1992 Marin Rocky Ridge - £25 eBay Find

[MSYT]

Well might as well put up a post about this so when I eventually get round to building it I can dump any photos here

So yeah, here it is. A 1992 Marin Rocky Ridge

I didn’t intend to buy another project because I have wayyyy to many on the go but when I checked my eBay searches for the first time in forever and found this ending in 25 minutes and only bid up to £24 I had to have a shot.

I bid a minute early, £25… and nobody else bid - so a 3 hour round trip and here we are. (Oh and when I got there the seller threw in the wheels for another £10)



This is it then. A mostly complete bike. It has the catalogue optional Answer Manitou 1 where the elastomers have long since melted. Ritchey Pro Lite bars, Marin Lite stem, Onza Porcupaws, a bit of XT and well it looks like they wore out the rear because the rear wheel, derailleur and brake are all different.

So far, from a Quick Look I don’t see any cracks. The stem bolt is completely rounded so I can’t take that out yet to get the headset off and check properly so that’s job number 1. From the outside though - it looks promising!

Conveniently it’s just my size! Hopefully I can strip it down in the week and check everything over. Make a list of parts I need to find and then… eventually… start the rebuild.

 

[Dface]

Lovely jubbly

 

[Bike Hoarder]

I started off the bidding on this and missed the end of the auction!

 

[dinozoiks]

I need to up my EBay game! That’s a bonkers bargain. Well sniped. Pro rata, that makes the Manitou 1’s about £7.50. Would you take £8.50 for them?

 

[MSYT]

I started off the bidding on this and missed the end of the auction!

Oh no way! When I saw it with 25 mins to go I checked on here to see if anyone had shared it and decided to pop in a £30 something bid when I saw it wasn’t. Couldn’t believe it only moved £1 and nobody else bid.

 

[MSYT]

I need to up my EBay game! That’s a bonkers bargain. Well sniped. Pro rata, that makes the Manitou 1’s about £7.50. Would you take £8.50 for them?

I think I’ll keep them on the RR. I didn’t even have to snipe it! I did have a backup snipe ready but it wasn’t needed.

 

[Bike Hoarder]

To the victor belongs the spoils!

 

[MSYT]

It’s almost all stripped down today so here’s what I found.

The rear brake post unwound itself with the caliper - but fortunately I just clamp that down in the vice and the bolt came out. No damage to the post threads in the frame



The seatpost is missing, yes, but the massive plastic shim in there seems to be a 25mm which might suggest they were running a USE post before right? I’ll have to find one!



Bottom bracket had me on edge. Steel BB in aluminium frame often leads to seizing in the bikes I’ve had before but a few Ugga Duggas and it came out. Yes lots of orange powder but it cleaned up nicely!




The Onza grips came off without splitting but they’re solid. I want to see if I can soften them up and clean them up so any suggestions, fire them my way.



And then it came to the stem bolt. It was round. It also looked like it had slots in it from maybe someone hammering a screwdriver in to it. I tried packing out the rounded head with cloth, then an old inner tube. Nothing. Tried mushrooming the side slightly and knocking in a bit but that just stripped so I went full attack and drilled it out. Must have been drunk though because I drilled on an angle and took part of the base with it too. Looks like someone had a good go before me though because the stem has clamp marks on the underside. Still - hopefully it’s saveable!

 

[jonnyboy666]

i always liked the rocky ridge, when rigid it had black forks, that combined with deore dx meant it was a very classy looking bike, looks good with the manitou forks though.

 

[MSYT]

Well good news is - no cracks!

I’ve got the headset out and had a good look around. Seems good! The headset is Campagnolo which is kinda cool but the lower bearing race was DESTROYED. The cup and crown race don’t look too bad but there is some very slight waviness to them I think.





The crown race pulled the shim off the Manitou’s steerer with it too so I gave it the old freezer treatment to break the seal and it pressed right out. Got it back on with some fire too. Now to just get the fork cleaned up and repaired / rebushed.