The blog to end all blogs (at least here!)

It's been awhile since I have posted anything on the MOMBAT blog. It isn't because nothing has been going on, it is just more of a time factor. Anytime, I posted a blog entry, I felt the need for it to be somewhat "robust" and informative.......which takes times. On the other hand, Facebook posts can be pretty quick and are easily shared so we have been posting there a fair amount. The web pages and photos for many of the vintage bikes have been updated recently and I think there are about 20 more to go. Every time a page was update, it was easy to post it to the Facebook page and then easy for others to share.

So,take a minute and "like" the MOMBAT Facebook page and you'll get up to date information.

Neat Old Stuff

Just took delivery of a nice stash of vintage goodness last night. We will be unpacking everything over the next day or two so follow along with the progress on the MOMBAT Facebook page @ http://www.facebook.com/pages/MOMBATorg/166038966758066

Dirt Rag and Bicycle Times

It is fun writing the articles for Bicycle Times and Dirt Rag. Every month, I look around the shop and try to find a bike that has a good story (this makes writing the article much easier!). This month, I chose the Schwinn Varsity for Bicycle Times. A customer brought one in for new tires and I thought it was neat that a 30 year old bike was still getting regular use. We have a couple of nice examples upstairs so we used one of those for the pictures. Most riders who are now in there 40's probably have owned a Varsity at some point in their lives.



For Dirt Rag, I tried a comparison format for the article. The Fisher Sawyer came out this year and reminded me of a couple of earlier "klunker" replica bikes, the Fisher Klunker and Breezer Ignaz. Josh, editor of Dirt Rag, sent me an email that said they received favorable feedback on this idea so look for something similar in future issues:

MOMBAT on Facebook

Pop on over to the MOMBAT Facebook page and "like" us. This is where we will post any new bikes we get.

1984 Hanebrink rear suspension

If you ask most people, they would probably guess front suspension came first......but they would be wrong. The earliest suspension bikes used rear suspension about 6 years before suspension forks surfaced. The builders often used motorcycles parts. The damping on this bike was actually adjusted by tightening the quick release skewer on the top of the shock! We've added this one to our Descender and Hanebrink SE Shocker which makes for a nice display of the evolution of the design.

More pictures and details HERE

Salsa Cycles scans and photos

In the slower months around the shop, we get an opportunity to clean up the shop, build displays and work on the web sites. One task that always get pushed to the bottom of the pile is the scanning of literature. It is interesting but takes a lot of time and doesn't generate revenue..........but I do enjoy reading up as I scan and it is a great resource when we are trying to make a bike "period correct". Over the last weekend, I scanned in over 100 pages of Salsa literature and some pictures that Ross Shafer provided. Pretty cool stuff. Check it out on the Salsa Page.

couple of sample pages:

1991 Ellison elevated stay bike

Elevated chain stay bikes were supposed to eliminate chain suck which it did but at the expense of a heavier and more complicated frame. Eventually, frame makers decided this minor advantage wasn't worth the extra effort (although it did make cleaning the chain easier!). Ellison was a smaller manufacturer out of Texas in the early 1990's and it looks like he just worked in aluminum. The bike features the 1.25" head tube and a polished finish. Parts are pretty standard Shimano Deore XT with Rapid Fire shifters.

More details and pictures on the Ellison Page:

Tandem Klunker project??

I had originally checked this bike out at a local swap meet last year and thought it was pretty cool. The seller had this and a neat old Peugeot tandem with MAFAC brakes and some Shimano Deore XT (deer head) stuff on it. I made an offer on both bikes but didn't end up taking them home. At the time, I thought the wheels, fork, drum brake and tires would be pretty cool on an old style Klunker frame. I had originally thought the bike had been repainted but believe it to be original after a little research. There aren't any decals on the bike but it appears to be built by Rixe in Germany. The rear hub has a "56" stamped on it which might be a date code. Anyway, still haven't decided what to do with it yet but it is pretty cool.

Fisher MountainBikes scans

Kinda interesting to see all the different names in the early catalogs: Mountain Bikes, MountainBikes, Kelly-Fisher MountainBikes, Ritchey MountainBikes, Fisher, Gary Fisher and today the Fisher Collection by Trek. We've scanned in some of the older catalogs starting as far back as 1979. check 'em out on the Fisher page.

Here are a couple of sample pages:

Vintage Funk Scans

Next up in the snowed-in-scanathon is Funk. Full set of scans HERE but here are a couple of samples.

It appears as if Funk may be back making bikes again so maybe we can get a little more info for the web site. Don't have one of the bikes in the collection but we do have a couple of the suspension forks.

Retro Bontrager scans

As the year starts off, we often find that we have a little extra time on our hands. The rush of Christmas is past and inventory is finally behind us. This is a great time to do a little work on the MOMBAT web site so I am getting back in the swing of scanning some literature. Started out with 50+ pages of Bontrager literature dating back to the late 1980's and going through 1999. The composite fork manual is an interesting read. You just don't find info like that any more. Here are a couple of pages but for the complete scans, go to the MOMBAT Bontrager page.