Freakin'Chickin

Well I forgot to say that the FD acted a little stubborn and I couldn't pass the chain on the 28T at first. But then, at the end of the commute back from practice, there is ONE short but brutal hill that I usually don't do when I'm coming back home, as it is brutal, yes, but also twisty, narrow and dangerous. And it seemed like I would never make it on top, even with the 28T ring. I blamed it on the backpack

28x30 is plentiful: I tried three or four months ago a double-susp. rig with a 2x10 drive and fell in love with it; lowest gear was 26x34. I guess yesterday I just wished I had some less teeth on my crank!

Drummerboy1975

Cool! Mine has a blue to purple fade. Hard to see in this light. I need to take a better photo.

Drummerboy1975

CACycling

This is (I believe) a '77 Nishiki Westwood:

It was found tossed in the bushes at our church and they were unable to locate the owner so, after a year, our youth pastor asked if I'd help him get it rideable. It was in rough shape (rear hub had the remains of a bottle cap that was - I assume - inserted as a spacer and lots of other issues). Managed to get it rideable mostly from parts I had laying around (though the fork is tweeked so it pulls a bit).

frantik

^ im pretty sure that's not a 1977 model since mtbs werent mass produced until the 80s

Kobe 

Sheldon Brown's site has a lot of the information you are looking for. A '92 Cadex was 30.2, but if you have access to calipers it would be better to measure yourself. There is a lot of variety from year to year and even models within each year.

Nice looking Cadex BTW.

https://sheldonbrown.com/seatpost-sizes.html#g

CACycling

I thought this but the Nishiki serial numbering convention I found in C&V points to that year (KGxxxxx). Would be interested to know if this is incorrect.

frantik

hmmm I think Tmar would be interested in this.. looking at the picture I would guess early-mid 80s. Could be 1987 but I would think earlier. What components does it have?

CACycling

I was originally thinking early-mid '80s as well but Tmar's serial # page seemed to point to '77. It's all 6 speed. Suntour Mountech FD, Suntour RD (no idea what model), Suntour thumb shifters (that were missing parts), Sugino AT crankset, chrome bull moose handlebars w/ integrated stem. Wheels were definately not stock. Frame said Champion # 2 Chromo Butted tubes and the fork has a cast crown.

frantik

everything but the SN makes me think early 80s.. Champion #2 huh.. nice

eastcoaststeve

T, I never get tired of looking at your Rodriguez...such a classy bike.

What ever happened to the dark blue one with the "lipstick" paint, ? (you know, the one that was more my size, lol.)


Any progress on the Champion?


Steve

IthaDan 

Can anyone tell me about this fat chance I picked up today?

Sixty Fiver

Besides the fact you stole it for what you paid ?

Slammin

Dan, what you have there is an 87-89, maybe 89 regular Fat Chance. It was one of two or three models for a few years I believe they had a team bike early on that was customized for the rider and it had titanium bars and much nicer stem etc.. There was also a Wicked fat Chance..

The later early 90's Fat Chance stems had rollers. The frame fork appear to be repainted but I am not sure as you could custom order from an Imron color chart. Later Fat Chances had the dual tone, early ones had contrast forks so your paint job appears 90ish. As I said previously, the stem is pre 90s, as later stems had cable rollers. If you can also show the dropouts I can be certain. Its definitely not a Wicked Fat Chance, they were just slightly more agressive and agile compared to the slacker geometry of the Fat Chance. If you can tell me the seat size I can tell you the year for sure. Lastly the bullet point chain and seat stays and FD cable stop pics can help ascertain the year. Right now its an 89 in my opinion.
Really cool pick up.

IthaDan 

Well yea, there's that. Was kind of a buddy deal, but still amazing.


The guy I got it from is from VT, he told me the bike had passed through many hands in the area over the years. I guess it's my turn to board this bike. I'd really like to get graphics on it, so thank you very much. There is one decal left, something on the left chainstay, I didn't get a very good look, I picked it up on my way to class today and have been out of the house all day.

I'll go take some pictures, it's already dark, so be prepared to be blown away by how crappy they are.

gomango

Agreed.

My brother has one from the same year.

A tractor disguised as a bicycle.

Excellent pick up I would say.

TiHabanero

We sold a lot of those greenmeanies back then! 25.5 inch was as big as they got. Had one customer at 6'7" that bought two of them to have a back up. Well wouldn't you know, 2 years later he got hit by a car and his backup was put into service!

IthaDan 

Just checked, the seatpost is a 26.4. Here are some pictures, they're not great, but hopefully they'll help you pin it down. The only decal on the bike was from "D+D Frame Services". That has me a little concerned, but the PO wasn't exactly easy on it. Holy crap is this thing dirty. I took these pictures against the garage door with my car's headlights on as well.

Stay ends:





Tough to see, but there *are* two cable stops in this picture:



Decal:


Gallery:
https://imgur.com/a/QkvQe

Thanks!

jbchybridrider 

There's no hole drilled into the fork crown for a reflector, it must mean business as a offroader!

Slammin

Dan,
Its an 89 as I suspected. The single eyelet and rounded bullet shape stays as well as seat size confirms 89 for me. 87s and some early 88s had chainstay brakes. 1990 drop outs gets double eyelets and stays are sharp and pointy like pencils or sharpened stakes. I was dead on about the respray, D&D cycles is a company in San Lorenzo, CA specializing in custom paint work. As I said in earlier post, most came with frame one color and fork contrasting. Thanks for sharing.

skidder

1992 Trek 8000, 22" frame AL frame with CroMo fork. Picked this up from my brother's neighbor two weeks ago, looked like it had been dragged upside down(?); the seat, handlebars, and levers were all trashed. Got some new parts this week, got it up and running last night, and took it for a 5 miles spin this AM. Still need to get the seat and reach adjusted, but its one of the more comfy rigid MTBs I've ever ridden. Going to leave it like this for a few weeks, but I'm really thinking it would work better with drop bars for use as a "suburban assault vehicle".

IthaDan 

Thanks for this. Did you work for Chris Chance? You either talk a very convincing game or have extensive knowledge of these bicycles.

I've been in [local bike guru] Glenn Swan's ear about working in his frame shop over the winter, but to date, nothing has materialized. Apparently he and Chance learned framebuilding together.

Elev12k

Nice Fat Chance score

Don't know whether I've put my slightly younger example up already, but here it is:

blilrat

You have posted this one before, but feel free to post it as often as you want. That is one gorgeous bike!

IthaDan 

This bike makes the 14 year old me (born in 1980) feel all tingly inside. Please post more pics.

Where did you find the blonde tioga tires?