1989 Rocky Mountain Thunderbolt DL

My latest retro bike...a Thunderbolt DL

I was very lucky to find this one locally, and pretty happy to get one with a unique purple & blue drip paint on white, and a nice fillet brazed stem! The paint has a lot of chips and rust causing the paint to bubble, but I think the drip/splatter paint hides the imperfections well.

Most of the parts are original but it's missing the matching blue fork, Syncros seatpost, turbo saddle, and XT u-brakes. But it does have a nice set of Suntour Roller cam brakes. I believe the titanium bar is a 1st generation Syncros bar, but maybe someone else can confirm this?

It still needs a bit of work (maybe swap in some better condition XT parts), get some matching tires, different seatpost and grips, and some white paint touch ups to prevent more rusting.

incredible. bet you got it for a song too?

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Looks like most of it has been upgrade over 4 or 5 years as you would to me at least the bits I've noticed.

Nice

Thunderbolt "DL"… i swore someone else had posted one up before as well recently. :?

Very nice score! Congrats!!!

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i have the chris dekerf built tig welded version of your thunderbolt.
same style of paint job as well.
love the blue in yours. great score. will be watching this build.

here's the other Thunderbolt DL RockiMtn mentioned.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=293631&hilit=thunderbolt.

ah yes, that's the one. thx roy for refreshing my memory!

thunderbolts have been becoming as common as blizzards lately. :roll:

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Yikes that rad. Really nice bike

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Thanks guys!

FluffyChicken":4iv0qnou said:

Looks like most of it has been upgrade over 4 or 5 years as you would to me at least the bits I've noticed.

Nice

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Ya, you're right. I guess not that much is original. The chainrings, chain, cogs, tires, BB, pads, grips, saddle have all been replaced. And the Mag 21's would have been added in the early 90's. I'm happy that it's still got the stock Wolber rims as those are hard to find these days.

cyclotoine":4iv0qnou said:

incredible. bet you got it for a song too?

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Not quite, I wish! Another Rocky enthusiast found out about the bike and the bidding quickly escalated.

Retro_Roy":4iv0qnou said:

i have the chris dekerf built tig welded version of your thunderbolt.
same style of paint job as well.
love the blue in yours. great score. will be watching this build.

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Cool! I've only seen one other of those tig welded versions.

RockiMtn":4iv0qnou said:

thunderbolts have been becoming as common as blizzards lately. :roll:

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Ha, I'm sure we'll always see more Blizzards than thunderbolts! There's been a couple Thunderbolts posted recently, but who knows, it could be a couple years before we see another one found.

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Wow nice one! Those welds... Enjoy it on the trails there!

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dalecooper":3tpl9gl2 said:

Wow nice one! Those welds... Enjoy it on the trails there!

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not welded. fillet brazed.