What on earth have I just bought?

[catf]

Re:

there is nothing about that frame that looks like either a kona or a saracen of any era. surprised nobody has suggested a random specialized, at least the cranks would be right.

found a pic of what i was thinking of, might be a smaller, post 97 version of this. if it is there'll be a ritchey logo on the bb shell

 

[finbar]

Thanks Catf - i'll wait and see.

I'm not sure if the cranks are Specialized StrongArms or FSA Power Pros.

 

[finbar]

Re: Re:

My personal guess would be a Sunn, it also has a Sram rear mech

Winner! There was no manufacturer's marks on the frame, but the Rudd seatpost and bar gave it away.

It rides perfectly nicely for £45. I've been doing laps of Parkwood Springs in Sheffield on it. Even the brake blocks and gears were well set up, but the BB is a bit creaky.

 

[tufty]

If it's a Sunn, the bottom bracket will have a serial number of the form S...... where the first two digits are the year of manufacture (generally one year before the year of sale). It's Ahead, so I'd expect to see S96... or later. It should *also* have the model name on the bottom bracket, which will give you an idea of how far up the scale of expensiveness it was originally.

Dropouts look like the '97 ones ('98 and later are profiled with a rather subtle "sunn" when you look at them from behind), should actually have "sunn" stamped into them around the axle mount. I think the only bikes that were originally painted in '97 were the Revolt and the Exact, so that would put it pretty high up the scale unless someone's painted over chrome (and I'd expect to see that flaking if it were the case)

Looks to be a bloody good buy for 45 notes. You could probably get your money back by flogging the seatpost and bars

 

[finbar]

Thanks very much for the additional info tufty. I did have a quick look under the BB and I think the respray might have obscured any stamps on the frame, but I'll take a closer look this eve.

I'm pretty sure it's a Vertik from 1997 or 98. The bullet end rear stays and most of the spec (SRAM ESP 7.0, Avid 1.0 brakes) matches:

 

[tufty]

I wouldn't go by catalogue spec. For starters, it's been resprayed and doesn't have the original fork.

On the other hand, assuming the most of the group is original, you should be able to get a good idea from the combinations.

Xircuit '97 - LX or STX up front, ESP 7.0 rear, gripshit 700 or 900, SD 1.9 or 2.0 levers depending on model (Xircuit / + / max)
Revolt '97 - LX, ESP 7.0, gripshift 900, SD 3.0 levers
Vertik 2 '98 - STX, ESP 7.0, gripshift 700, AD 1.0 levers

Looking at the levers, I'd concur with it being a 1998 Vertik 2

Edit, also, looks like my comment on the dropouts is wrong, and the dropout type is perhaps more dependent on frame type than year.