1987 Fat Chance

[Tsundere]

Bought this recently, been waiting for a nice dry day to take it out and today was it.


It's in really great condition and rides like a dream, I really thought the Rocky mountain Hammer would be hard to beat on ride quality but this does it for me.

I'm going to attempt to get it back to catalogue spec, however as it's a keeper there's no rush. It definitely needs wheels and tyres, seat post pedals, brake levers and bar grips, I also think it needs handlebars, although one Fat Chance enthusiast told me that the bars could be original as there was the option to upgrade them when ordering the bike and apparently these look very much like those bars, hopefully I can get confirmation on that.

 

[Yetichaser]

Was this the one that was on ebay recently? Looked very clean and a great price.

 

[Dr Dremel]

Such understated beauties those earlier FCs, congrats! Agreeing with tires and pedals to be changed (it really needs some fat rubber), the rest seems fairly stock, no? 4 finger levers I could understand swapping, they always look a bit like antlers. What´s wrong with the wheel set and post though?

 

[Tsundere]

Was this the one that was on ebay recently? Looked very clean and a great price.

Yes it's that one, watched it for months, so nice to finally ride it.

Such understated beauties those earlier FCs, congrats! Agreeing with tires and pedals to be changed (it really needs some fat rubber), the rest seems fairly stock, no? 4 finger levers I could understand swapping, they always look a bit like antlers. What´s wrong with the wheel set and post though?

The wheels are fine, but not stock, I'll not change them for the sake of it unless I find a particularly nice example of the ones that came with it originally for a fair price, same with the seat post, it's fine but I'd really like it to have the right one. But tyres are definitely first, not too fussed about getting those right, 1987 tan wall tyres in rideable condition are going to be as rare as rocking horse sh*t and/or will cost the Earth.

However I did find some nice examples of the same series of tyre, a generation newer, all black and very cheap which will be fitted as soon as they arrive, as for pedals, I have sourced some XCII's, they'll need a complete service and full cosmetic renovation before they're fit for purpose, which explains how I got them for peanuts, plus I'll have to wait for them to arrive from Japan.

 

[Antstark]

That’s very nice

 

[zetecmk2]

looks better than the ebay pics! love it!

 

[M-Power]

Great to read a ride review Agree, those bars look period correct. I’d put some silver/blue Bullseye hubs on it. Its weird but they really enhance the feel from these 80s frames and they roll forever.

 

[raidan73]

I had that in my watch list too. Seemed expensive but not when you consider how many are probably in the UK (and the chance of getting one of them) and the costs of bringing one in from the US

 

[Tsundere]

Got the stem, it's the right size, make and vintage but it needs a bit of a clean and the custom models used by FC Cycles came with black heads...



Polished up the head and fittings...


Then I masked off the post and and applied two coats of acid etch primer to the head piece...

I'll leave it to cure for 24 hours and then will add a couple of clear coats.

Edit - And here it is finished and ready to fit.

 

[mikee]

Is it a wicked ?