Digging out a MAMMOTH RC-201

[yoink33]

Last weekend I came across a bike which at first glance seemed strange to me, the geometry, the color and the assembly don't really resemble what we find in the old French mountain bike landscape. After a quick inspection and a ok price, I took it home.
Even though the condition is quite good, I washed it and lightly restored the paint with a whole bunch of well-known products.

A short tour around the neighborhood, it drives quite well, everything is fluid and surprisingly light.

So it was time to do some research, and thanks to this forum i was suddenly able to put a name, a date, and a story on this bike.

Here are the specs and some photos,
Frame kit : 1991 Mammoth RC 201
Color : Purple white and black with lovely limited stickers
Drivetrain : Full deore XT
Brakes : SLX and Deore
Wheels : Mavic oxygen m6cd with Dx hub




I don't know if I should keep it, given how many projects are sitting in the garage.. But always nice to have a piece of mountain bike history.

 

[yoink33]

More pics :



Weird pedals to put on this kind of bike..


The internals cables guides look decent, really cool feature that reminds me of an old tequesta GT.



It look likes the previous owner lost the canti hanger on the stem and put on v brake

 

[Double-E F]

Cool find !
Gotta love a nice ol' e-stay..

 

[moonlite]

Interesting bike! But what's the story behind it?

 

[yoink33]

I don't have many info on the story of this one in particular, the previous owner told me it was sitting in his garage for 10 years since his dad died, he was using it to get groceries !

For the brand and model i'm gonna quote what i found, "The aluminum frames were made by a local welder who worked and welded out of a San Diego area BMW performance shop between 1989 and 1993, they were bade with 2024 aluminum which was supposed to have been an unweldable alloy. They were super strong, light frames.

The RC-201 was the elevated chainstay model, i think every build was unique because the frame kit was sold separatly, but the common one was with nitto stem, xt drivetrain and mavic wheels

There were two other models, the rc-202, in diamond shape and the rc-203 in steel but made in very few copies apparently

The mammoth brand was linked with the skate brand "tracker", it was apparently a side project with maybe to much expectation. You could find the bike in some skateshop acting like a link between two sports !

(Sorry for my poor english, it's not my native language )