Now that’s kinda interesting!

[Smokinapankake]

I picked this frame up about 15 years ago for all of $20 and still haven’t gotten my money’s worth out of it. It’s spent most of that time hanging in obscurity in my garage. For a short while it was a fully built, functioning bicycle with some Accu-Trax forks and GT branded Hadley- hubbed wheels, but over time those parts were harvested for other projects. Later, I sold the forks and put the wheels on my 91 Wicked Fat Chance (another project).
Anyway, I’ve accumulated enough parts to Frankenstein this one back together but damned if I haven’t been able to learn anything about it in all those years. Maybe you all can offer some insight? Here’s the solid facts I know:
1-1/8” head tube
Sloping top tube
135 spacing in the rear
26.4 seatpost
U-brake / rollercam rear
28.6 front derailleur clamp diameter
16-3/8” chainstay
18-1/2” CTT seat tube
22-3/4” effective top tube
Seat tube ovalized at the BB
Montagna on the down tube
Sommita on the seat tube
Boldstays on the chainstays
Montagna Innovation head badge

Any help you can give is greatly appreciated!

Pics:

 

[Smokinapankake]

I will be using some P2 forks I harvested from a very knackered 92 Explosif. The threads were damaged beyond usability so I cut them off and machined a piece of 4130 cromoly aircraft tubing to make a threadless steer tube and welded the whole thing together. Paul Brodie does the same thing on one of his YouTube videos…. They need to be cleaned up and painted but that will have to wait.
Pics:

 

[tedhodson]

Can't provide much info but my wife bought one of these in 1992 in Toronto. It came with 500LX components. Haven't seen another until your post today. Wish we still had it.

 

[Smokinapankake]

Thanks for your input Ted. I don’t think it’s a great frame (maybe it is) but it’s certainly not terrible. It’s definitely interesting with that strange BB/downtube junction. I’m thinking I may hang some of my funky parts on it just for fun. Wish it had cantilever mounts instead of U-brake…

So with 500LX she probably paid somewhere around $400 I would guess. And the frame features jive with the early 90’s time frame. I thought no later than 93, and no earlier than 1990. That’s right up my alley!

 

[TreaderSteve]

Coool and unusual! I'd be tempted to get some actual U-brake specific front forks to make it extra cool and unusual - like the double-U brake Saracens (which in my book are coool!). Good luck with the build-up and keep us updated

 

[raidan73]

I like it. The BB area is similar to @al's Sator https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/sator-hyster.412674/, though that's where the similarities stop

 

[Smokinapankake]

Thanks for the replies; as I said initially, I’ve had it built up in the past and have ridden it off road. Kinda wishing I hadn’t sold the Accu-Trax forks I had; they went so nicely with the Girvin Flexstem I still have. Oh well. I think a U / roller cam on the front would be sick but finding a nice fork in 1-1/8” size will be challenging. Besides, P2, so that’s hard to improve on.

That Sator is definitely interesting! Never seen anything like it!

I think this will just become a “what’s in the box” build; as in “what do I have in the box on the shelf I can use to make this a rideable bike again”?

 

[MattiThundrrr]

Something special perhaps... lots of pictures and teasing in the first two, with useful info on the third page:

John Olsen designed Montagna? What frame is this?

Re: Nice, I now know what it is but not letting on ( had never heard of them before :oops: ).

www.retrobike.co.uk

Was about to provide an old bikeforums link, about ten years ago, but it is by a "Smokinapankake", so I'll just stop.

 

[Smokinapankake]

Yes, that was me posting over there. I tend to spend more time on bikeforums than here, but that link you posted is very interesting. Looks like the same basic design; but a little more info would be great. The thread mentions John Olsen but I'm unsure who John Olsen is? And was it ever confirmed that these Montagna Innovation frames were, indeed, designed by him?

 

[MattiThundrrr]

I didn't know who either, but pretty important, apparently

MOMBAT: Raven/John Olsen History

Short description of your site here.

mombatbicycles.com

This thread claims to quote him directly, regarding Montegna:

https://www.mtbr.com/threads/words-from-john-olsen.419337/