the head badge is stamped 0544

Is this what you're saying?

So it was built March 23 (54th day) 1994. C&V in my book.

Hard to tell from it being out of focus, but it does look like the one stay was crimped by the kickstand. Or maybe it was actually formed that way to accommodate a kickstand. I would at least slap some primer and paint on that bare metal.

So, what you're saying about being crimped is the dent made by the kickstand. If it was intentional there would have been press marks on both sides to accommodate the kickstand mounting bracket. Got it!!! Thanks for all the info everyone!!!

The serial number corroborates that the frame was manufactured in March 1994 and the format is consistent with M-a-t-s-u-s-h-i-t-a of Japan, a known Schwinn contractor and best known for their Panasonic brand. The bent chainstay was marketing as reducing chain suck and chain slap. Originally, this feature was applied to both chainstays and marketed under the name "G-Force" but they later reverted to a traditional non-drive side chainstay, at which point they simply called them "asymmetrical" chainstays. FYI, original MSRP was $399.95 US. Enjoy!

90's is "squarely a C&V"? You're making me feel old. . . .My newer bikes are from the 90's.

We’re as far from the 90s as the 90s were to the 70s... and in the 90s 70s stuff was vintage.

^^^^^^ +1; as an analogy, most states allow you to register motor vehicles as "Collector" status at 25 years.

Keep in mind, this section of the forums has itself been around for close to 17 years. Looking back at some of those early threads, they were talking about 20-25-year-old bikes as qualifying as C&V. Time only stands still in photographs.

I’m not disagreeing with your characterization, just wondering where the last twenty years went.

^^^^^ Same place the next twenty years are going.....

^^^^^^^Probably in a stupor caused by the outgassing of carbon fibre resin.

Whether it is vintage or not does not matter to me. It is certainly a classic hard tail mountain bike.

Yes the design was to allow for more chain travel free of obstructions especially in the lower front ring positions. The first time it appeared was on the PDG oversize tubing mountain bikes. Smiles, MH

Check and see if that's one of the Shimano cranksets that was recalled in the late 90s. If so- and you can find a bike shop willing to facilitate- the recall is still active (or was, as of about 5 years ago). You can get a whole new crankset, bottom bracket, and chain from Shimano.

You saying I can put away the gas-x if I stop riding cf bikes?

Looks like the damage is done. Might as well leave that kickstand on.