Cheap mystery fillet brazed from USA

[Rampage]

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There's also one on the Jamis website but it's a poor picture.

 

[makster]

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I've already been pestering the seller, asking if it's got canti or rollercam mounts, but I think the proof will be when it arrives.
If it is, then my 86' Dakota could be loosing some parts

 

[Rampage]

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Mounts look to low to be roller cam to me?

 

[makster]

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Mounts look to low to be roller cam to me?

Agreed. Been busy comparing the listing pics to my Dakota, that has a rear roller.
The plot thickens

 

[makster]

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Collected from parcel farce today (after paying customs charges :roll: ).







I'm 99.9% sure this is an 85/86 Dakar. I'm waiting back on some info from a guy who used to race one of these in the US, and I'm going to send these pics over to Jamis too.
What I didn't see in the ebay ad was that the seat-tube has a transition from round to oval, exactly the same as my 93 Dakar.
I've read reports that Ben Serotta was brazing frames up for Jamis in the mid 80's too, but this one doesn't have a BS serial number.
I'm really going to enjoy digging around for history on this one

 

[MatBH5]

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So, is that fillet braze which has been smoothed out with a filler-type substance, paint remnants, or was Jamis back then doing faux fillets (smoother over TIG)... Or am I imagining things entirely?

 

[makster]

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It's fillet brazed. There's just remnants of paint still stuck to it.
Planning on getting it bead blasted to clean it all off properly.
Need to find some nice, period forks for it now

 

[futuristicoldman]

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The top of the seat stays look very similar to what you got on 80's rocky mountains, the seat clamp area has a lot of similarities with early toads. I'm not convinced its a jamis at all, never seen one with a hite rite tab. My guess it is from a wee tiny obscure builder.

 

[futuristicoldman]

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Does the squashed seat tube just mean its built with a prestige tube set?

 

[makster]

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I'm not convinced its a jamis at all, never seen one with a hite rite tab. My guess it is from a wee tiny obscure builder.

The pic from MOMBAT is the one I'm basing my hopes on... http://mombat.org/MOMBAT/BikeHistoryPages/Jamis.html
It's just a shame that there are so few decent pics out there of these.
I'll be contacting Jamis again later, with some detailed pics, and hope that they can shed some light on this