Which 80's Saracen ?

[silverclaws]

When a pal said he had an old Saracen, I did not realise it was an old old saracen in need of a lot of TLC, but can anyone identify it from the following description;

Yellow frame but with the rear brake cable threaded through the top tube. Appears to have a strange black and white head tube label, something like a splodge with Saracen picked out in contrasting writing.Looks to be, but am not sure, old LX rear mech, black chainset. The bike is lashed to the guard wires of a yacht on an estuary.

I will put up some pics later, when I have found my camera.

 

[drystonepaul]

Sounds like it could be a 1991 Sahara, hopefully in slightly better condition than the one above.

Internal top tube brake cable routing.
Black and white 'splodge' Saracen head tube decal.
Bright yellow.

The bottom of the 1991 range Sahara did however come with a 200GS groupset rather than LX. Only a couple of notches down from XT, but forged from lead and plasticene instead.

From your description it could well be earlier though, but not too early, as the 'crown' head-badge pre dates the 'splodge' one. Perhaps between 1988 and 1991, as the head-badge changed again in 1992.

 

[silverclaws]

Yes, that's the one, but saddly not as in good condition as the one in your photo, for the bike is in a saltwater enviroment, rust everywhere, but not so much on the frame, might see if I can get it off him at some point.

But perhaps a '91 Sahara, the year before in my oppinion Saracen got classy with their design details and metallic powdercoats

 

[Carlos the Slackal]

Seek here, in the Oracle of All Things Retro Saracen!

 

[drystonepaul]

In terms of rust hopefully the frame may not be too bad. It has a Tange tubeset but mostly with plain gauge tubing and as such it will be rather heavy.
The components may not have faired too well against the saltwater though. The Exage hubs aren't particularly well sealed and the 200GS components will probably be best removed from the bike, tied together with the rusty cables and used as an anchor.

The one pictured above was rescued by me and now performs it's duties as a singlespeed hack.

I do like the 1991 bikes and their incredible comic book graphics, but the 1992 range was lovely. I have a Kili Racer and a Traverse from that year, both lovely and in very good condition.

Uncool though.

 

[silverclaws]

I had a '92 Traverse Elite, my first MTB from Conquest Cycles then in the North West, a beautiful bike in metallic black powdercoat and XT everywhere. I maintained that machine up until I left my ex five years ago where she passed it on to someone else grrrrr possibly out of spite, as she knew I loved that bike.

The only major damage it suffered in fourteen years of use was the rear rim finally exploding and did that go with a bang, green snot everywhere and my new Panaracer smoke too blown apart. Instant air loss and I was travelling at speed.