1992 Specialized S-Works M2 Team - Ned Overend Replica

Minus the Sugino disc, this is virtually an exact replica of Ned Overend's 1992 race bike on display at Mountain Bike Specialists in Durango. I found the frame beat to hell in Albuquerque along with much of the Suntour components needed. I always thought it'd be cool to do a replica bike.

During the build I consulted the Captain himself, and I know there were different specs for the team bikes in late 1991 and early 92. The team began using Control Tech, which is shown on Osguthorpe's bike in the 25th Anniversary Stumpjumper book, but then switched to Zoom, most likely because of sponsorship. Ned says the bike at MBS was likely his build for worlds that year. He is nearly certain the team did not begin using a Sugino disc until late 92, and full-time in 1993.





Amazingly, I nailed the paint and decals out of pure luck. The rest was pretty easy.





The Captain even supplied the bar ends out of his own garage. Approve!

1991 Yeti FRO

When I purchased this, it was the most I had ever spent on a vintage bike. I was starting to take the hobby more seriously, and the theme of this restore would be repeated many times of the next years: relevant, period correct early-nineties race bikes.



Paint was easy, and the color scheme was "team." Landing the Tioga tension disc was a big bonus. Sadly, I did not hang onto this bike for very long. It was just too big and it just sat. Luckily it found a new home in the museum at Absolute Bikes in Salida, CO.





although I was pleased with the outcome at the time, I now know this build had many embarrassing faults. Namely, I had no idea the bolt in the rear of the seattube was for a cable roller, and not a front derailleur anchor. Stupid.



Also, the headtube decal was a fake and the fork decals slanted the wrong direction. Still, I was headed in the right direction.

1986 Fat Chance

Second Fat Chance purchase. Impulse ebay buy, as it predates my interest in MTB by at least 5 years. Frame was beat, but ultimately (despite the non-period correctness), this was a fun bike to restore and ride.





Like the early Fat City cable routing:

1989 Wicked Fat Chance

I wanted one of these for a long time. Words from the internet: if you lived in New England and someone told you they had a wicked fat chance, you'd know one of two things. Either they'd just figured their odds of winning the MegaBucks, or, being of a certain age and bicycle literate, they were talking about a mountain bike.


If you're too young to remember when men were rigid and so were their bikes, you might at this point be stifling a yawn. But understand that, among rigid folks, the Wicked is a contender for the accolade of the finest-handling, most intuitive, best-made, sweetest (and any other superlative you'd care to attribute) MTB ever.


In the '80s a guy named Chris Chance put together a little bicycle company near Boston called Fat City Cycles. Somehow, with the right combination of tube choice, frame angles, wheelbase and various mystical powders and incantations, he cranked out the Wicked Fat Chance. It was the perfect mountain bike.

I bought this straight outta Massachusetts from the ex-girlfriend of a former Fat City employee.



Repainted and draped with bling

1994 Kona Lava Dome

This was given to me as a birthday present in 1994. Likely the second-best gift I ever received (behind my first bike two years before). This thing was probably raced 200 times between 1994 and 1997. Photo from the No-Name race in Shapleigh, ME probably summer 94.



Rescued from a rusty New England death, it was reborn in 2006.

1996 Schwinn Homegrown

Not too fond of this. It was a long cold winter and I was restless.



More rattlecan paint





Awful parts selection





Never ridden and sold. Good riddance.

1993 Trek 7000

I bought this frame in the summer of 2002. It was half-buried under the dirt in the backyard of the infamous Mr. Smiley of Durango [RIP]. I think I paid him $25 which I felt was too much. I put way too much effort into "restoring" this with crappy rattlecan paint and wannabe decals.











I've bought and sold a lot of bikes in the past 10 years, but for some reason this has been the only I've kept. Out of all my worldly possessions, this is the only one that links me to my college years. Its seen almost daily use ever since I graduated both as a town bike and full-time rider. It probably has 15,000 miles beaten into its crappy alloy frame. Its heavy, sluggish, and ugly... but it's never failed me. I decided on a second facelift in 2009:





Here's to another 10 years old friend!