Vintage custom build. Arrow aremet.

[joglo]

what a great ride

I have never heard of Arrow bikes, other than the Villiger sub-brand in Switzerland, selling MTBs in the 90ties till Trek took over Villiger.


Is this your Arrow from an US based company?


Also Bikes using Aermet are very rare. I'm just aware that Nevil has used it for a while and also Dean had some prototypes mid nineties.
Apparently also RaceFace had a Aer EX stem at least in the 95 brochure. Not sure if this ever was sold later.

Anyway, just found an Arrow Bike in an old brochure about using Aermet for bicylces

Second page, at the bottom in the middle



Source: http://www.equusbicycle.com/bike/aermet/index.html

 

[ferrus]

AerMet was never developed into butted tube sets for bicycles as far as I’m aware.
0.5mm and 0.66mm plain-gauge pipes… Would love to know how these frames ride!

 

[H@l9000]

Thanks for the ads joglo, I've actually seen that last one.

Here's the arrow racing website. They're a u.s. brand and still owned by the same guy. https://www.arrowracing.com/

The other aremet mtb I know about was the Jamis firefly. Apparently those were built on contract by Gus at Arrow as well. I don't know the exact timing but I've spoken with a vintage bike store (Gringineer cycles) who sold a bare firefly frame a while back. So far that's the only other real life example I've heard of.

I'm also very sure that Shimano made an Aermet xtr seat post back in the day... Someone (yours truly) might just have had one on their very first grown up bike (a rigid Klein rascal: wish I still had that one too), and wrecked it's value by cutting it down before knowing any better .... I can say from memory the rumors about how hard the stuff is to cut are not exaggerated.

 

[H@l9000]

Maybe dragonfly and not firefly..... Not actually sure

 

[ferrus]

Yep Dragonfly.
Interesting about the XTR post, not heard of that before. Any info on other parts? - I like the idea of a thin gauge AerMet handlebar…

 

[H@l9000]

Yep Dragonfly.
Interesting about the XTR post, not heard of that before. Any info on other parts? - I like the idea of a thin gauge AerMet handlebar…

Handlebars would've been tough. Aermet effectively doesn't bend or stretch. The tubing wasn't even drawn, it was rolled from sheet. It's pretty wild stuff originally developed for the defense industry and used for aircraft landing gear.

 

[joglo]

Interesting about the XTR post, not heard of that before. Any info on other parts?

Nevil had quite a range of bikes using Aermet over years, earlier 1991 catalog


or later article in a bike magazin from 1996, where they talk about AirMet



and that's the RF AX stem i was referring earlier, also in the 95 brochure in German mentioned as based on Aermet 100

 

[ferrus]

Thanks guys. I didn’t realise Nevil was working with it as early as ’91 (in his grotty shack!).
From what I’ve read most of the AerMet Nevils cracked, though whether this was to do with the material or the workmanship seems debatable.
- Interesting to see the El Torro frame is claimed to weigh on ‘average’ 3 - 3.3lbs !

 

[H@l9000]

I read something about the cracking frames being due to longitudinal cracking of the tubing caused during cutting, but that was just banter between a couple of builders that I found online. No idea if it's true, but it jibes with the suggestions that the material was short lived in bikes due to the difficulty of working with it....

On another note, this bike was built for a sponsored pro named Chandler Weeks... That is a nice tidbit.