Diamondback Ridge Runner - C1982?

[walleater]

Cool old bike, and is that a Ti bar, or does my screen just make it look like one?

 

[dirttorpedo]

Thanks. I really like it. I think it is an aftermarket Ti bar. No brand marks on it. I've since replaced it with a set of bullmoose I got off an old Ritchey in case you're interested in acquiring it.

 

[dirttorpedo]

I see that another member found this exact frame last year and restored/rebuilt it. Love the caramel coloured tires they put on theirs. Anyhow, they said theirs was a 1982 model.

Hey, that's me!

I love how original ypour bike is, you picked up an absolute bargain there! (I'm not saying how much I've spent on mine total!)

Thanks again to Pyro Tim for finding the bullmoose bars for mine! I've not ridden it on anything rough yet (I do have some grey Kenda Psycho-replicas to put on it, but the bottom bracket needs replacing) but the bars seem sturdy enough. There's still some around, so I can't imagine they were that prone to breaking for so many to have survived 30+ years.

Your bike definitely looks like a 1982. they switched to a lugless build for the Ridge Runner II, which was either '83 or '84 - I'm sure a quick Internet search would tell you - but I'm pretty sure the 1982 was quite distinct. I seem to remember you can tell from the frame number too, so you could check that.

I originally intended to fit a Suntour Superbe Tech rear derailleur, but reading reviews of them put me off, so I went with another period one I already had. I decided against going full original, but would definitely have kept all that if it had come with the bike. The Suntour XC II beartraps go for way too much money for me to justify getting them for my bike. Last I checked they seemed to be going for 3-4 times what you paid for the whole bike!

I hope you enjoy riding it. Like I said, I've not tried anything that rough on mine yet, but I do find it a nice relaxed ride. Looking forward to seeing what you do with it and more pics!

Hey, thanks for posting. Mine came with the Superbe Tech mechs. They are things of beauty, but as you said they have a terrible reputation for reliability. I don't intend to ride this bike hard so I'm hoping I get a lot of life out of mine. I do have the beartraps and they seem to be in decent shape. One of the things on my to do list is to repack/replace the bearings and give them a good cleaning and polishing.

From the little riding I did on it before I stripped it down for restoration I really liked it. Definitely not as nimble in the rough stuff as my Zaskar, but it really cruises down the smooth single track nicely. I'm thinking grey tires and a white saddle with white grips on the final build.

My only issue is the rusty spokes. I really would like to re-lace the wheels with modern stainless steel spokes, but don't know if that's in the budget.

 

[dirttorpedo]

Re:

Hey there. So I've been slowly picking away at this bike over the months. Now that my Bianchi Rekord is pretty much sorted I'm focusing more on this bike. I've stripped it down, cleaned the frame with a combination of soap and water and carnuba car wax. I'm now touching up the paint with testors gloss black. I will probably give the whole thing a clear coat when I'm done that job. I've cleaned and repacked the headset (bearings in excellent condition - annodizing on outside not so much). I've soaked the rusty bits in a rust removal solution and gave them a quick polish after. I"m pretty happy with the results (see crappy phone pic below). I also decided to repack the hub bearings. Well, I was pretty blown away to find that the sealed hubs had actual sealed bearing units in them. I pulled the covers to repack them expecting them to be full of dirty gummy grease. Well it was a tad gummy, but it was completely clean. I've cleaned the front one with solvent and a toothbrush and will repack and reassemble when dry. You can see from that image how ugly the spokes are. I've experimented with aluminum foil on a couple and it cleans them up alright. No crome left to speak of, but I'm not replacing them yet. I'll just tidy them up (maybe paint them - don't yell at me) and get the bike ride-able again.

I'm really blown away about how well built this bike was for what was pretty much the low end of the market BITD. I stumbled upon an old article that compared this bike to the Stumpjumper and a custom Ritchey. This bike was around 1/3 the price of the Ritchey (in USD) and around $200 cheaper than the Stumpy.

 

[69tr6r]

Re:

Great bike, and a great deal! I have the same bike, and it had spokes as bad as yours. I ended up relacing the wheels with new SS spokes and nipples. It wasn't too bad, about $80 for the parts, and pretty easy to do. I was also able to really clean and polish the hubs and rims when everything was apart. The wheels are the nicest part of my bike now.

Any updates?

 

[dirttorpedo]

Re:

Hey there. So I've finished the bike & been meaning to upload photos. I haven't had time to resize them. :cry:

I actually road the bike to work as the chain on my regular commuter failed last friday with dire consequences to the rear mech, wheel and mech hanger. On the whole I'm pretty happy with the bike. I didn't invest in new spokes - just cleaned up the old ones with sandpaper and aluminum foil. Looks ok. I'm not too happy with my work on the finish - the clear coating didn't come out at all like I wanted - a bit flat looking. In hind sight I just should have touched it up with the model paint and have been done with it. Other issues is the bull moose bars that I picked up were cut down and I find they are too short for my liking the seat post is also too short - it was ok riding in today, but I could have used a bit more extension. I am also having trouble with getting the front derailleur to shift into the granny. I'm wondering if the spindle is different lengths or if I didn't set it up right. I reused the original sealed bb that came with the bike which uses cups and lock rings like the old loose bearing BB's of the time period. I feel like I just need a couple of more mm shift towards the frame to get it to work right. Do any of you have experience with these bb's?

Thing rides like a sled. I stuck some 40mm wide slicks on it and fenders which makes it pretty cushy to ride. I wanted to put a Porteur rack on it, but there is no way I'm spending that kind of coin on this bike unless I'm keeping it for the long term.

Don't know if I'll keep it - I really need to make some space and I don't think I need two "pub bikes". If anything goes this will probably be the one to go because I don't want it to become my snow bike and deal with all of the road deicing salt.

 

[dirttorpedo]

Re:

So I finally resized the images.

 

[dirttorpedo]

Re:

So a few more images. Sadly the bike is too small for me and I need to make room in the garage so its going on the market. :cry:

 

[dirttorpedo]

The sale thread is here:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=329616