KHS Montana Pro 1990

[TheEasyLife]

Hello,

It's about time I came more out of the closet as a KHS fan. As the proud owner of a 92 Montana Pro since new in 93 and part way through the build of a 93 Montana Team that I've yet to document as a build on here, I had a fit of stupidity this weekend and bid on a frame and forks on eBay. And won it. It looks like this:



I'm not sure what spec it should be not what year it is from so have found and purchased a 1990 KHS catalog from the US yesterday as I could see it had a yellow Montana Pro in it. That hasn't arrived yet. Nor has the frame. Ha ha. What have I done??

I'm hoping it is a case of DX with either STI or thumb shifters. I'm hoping STI as I have a spare DX groupset with STI for an occasion such as this. I even have some DX hubs with Ritchey rims lurking in the garage which KHS used back in the day. Score!

Biggest decision is what to do about handlebar and seatpost. My other two KHS have titanium bars and USE titanium seatposts. I'm thinking something different and more fun for this. I'm thinking I can use some of my stash of 3Dv purple bits..

Will yellow with purple go well together? . Anyone got any yellow and purple pics they can share?

I'll post more pics of the frame and catalogue when they arrive and see what state it is in. Could be awesome. Could equally be shocking.

Cheers

James

 

[troje]

Re:

Nice to see an early KHS. What tubing is it? I know the 91 Pro used Ritchey Logic tubing and later they switched to True Temper.

 

[TheEasyLife]

Re:

Ok. The frame and forks have now landed. It is not a 21" frame as advertised. It is 16.5 C to C so a 17" in KHS terms. Perfect as my other KHS are 17" so all 3 are the same size.

The forks turn freely on their unbranded black headset. The DX chainset turns but the BB (Japanese) is notchy and will need looking at. It has a hope/Royce style front and of course I don't have such a tool to adjust it with. The DX rear mech has very dirty jockey wheels. Caked in oily mud.

The frame is overall in good condition with a few scrapes here and there. It has that multi colour fade that you see on Kleins as it looks sandy from on top and dayglo yellow underneath. Ahh, the late 80's/early 90's and their colours . The colour has seen too much daylight and as Wadsy and I found out when we took his Team to a paint shop recently and were told that the pink Team forks need a coat of ultra high UV protection lacquer coat or they will fade.

The stickers on the top tube say oversized and the ritchey sticker on there is definitely not from the factory. There are some other non factory decals on the rear triangle and on the forks.

Overall, I'm pleased as there are no cracks in the frame and no obviously rusty bits.

The frame has a sticker on the headtube saying "inglewood, California " whereas my others say 'made in Taiwan roc'
The stem appears to be one where there is a wheel inside it so you can use that for your front brake without a headset mounted hanger. Nice. The front mech has its cable not on the top tube and needing a top pull mech but goes down the bottom tube and around the bb tubing and needs a top pull. A subtle difference on the other two.

Am still awaiting the 90 catalogue to arrive so I can take some pics of that and see if that does look like mine or not. And see the catalogue spec too.

Till then

James

PS. I'll take some pics of it for the next post.

 

[troje]

I had that Ritchey sticker on my '93 Montana Pro.

 

[TheEasyLife]

Re:

Ok. I would have sworn that it was a different sort of decal to the others. If it is original then that is great.

James

 

[bowser]

Re:

Nice frameset
I had the true temper pro with purple speckled paint job
Love those steel frames
What ritchey tubing is it never seen one before ?

 

[TheEasyLife]

Re:

I have one of those too. Love it.

Sorry. Thought I'd said this in previous post but clearly didn't. This yellow one says Infinity Butted on the seat tube decal between the KHS 21 Speed bits on each side so I'm assuming Tange infinity tubing rather than Ritchey (Tange) tubing which I understand is higher spec. Happy to be corrected on this.

There is no sticker saying Tange Infinity, unlike my 92 which has a True Temper OX Ultra II sticker on the seat tube and true Temper decals on either side of the top tube before the headset.

I've seen it said before that the earlier Montana Teams were rebadged Ritcheys. Will await the 89 catalogue when it arrives and see what that says if anything.

Will take some pics tomorrow hopefully as its been raining all day so far in my corner of middle earth.

James

 

[TheEasyLife]

Re:

Sorry again as I have realised that I've bought an 89 catalogue not a 90 as originally stated. Am loosing the plot.

 

[TheEasyLife]

Re:

Ok. Have got pics now so here are the details:

Headtube:


Note the U0007 serial number. If I'm reading the KHS website correctly then this was made in July 1990 so potentially at the end of the 1990 model year if my assumptions about releasing next years bikes is September time like most car manufacturers is true..?? In my stupidity I emailed technical@khsbicycles and asked them to confirm this. Got a standard response saying they cannot say when it was sold nor to whom. They really aren't bothered which is such a shame. Onwards and upwards.

Infinity Butted:



Ritchey components. Not tubing!!


So it would have had Ritchey rims then.

Oversized top tube and strange Weber decal.



Band on DX front mech! Can you tell where it was fitted previously?



And as a whole:


One part of me really wants to get it resprayed dayglo yellow and the other half that is winning says build it up as is as a survivor and not worry about scratching it more.

The unbranded headset is smooth, the bb is notchy.

Overall I'm really pleased.

So, comments? What would you do?

James

 

[troje]

You can restore this paint pretty well with a scratch remover and a polish. Be prepared for a lot of elbow grease though, but it works amazing and it's definitely worth the effort.