1994/5? Litespeed Ocoee/Obed Update

[ratbane]

Stripped down, ready for rebuild.

Need to spruce up the titanium tubing, and build with XTR gear.

Superlight frame.

Those stickers are going. :shock:

 

[Wold Ranger]

Litespeed

Looks a nice compact size, whats the overall weight? And yes the stickers look awful, there's a seller on Ebay who does nice plain ones in single colours that look really nice.

 

[ratbane]

1990

Amazing!

Thought this was a 1997 Ocoee.

Just had confirmation from Litespeed in the USofA, that the frame number is in fact....................

...........a 1990 Obed.

Very early, and rare. The 114th frame by Lynskey it seems.

 

[Wold Ranger]

Obed

Would it not have a Mafac bridge for Canti's if it were that old? V brakes hadn't been invented, I always though Merlin were the first with a Ti frame in about 92 or 93 too???

 

[ratbane]

ti

the litespeed website shows ti mtbs in 1990, 1991, gap 1993.

it looks very much like the bike in the catalogues.

i'll look into the v brake issue.

 

[ratbane]

Re: Obed

Would it not have a Mafac bridge for Canti's if it were that old? V brakes hadn't been invented, I always though Merlin were the first with a Ti frame in about 92 or 93 too???

Wold,

I've had a good look at the 90/91/93 catalogues, and it would appear (on 400% zoom!), that Litespeed used some sort of seat post noodle thing with no cantilever bridge back in those days.

Interesting.

They even had Ti full suss in 91.

 

[bushpig]

Fat Chance had a proof of concept Ti in 85. Merlin was building Ti mountain bikes from 1987 at least.

 

[fillet-brazed]

Fat Chance had a proof of concept Ti in 85. Merlin was building Ti mountain bikes from 1987 at least.

I think it was Helfrich or Augsperger (both of which were at Fat in 85 or 86) who started to work with ti. They then started Merlin shortly thereafter. The early renditions are pretty cool and had ti forks. I don't think Fat ever had their name on one until maybe 91 or so??

 

[yo-Nate-y]

What about Teledyne?

(or do road bikes not count for this discussion?)

 

[LQQK]

I have a 1990 Litespeed, and it looks very different to yours, mines has not got snake stays, different cable run, it has a cable hanger for cantilever brakes, no head badge and a mirror finish.

In 1990 they didn’t have a model names like ‘Ocoee’ for their bikes, it was just known as ‘Mountain’. What is the serial number on your frame? (mine is 2409).

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