You're looking at a 1990 Rocky Mountain Metro - the first hybrid ever in Rocky's lineup. The hybrid became a very popular style of bike when people realized how great it was to have most of the speed of a road bike, but with the more comfortable upright riding position of a mountain bike.
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 You are looking at a 1985 Ritchey Rocky Mountain / Ascent. It is a 4130 steel frame with a 6-speed non-indexed drivetrain and an alloy Bullmoose bar.
It has both Ritchey and Rocky Mountain decals on it, but it was not made by Tom Ritchey, nor was it made by Derek Bailey, Chris DeKerf, or Paul Brodie. I hope you're sitting comfortably, because we have lots to talk about here...  You're looking at a 1993 Rocky Mountain Stratos. The Stratos was Rocky's entry-level aluminium bike, debuting in 1989, made in Japan from 7000 series alloy. I think. There should be a decal about the frame tubes on the bike, but it's gone.
It's an interesting bike as Rocky put some extra effort into the parts spec, attempting to make this something more than just another hard tail.  The Santa Cruz Heckler that I tried in several different configurations to build up, just never worked for me. As much as I thought I had a great concept to build the Heckler around, it just never panned out. Oh well.
So, it's gone, and in its place, is this grellow beauty...  Barely the middle of February, and I am already excited for the summer. This is the first of three big updates.
I'm not sure if I've ever posted about this rescue Summit I bought close to two years ago, but I'm finally making some progress. More progress actually. I was able to clean it up from the disaster it was when I bought it, but then things got stuck...  An update on my Moulden Team road bike;
I finally got some decent wheels for it, Mavic Ksyriums in silver. I wanted black, but the more I look at it, the more I like these. I couldn't not buy them at the price that was being asked. However, still some things I'm not happy with, like the stem, and the brake levers. You probably can't see it, but I've got some black Shimano 105 STI levers there. I like that they're black, but they just don't work well on the moustache bar. They kick out a bit, which becomes kicking up on the moustache bar - not good. I need some old non-shifter-integrated levers insead.  There's a joke in certain retro vintage MTB circles with regards to the GT Zaskar. As the online communities started up and people went to them to ask 'what is this frame I just bought?' people started to realize that the differences between certain frames were very subtle. Like say, the GT Zaskar and Avalanche. The Zaskar being a made in California frame, the Avalanche in Taiwan.
The number of posts from members asking if their new prize was a genuine American made Zaskar eventually resulted in every frame - even those that were obvisouly not GTs - posted with the question; "Is it a Zaskar?" So, is this a Zaskar?  I spend a lot of time looking at used bike listings - for various reasons. I'm always on the lookout for vintage stuff of course, and it's my part-time side hustle. As such, I think I can say I'm an authority on what used bikes are worth, so when something comes up that's maybe out of line with the market, it tends to stick out.
This week, a Norco VPS Atomik came up for $1100, and my immediate reaction was "that's too much man!" But, the more I thought about it, the more I think that's a pretty good price. I think I can say that I'm no longer in project heck. It really depends on what you consider a project. I have five bikes that need to be built, but I have parts for all of them, so there's not much uncertainty there. But let's update the situation anyway.
1. Rocky Mountain Cardiac. It's the Little Rocky That Nobody Wants. I did this up in perfect mid-90's style but couldn't sell it for $200. So I'll put different stuff on it and keep it maybe. Now has a Syncros stem and a Cannondale bar. 2. Rocky Mountain Stratos. I bought this because I like Rockys. I really had no other reason. I took at apart, did some cleaning, and I'll put some different parts on it. Not sure what else to do. 3. Mystery Steel bike. Probably a Nishiki. I have all the parts to put it back together, but I know it's not going to be worth much. Even if I go to the trouble of painting it.  This is a Giant XtC NRS from 2002 - probably. I can't find a perfect match for these decals though. The '01s had a prominent 'XtC' on the downtube, and the '02s had either 1, 2, or 3 next to the 'NRS' script. This kinda feels like a warranty replacement frame? There's really no match at all for the parts on here.
Giant had dabbled with several other suspension designs before this, but this felt different. Like they were really taking it seriously. The thing was though, it was someone else's design. |
AuthorI'm 80. I wrench more than I ride and I like it that way. Archives
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