Vintage Ti Frame ID

[ridevintagemtb]

Hi Everyone,

Can someone help ID this thing?

-Merlin Serial in line with what year this appears to be (93-94)
-Litespeed ish cable guides
-Marin and Merlin decals
-Dropouts I can't ID

1.125" headtube

NOT: Dean, Raleigh, Bontrager, DBR

Untitled by Mike Wilk, on Flickr

Untitled by Mike Wilk, on Flickr

Untitled by Mike Wilk, on Flickr

Untitled by Mike Wilk, on Flickr

Thanks in advance!

 

[raidan73]

The way the seat stays meet the seat tube looks quite unique

 

[KermitGKona88]

Is it just me or does the drive side dropout look spread backwards ???

 

[ridevintagemtb]

Yep, it's a mess and not sure it's save-able. I'm just curious what it is

 

[BoyBurning]

Looks like a 1991 Marin Team Titanium - they used Gary Helfrich sourced dropouts. Slight differences are Marin always used one up two down cables, whereas yours has two up and one down - but the cable stops don't look consistent on yours in terms of design of single and double stops. Hard to tell in pics, but the doubles are flat edged and the singles are contoured it looks like? Also the seat lugs aren't present and a collar was used on your frame. Otherwise very similar, especially the stays and dropouts. Maybe a custom? Maybe it's been modified a little - any sign of removed cable stops for example? Not sure if Marin offered a custom programme like other manufacturers, but they were made in USA, so possibly the option was there for minor changes in terms of cable routing, bottle bosses, seat clamping etc? Maybe anyway!

 

[Woz]

Not entirely a wild guess, IMHO, it's a Litespeed. Those drop-outs look awfully close to some Litespeed built Parkpre.
https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/litespeed-made-parkpre-pro-elite-1993ish.290065/page-3
Early Litespeed did use downtube cable guides too.

 

[ridevintagemtb]

Thanks boys, I'm just not seeing any detail that's convincing me it's a Marin or a litespeed.

 

[2manyoranges]

Er...almost certainly Litespeed. Four digit all-over-the-place number punching. Exactly match other Litespeed pattern.
Serial number enquiry to Litespeed is 25:00USD on line, they come back very quickly.
That dropout is entirely saveable. Let me think...finesse required here and real engineering expertise. After a minute's reflection: force...much force....applied judiciously.

Re digits - see what I mean? This on a July 1990 (confirmed by Litespeed). Yes, I know it’s on the dropout, but they later stopped being naughty and moved their numbers to the BB shell.

Hmmm....I even think that the number sequence makes sense. They had the same index for ALL of their frames, whatever the group doing the purchasing. Around 3000 for my old frame....about 5000 frames later.....


STOP PRESS - bu””er - Merlin had 4 digit numbers for a while. Drat.

Anyone else?

 

[mk one]

Many features of a Litespeed made frame, not sure who made for though.

 

[ridevintagemtb]

circling back on this, it does appear LS built. Thanks for everyone's help here! It was fun coming back to this place after being away for awhile.