I've bought another mystery bike for under £20 from facebook marketplace, advertised as a 'cheap bike' for the princely sum of £18 I could see it had a front U Brake so obviously had to have it.
Although it looks like it's spent several years at the bottom of a canal at one stage in its life it was clearly cherished and has the same kind of upgrades I was doing as a 15/16 year old in 87/88.
Component wise there is a mix of MT60 and MT62 Deore, 7spd thumbshifters mounted under the bars and the original biopace replaced with round 28/38/52 rings, XT pedals, theres a 105 headset and the wheels are, suprisingly true and smooth rolling Mavic Oxygen M6CD rims on deore hubs, and of course double MT60 U brakes.
There are no decals on the frame, from a distance it looks like it could be fairly good - fastback stays, neat tig welds etc but it's got a 21.1mm stem and 26.2 seatpost which I associate with more 'gas-pipe' tubng. Blue paint looks original, there are plenty of scuffs and missing bits and I can't see evidence of previous colours underneath.
The closest match I've managed to find on google is the Emmelle Dolomite, but I've only found images of them in white and red - I believe the pre 90s Emmelles' were far better than the BSOs they became associated with and possibly bought frames in from other manufacturers, could this be another supplier of the same basic bike or just a different colourway.
Most importantly though this one is actually my size so I'm inclined to give it some love and ride it.
So, what do the good people of Retrobike think it is?
Although it looks like it's spent several years at the bottom of a canal at one stage in its life it was clearly cherished and has the same kind of upgrades I was doing as a 15/16 year old in 87/88.
Component wise there is a mix of MT60 and MT62 Deore, 7spd thumbshifters mounted under the bars and the original biopace replaced with round 28/38/52 rings, XT pedals, theres a 105 headset and the wheels are, suprisingly true and smooth rolling Mavic Oxygen M6CD rims on deore hubs, and of course double MT60 U brakes.
There are no decals on the frame, from a distance it looks like it could be fairly good - fastback stays, neat tig welds etc but it's got a 21.1mm stem and 26.2 seatpost which I associate with more 'gas-pipe' tubng. Blue paint looks original, there are plenty of scuffs and missing bits and I can't see evidence of previous colours underneath.
The closest match I've managed to find on google is the Emmelle Dolomite, but I've only found images of them in white and red - I believe the pre 90s Emmelles' were far better than the BSOs they became associated with and possibly bought frames in from other manufacturers, could this be another supplier of the same basic bike or just a different colourway.
Most importantly though this one is actually my size so I'm inclined to give it some love and ride it.
So, what do the good people of Retrobike think it is?
I can give up anytime 
