Early Saracen Lovers Anonymous......

i had an 89 traverse limited edition in black. my first proper mountain bike. has a lot to answer for.
bought the frame from heffs and built it up with bits from my old raleigh and a few odd parts like an odyssey prosteer stem with brake boosting roller cam thingy. used to ride it to college, until i came back one day and found all the cables snipped where someone was trying to nick the bars and stem. luckily the stem was seized at the time... still got those XT thumbies on my current bike!
 
Traverse 89 ?

Guys I am new to this site but loving retro bikes from 89/90 . I recently picked this up about a year ago for 25 quid on ebay . Running original farmer Johns[/img][/url]
 
History of the Saracen/FW Evans ATB

ATB/Saracen ATB? (Manufactured by Bluemels).
In 1982/3, Richard Ballantine asked London bike shop F.W. Evans Cycles to build up two Ritchey frames he had brought from the U.S. for Tim Gartside's and Peter Murphy's ,February 1983, Saharan expedition.

Evans were curious and later persuaded Bluemels to build some bikes based on what they had seen. The resulting FW Evans ATBs were mostly silver and branded under the shops own marque. The Bluemels’ own Saracens bikes were identical, apart from being painted black.

In the spring of 84 I hired a rare, black framed, FW Evans ATB from Kingston Cycles. According to the receipt its frame number was 0001. Possibly the first Blumels' production mountain bike? Or even the first mass-produced British' mountain bike?

Early 1984 F.W. Evans

My first Mountain bike an FW Evans ATB ( i.e. Ritchey copy, with drops, these were fitted from new). Photo taken Summer 1984 (I rode from Liverpool to Southport and the back along the coast and across Liverpool without seeing another mountain bike all day).
 

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hey, i stumbled on this place a few days ago.
i still got my '89 tufftrax owned from new. just like the one dr s wanted, but only frame/forks/stem/bars left original, eveything else long worn out. mine came with moutain lx mechs, deore thummies and exage 300 brakes and cranks.
the thing will never die. went under a car the other night and tacoed a wheel. i think the car bounced off when it hit the frame :)
will post some pics when i work out how.
ive been working on a magnesium kili pro with some pace rc31s, but since the frame was made by litech i dont really think it counts as a saracen. still bloody nice frame that one, so they have put out the odd decent bike recently.
im wondering if anyone knows what the lightest steel frame saracen have made is? i notice theyve used some high end steel over the years so they cant all be 2.5kg monsters.
 
Trying to remember some details on a Saracen that a mate used to ride: had a rear u-brake, wish bone stays and [I think] a top tube that went through the seat tube.

Probably a 1988 model, mint green, DX group: Tufftrax? or am I in the realms of fantasy?
 
Don't think I've posted a pic yet, but here it is


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Will be SS and have most of the stuff already, just need a seatpost. :D tbh not in the lovers camp just yet, was a brand I only became aware of when the shite was being produced but the fanbase here has convinced me to give it a go and the estay suits for what I have in mind.
 
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