HELP restoring Rocky Mountain

[Old School MTN BKR]

which would explain why the headtueb is longer too..

Why?

 

[gump]

cos these models are less racy, more easy riding IIRC

 

[Old School MTN BKR]

cos these models are less racy, more easy riding IIRC

Take a look:

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=384522

Probably is, the mid-90s lower frames were often rigid equipped, and the Cardiac had the extended seattube also with the same squared end like this frame (blizzards at the time had the end cut on an angle). Its probably a 96-99 era cardiac.

Still waiting for an answer from Silverfish. Hope to discover what model it is and what tubing is used. It´s a very, very light steel frame, lighter than my 1993 Caloi Aluminum.

 

[neilll]

Top of the seat tube does look like a Cardiac (Tange CroMo tubing) got pix if you're interested.

 

[gump]

Interesting comments.
Though still suprised at how good the welding is by the BB. Someone was on form for this one!
Thats the bit that threw me, and yeah, it could be a larger frawm and hence headtube.

 

[Anthony]

Interesting comments.
Though still suprised at how good the welding is by the BB. Someone was on form for this one!
Thats the bit that threw me, and yeah, it could be a larger frawm and hence headtube.

Surely the Cardiac, Fusion and Soul were still made-in-Canada frames, so it shouldn't be too surprising, should it, that the welding is to a high standard?

 

[Old School MTN BKR]

Top of the seat tube does look like a Cardiac (Tange CroMo tubing) got pix if you're interested.

Yes, I´m very interested!!!

I´m very surprised to know that even this entry level bicycle was handmade in Canada and not Taiwan.

 

[neilll]

Here's pix from the 1996 Catalogue....(German version!!), it was quite a low end bike for Rocky Mountain....hope this is of some help chap

 

[DeeEight]

Interesting comments.
Though still suprised at how good the welding is by the BB. Someone was on form for this one!
Thats the bit that threw me, and yeah, it could be a larger frawm and hence headtube.

Surely the Cardiac, Fusion and Soul were still made-in-Canada frames, so it shouldn't be too surprising, should it, that the welding is to a high standard?

Old thread I know but since the info was never provided...

The Cardiac, Fusion, Soul, and many other rocky models were NEVER actually welded in canada. They were welded up overseas, shipped to british columbia and painted and decal'ed at the rocky factory. Under canadian law, that is sufficient to qualify as "made in canada". Easton aluminium tubeset models were welded in canada. Anything fillet-brazed was done in canada. High end steel tig-welded models like the Altitude were done in canada. Rocky was NOT a big company, and the famous big factory in BC isn't actually very big compared to the procycle plant in quebec. When they were bought out in 1998, RMB's worldwide total sales were about 30,000 bikes/year. Procycle themselves were doing nearly a quarter million bikes a year out of their plant in quebec JUST for the canadian domestic bike market and they were actually brazing/welding them all up there.

But the "premium" procycle frame joining method, which they had a patent on, called DBS (direct-brazing system) which is essentially a form of internal fillet brazed joint.... brass rings are inserted into the tube ends, pressed against the opposing tube, and then mapp gas torches surround them and heat the tube joints until the brass melts inside and then flows to join the tube. Its relatively quick and looks very clean on the outside compared to a traditional fillet brazed joint. But it was never used by any of the rocky models so even post-buyout, cheaper overseas welding was done on many rocky models. As steel tubeset models dropped out of the lineup, they were replaced with asian welded aluminium frame models with non-easton supplied tubesets.

It was really quite amusing... but while owned by someone else, a lot of the senior people at rocky never changed and there really was no move made until the middle of the next decade to harmonize production/paint efforts between the parent and junior companies. Not until a couple years after Procycle bought out Balfa and then they decided they had too many brands and decided to focus all the mid-high domestic range around the Rocky brand name and the low-mid domestic range around the Miele brand name (Rocky was to be used for all international sales). In the process the Balfa, Oryx and Mikado brands were all terminated abruptly with almost zero notice to their dealers. I worked at the largest procycle brands dealer in eastern ontario at the time, and still remember the day the VP of Procycle came into the store on a dealer-sales tour around quebec/ontario, and just said Balfa, Oryx and Mikado were being eliminated, and we're not sure if you'll get to carry Rocky because we have too many rocky dealers in ottawa already. That was about a week before the canadian dealers bike show in montreal.

The Oryx & Balfa race teams were essentially dead at that moment, though some racers were bumped over to the Rocky team (marie-helene premont for example). But it also left a lot of dealers scrambling to find alternative brands to carry for the following season.

 

[FluffyChicken]

Interesting info and 3 companies I've never heard of
I guess your shop kept Rockies then?