Aemmer

I think the early Mtb builders were a bit limited by available lug sizes that weren't conductive to the unique angles and tubing of the bikes they were building and thus leaned towards fillet brazing. Certaily Specialized, Trek and Bridgestone among others came out with lugged Mtb's soon enough. Can't picture any off the top of my head from the early years that were over the top with detail though. Lots of two tone paint by the mid 80's that got crazier as the decade progressed. The Moots up above has bottle mounts on both sides of the fork, rack and fender mounts, and a portage strap. The Ritchy Commando came with plenty of rack, fender, bottle mounts also.


Two tone fade from 1986 (Rodriguez):



Camo was popular with a few builders by the early 80's (Mountain Goat):

Aemmer

That was a pretty bike.

Bikedued

The fanciest lugs and color scheme (if black and silver is fancy?) I have seen is on a Diamondback Mean Streak. I missed out on one on ebay sometime last year, as I was trying to be a responsible adult for someone that wasn't worth the effort. Sure would have loved to have it. Prugnat looking lugs that were striped. Nice lug work, and a one of kind(for the brand) bullmoose bar. Closest I've seen to what I was talking about. Early high end mountainbikes seemed more interested in trademark functional construction over flash. Things were moving quickly back then, of course. Not saying it's a bad thing, but the craftsmanship level was in the industry, it just never bled over into the mountainbike world except for a chosen few models.,,,,BD

Okay, yes... The Ridgerunner like this picture, shared the same lugs!

https://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...ihbq6R2azOBe7O

https://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...GVLvhcbWuFI-x5

Aemmer

My first ATB was a DB Mean Streak. Spent so much money on it I knew it would last a lifetime. Within six months I had wore out or broke pretty much every component on the bike. Been hooked ever since.

Italuminium

Post of the month

blilrat

A pair of 1994 steel Stumpjumper FSRs

KAH

1985 Rockhopper

Her rock hopping days are behind her she stays mostly on dirt roads and pavement these days.
Just put new M324 Pedals on, she looks kinda naked without the toe clips.

Smokinapankake

Best full suspension Stumpy ever built.

Julius_Happy

Hi...

Can anyone help me to recognise my bike?

Glennfordx4

From the pictures it appears to be a low end MTB ( maybe a give away at a Suzuki dealer ), the claw hanger on the rear derailleur points that way to me.


Glenn

oddjob2

How do you get such great photos? Lighting looks great and seemless background?

KAH

Glad you liked them. I'm a commercial photographer by trade, had the lights and white sweep(9 foot paper seamless) setup for a previous shot. I can see a dozen things I'd have changed for an actual paying shoot. Starting with the uneven background lighting and I see now my rack is no longer mounted level ect. These were just some quick snaps before breaking the set and putting the bike on the trainer to watch it keep raining out the window while I peddle.


lit with a 54 x 75" Softbox boomed over head and a 22x30box fill in front plus 3 big white fill cards.

mr,grumpy 

Yep. It sure was. Here is my Sorrento DX. Bought it new, from LBS, in about 97 or so.

oddjob2

Been after this for about two weeks, finally picked it up. Frame size is 19", paint is in great condition. The saddle and stem have to go. Road slicks too will be added. Deore XT!

BluesDaddy

Some day a mud-green FS-R will come my way. That's my Holy Grail.

Elev12k

Very nice RidgeRunner, oddjob2. I have a one and two year younger RR. You can clearly see the evolution, even though there is only 2 years difference.

69tr6r

Hi royal, don't worry, the Ridge Runner is in good hands! I really need to get some better pics of it. I replaced all of the spokes and added a B17 saddle. It also sports some gumwall tires from the 90's that look pretty correct on the bike. These pics are before the B17 was installed.

I use the bike whenever the kids want to take a cruise around the neighborhood. I wish I had more time to ride it, but I do stop and stare at it... a lot.

Thanks.

Inhimwelive

My first MTB was a Mt hood that looked just like this. The only real difference in the two models was the Whitney had a stupid, heavy horizontally adjustable seatpost. I still miss this ride but the frame cracked and she had to go to the graveyard.

Bikedued

This is in my garage now! Very excited to finish the build, but I don't have the proper fork. The fork my friend had on it, he traded to the guy I got the Geoffrey Butler frame from. Soooo, now I have drive to Porter, TX(long drive) and bring $100 or trade equivalent to that. It's a chrome 26 inch Cook Bros BMX style unicrown. I am thinking of a 1X6 or 7 street bike. A 1.5" tire is pushing the envelope, so I am really beginning to wonder if it's a 24 inch? Definitely low production, and the frame is VERY light weight! Even with a seatpost/seat, cranks, and a back wheel, it's still a featherweight. I've already "fixed" the spread open drive side dropout. It looked like it had a derailleur in the spokes incident. It was spread open and tweaked inward.

I will get my own pictures soon, I promise!

https://www.bmxsociety.com/topic/5460...ain-bike-stem/

I was going to post a follow up on bmx society, but no way am I spending $37 for a year's membership for one post.

andyfloyd

1995 Stumpy FSR-Sport. Lots of upgrades, I think I finally found a Fox Alps 4 For the rear of this bike so I can get rid of that Junky RST Coil sprung rear.

TiHabanero

I still ride my 84 Miyata Ridgerunner everyday. Converted to a cruiser years ago and is used as an errand runner. Put about 300 miles a year on it. Told my wife if all the bikes had to go except one, this would be the one that stays.

Mud green FSR, whoa! Only seen in pics, never in person. Had a 94 SWorks FSR just like the red one shown.

mparker326

Latest vintage MTB pickup. All chrome 1987 Mongoose ATB. I have always wanted a chrome bike. Don't know why more MTB's weren't chromed as it is really much tougher than paint. The chrome looks great despite having lived a hard life.

This was a save from a poor attempt at flipping a bike. Seatpost was stuck because it was a too large post hammered into the frame. Fortunately, it didn't go to far down. Seller took off a little more as he couldn't get the pedal on the crank. I looked and showed him he was trying to put the left pedal in the right arm. Anyway, after an oxalic acid bath to get off some rust from the BB and seattube area and some XT components I had laying around here she is:

Inhimwelive

[QUOTE=mparker326;16000393]Latest vintage MTB pickup. All chrome 1987 Mongoose ATB. I have always wanted a chrome bike. Don't know why more MTB's weren't chromed as it is really much tougher than paint.

Couldn't agree more I've owned two chromed beauties. The Ross and a Trek 4500 that I passed down to my son. I still want another!

neo_pop_71

[QUOTE=Inhimwelive;16005709]My good friend is into the older stuff too as he was a big BMX guy back in the day but his love are the early higher end aluminum frames. He media blasts all his frames and has the "chromer" polish them. They come out looking like chrome and man are they gorgeous! For me it all goes back to that first batch that Joe Breeze made, he nickel plated those frames and they were beauties! Paint was the economical choice for mass production and the cosmetics of our bikes have suffered ever since. That's why my daughter's 1988 Easton Reflex has continued to look great... anodized main tubes with metal flake paint (looks automotive to me)... Easton didn't go cheap on the finish and it's lasted 25 years!

(please excuse the seat and seatpost, at the time I was having the seatpost polished and I was waiting on "hot pink" Oury downhill grips)

gaucho777 

Nice score! That's a sharp looking MTB.