Serotta MTB Identification - Real or Fake? 1995? 1998?

[M-Power]

Its a T Max. Superb riding frames from the very early 90s, still miss mine.

 

[MuchAlohaNui]

Thank you. Do you (or anyone out there lurking) happen to have a 1991 and 1993 Serotta catalog in pdf? In 1994 the construction looks like the profile of the tubing went symmetrical. I will not be able to sleep until I hammer down the year of this frame.

Side info: The Trek OCLV I picked up as well is a Gen 1 9900, Black with the icey blue logos!

 

[MuchAlohaNui]

I attempted to read the serial number but that part of the bottom bracket housing has some chain rub in the paint. Perhaps these additional pictures can narrow down the year?

 

[donk]

Here is a link to a 1992 catalogue with pretty much that exact paint job.

https://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?t=82634
If looking into it, you may want to contact Dave Kirk at Kirk Frameworks - http://kirkframeworks.com/ - he likely had a hand in building it

or Kelly Bedford at http://kbedfordcustoms.com/ as he likely designed it.

 

[MuchAlohaNui]

Thank you for all of that info. I reached out to Dave Kirk for verification if he had a hand in building this frame I have now. Also the bike is completely stripped down to the frame only, so I guess I'll have to announce an official build thread once I get more info on the frame!

 

[Prodigal Son]

That looks like a very laidback seat tube. Either photo illusion or a custom frame.

 

[Elev12k]

The braze on for guiding the cable on the seatbolt looks like different than the one on my old T-Max.

I don't know whether there were design changes from year to year. It could be there weren't. It could also be there were subtle differences from frame tot frame. They were built by a craftsman on order or possibly small batches. Dating a Specialized or Giant is easier as each year there was a new line with components and paint specific for that model year.

It looks like one of the pics show a painted bottle bolt in the same colour as the paint, what suggests a repaint at some point.

 

[MuchAlohaNui]

I honestly have a vague idea of what I am dealing with here. The cable stop/guide for the rear brake cable is not a hollow tube cable housing stop. It's a notched nub brazed onto the seat clamp mechanism and is all one piece design. Also, if you look closely, and draw a horizontal line with your eye along the axis of the seat clamp bolt, imagine this... the little nub is slightly canted vertically toward the the horizontal or vertical center line of the frame, if you will. For the rear brake, there is a cable stop brazed near the steerer tube, then there is nothing along the top tube for cable management until this nub brazed onto the seat post clamp. I've never seen a design like this, so I am a bit puzzled.

Other than the rear drop outs stamped with "Ritchey" I don't know what else I can measure. Maybe the bike was resprayed at one point, as indicated by the water bottle holder bolts, one set is yellow the other red. Where the paint colors meet, there are no ridges. Where there are chips, I see very light grey primer then metal.

 

[Proto2000]

Here is a Colorado Legend AT I had for a while so diff geometry than yours, counts that out.

 

[MuchAlohaNui]

Very nice. Do you have a picture of the rear cable boss near the seat post?