Newest acquistion, carrera content!

Good evening peeps, can anyone shed a definitive date on my newest acquisition?

Got a phonecall from a friend this morning saying he had cleared out his shed at home and was going to skip this bike as he hasnt used it in years, but another mate had said that i like faffing with old bikes and he should ask if i wanted it, which he was doing, otherwise it was just going to get jumped on, bent in half and binned :shock:


So i said id go for a spy at it, and after a quick look i thought id save it, unsure what ill do with it as its too small for me really, but hey ho, it was free lol!















Didnt look too bad apart from everything is seized up and the brakes and mechs dont move, so i set about it with a cloth and some lube to see what i could do....


And this is what ive been left with now..
















Not a bad little bike in fairness and isnt overly heavy i dont think, brakes now work and it shifts (kind of) needs new cables all round and a full strip down and clean, but thats only an hour or so's work!


Im guessing its round about 1997 looking at the alivo setup and the fact it has canti's and not V's, whats others think?

not bad - it gives off a whiff of 1994/5 to me.

legrandefromage":1bxd7aze said:

not bad - it gives off a whiff of 1994/5 to me.

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It did to me looking at it, but I worked for Halfords then, and don't remember this model. I therefore think its a 96/7

legrandefromage":2vvp3f6a said:

not bad - it gives off a whiff of 1994/5 to me.

Click to expand...

Really, as early as that, i thought it would be a bit later than that as its late alivio that they rebranded as 'Shimano A' ?

But then again i was never interested in lower spec groupsets, i yearned after the unobtainable stuff like XT and XTR lol!

Like i say ive got no idea what to do with it at the mo, but i wasnt going to let it get put to death as its not a bad little thing!

Definitely '97 I had the Carrera Gradient that year which was the cheapest one, cro-mo and the coloured bit was purple, but deffo that year

easiest way t find out is look at the date stamps on the seat and/ or seatpost.

strip it and polish the life out of it - those generic frames are not that bad. I had a Peugeot Team something or other, identical except for the worlds worst Suntour suspension forks.

*Edit - and there it is, 1997's finest budget groupset - apart from the chainset, it all works rather well. Mixed with STX-RC it was pretty decent.

Frames nearly identical to my 92 CB Zagatto except the cable stops are welded as opposed to riveted to the top tube. Thus i'm thinking similar to LGF but not late 90's as by then it'd be on V-Brakes.

I had a Carerra Vortice (chrome and purple) which i lent to a mate's missus to do a charity bike ride on. She in turn left it at her friends house. That was nearly 8 years ago. I wonder if its still there????

I'd have gone with 5 ish looking at the general look of the bike and setup.

Grab the serial number shouldn't be too hard to figure out from that.


But given the groupset (ok rear mech, chainset) it could be 1997 or 98

I reckon 95/96, Ahead became mainstream about that time & V's were still yet to trickle down to the masses.

I love the claim of it being handmade (pumping up the tyres by hand in a Halfrauds store doesn't count)