I'm finally posting photos of my 1994 Santa Cruz Tazmon that I offered a glimpse of here a couple of years ago. As the Tazmon was Santa Cruz's first bike, this makes this bike a very early example of what Santa Cruz was doing to bring full suspension to the mountain bike scene. Of course, at the time Santa Cruz was primarily known as a skate board company. This is why you see "mountain bikes" added to the downtube logo on the early Tazmons. The serial number is #173. When I called Santa Cruz to get info on the bike, the person on the phone said I was missing a bunch of other letters and numbers, and to look again. When I said no, this is the number there was a pause, and then "that belongs in a museum!"
I purchased the bike as a rolling frame. It had been in storage in a garage for over 20 years, according to the seller. It had purple road rims laced to Pulstar hubs with a Mountain cycle front disc brake and a rear rim brake. It also had a Rock Shox Judy 1" fork painted purple with an Onza Mongo adapter for the 1 1/8" head tube. The Risse shock was original, as was the two-stage paint and decals. No dents, just a scrape on the right side of the downtube.
It also came with the original rear cantilever brake equalizer that fits on the rear brake plate...something I've never seen before or since.
All the pivot bearings were frozen and were replaced. The rear triangle shows signs of hand machining. I believe the frames were welded up by Control Tech at the time, although I haven't found any catalogs for this year. I do believe Santa Cruz offered an "XT" build option back then. Everything I’ve built the bike with is Shimano XT M737. The Mag 21 SL Ti fork is all original including decals and still has the bar code sticker. I found some really nice Control Tech bars with the "stubbby" Control Tech bar extensions and a slight angled stem and Risse rebuilt the shock. The guys at Risse say the shocks were color coded back then according to which country they were intended to be sold in. This color is for USA shocks.
Wilderness Trail Bike tires seemed appropriate for this California built bike. I believe the rims were originally Bontrager Weinmann BCX Red Label, but I haven't found any decent ones yet, so it has Mavic rims on Shimano XT Parallax hubs. Also went with a Wilderness Trail Bikes saddle. The Odi grips and Uno post are obviously new. Anyway, here it is in it's present form, still a great ride 30 years later.
I purchased the bike as a rolling frame. It had been in storage in a garage for over 20 years, according to the seller. It had purple road rims laced to Pulstar hubs with a Mountain cycle front disc brake and a rear rim brake. It also had a Rock Shox Judy 1" fork painted purple with an Onza Mongo adapter for the 1 1/8" head tube. The Risse shock was original, as was the two-stage paint and decals. No dents, just a scrape on the right side of the downtube.
It also came with the original rear cantilever brake equalizer that fits on the rear brake plate...something I've never seen before or since.
All the pivot bearings were frozen and were replaced. The rear triangle shows signs of hand machining. I believe the frames were welded up by Control Tech at the time, although I haven't found any catalogs for this year. I do believe Santa Cruz offered an "XT" build option back then. Everything I’ve built the bike with is Shimano XT M737. The Mag 21 SL Ti fork is all original including decals and still has the bar code sticker. I found some really nice Control Tech bars with the "stubbby" Control Tech bar extensions and a slight angled stem and Risse rebuilt the shock. The guys at Risse say the shocks were color coded back then according to which country they were intended to be sold in. This color is for USA shocks.
Wilderness Trail Bike tires seemed appropriate for this California built bike. I believe the rims were originally Bontrager Weinmann BCX Red Label, but I haven't found any decent ones yet, so it has Mavic rims on Shimano XT Parallax hubs. Also went with a Wilderness Trail Bikes saddle. The Odi grips and Uno post are obviously new. Anyway, here it is in it's present form, still a great ride 30 years later.
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