Can anyone help to id my Saracen Frame?

[muppetman]

So my mystery Saracen frame off eBay arrived today...

http://retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic. ... highlight=

Can anyone help to id it? Only clues apart from the pics below are that it is really light for a 19.5" (C-T) frame (almost as light as my Cannondale M2000) - but have no scales to verify and that I bought the original front mech off the seller (which was XT M73 - I'm thinking '94 or '95?

Pics below - please tell me it's a Kili of some sort!

 

[muppetman]

More Pics...

 

[coomber]

Looks like drystonepaul's 1994 traverse.

Wrong colour for a kili - mine is more pink than purple.

Good buy by the way

 

[muppetman]

Yeah, someone said it looked liked DSP's traverse, but this one seems a deeper purple colour.

Oh well, I'll build it up before decided which decals to put on!

EDIT: I've taken another look at DSP'S Traverse a mine looks def the same colour. However, I think I can be sure that it's the same vintage as coomber's Kili as my frame seems to sport many of the same features such as the cable noodle by the seat clamp - so 1994, I guess.

 

[drystonepaul]

Maybe if I had a 1994 Traverse I could look for comparisons but my Traverse is a 1992 model and is a much lighter shade of purple.

Many of the frame details are similar to a frame I have vaguely identified as being from 1994 or 1995; possibly a Tufftrax based on the weight. It should be noted that I removed the brake noodle on mine just in case you have a look at it's build thread in my signature.
My 94/95 frame also doesn't have the roller for the front mech cable. I'm not sure when these disappeared, but I'm pretty sure later models wouldn't have required this feature due to top pull front mechs being more widely available.

Anyway, the earliest it could be is a 1993 frame due to the aforementioned noodle. However there wasn't anything in the 1993 range which was that colour. Could've been resprayed though. Check the seatpost size. If it's 26.2mm then 1993 is very likely as all the Saracen frames from 93 had this size post.

I'm leaning more towards a 1994 or 1995 frame though.
The hexagonally cut-out dropouts point towards higher up the range, as does the reported light weight.
Lower end frames generally took 26.4mm posts in 94/95 as far as I know. The higher end models had thinner walled tubing and thus larger diameter seatposts. Have a check what it takes and we may be able to pin down a possible model.

 

[drystonepaul]

Just for colour reference, I think this photo most accurately shows the real life colour of my Traverse... at least on my monitor.

 

[muppetman]

Thanks, Drystonepaul. Here's some more clues:

I am virtually 100% sure that this is the original colour and hasn't been resprayed. The paint quality is far too good and it has a almost pearlescent effect that I've seen on other Saracens.

I've checked and it takes either a 27.2 or 27.4 seatpost. Not sure which one - I checked with a 27.0 I had lying around and it rattled around in the frame - eyes not good enough to differentiate between 0.2mm!

The seller (who split the bike) said it came to him with Mag 21s on it (not sure if these were oem fit). Also came fitted with mix of 737 and 738 XT.

 

[muppetman]

@ Drystonepaul - the colour of your frame seems more "blue" than mine - mine seems more purple. As you say though, difficult to tell just by comparing photos.

 

[dendy]

the 27.2 sp dia you mention is in line with the 97> saracen range which doesn't add up at all. I have a 96 kili that takes a 27.0mm and a 97 that takes a 27.2

It isn't a kili cos i don't think they did them in this colour in any year.

With he above in mind i reckon it could be the below 95 terratrax and if you weighed your frame it would give more of a clue.

 

[coomber]

My kili is 26.8 for reference.

Sorry drystonepaul - typing iwthout thinking comparing yours as a 1992.

Terratrax was fairly high up so would be better than a tufftrax from memory. Although I stand to be corrected on that.