Yet another of our favorite “name this elevated chainstay bike” threads…

[Boldie]

Yes, just like the title suggests, I’m out of ideas.
So I got this bike and it obviously must have been a big deal.
Elevated chainstay frame but quite unlike your average (won’t bore you with unnecessary details just yet but most likely it is NOT a Nishiki or a Yokota or a Cunningham or a Norco), factory full XT (I would say from around 90-92?) even to the the headset with matching thumb shifters, a Bullseye front hub, Ringle Ti skewers, either an Answer ATAC or a Control Tech quill stem (which must have been neon pink originally until someone decided to strip the paint off), Ti Primax bottom bracket, Modolo handlebar, see the pictures.
Note the internal cable routing on the top tube or through the rear triangle, also the beefy welding, dropouts and eyelets…
It has been a riddle, would appreciate anyone chipping in…
Thanks a lot in advance!

 

[markoc]

Chainstay/seatstay brace does look quite Nishiki - but I don't think they had a straight downtube.

Almost looks like a GT RTS that has had the rear triangle welded on upside down (but clearly isn't lol)

Edited - just noticed the internal cable routing for the rear brake. What a strange frame!

 

[Boldie]

Hey markoc, thanks!

yes indeed I had the same impression, thinking first that it might be a Nishiki because of that brace but like you said, the downtube on them is bent…
And you’re right about the GT too!

The whole thing looks pretty much factory to me, which makes me believe it isn’t just a random frame that somebody built with high-end parts BITD.

But just like the stem, I have a feeling that the whole frame might have been stripped/sanded down for some reason and the guy might have gone through the whole bike with a polisher to buff it up in its assembled state (would explain why is the anodizing gone only from the surface of the Ringles…)

Some more clues:

The titanium Primax BB and the Modolo X-Rocky handlebar are both Made in Italy stuff and while they used to equip top-notch bikes with Campagnolos like Julie Furtado’s 1990 Yeti FRO, makes me wonder if the bike isn’t an Italian one… check the cable guides on the frame, they have no slits and their fat round shape reminds me of the ones Pinarello had been using - although once again, I could not come across a similar bike in Pinarello’s catalogs.

BTW what do you think about the Modolo handlebar, I couldn’t date it but somehow I have a feeling that it might have been added later to the bike as it seems like mid/late-90’s to me?

Finally, if you don’t mind taking a look at the stem, you can see the remnants of the paint - and even some more on its left side (or it might be just grime) I can only think of Answer’s A-TAC or Control Tech’s Control Stem from around 90-91 that looked exactly the same (although I have never seen them in such a neon/shocking pink, but hey, A-TACs did come in neon yellow just like this one on the ‘Bay.) Any idea what else it might be?

Thanks once again, I really appreciate your opinion!

 

[Boldie]

Let me conclude what I managed to find out so far:

For obvious reasons I only considered those elevated chainstay bikes that had a similar geometry, ie. where the chainstay is NOT an extension of the downtube (like on a Yeti Ultimate) but where the downtube goes straight all the way to the BB.
For yet some more obvious reasons, I narrowed down the latter by ignoring those that had a chromoly rear triangle attached by screws (like the Cunninghams or the Mantis) And finally I only considered the ones that had bracing between the chainstay and the seatstay (like Nishikis do.)

Long story short, I am pretty sure that this frame is NOT:

• a Nishiki Alien or any other Nishiki for that matter, since the downtube on the Nishikis were bent at the welding point of the chainstay. Also, chainstays used to meet at the downtube on Nishikis while on mine they meet at the seat tube and there is a single tube bracing it with the downtube.
• A Nishiki Revolution MFS because of the wishbone seatstay and the way the chainstays are welded together, downtube would be good though
• a Yokota Terminator, because of its chainstays meeting at the downtube and also because of its wishbone-shaped seatstay
• A Norco Pinnacle (although very similar,) because it had a wishbone seatstay
• a Saracen Kiliracer because its downtube is bent at the welding points and has no internal cable routing like mine does
• A Centurion Sable because of the rear dropouts are different, also no internal routing on this either
• A Brave Warrior because of the shape of the rear triangle and the dropout, also no internal routing
• A Wheeler Pro Line because of its bent downtube and the different dropouts
• A Daccordi because of the chainstays meet at the downtube and not at the seat tube. Also this one is made of thin Colombus tubes.
• A Vicini because of the different dropouts and no internal cable routing on these

…and this is where I gave up, running out of ideas. Anyone knows of anything else I forgot to mention?

 

[kingoffootball]

I don't know whether you have already looked through this thread:

https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/show-us-your-elevated-c-s-bikes.115852/
but I just used it as an excuse to look through again. I couldn't see any clues, but nice to look through the bikes where the images are still there anyway.

 

[Boldie]

Thanks a lot, didn’t know about this thread…
I do trust you when you say you couldn’t find any clues there… also am a bit exhausted after having gone through all the 63 pages of this German thread I happened to come across trying to google it…
I’m starting to feel that this might not be a “mainstream” bike like an Alpinestars or a Nishiki, otherwise I must have bumped into something already…

 

[Hotwheels.]

@incorrigible
Fraaaaaaaaannnkk, could you shed any of your perverted illumination on this trifling quandary perhaps?

 

[incorrigible]

@incorrigible
Fraaaaaaaaannnkk, could you shed any of your perverted illumination on this trifling quandary perhaps?

Sorry to keep you waiting - I just now saw this.
I just spent over an hour poring through my photo archives, and I came up blank.
I found some that were very close (Dave Yates Vulcan, Overbury's Delta, Mountain Track Falcon), but they missed the mark.
I can't tell if this is steel or aluminum, but the closest I could find, and some purists would be horrified if I even mentioned it, but is it possible that it's a modified (cable stops shaved and holes drilled for internal cable routing) and painted Litespeed Ti e-stay?
Why paint such a frame? Perhaps to hide dents with body filler?
My apologies in advance to the torch and pitchfork crowd for even suggesting this.

 

[Hotwheels.]

100% it’s aluminium.

 

[Boldie]

Sorry to keep you waiting - I just now saw this.
I just spent over an hour poring through my photo archives, and I came up blank.
I found some that were very close (Dave Yates Vulcan, Overbury's Delta, Mountain Track Falcon), but they missed the mark.
I can't tell if this is steel or aluminum, but the closest I could find, and some purists would be horrified if I even mentioned it, but is it possible that it's a modified (cable stops shaved and holes drilled for internal cable routing) and painted Litespeed Ti e-stay?
Why paint such a frame? Perhaps to hide dents with body filler?
My apologies in advance to the torch and pitchfork crowd for even suggesting this.
View attachment 567479

Amazing, I immediately ruled Litespeed out but hey, I’ll break out a good old magnet and give it a try, see if it attracts!