# Anyone Recognize This late 80s MTB?



## thrifty bill (Jan 5, 2011)

OK, I picked this one up cheap ($5). The original plan was to just strip it for parts. But the group over on vintage bike forums recommended I check here, as it has some unusual details. One guy thought it might be a Brodie, or an early Kona. I have no idea. I know the frame is all cromoly, the only remaining decal is on the drive side seat stay. The fork is a Tange.

Components are almost all Deore LX, the rear U brake is a Shimano. Not sure what parts are original if any. Main frame has been rattlecanned.

Although the bike is well used, frame is pretty much free of defects (other than the paint....)


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## yo-Nate-y (Mar 5, 2009)

Between the two, I'd guess Brodie since he used noodles and such out back, but I really have no idea. Cool details!

A perhaps useful thread:
http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=7399

Looks like none are monostay like yours is.


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## laffeaux (Jan 4, 2004)

Neat bike. I've never seen that kind of detail on a seat tube. It looks like a wood worker made it. 

Any idea what the braze-on on the rear of the seat tube is for?

And is that that the original fork covered in black spray paint?


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## yo-Nate-y (Mar 5, 2009)

laffeaux said:


> Any idea what the braze-on on the rear of the seat tube is for?


Not Hite Rite?
Kinda a Rocky Mountain-esque paint scheme if that is the original fork.


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## Vlad (Feb 7, 2004)

Looks Canadian. I dig it.


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## laffeaux (Jan 4, 2004)

yo-Nate-y said:


> Not Hite Rite?


Hmmm.. that's probably right.


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## mechagouki (Nov 30, 2007)

It looks like a Rocky Mountain to me, DeeEight is your man to ask on this one, if it's a Canadian bike he'll know what it is.

This is a picture of a 1990 Blizzard (so no u-brake), the similarities are obvious.


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## thrifty bill (Jan 5, 2011)

laffeaux said:


> Neat bike. I've never seen that kind of detail on a seat tube. It looks like a wood worker made it.
> 
> Any idea what the braze-on on the rear of the seat tube is for?
> 
> And is that that the original fork covered in black spray paint?


Yes, the color of the steering tube matches the color of the stays (blue). The fork itself got the same crazy rattlecan job as the main frame.

That extra braze on is really odd, as there are rack mounts lower on the stays, so that would have been my guess.

I think the fork is original, given the color of the steering tube.


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## N10S (Sep 27, 2004)

That tall front end would make that a great candidate for off-road drop bars. The frame itself almost looks like a 26in version of my Singular Gryphon. Cool old bike for sure!


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## DeeEight (Jan 13, 2004)

Rocky Mountain Thunderbolt, its the hite-rite braze-on mounted on an extended seattube external lug section that gives them away. They were custom ordered so the parts are not automatically always high end, many owners bought framesets only and then had the shop build the bike with a component group ordered seperately. 

That particular version of Deore LX, going from the grey push-push rapidfire paddles dates from 1990 to 1992. Rocky had gone to 1 1/8 headsets by 1990. If your frame is a 1" steerer then it was produced in 1989 or earlier.


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## sryanak (Aug 9, 2008)

I'm amazed at the money people spend on dropper posts when the hite rite did pretty much the same thing with much less weight and lots cheaper.


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## thrifty bill (Jan 5, 2011)

Thanks for the ID help. Like the idea of drops on it. I've wanted to do a drop bar/bar con conversion of a rigid frame MTB for a while.

Will I mess up getting this frameset powder coated? And would it be worth finding replacement decals? I'll get a date code off the U brake and Tange fork. Not sure the other Deore stuff is original, but I'll get some dates there as well.

I'm an old guy that enjoys wrenching on vintage bikes. 99% of what I work on are road bikes, but I have a few interesting MTBs as well.


Any idea what that odd braze on is on the back side of the seat tube (the front side is the seat post clamp). I would have thought it was for a rack, but the rack mounts to the seat stay.


Thanks!


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## brent878 (Apr 17, 2007)

thrifty bill said:


> Any idea what that odd braze on is on the back side of the seat tube (the front side is the seat post clamp). I would have thought it was for a rack, but the rack mounts to the seat stay.
> 
> Thanks!


Hite Rite as other have said. Here is a picture.


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## Schmitty (Sep 7, 2008)

sryanak said:


> I'm amazed at the money people spend on dropper posts when the hite rite did pretty much the same thing with much less weight and lots cheaper.


Remote (bar) operation is key. Almost as key as learning to ride with your post at one height.

-Schmitty-


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## cegrover (Oct 17, 2004)

Here's one in use...


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## Vlad (Feb 7, 2004)

Those of you with Hite-Rites--do you actually use them?


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## Howley (Nov 23, 2005)

Found a stash of used Hite Rites at the local bicycle co-op. I'll try one come spring and let you know if as good as $300+ droper...;-)


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## tashi (Apr 17, 2005)

I've spent plenty of time on both. The $$ and lbs are worth it in my opinion.



sryanak said:


> I'm amazed at the money people spend on dropper posts when the hite rite did pretty much the same thing with much less weight and lots cheaper.


As an aside, I CAN ride with my seat at full height, I can ride technical stuff better with it down a bit, there's just more room to move the bike around. Riding with a dropper post, adjustable travel front and platform rear suspension on a 28lb bike is almost cheating it's so good.


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## DeeEight (Jan 13, 2004)

Schmitty said:


> Remote (bar) operation is key. Almost as key as learning to ride with your post at one height.
> 
> -Schmitty-


And remote-operation was available for hite-rites by what was it...1992?


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## Repack Rider (Oct 22, 2005)

Vlad said:


> Those of you with Hite-Rites--do you actually use them?


I ride with Joe Breeze, who developed the Hite-Rite. He has a Gravity Dropper on his own bike.


