[DeeEight]

I'm trying to ID a frame better. Its an early 90s rocky mountain, serial # I91020404, I think its a Fusion but I don't remember Ishiwata (whose tubing they used on Fusions at the time) offering an ovalized down tube the same way Tange Prestige Concept tubing was ovalized, as this frame has on it. Its fastback stays, and the seattube doesn't extend way up so its not a Blizzard, and the dropouts don't say Ritchey, which discounts it being a Hammer. Its onto its umpteenth repaint but when I stirpped the last paint off I found a dark purple base color on it, under several layers of black paint. Oh, its 1 1/8" headset sized, but also has U-brake studs on the seatstays, and its got the standard seattube/toptube lug that most steel rocky frames of the period had. The toptube does slope somewhat, and the headtube is about 6.5" long which is typical for a 20" frame from the company at that time. Frame weight is about 5.5 pounds with paint, which is somewhat lighter than a fusion should be in that size as well. Its tig-welded, which discounts it being a thunderbolt. And the cable housing guides for the derailleurs route down the downtube (my 91 stratos is the same that way, but 90-91 hammer's had all top-routed cables, 89s did not but they were also sized for 1" headsets).

Anyone with any ideas?

 

[bushpig]

Do you have a picture?

 

[cdeger]

If ...

... www.mtb-kataloge.de doesn't help, just send me an e-mail. I have some more RM catalogs ('88, '89, '91, '92) stored ...

 

[DeeEight]

i checked the german site...very useful...must bookmark...

The 1990 fusion is about the right color purple as what was the base paint layer of this frame when I stripped it, but the seatpost QR is wrong, and I can't tell from the pic if the Ishiwata tubeset has an ovalized section near the BB shell.

 

[cdeger]

Couldn't wait ;-)

Discription and colour seem to fit.

 

[bushpig]

By "ovalized tube" do you mean the seat tube? A lot of the builders were ovalizing the seat tube, and sometimes other tubes, on the theory that it made the the BB stiffer. I worked at a frameshop and all our bikes have the flattened seat tube.

 

[DeeEight]

Yes, that's what I mean. They externally tapered into an ovalized shaped below the front derailleur clamp area. Tange did it to all tubesets from Prestige Concept and up and it was very distinctive in profile. True Temper never bothered with it though. The 1993 Fusion has the tange tubeset with the bulged seattube, and also came in a dark purple color, but the cable guides are wrong as is the type of brake studs. The 1990's got the cable guides down the downtube correctly, but the dropouts aren't quite the same and neither is the brake cable guide around the seatpost QR area.

I've called rocky in any case, one of their old framebuilders whose been there since the early 90s is supposed to give me a call tommorow.

 

[Rumpfy]

DeeEight stumped!?

Never thought the day would come.

 

[GonaSovereign]

I have some more RM catalogs ('88, '89, '91, '92) stored ...

Hi cdeger,
You don't happen to have electronic copies of the 88 and 89 catalogs, do you? I rue the day mine were tossed (not by me) during a move. If you're killing some time and have a scanner....

If you can scan 'em, I'll make PDFs and donate to MTBcatalog, which doesn't seem to have those ones.

Cheers,

Geoff