I’m trying to piece together some details on mine and early Stumpjumpers in general to determine the differences per year, with the original intent of identifying the year of my one. The “Stumpjumper 25th Anniversary book” is pretty vague so if anyone can help clarify or correct anything that would be great.
The first models appeared in 1981 and had either Lugged or Tig Welded tubing. The book contradicts itself which year was which with the frame joints, and maybe I’m too hopeful thinking things changed on any kind of regular, annual cycle.
I’ve seen pictures of various models and colours with various standard but different stems and bars. The first models had the “golf club” stem. Another identifier of the first few years was the lugged biplane fork.
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The advert above is dated 1982, and shows the “golf club” stem
By 1984 the "book" shows the fork had become a unicrown style and the bike had a regular quill stem. But what happened in between and in what order?
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Mine has a bullmoose stem, high rise cowhorn bar and a biplane fork.
This MBR article would date this as a 1982 version
Then there is the combined stem and bars which I’ve yet to tie down to a given year.....
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I also see a few Stumpjumper “Sport” models when surfing the net, that had biplane forks so should be pre-1984, but there’s no mention of a “Sport” model in literature I’ve come across.
Serial numbers don’t seem to have consistency or meaning either. For example, this one (
https://bikesheaven.com/1984-specialized-stumpjumper/ ) appears very very similar to my own early stumpy, BUT its serial number starts with “84” – too much of a coincidence to think that this doesn’t mean it was made in 84, but it has a biplane fork, which according to the “Stumpjumper book” would make it pre-1984. My own model, near identical, was thought to be 1983, but its serial number is completely different format. (M4F8047)
Shedding any light or even further confusion anyone want to add, would be of interest to me, and maybe some others.
The early iterations of XT M700 are shown here for 1982, but the next set didn’t arrive till 1986 so there’s too big a time window to be of much use when trying to use which components were fitted to identify yearly bike variations between 1981 and 1986.
https://www.shimano.com/en/100th/history/products/result.php?id=27
Another link that gives the general story:
https://mbaction.com/the-history-of-the-stumpjumper/
Thanks for reading this far.....