Hi Christophe, thanks for the info.
Built in Taiwan, lived in Austria, now in the UK, it's travelled about a bit.
Do you think that the XTR groupset was original? The paintwork had badly faded, you could see that under the decals it was originally a deep purple, so I imagine it had been stored somewhere in direct sunlight. However, there weren't many signs of use, very few chips or scratches, so I don't think the bike had been ridden much, were the components also in good condition?
Yes I am.
It's not an exotic, hand built frame like a Roberts, or Overbury's
but there were a few features I liked, the quality tube set and the top tube cable routing in particular. It's a mass/factory made frame and it had the exact same "Made in Taiwan" sticker in the exact same place on the head tube as my 1990 Marin Pine Mountain. Many of the details of the frame are reminiscent of the Marin, the dropouts, althogh they have an extra mudguard eye, are very similar and all the other braze-ons, canti bridge, seat post binder bolt holes, rack mounts and cable stops look identical. Even the shaping of the top of the seat tube is the same so I'd be surprised if it wasn't made by the same manufacturer in Taiwan that Marin used for their frames.
Does anyone happen to know who built Marins 90s steel frames?