What's In The Box? (Brad Pitt Voice) An Early Bontrager OR! **Finished Photos Page 11**

[2manyoranges]

Look can you stop all this discussion - I am beginning to miss mine now...

Right...I have had a deep breath and a coffee and a good look at my new ti and steel makes me feel better.

 

[slackboy]

Probably time to get some Bontrager pictures added to this thread - we seem to have a glut of in progress / finished.

https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/bring-out-your-bontrager-pics-please.122110/page-39

 

[pw_pw_la]

That thread always makes me laugh/shudder.

I've visited it many, many times looking for inspiration since I joined this site, and every time I get a wave of brutal secondhand embarrassment at all the keyboard flirting/harassment aimed towards the OP.

Best to skip to end, as you've done with your link, and just scroll backwards looking at all those lovely bikes!

 

[1978]

I’ve just had confirmation from Tom Clark, one of the frame builders at Bontrager:

“there is no meaning to the numbers on the dropouts. They were made and thrown into a pile and picked out when the welder reached in the pile”

 

[Prodigal Son]

I know I promised photos, but I keep forgetting to take it home from work with me at the end of the day.

I also quite like taking a quick peek at it below my work bench every few hours ; )

The weekend perhaps.

Anyway, I did get the work tape measure out today, just to confirm sizing:

Seat tube: 17" center-to-center, or 19" from center to the very top.
Top tube: 22" center-to-center.

So, that would make it a Large. And more or less the same size as most of the other bikes currently in my stable (bit disappointed at that to be honest, as I was originally hoping to go a little bigger with this bike).

That said, over in HERE, people seem to think the large size, which this seems to be, would be the size for me. So I guess we'll see!

Odd that in the chart @slackboy posted the top tube is supposed to be 23" in the Large, when mine is 22". Unless for some reason that measurement was end-to-end rather than center-to-center like the ST?

Anyway, plenty of six-footers in here ride larges, so I feel confident this is going to be the right fit for me.

I didn't have the calipers at work, so couldn't confirm seat tube diameter, but the chart linked above claims it should be 26.8, so off I go to eBay...

I believe it´s measured as virtual, paralel to ground top tube.

 

[pw_pw_la]

Finally a little time to clean everything off, polish everything up, and take a few photos.

I'll let those do the talking, for now...








Nothing no one's not already seen countless times on here before, I know. But I'm really unbelievably excited to have this frame in my possession, and I could stare at those gussets and little design details all day long...

: )

 

[Carge]

That, my man, is a thing of great beauty - chapeau!

I think I need to take the lappy down to the workshop tomorrow to compare frame details.

 

[pw_pw_la]

That, my man, is a thing of great beauty - chapeau!

I think I need to take the lappy down to the workshop tomorrow to compare frame details.

Yeah, please do!

It came with this, too:




Which is also very nice!

I love the custom, minimal Hyperlite branding; the fact that it's been pinned/bonded. I even like the slightly worse-for-wear condition. And although I originally planned on a Salsa stem and silver bar combo, I think it would be a shame not to at least try it with the above, in full, black-on-black, murdered-out glory!

Guess we'll see how it feels/rides with the above first, and decide that way.

Might be nice to go very black with frame, stem, bars and forks. And then have silver and chrome hits everywhere else.

 

[Carge]

I've seen a few of these bonded/pinned stem/bar combos......
Is it me, or are the bars always upside down?
I would have had the Hyperlite the right way up - or was this KB showing his rebel streak again?

 

[slackboy]

I would have had the Hyperlite the right way up - or was this KB showing his rebel streak again?

Or the result of "drink beer at your desk" fridays...