Catalogue 1989 Specialized Catalogue (UK Version)

[TrevorKershaw]

Straight top tubes. Here's a question for the old catalogues, can anyone remember when sloping top tubes came in and which manufacturer used them first?

I remember when I saw Laurent Jalabert's Giant road bike in the TDF, complete with sloping top tube and thought, they're copying the MTB's. They looked good on a road bike though...

 

[Real Epic '89]

The first brands used the sloping tope tube are Rocky Mountain and a groupe of welders in Canada. But the other brands pickup this design very quickly.

http://www.mtnbikehalloffame.com/page.c ... emberid=94

http://flashbackfab.com/frame-building-school/

 

[doctorstewie]

My first MTB was an 89 Hardrock in Nice Blue ( great name for the colour ) which I got for 109.99 from Sale Cycles in Chorlton down the road from where I Live now, when I worked at Halfords ( who then owned SC) . It was too big, and was the first time that I realised that manufacturers measure differently. Later that year I managed to find the last Hardrock Comp in that lovely cream/pink finish that Halfords had and get it shipped to our store where I put all the missing bits back on ( it had been cannibalised ) and bought it for the wife. I kept it as a commuting bike after we had moved on to a pair of Konas and even stuck a Futureshock on it. The comp was a lovely bike. It rode really well with the FSs on and looked the dog's danglies. Surprisingly light for it's time too, and I actually preferred the Suntour stuff for a good while. Probably just because I liked to be different.

 

[Tarr3n]

Re:

The Suntour XCE thumbshifters on the Hardrock Comp are great. Mine still changes really nicely and I love the fact that you can just twist a wee dial to revert to friction shifting if anything starts playing up when you're out in the wilds.

 

[john]

Added to the new archive, thanks for the scan