# I Was Given 3 Mid 80's Focus Bicycles - One With Deer Head - Looking For Info On Them



## mewholobo (Nov 24, 2006)

I was given 3 mid-80's Focus bicycles this last weekend. 2 were mountain bikes and one was a touring bike. They were all original. The one that was the least ridden had a complete Shimano Deer Head groupo on it. The other mountain bike had a Suntour XC groupo. The third one had a Suntour Mountech groupo. The bike with the Deer Head groupo is pink in color. It has wide Nitto riser bars, Sansin hubs with what I imagine are Aray rims. it is an amazing looking bicycle. I know nothing about Focus bicycles of the 80's, and am just looking to find out more about them.


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## muddybuddy (Jan 31, 2007)

Sound like some good parts diners there.


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## Rumpfy (Dec 21, 2003)

Or donor bikes...


Don't know anything about them either, but the parts sound good.


Post some pics.


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## girlonbike (Apr 24, 2008)

I like parts diner better.


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## muddybuddy (Jan 31, 2007)

Damn auto spell correct.


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## Jak0zilla (May 16, 2010)

Pictures?


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## Austin Dave (Jul 7, 2010)

_Parts diner_ is perfect. Auto correct is brilliant. I remember back in 1998 or so, MS Word used to be confused by the word _Internet_, and offer to replace it with _internment_. So helpful, and so awesome.


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## TheRedMantra (Jan 12, 2004)

Flagstaff find?


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## IF52 (Jan 10, 2004)

Hey, my grandparents owned a diner in Brockton MA back in the day, but I don't think they served bike parts.


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## proto2000 (Jan 27, 2007)

They are hard on the teeth. Lets see those bikes too.


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## mewholobo (Nov 24, 2006)

*Photo 1*

Here's a photo of the two mountain bikes. I removed the stock shifters, derailleurs, cranks, brakes, etc. etc. and sold those parts on Ebay. I converted these two bikes to single speeds to sell as college campus type bikes.


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## mewholobo (Nov 24, 2006)

*Deer Head Parts*

I haven't dealt with older early 80's era mountain bike parts before. The complete Deer Head groupo off the pink bike sold yesterday on Ebay, and I was surprised at how low they sold for. I thought (or at least a lot of people led me to believe) these parts were going to sell for more than they did!


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## mewholobo (Nov 24, 2006)

Here's a photo of the touring bike that had the Mountech groupo! The yellow bike had a Suntour XC Sport groupo.


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## girlonbike (Apr 24, 2008)

Yeah, kind of a bummer for you. Alot of people aren't into the biopace rings, I liked the black brakes but you only had one, some people like the suntour rcs but you only had one. The things I would have gone for are the derailleurs and shifters but I just don't have the 80's era bikes that would find them useful. Plus. I'm on a spending freeze after getting a couple of neat framesets lately.

In other words, it's always a crap shoot on ebay. Everybody's seen certain things skyrocket because 2 bidders are desperate. Some days, nobody seems to want your stuff and it goes cheap. Hard to tell if it's going to be your day or not. You may have made more money if you sold each item separately but that can be a royal PITA.

Hey! Look on the bright side, you still made money. I don't see a lot people telling you they were going to go for more. I doubt if you'll get anything exciting for those frames, IMHO.


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## mewholobo (Nov 24, 2006)

I got these bikes for free, so I shouldn't be greedy about the prices those parts went for on Ebay! 

You are right about Ebay though. You never know. I love dealing with this old stuff, especially when I have no money invested, other than a little shop time to remove and clean parts!


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## Shogun700 (Jun 15, 2009)

mickbwolf said:


> I got these bikes for free, so I shouldn't be greedy about the prices those parts went for on Ebay!
> 
> You are right about Ebay though. You never know. I love dealing with this old stuff, especially when I have no money invested, other than a little shop time to remove and clean parts!


I won these parts actually-did you get my messages?   I'm trying to finish a couple builds this week.

I knew i should have gone a little higher on the crankset, but I kind of blew my budget on the shifters.... black is hard to find. Looking at the pink bike, it's a little strange that they had 180mm crank arms on that.

I'm glad you posted the pictures of the other bikes-I was really curious about them. I wonder if these are re-badged versions of some other frameset? Nice looking bikes, regardless, I'm sure they'll go quick!


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## Jak0zilla (May 16, 2010)

I'm curious (really, not just being snarky) why you don't leave both brakes on when you resell them as cafe cruisers? 

I've always thought that bare cantilever posts are unsightly. I'd imagine you could get a few more bucks for a bike with a pair of brakes. Or at least have an easier time selling them. 

They do like nice, clean, and well done. I imagine you'll not have trouble unloading them.


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## mewholobo (Nov 24, 2006)

You are right. It would have been better if I would have done the bikes up right, using a complete brake set, and matching parts. 

I just used what parts I had lying around the shop that were basically free parts to me, so that I didn't have too much money invested in these bikes. I didn't have two used, complete brake sets (or brake lever sets), and I didn't want to pull new parts off the wall, so I went with what I had.


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## mewholobo (Nov 24, 2006)

*Shogun*

Hey Shogun,

I did get your messages. I am processing and replying to everything now, and the parts will ship out in the next hour or two (via USPS). I'll process the shipment through Ebay so you'll get the tracking number directly. Thanks for the bids. I hope you are happy with the parts once you receive them!

It's fun talking old bikes and watching parts bid up on Ebay, so cheers for that!


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## girlonbike (Apr 24, 2008)

mickbwolf said:


> You are right. It would have been better if I would have done the bikes up right, using a complete brake set, and matching parts.
> 
> I just used what parts I had lying around the shop that were basically free parts to me, so that I didn't have too much money invested in these bikes. I didn't have two used, complete brake sets (or brake lever sets), and I didn't want to pull new parts off the wall, so I went with what I had.


Err....to do the bikes up right, you should have left them the way they were. You did have complete braksets and levers, you just chose to make money on them.


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## mewholobo (Nov 24, 2006)

I tossed up the idea of leaving the bikes original while try to sell them whole, but ultimately came to the conclusion that the parts off these bikes were more desirable than the whole bike (plus I didn't want to deal with shipping 3 big, heavy bikes across the country)! I could have been wrong in that assumption. I also like converting old bikes like these to single speed, as I'll have no problem at all selling these bikes locally now!


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## Shogun700 (Jun 15, 2009)

At present, the market for retro-style SS cruisers/campus bikes is far, far larger than for 25+ year old MTB's that not one person (in a discussion forum specifically for vintage MTB's) has ever heard of. Given the same circumstance, I would have parted them out without the slightest hesitation.

Maybe I'm biased-I'm only employed part-time and use my knowlege of bikes, combined with ebay and craigslist, to avoid collecting unemployment and being a societal leech. If you all want to start sending me checks, I'd be more than happy to keep the bikes I come across complete and correct!


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## girlonbike (Apr 24, 2008)

Um. If it was me, I would have parted them out and dumped the frames in the trash.

What I said earlier was different. Mr. Wolf said that to do them up right (his words) he would have used complete brakesets.

All I'm saying is he had them and sold them. I have nothing to say about how they're set up now except good for him for making money on them. They're just not my thing.


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## Shogun700 (Jun 15, 2009)

girlonbike said:


> Um. If it was me, I would have parted them out and dumped the frames in the trash.


:lol: :lol:

They aren't my thing either, but I see stuff like that everywhere around here.

Understood about the rest of your post. :thumbsup:


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## girlonbike (Apr 24, 2008)

good job shogun! you made some good dough on those m700 parts! :thumbsup:


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