Recent content by Bonzo Banana

I see now from the text it is actually 1984 and this is a UK catalogue.

Not sure of year sadly but wanted to scan and upload it now that I found it after clearing my mother's loft. I'm thinking around 1985 to 1990 but not sure.

Super stiff frame definitely describes it well. They seem to have designed in no flexing at all even the rear disc brake gets extra reinforcing between the two stays. As I said previously Saracen really gave their customers fantastically engineered frames for a very low price. It looks like they...

Looks a sweet bike, especially now the Saracen branding is back.

For me the Saracen brand has a lot of nostalgia and would want to keep that branding and also I know absolutely nothing about Yeti except it's a top mountain bike brand. I guess its something like people who buy cheap forks and peel off the original stickers and then put Rockshox stickers on...

Think these frames are made by Merida. When Saracen went out of business they tried to get Merida interested in buying the company who were the main supplier of the higher end frames but they weren't interested. Then the brand got sold to Madison. I dread to think how much it would cost today to...

Looks to be a Carabo. Seems to have an identical frame to this model. Some of them had a different gear hanger design but this one is the same and the cable stops are the same plus appears to have the same extra fancy headtube badge and seat tube logos. Mystery solved. I realise there may have...

Brilliant, thank you for taking the time to reply you are a real asset to this forum. I now have a shortlist of 3 bikes to work to which should help me considerably. I got the frame without forks but have recently acquired some nice polished rigid steel forks and planning to build it as a 1x...

Can anyone identify this Claud Butler mountain bike model? It's 7005 aluminium. The headtube badge/logo is rather nice and detailed so seems at least a mid-range model or possibly high end but only guessing.

I think it is a legal requirement now to include a manual but not so sure back then but was still an industry norm. I think I still have the manual somewhere in the loft for past Raleigh bikes. It may have simply been a pamphlet stating warranty information or they could have just included the...

Re: Yes I've downloaded most of those catalogues but was after a copy of their instruction manual or owners manual assuming they were supplied with one.

I'm quite a fan of the original Saracen bikes up to 2007 approx before they changed hands and became a different company. I've got a few Saracen bikes but because I've bought s/hand I've never actually got a manual. Just wondered if anyone has a scan of such a manual?

Cheers for the info. I guess that is how the bike got over here in the UK possibly. I've never seen them for sale in the UK or find any reference for them on sale here via googling although you do see them being sold occasionally but wondered if that was just a personal import. I was only joking...

Picked up a old road bike cheap 70/80s vintage. Nothing special, very heavy bike but was curious about the brand. Seems to be German and still being made in Poland although the firm did go bankrupt and then restart. Looks to be basic quality but very strong. I'm not great with German...

Re: I doubt there is much money talking about low end products that people can easily afford and suits their purposes. The money is in sponsorship by rich companies selling premium products. It is nice to hear about such products though and what is happening at the top end of pricing but I...