AVANTI...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Avanti-Pro-RETRO- ... 286.c0.m14


:shock:

Someone please enlighten me...

Mr K

"Tis a piece of real mountain biking history from 1992. Took me donkeys years to find one as wanted one when was a kid and obviously could never afford it. Its a World Cup Machine."

Nothing left to say...

No ,seriously, never heard of it. :?

Could it possibly be a kind of 'cut & shut' type of thing , put a nice retro fork on a cheap throwaway frame then punt it under a 'rare' header
Just to elevate the selling price of the fork :evil:

That's ugly!!! :twisted:

Avanti are a reasonably popular brand (good value reasonable quality but nothing too fantastic IMO) here in Australia and in New Zealand.. I believe they're originally from New Zealand (with an Italian name - don't you just love it!). The sticker on it looks like one from that company (but I've no idea if the frame really is one of theirs)... here is a link to their site: http://www.avantibikes.com... yup looks like they're from NZ.
I know very little about the early days of the company... in fact practically nothing at all but I'm sure some of our NZ cousins could shed some light.

"They are buy the way again total retro sheek Manitou 3 as ridden by Cindy on her Klein in 1991 to world championship victory"

so hes talkin utter bolx then

Emailed the seller asking if he could tell me more about it. I was also confused to the age of the frame as he was saying 1991 but the Manitou 3's are confusing me. TBH his reply has left me even more confused.

"Dear sinnett177,

hello

am just too busy but what I do know is if you look at cindy devines klein attitude 1991/1992 you will see the same forks. As for the avanti, it was one of the first elevated down tube machines. Similar to this move forward was the funk, alpine stars, harow and proflex 750. Kestrel did it around the same time in carbon followed in 92 by Trimble. The avanti pro series was the race end of the line more popular in the antipadian end of things. Hope that helps. Will try to find time to do a pic from the rear. All the best.

Micky"

Error

Micky should write up the history of mountain biking - it'd be a helluva read...

Mr K

Is his surname "Taker"

the frame is an avanti thats for sure..... they are a NZ brand and really popular here - make some very very good bikes and some not so good bikes. Hamish Carter won an olympic gold triathlon medal on their gorgeous full carbon machine

This frame is called a tuatara (which is a lizard thing and looks like a dinosaur) - not very high end I dont believe and not one i'd be adding to my collection as there is one on our ebay for 25GBP and its been there for months

hope that helps