The MS Racing/alpinestars story.

[dirttorpedo]

Its seems a number of manufacturers switched from rear U-brakes to cantis during production runs. I had a late 80's Rocky Fusion with the U-brake but you could find effectively the same bike with cantis' front and rear. wouldn't surprise me if they used a U-brake for the promotional models and then made a decision during production to go all canti.

My MS racing bike is canti front and back. FYI, my frame is for sale. Unfortunately I don't have the original fork. When I thought I might keep it I thought a kona p2 repainted might make a good replacement.

@sinnett177 thanks for posting this fascinating history. The 89 MS Racing and 90 Alpinestars range was poster material on my wall as a kid. I loved the graphics and overall look.
I would love an 89 Pro Comp XT.

One question - what's with the U-brakes? The bikes in the 89 catalogue / promotional adverts had U-Brakes fitted, but it looks from all the other photo's that the production bikes had cantilevers fitted?

 

[joglo]

Upfront, this thread and the initial post and collection of comprehensive facts about Alpinestars is - still even after 12 years now - a great to read resource of information! Thanks @sinnett177 also from my side

1994 onwards ALPINESTARS

Sadly the bright light that was alpinestars USA dimmed in the mtb marketplace and by 1996 their bikes had disappeared from sale in the United Kingdom. It’s rumoured the number of warranty claims and product recalls against the aluminium bikes and components had caused a rethink of alpinestars global mtb strategy. However it is worth pointing out that alpinestars never failed to honour to warranty, despite the numerous returns they encountered. I'd be interested to find a post '93 brochure to see if the warranties changed.

I recently came across a 1994 brochure and have uploaded this as PDF to the forum. Hopefully they will be added once to the Archive.

Here are the pictures as we also have pictures from older brochures in this thread:










The warranty period has been defined with 5 years.

While I do agree that the star from Alpinestars was already falling a bit in 1994, and bikes haven't been so iconic from design and technology any longer as in earlier years, still nice rides.

 

[joglo]

Just for the sake of completeness, a few bikes from 1995 and 1996 from the German "Bike Market" buyers guide.
Due to copyright reasons I only want to post the pictures, which seem to be provided anyhow from Alpinestars.

1995
CR100 CR200 CR300 CR400

AL400 CR500 AL500 CR700 AL700 AL900


1996
ASR300 ASR400 ASR500 ASR700


The ASR 700 was aluminum, the rest CroMo. I came across a ASR900 once too, but this isn't appearing in any documentation.

 

[epooch]

 

[dirttorpedo]

View attachment 685322

Those colours / graphics are so completely unlike the ones used on my XT Comp. Is that a European edition?

 

[epooch]

Those colours / graphics are so completely unlike the ones used on my XT Comp. Is that a European edition?

No, definitely US. Could be a color balance issue with the photo. it is a Christmas 1988 catalog, so maybe early production or prototype colors.
I have old Comp XT too, and it is much more aqua color.
I just saw this catalog on eBay, and it is still available there.

 

[dirttorpedo]

Mine is mainly white in the back with what was a neon yellow headtube/front (its since faded to an ugly yellow/brown). The decal graphics are a lot louder too.

 

[joglo]

Adding a few better pics of 1989 MS Racing Bikes

The overview of the portfolio also posted at the beginning of this thread

4 bikes in total: (pictures are rather random web finds)

Aluminium CR II

Aluminium CR I

Pro Comp

Comp


Those are the the color variants as we typically know it (sure, with some kinds of fading being too much exposed to sunlight).


The MS Racing catalog from Christmas 1988 had Comp Bikes with obviously quite different color and decals scheme


I though those had been prototypes, never went on sale, but it looks like those earlier models have been sold too.


Was on Ebay, linked here https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/ms-racing-pro-comp-xt.66464/


Pic from https://www.mtbr.com/threads/malcolm-smith-racing-do-you-have-one.399980/

Interesting, i haven't noticed those before

 

[joglo]

while talking about 1989 MS Racing bikes,

at MTB-news.de forum we have just recently noticed that the MS Aluminum-CR models do have same frames as Merida Albon-Tech bikes from 1989/90.

E.g. this Albon Tech 500


matches well.
Just look on details of this MS Racing


Vs. another Merida Albon Tech


Not every detail is identically, e.g. calbe routing, and some Merida bikes had u-brakes at Chain stays, but the frame itself seem to be completely the same.

So it looks like that those MS Racing bikes have been sourced at Merida in Taiwan.

 

[dirttorpedo]

while talking about 1989 MS Racing bikes,

at MTB-news.de forum we have just recently noticed that the MS Aluminum-CR models do have same frames as Merida Albon-Tech bikes from 1989/90.

E.g. this Albon Tech 500
View attachment 685435

matches well.
Just look on details of this MS Racing
View attachment 685437 View attachment 685436

Vs. another Merida Albon Tech
View attachment 685438

Not every detail is identically, e.g. calbe routing, and some Merida bikes had u-brakes at Chain stays, but the frame itself seem to be completely the same.

So it looks like that those MS Racing bikes have been sourced at Merida in Taiwan.

My ProCompXT does not have that odd steering tube flange - it's pretty much identical to the photo joglo posted above. They may have changed suppliers mid way or maybe different markets were manufactured by different suppliers