Hello to all
I've been meaning to get around to this little project for such a long time now - I've owned her from new, as I happened to be doing some work for the importer of Rossin at the time in 1989. This was a small company called Interclad Trading based in Staples Corner in North London.
He has also developed his own brand of MTB, as he'd hoped to get onto the MTB growth explosion - they were called Red Canyon, and I remember having a Red Canyon Navigator for a short while (Black frame / Deore LX throughout). It wasn't actually all that good, that was sadly pretty heavy - just a cheap Chinese mass produced pile of poo, that had some half decent components on it.
Anyway, at the time and in his warehouse, the Red Canyon's were being sold off as the venture had failed and he was trying to clear all the stock - in fact, now that I think about it, I even bought a Bartalli MTB from him too, but that was pretty damn heavy as well, not all that good (albeit having M730 XT throughout), and I soon parted company with it. My aim at the time was the prize of the Rossin, which had sat gleaming in the corner of his warehouse sell out for weeks - out of price reach for everyone that walked through the warehouse door for the closeout sale. I was watching it like a hawk, as I wanted it really badly, but couldn't get close to affording it at the time - I seem to recall that it was sitting there reduced from an RRP of £1400 or so, to £950. I was building Red Canyon bikes out of the boxes for people that were buying them, trying to earn money as quickly as I could, so that I could nab it for myself. I can still remember the heart fluttering when the odd person looked at the Rossin and started poking her around looking they might take her away from me! The good news is, that by the weekend before he closed up completely, I ended up persuading my father to loan me the difference that I didn't quite have at the time, and she was mine. I was over the moon. I think I also managed to knock him down to around the £700-750 mark for it too iirc.
Not long after, I was working weekends and school holidays for Yellow Jersey in Camden - this was a real delight as I was able to get my hands on trick kit before most others had even seen it (most of which ended up on a StumpJumper M2 that I've still knocking around). The Rossin had M730 Deore XT throughout, but I had added 1st gen Gripshift to it when this came out in 1990'ish - which at the time, along with an upgrade to a Titanium Turbomatic saddle, was the only mod I had made - she was brochure correct apart from that. She briefly had some Tange Switchblades on her, but I actually went back to the stock chromoly forks not too long after. I can't remember why.
Anyway, until a few months ago, she was still exactly the same, but I'd always hankered after the M900 XTR groupset, which I couldn't come close to affording at the time. I managed to lay my hands on a super-cheap British Eagle Boss, that had a complete M900 groupset throughout and had hardly ever been ridden on eBay a little while back, and the upgrade was ready to get going.
So, to start off with, the wheels. I'd never had a problem with them, but the original RM-17 rims just didn't seem good enough for her. I still had a pair of NOS Mavic MB40's sitting in the rafters that I'd picked up in the Bike UK liquidation auction, and these were perfect for the build. I decided to marry up the XTR hubs from the Boss to the MB40's and we were away - the pics of them shaping are below... eventually shod with my all-time favourite tyre combo of a Panaracer Dart / Smoke (original issue) and the red latex inner tubes that were all the rage in the late 80's!
I've been meaning to get around to this little project for such a long time now - I've owned her from new, as I happened to be doing some work for the importer of Rossin at the time in 1989. This was a small company called Interclad Trading based in Staples Corner in North London.
He has also developed his own brand of MTB, as he'd hoped to get onto the MTB growth explosion - they were called Red Canyon, and I remember having a Red Canyon Navigator for a short while (Black frame / Deore LX throughout). It wasn't actually all that good, that was sadly pretty heavy - just a cheap Chinese mass produced pile of poo, that had some half decent components on it.
Anyway, at the time and in his warehouse, the Red Canyon's were being sold off as the venture had failed and he was trying to clear all the stock - in fact, now that I think about it, I even bought a Bartalli MTB from him too, but that was pretty damn heavy as well, not all that good (albeit having M730 XT throughout), and I soon parted company with it. My aim at the time was the prize of the Rossin, which had sat gleaming in the corner of his warehouse sell out for weeks - out of price reach for everyone that walked through the warehouse door for the closeout sale. I was watching it like a hawk, as I wanted it really badly, but couldn't get close to affording it at the time - I seem to recall that it was sitting there reduced from an RRP of £1400 or so, to £950. I was building Red Canyon bikes out of the boxes for people that were buying them, trying to earn money as quickly as I could, so that I could nab it for myself. I can still remember the heart fluttering when the odd person looked at the Rossin and started poking her around looking they might take her away from me! The good news is, that by the weekend before he closed up completely, I ended up persuading my father to loan me the difference that I didn't quite have at the time, and she was mine. I was over the moon. I think I also managed to knock him down to around the £700-750 mark for it too iirc.
Not long after, I was working weekends and school holidays for Yellow Jersey in Camden - this was a real delight as I was able to get my hands on trick kit before most others had even seen it (most of which ended up on a StumpJumper M2 that I've still knocking around). The Rossin had M730 Deore XT throughout, but I had added 1st gen Gripshift to it when this came out in 1990'ish - which at the time, along with an upgrade to a Titanium Turbomatic saddle, was the only mod I had made - she was brochure correct apart from that. She briefly had some Tange Switchblades on her, but I actually went back to the stock chromoly forks not too long after. I can't remember why.
Anyway, until a few months ago, she was still exactly the same, but I'd always hankered after the M900 XTR groupset, which I couldn't come close to affording at the time. I managed to lay my hands on a super-cheap British Eagle Boss, that had a complete M900 groupset throughout and had hardly ever been ridden on eBay a little while back, and the upgrade was ready to get going.
So, to start off with, the wheels. I'd never had a problem with them, but the original RM-17 rims just didn't seem good enough for her. I still had a pair of NOS Mavic MB40's sitting in the rafters that I'd picked up in the Bike UK liquidation auction, and these were perfect for the build. I decided to marry up the XTR hubs from the Boss to the MB40's and we were away - the pics of them shaping are below... eventually shod with my all-time favourite tyre combo of a Panaracer Dart / Smoke (original issue) and the red latex inner tubes that were all the rage in the late 80's!
