# What Rocky Mountain Frame Do I Have Here?



## Bone Machine (Mar 16, 2010)

Colour is metallic very dark olive green.
Four digit serial number - no letters.
Ritchey dropouts.
Size is 16'' C-C, 18.5" Centre to top of seat tube.


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## Bone Machine (Mar 16, 2010)

Well, I've been looking at some catalogues posted online, and thought it might be a 1993 Equipe.
Except the Equipe and Blizzard frames are supposed to be in the 4.4lb range. My frame weighs 4.87lb. Even the Hammer and Fusion are listed lighter than that. So I'm still not sure.


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## jeff (Jan 13, 2004)

Bone Machine said:


> Well, I've been looking at some catalogues posted online, and thought it might be a 1993 Equipe.
> Except the Equipe and Blizzard frames are supposed to be in the 4.4lb range. My frame weighs 4.87lb. Even the Hammer and Fusion are listed lighter than that. So I'm still not sure.


Could be that manufactures are famous for listing weights for small frames.


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## DeeEight (Jan 13, 2004)

Yeah thats an Equipe and rocky's frame weight claims were all over the map compared to how they actually weighed on real scales. I had a 21.5" example of the mercury colour 1992 Team Comp frame and it was a quarter pound UNDER the claimed weight (which in the catalog was based on the 18.5 size apparently).


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## Bone Machine (Mar 16, 2010)

Thanks for the confirmation, Dee8.

If I decide to put decals on, at least I'll know what to look for.


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## TiGeo (Jul 31, 2008)

Looks to be an early '90s Hammer.


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## anthonyinhove (Nov 3, 2007)

Yes, I don't think it can be anything other than a 1993 Equipe. I used to have one and your description of the colour is spot on. Very subtle metallic and the olive green so dark it looks black at first sight. 

The listing I have of the weight is 2.16kg/4.75lbs for a size 18.5, so your reading of just above that is what I would expect. I think mine was about the same. It is a high quality tubeset, Tange Prestige Ultimate Ultralight, but the design/tube choice is to get you home from the mountains, not to win races. I remember it having a very stable and solid ride, great as an all-day rider, but best for somebody weighing a bit more than me (140lbs).

Some things surprise me though. I have no record of my frame's serial number, but the only other one I have a note of is a Taiwan number, as you would expect. However your four numbers format suggests it was built at the RM factory. Also I don't recall mine having Ritchey dropouts - ok my memory is fallible, but a certain difference is that the photo below clearly shows it has a different canti bridge. I also can't see the sideways bulge butting of the seat tube in your photos.

Finally don't be deceived by the drab decals on my frame - they should be lime green, but I'm afraid the original owner didn't like them and had them replaced by these Edge decals at purchase. I expect the correct decals would spruce up the look of the frame very nicely.


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## Bone Machine (Mar 16, 2010)

Thanks, Anthony. I am now covinced that I have an Equipe. My frame came with a seatpost clamp just like the one in your pic. It also came with a (broken) RockShox Quadra. The seat tube does bulge a bit starting from just below the t-t. But yeah, the canti bridge is different from the catalogue. 
Being Canadian, I'm happy to hear this frame was probably built here. 
I'm over 200lbs, so I guess the frame being a little heavy isn't a bad thing.


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## DeeEight (Jan 13, 2004)

A four digit serial might mean it was something made for a sponsored rider. While the factory team got top end frames, Altitudes and Vertexs and so forth, the grassroots program riders... the small club teams and riders who did regional format racing got lower level stuff. Its one of the reasons for the 1992 Team Comp model, which had a nice frame with Suntour XC Comp microdrive and a scott unishocks fork. Something the merely "pro deal" sponsor riders could order and race on. 

People often think that racers were always given stuff for free but in general, they paid their own way. They may have been heavily discounted, or gotten stuff floated to them on credit, but ultimately they were putting money out to OWN what they raced on/in. I remember when Meagan McKenna raced for Kona, and was the reigning canadian national elite womens XC champion, at the end of the season she was trying to sell her Kona Hei-Hei titanium frame locally. I talked to her about and she said if she didn't sell it and make some money off it, she was going to have to send it back to Kona as she couldn't afford to pay what they wanted from her to keep it (which was like a thousand dollars).


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## xmessenger (Aug 13, 2010)

I'm looking at that seat tube where it meets the BB and it looks like Tange Concept not Tange Ultimate. I have a 92 Team Comp, like D8 but mine is 17" with Ultimate Ultralight and the seat tube is bulge butted at the BB. Mine also has a 4 digit serial number. Its a bit of a mystery because it doesn't have the brazed on seat clamp ,suggesting its at least a 1994 also the seat stays appear brazed rather than welded, kinda like Brodie. It does have the rear cable hanger so it can't be much later than 94 because then they had v brakes. I'd like to say Equipe also but that seat tube ain't Tange Ultimate. 
As an aside, I love my Team Comp and have it set up rigid with slicks for the city and it weighs about 21.5lbs with nothing crazy expensive on it. Love it. D8, what did you do with your? You seem to have really liked that frame as I've read many positive post from you about it.


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## anthonyinhove (Nov 3, 2007)

xmessenger said:


> I'm looking at that seat tube where it meets the BB and it looks like Tange Concept not Tange Ultimate.


Tange Concept also had the bulge-butted seat tube, just like Tange Ultimate. My Equipe had a bulge-butted tube, but so does my Tange Concept Kona. The one on this frame is a Tange MTB seat tube. I read it as supporting DeeEight's hypothesis that this frame is an Equipe that was specially built in Canada.

Please post a picture of your Team Comp, and we can no doubt put a date on it (but we'd like to see it anyway of course).


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