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## trailville (Jul 24, 2006)

Repack Rider said:


> I ride with Joe Breeze, who developed the Hite-Rite. He has a Gravity Dropper on his own bike.


I don't think it should be surprising that the pioneers of mountain biking embrace new technology more than many of the collectors that post here. All the innovative stuff you guys did in the early days was because you weren't willing to accept the limitations of current equipment. No reason to think your entire outlook would change just because you're a little older and others are now driving the innovation.



tashi said:


> As an aside, I CAN ride with my seat at full height, I can ride technical stuff better with it down a bit, there's just more room to move the bike around. Riding with a dropper post, adjustable travel front and platform rear suspension on a 28lb bike is almost cheating it's so good.


My dropper seatpost was great for giving me the confidence to try some really steep techy stuff, but once I built up my confidence on these features I rarely had any difficulties doing it with my seat at full height. I now mainly only use it in the winter on the same steep stuff but now the steep stuff has ice/snow on it and I need some additional confidence again. :eekster:


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## MABman (Oct 5, 2008)

DeeEight said:


> And remote-operation was available for hite-rites by what was it...1992?


1989 actually according to Mombat: https://mombat.org/1289IRDQR.jpg


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## mechagouki (Nov 30, 2007)

MABman said:


> 1989 actually according to Mombat: https://mombat.org/1289IRDQR.jpg


Now that is cool! Did it actually work? I have a Hite Rite and a spare thumbie - where would I find the IRD part I wonder...


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## Veloculture (Dec 18, 2005)

Vlad said:


> Those of you with Hite-Rites--do you actually use them?


I don't. Dropping the saddle only throws me off.


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## DeeEight (Jan 13, 2004)

I barely ever use the QR on my own bikes for anything other than getting a bike into the car, certainly never when riding. The only bike with a hite-rite is my thunderbolt (because it has the braze-on mount for it).


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## mechagouki (Nov 30, 2007)

I just re-read this thread and realised that the OP just scored a $5 Thunderbolt!


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## DeeEight (Jan 13, 2004)

Yeah I never noticed the price he paid. Beats my $200 thunderbolt score in the mid-90s. Mind you mine came with XT parts and a Fat Chance BOI fork also. 

Could we get a closeup picture of that remaining decal on the seatstay ?


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## KDXdog (Mar 15, 2007)

Hite-Rite: Back then, yeah I did.

These days....no. More for "Vintage look" on my old FAT now.


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## yo-Nate-y (Mar 5, 2009)

I've always really liked that Wicked.


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## thrifty bill (Jan 5, 2011)

DeeEight said:


> Yeah I never noticed the price he paid. Beats my $200 thunderbolt score in the mid-90s. Mind you mine came with XT parts and a Fat Chance BOI fork also.
> 
> Could we get a closeup picture of that remaining decal on the seatstay ?


I'll snap a picture of it as soon as I dig out a path to the workshop. Right now, we are buried in snow and ice.


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## KDXdog (Mar 15, 2007)

yo-Nate-y said:


> I've always really liked that Wicked.


Not a Wicked, just a FAT Chance...


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## yo-Nate-y (Mar 5, 2009)

Ha- word. 
Do you have a link to a full spread of pics? I remember seeing it a while back and "Wicked" got stuck in mind. Maybe I just have Wickeds on the brain since I am building one up......but I digress--- really cool bike---I'd love to see more of it!


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## KDXdog (Mar 15, 2007)

yo-Nate-y said:


> Ha- word.
> Do you have a link to a full spread of pics? I remember seeing it a while back and "Wicked" got stuck in mind. Maybe I just have Wickeds on the brain since I am building one up......but I digress--- really cool bike---I'd love to see more of it!


Yo-Nate-y,

I just updated the official FAT thread. Thanks for asking.


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## thrifty bill (Jan 5, 2011)

Here are a couple of close ups of the frame. The remaining decal, and the serial number (or at least part of it).


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## donny the hack (Jan 18, 2011)

*late 80s*

think its a Nishiki by Norco a Canadian company that is from the same home of Brodie and Kona do not know the model and if i had to guess 1988 some of the Canadian brands shared the same style


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## thrifty bill (Jan 5, 2011)

Date codes are NH and NK, which is November 1989. That makes the bike a 1990 model.


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## richieb (Oct 21, 2004)

Ya - deffo a Norco product - nO fillet brazing - and those parts are probably original. That roller stem is also a hint.


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## DeeEight (Jan 13, 2004)

The decals on the stays would match the nishiki label bins of the late 80s/early 90s. Its that large white inverted triangle that sets it apart from the Rocky seatstay decals (which were also a two-tone italic style print at the time). Anyone got a 1990 Nishiki canada catalog ?


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## eof4si2 (Dec 3, 2010)

No.


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## donny the hack (Jan 18, 2011)

*just trying to help out*

was just thinking about the make did not know the model and just ballparking the year at four or so in the mourning mainly because i could not sleep thanks


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## DeeEight (Jan 13, 2004)

There is also the possibility since its had a repaint that someone re-decaled it also. I've seen that done with Rocky Mountains changed by their owners into Norcos to keep them from being stolen. In the 80s... a commonly heard chant was "Norco's suck". This would be because the bottom most Rocky model was about equal to the second best Norco. Also while the thunderbolt was generally ordered as all filet-brazed, the Tantalus model was mostly Tig welded and at basically the same model level. As memory serves around the 1990 model year, Derek Bailey did all the Thunderbolts and Chris Dekerf did all the Tantalus frames. 

And although Nishiki DID do the extended seattube on some models, I don't recall them ever actually sticking a hite-rite mount onto the frame as well. Especially not with that hugely sloping toptube (the Norco models back then had either horizontal toptubes or at best, a minor slope).


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