Those with Bufonophobia look away now, ORT content

[andrewl]

Bufonophobia - Fear of toads

Those that are regulars on this site are likely to remember this bikes as it appeared a few times on eBay for stupid money and never sold. When it then appeared at a good price I bit the bullet and bought off the original owner who bought it new back in 1990. After I bought it, it sat safely packed away in the states for the best part of 2 years at a friends place before we got around to getting it set to me here in Tasmania. As everything bar the wheels has now arrived I’ve started to do a little work on it.

I don’t have a great history of the bike and the actual year of the frame is a little unknown but the details like the U brake suggest its late 89 early 90 as they moved to cantis shortly into the 90s. She’s been pretty unloved and is a bit faded on one side and dirty in places but other than a different seat post and minor things like cables, grips and tyres everything under the dirt and grease looks pretty good and so I’ll just clean it all up and ride.

I haven’t taken any real photos as yet and the spec is from memory, but I’ll update things as I go along.

Enjoy!

Andrew


Frame: 89/90 Off Road Toad

Fork: Answer Accu-Trax

Headset: not sure but I think the bottom and top cups are different
Stem: Syncros
Handlebar: Syncros
Grips: ODI Mushroom
Barends: Some machined things which won't be used.

Brakes: XT Canit front, Scott USA Pedersen SE U brake
Brake Pads:
Brake Cables:
Cantilever cable hangers:
Brake Levers: XT

Shifters: XT 7 speedThumbies
Front Derailleur: XT
Rear Derailleur: Shimano 600
Derailleur Cables: Shimano

Cassette: ?
Chain: Shimano
Cranks: XT
Crank Bolts: ?
Chainrings: Biopace HP 46 and 36 and round 24 tooth
Chainring bolts: ?
Bottom Bracket: ?
Pedals: ?

Hub Skewers: Ringle black
Rims: ?
Hubs: XT
Nipples:
Spokes:
Tyres:
Tubes:

Saddle: Rocky Mountain branded job it white
Seatpost: XT (cut too short)
Seatpost Binder: Ringle

Weight: Heavy!

 

[KiwiJohn]

That's very green.
When will we see the rest?
& the Salsa?

 

[Dr S]

Fantastic and uber rare. Lets see some more!!

 

[john]

Certainly will, look forward to seeing this one progress.

 

[andrewl]

I'm hoping to take more photos tomorrow in natural light.

 

[KermitGKona88]

Well obviously I have to sit in on this one, ribbit

 

[Coleman]

Look forward to seeig more of this - one of the great things about this site is learning about bikes/brands that I have never hear of before.

 

[andrewl]

Time for an update...

Well progress has been a little slow on this (like many other projects) but its slowly moving forward. As the original wheels seems to have gone missing in Iowa I've tracked down some XT hubs and will build up some wheels soon.

At the moment I'm wondering what to do fork wise. Currently there is an Accu-trax fork on the bike but its not quite correct for the frame (close but not quite right), so I'm thinking of pulling it off and changing it for a Tange Switchblade which were fitted to many early Toads. Alternatively a set of Syncros Powerlites would be great but the search for a good 1" crown for own (or whole fork) isn't going so well.

Progress photos a little later...

 

[andrewl]

With this months BOTM special I thought I'd better do some more work to this Toad and see if I can get it in a suitable state for the vote.

I threw some crap wheels at it and its slowly beginning to come together, although still needs a lot of work to undo some of the years of neglect.

Anyway here's what it's currently looking like and a shot of the Rocky branded saddle which has probably been on the bike since it was new.

 

[al]

Fantastic bit of kit.

al.