1991 Batavus Hunter - finished project !!

Elev12k

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Earlier I showed you the Batavus Hunter Pro

This is the Batavus Hunter. Batavus is a large established Dutch bicycle manufacturer. Gazelle's main rival. I finished the project a couple days ago.

The Hunter has a steel frame with seriously ovalised tubing. It very much looks like Columbus Max, but by lifting the frame you can feel it isn't Nivachrom. It is a new to me variation of Tange MTB OS. The frame is nicely made. Batavus had its own custom and small series frame building department in Heerenveen, but unlike Gazelle's Champion Mondial ATB the Hunter frame isn't made in very limited quantities in Holland, but sourced in the far east. Frame and FIR rim wheels are very robust. A contrast with the original spec very light aluminium stem and carbonfibre handle bar. I replaced both for a Tange Prestige T-bone and a True Temper Competition 4130. The Onza Chill Pills and (German) Bike-Tech CNC booster are upgrades. The carbon (laminated) post is original. The groupset is Shimano's Deore DX. A blue collar champ.

Last summer I bought the bike as full bike from a bike shop owner. It came fitted with fenders, racks, two locks and much more. It lost about half of it weight. The Batavus was previously be owned by the father of the shop owner.

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Non-drive side

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Re: Batavus Hunter - finished project !!

That looks clean; lovely build, M. :cool:!

Not digging the pedals, but other than that..
Got any more of the red outer cable: looks cool!

Curious to hear how that behaves off the road.

:D
 
Re: Batavus Hunter - finished project !!

It is clean. It already was clean and I put a lot of effort in it to bring the cosmetic condition to the best possible level. I planned it as rider, but possibly I'll start another rider project. Batavus like this you don't find at every corner. I spotted another one for sale recently. The classified mentioned it was previously be owned by Erik Dekker. This could very well be the case as Erik raced to olympic silver on a KNWU Batavus Professional after Fabio Casartelli (Barcelona 1992).

The pedals are NOS Mongoose pedals. I bought a job lot and have them on several bikes. The red cable is 6mm Specialized cable. The internal routing Tioga stem requires 6mm cable.

I haven't tried it offroad yet, but judging by the looks it must be good while the solid build quality inspires confidence.
 
Re: Batavus Hunter - finished project !!

very nice clean mtb. New manufacture to me.
 
Batavus is more famous for their traditional Dutch bikes and professional road bikes than for their mountainbikes. Batavus has a museum in Heerenveen where thy give an overview of their and the bicycle's history in general. Actually it is their second museum. The first collection was sold to Shimano in the early 80s during an economic downturn. It is now on display in Japan.

At the moment this is my only other offroad Batavus:

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An early eighties Batavus Professional cross bike.
 
Batavus was so kind to provide me a scan of 1991 catalog pages showing the Hunter:

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The Hunter was the top of the line mountainbike model for 1991. The full 'Action Line' MTB line up: under this link
 
Re:

I bought a Hunter today. I owned one back in 1991. I could get it for half price at a Batavus dealer in Rotterdam centre called French. 1100 guilders was a lot of money for me those days ....but i was in love with that mountainbike.
I just saw they are bankrupt now, like a lot of small bicyclestore nowadays. I brought me in 1992 over the Telegraph, the Galibier, the Iseran and Alpe d'Huez. I made about 20.000k on it untill IT was stolen. A friend found the bike back with a big Anus lock on it on de oude Binnenweg in Rotterdam. The cops and fire departement cut the lock open and after two weeks waiting a got my own bike back, butit wasn't mine anymore. I sold it for 175 guilders to a friend of my girlfriend. Now I saw one on marktplaats and bought it. A nice restoration project is waiting!!!
 
congrats Elev12k you've build a real beauty ;)
and thanks a lot for the calalog page :!: :!: :!:

i once managed to get my hands on such a frame set myself, but i had to find out that it's too short for me. if there's an enthusiast around here who wants that project, send a pm. it's that same '91 maroon color and i'd guess same size. paint is not as pretty as here, but shop condition is presumably what makes your ride unique :D
 
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