xtc14

Hello

I moved over my aluminum jittery ride hybrid frame for a more roomy and comfy Chromoly frame.
The mechanic says the frame was there gathering dust on a store facility and that it had Trek decals.

Description of the frame:
It has lugs on the Seatstay and in the bottom bracket area, it has the mounting brackets to put up to 4 bottle holders! 2 on the downtube, 1 in the downtube but below the 2 main ones and another one on the seat tube. On the headtube it doesn't have Lugs nor weld, it looks like the top tube, downtube and the head tube is a single piece.

I have taken these pictures, hopefully someone could identify this frame builder.

This number is on the bottom bracket: E994095

alcjphil

That is a very nice looking touring bike frame. It isn't a hybrid. The head tube joints appear to be fillet brazed, giving the smooth look. It takes a skilled welder to do joints like that. If I were you I would invest in a nicer bolt for the seatpost clamp, that one spoils the look. Don't know if it's a Trek, but apparently in the early years Trek employees built frames for themselves, that could be one of them. A Trek wouldn't usually have fillet joints at the head tube. Before you ride the bike, make sure to install bolts in all the water bottle holder mounts to keep water from getting inside the frame tubes, particularly the ones on the underside of the downtube

BlazingPedals

That seems like an odd combination, to have lugs and fillet joints. The fillet joints, although pretty good, don't quite look ready for a retail frame. Between that and the paint job, it makes me wonder if this was a home-built, or perhaps a commercial touring bike that someone repaired by replacing the head tube. Anybody have an old Trek 520 to see if the lugs on the seat tube and BB match what's in the pics?

dazevedo

Maybe a modified mid 80's Schwinn Cimarron someone added water bosses to use as a tourer ?
Thats what the frame reminds me of anyways.

Sixty Fiver

The mixture of what appears to be decent lugwork and reinforced bottle mounts speaks to a higher level of quality... the filet brazed headtube and extremely slack angles suggest to me that the original lugged frame was altered or was built with the filet joints as no lugs were available to accommodate the head angle.

It is a touring bike... the fork only has one set of eyelets and I can't see any lowrider mounts... it may be a replacement

When we filet braze our frames we only make an exception of the bottom bracket shell which will be lugged if the geometry allows... this makes for a much stronger bb shell and stiffer bottom bracket. It looks like some of the fancy faux lugwork that has been used by other builders but is the real deal.

Looks like you found a nice and very interesting bike...

LesterOfPuppets

I'm with dazevedo

1985-ish Cimarron or High Sierra

Does it have 26" wheels?

Here's the catalog page for High Sierra. Cimarron page is one size smaller, so doesn't have that bottle braze-on config.

https://bikecatalogs.org/SCHWINN/1985...gh_Sierra.html

dazevedo

Also look at this thread and see if it matches your bike.
https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...what-do-I-have
Still looks a lot like a modified Cimarron to me. Does it have to small holes on head tube where a badge may have been ? Could have been filled in when the added bottle bosses where added. Just my guess.Also it seems the serial numbers in the 80's seem to match yours with a starting letter followed by 6 digits. The head badge would have told the build date. Good luck and nice looking bike.

fietsbob

Someone got the Cantilever bosses re brazed to use 622 wheels on a MTB frame, then got it repainted.

LesterOfPuppets

I have a feeling those wheels are 559.

fietsbob

Maybe so .. a threadless threaded conversion on top of the fork

xtc14

Thanks for the replies so far.

The wheels are 700C. The reason is that I got the frame since I wanted a bigger one and of cromoly. The mechanic transferred the parts from my aluminum hybrid to this frame. He actually repainted since he told me the paint was not in a very good condition.

So far I've covered like 300km on this bike and the ride quality is phenomenal.

I didn't know it was a touring bike, actually the BB is much much higher compared to my hybrid.
I will put the bolts on the remainder of the unused bosses.
In the mean time I will take a look at the URL you posted to see if anyone matches it.

LesterOfPuppets

Hmm, must be a replacement fork, then. Stock Schwinn Cimarron/High Sierra fork would have a 700c x 32-ish tire sitting much closer to the crown.

What's the Axle-to-crown measurement on that? 420mm or so?

Yeah, big wheels on an olde MTB frame make for HIGH bottom bracket.

xtc14

Yes, the fork is not the original since the mechanic only found the frame. He got a Diamondback fork, the axle to crown is around 420mm as you say that's why I get the clearance for the 700C tire.
Didn't know the frame was quite old, the ride quality of cromoly can be beaten, maybe only by titanium or any other better cromoly alloy.

Thanks for discovering the maker for my touring bike,

So is a touring more efficient bike as an hybrid? I'm confused since this Schwinn Cimarron is supposedly a mountain bike frame but not a tourist one.

LesterOfPuppets

I'd call the Cimarrons/High Sierras of that era touring mountain bikes. They come with lowrider rack bosses on the stock fork so they're definitely designed for loading up with stuff and getting out and about.

Many "road" touring bikes can be more efficient than those Schwinns, but as you say those things ride REALLY nicely.

You can cram a 700x32 into most olde MTB forks and run a long reach dual-pivot caliper also. I don't know if it's really worth the trouble here, but it is an option. Drop your front end 20-25mm, maybe drop the bottom bracket about a centimeter.

Here's a 395 axle-to-crown fork with 700x32 tires in it. The bottom bracket is still extremely high, as you can imagine.

Metacortex

That's a 1989 Schwinn Cimarron (E9xxxxx indicates a May '89 frame build) in what looks like the largest 22" size (c-t) available at the time. Those water bottle braze-ons were standard, it came with 4 sets on the frame and one set on the original stem (not present here) for a total of 5. That was the last year for the Cimarron and while it was available in black that one looks like it was repainted. The original fork was unpainted chrome.

xtc14

Thanks for that bit of information Metacortex, so it seems I got the last model of Cimarron.

A really nice ride, I love the feel of cromolly on the road. The frame is definitely a keeper.
Maybe in the future I will put skinnier tires such as 700x32 or 700x28.