Cherry Bicycles Cherry Bomb

[Larock65]

New member here. I just finished up this single-speed Cherry Bomb made by John Cherry of Cherry Bicycles out of Lafayette, IN., in the late 80s. I chatted with John about this bike, and he confirmed it was one of the first two mountain bike frames he made, owned and rode himself until he sold it. It had White industries ENO cranks on it when I got it. I stuck with the theme and added these nice Araya 7x rims laced to White Industries ENO hubs; the rear is the ENO eccentric, which makes adjusting the driveline simple! I went with the tall risers for added comfort, as it is ridden around the city. It is a great, lightweight bike!

 

[SFP]

Beautiful.

Have only ever seen two of them in real life. Beautiful frames.

 

[Larock65]

Beautiful.

Have only ever seen two of them in real life. Beautiful frames.

Thanks!

 

[PanoIgano]

So so cool!

I bet he was using true temper to build his bikes?

Welcome to the forum btw!

 

[Larock65]

So so cool!

I bet he was using true temper to build his bikes?

Welcome to the forum btw!

Thanks for the kind words! I just got a message from John about the tubing. See below from John Cherry:

Im guessing Columbus
It's a very rare that I ever used a "Tube set"
I used to mix tubing up and use what tube I thought best for each tube and customer/frame. I used all the different companies tubing. Columbus was my favorite but I used a lot of Dedacciai. I also used a lot of American aircraft 4130 tubing in the mountain bikes. The later Cherry Bomb mtb had all the stays in the back was 4130 aircraft tubing. It saved a lot of weight and gave the bike a softer feel

 

[27motorhead]

That's one very cool and rare looking machine. Bet it rides lovely!

 

[klunkrider]

Nice!

Seems like a lot of leverage on that single bolt stem though, does it do an alright job of holding onto the bars?

 

[PanoIgano]

Thanks for the kind words! I just got a message from John about the tubing. See below from John Cherry:

Im guessing Columbus
It's a very rare that I ever used a "Tube set"
I used to mix tubing up and use what tube I thought best for each tube and customer/frame. I used all the different companies tubing. Columbus was my favorite but I used a lot of Dedacciai. I also used a lot of American aircraft 4130 tubing in the mountain bikes. The later Cherry Bomb mtb had all the stays in the back was 4130 aircraft tubing. It saved a lot of weight and gave the bike a softer feel

great to read the inside story of his take on tubing selection. Thanks for sharing!

I particularly like the chainstays in Cherrys. They are untappered for his MTBs and he did such a good job in integrating the drop outs in them. Really flawless work.

Lovely lovely bikes and super rare. There are hardly any in this forum...so great to have one and a SS at that!

 

[Rod_Saetan]

Very cool!