Ok, so for the most part I'm an aluminum frame junkie. A Cunningham or Funk would probably top my list of frames I haven't owned and would love to. But what else exotic/semi exotic was out there? I'm looking for help compiling a list of small time aluminum frame builders from 10+ yrs ago.
what about the fellow by the name of Paolo Salvagione ( or something like that) that had the other company called "Swift" out of the bay area.
he made that rad aluminum bike, that was dark grey, aluminum, super sloping top tube, and looked like a big diameter seatpost Cunningham.
He built if for the Bike magazine issue in 95 or so that featured the "underground" builders of that area, same issue had a Hunter with Moots hardware on it.
i have the issue at home, but i'd bet someone else here would be able to scan it before myself.
either way, it was super exotic, and i bet he didn't make too many of those.
his steel work was nice and all, but when he made that perticular rig for the test, it just screamed Cunningham.
as i recall the Aluminium he used was some sort of blend. in the same issue i believe, was one of those B3's or Beyond Berillium rigs that had some funky spaceship technology going on, pretty rare too i believe.
nate
still thinking about making it up to the swap meet.
Not sure if this qualifies or not...
Ventana has been making Al. frames for ever! Always been a small(er) privately owned company in the NorCal/Bay Area.
Try finding a Cone Peak! It's one of the only Al frames that I would like to own.
Ok, so for the most part I'm an aluminum frame junkie. A Cunningham or Funk would probably top my list of frames I haven't owned and would love to. But what else exotic/semi exotic was out there? I'm looking for help compiling a list of small time aluminum frame builders from 10+ yrs ago.
I'd like to track down a Mammoth RC201 myself, E-stays and an unusual alloy choice of 2024T3 aluminium (while doing the prototyping, they were outsourcing their heat treating and the were having warping issues outside their control, so they went with a alloy that didn't need post weld treating). MBA reviewed one back in July 1991. Only other brand that I can think of that has used 2024 has been Caloi and being a brazillian bike maker, they're not well known in north america.
Actually the 2024-T3 alloy was a rather smart choice given its numbers of...
70,000PSI Ultimate tensile strength
50,000PSI Yield tensile strength
10,600psi Modulus of elasticity
18% Elongation at break
41,000psi Shear strength
Compare that to the more usual alloys of the time,
So they got an alloy with better strength in tensile, yeild and sheer than both 6061 and 7005, along with better stiffness, and greater elongation before breaking. Kinda makes ya wonder why so few brands explore alternative alloy choices instead of insisiting that the most common alloys are the best (crack'n'fail for example pushing 6061 for all these years). Santa Cruz has (6066 and 6069), Giant and Amp have (6013), Mammoth and Caloi have (2024).
How about my 1974 Kabuki. All aluminum except the steel seat tube, because it used an internal expander seatpost; and of course a steel fork. Might well be the first aluminum frame sold in the US, I dunno, when did Alan frames become available? Unique in that it uses lugs cast around the tubes in a mold. Then they etched the square cut plumbing look lugs with little points to mimic pointed steel lugs. Steel road bike diameter tubing = pretty whippy.
Found it in the trash pile in its original bike boom era 10 speed mode. Much stay bashing and parts swapping later, it's now a towner 1-sp. with 700x40 fatties And fenders, all under diacompe sidepulls. Sweet towner bike for going on 31 years young.
Cunninghams were great riding bikes. Funks, not so much.
I'd like to track down a Mammoth RC201 myself, E-stays and an unusual alloy choice of 2024T3 aluminium (while doing the prototyping, they were outsourcing their heat treating and the were having warping issues outside their control, so they went with a alloy that didn't need post weld treating). MBA reviewed one back in July 1991.
I worked with Mammoth and rode the bikes during the prototyping and early sales stage. We made some with 2024, 6061 (the ones that warped horribly) and we made some with Tange Prestige - but not with the e-stays. I always rode the standard diamond frame (the only picture I can find here. I also rode that bike on a White Rim trip after changing the bars to drop bars. I'll have to look in my slide collection becuase I know I have to have some other pictures from that trip). The e-stay design pre-dated the Funk a bit - not sure if they were developed independantly or not, but I recall all of us seeing the Funk at Interbike and thinking damn, it's the same as ours! The RC in the model name is Russ Callahan, the designer of the frame. We welded the frames at a BMW race shop in San Diego Frank Fahey Motorsports. The backing behind Mammoth was Tracker skateboards. The last time I saw a Mammoth frame was at the Cologne show about 5 or 6 years ago. It was in a polished frame in someones booth who was selling some mountain bike part and used his Mammoth to display the part.
Oh, and the frame rode really nice. The e-stay bike was good too, but much stiffer/harsher.
MBA's complaints were on the lack of rear tire clearance for an E-stay (not that odd to me, lots of E-stays had weird tire clearance ranges) and the longest rear brake cable routing they'd ever seen before other than on a tandem. It went down the downtube, around the BB shell, up the back of the seattube, over a roller, and then down to the straddle yoke. They did say it road well, and the paint (done by cycleart) was amazing.
MBA's complaints were on the lack of rear tire clearance for an E-stay (not that odd to me, lots of E-stays had weird tire clearance ranges) and the longest rear brake cable routing they'd ever seen before other than on a tandem. It went down the downtube, around the BB shell, up the back of the seattube, over a roller, and then down to the straddle yoke. They did say it road well, and the paint (done by cycleart) was amazing.
Oh, yeah, that cable routing was horrible! That would have been a prime candidate for v or disc brakes, but alas, at the time, none to be found. The e-stay bike should have had good mud clearance because the chain stays were offset from the seat tube before they went down to join the seat tube with a nice tubed off-set. The bottom bracket was pressed in and the cables were internal ala Klein.
Still ride my Alan 'cross bike all the time in the fall/winter. Has a very "steel" feel to it.[/QUOTE]
I know, I had an Alan cross too. and a guerciotti sprint road frame, alan with guec decals. Wish I still did, the cross that is.. But the Mondia cross that preceded it, even moreso, swiss threaded BB and all. didn't know or else plumb forgot alan made mtbs.
ABM frames remain my alltime favorite aluminum mtbs. the comp and especially the m-16, man i loved that bike on slickrock. the am breezer was more of a ride all day type bike, vs the comp and m16 more race oriented. but for classic collectible it would have to be the montaneous (sp?) with the adjustable head tube angle. I rode a loaner from Fred for about a year, I think it was the first mtb I lived on that didn't have a drop bar.
abm story: I flew up with fred to chequamegon (sp?) one year and raced it on an m16 they set me up with. actually beat a few of his factory boys to everyone's amazxement esp. mine. so I get to the end, clean the fire tower climb, then soon bust out at the lodge, people cheering etc etc. roll up, their mech reaches down and depresses the presta valve onthe front tire, deflates it. fiddles with the tire, looks at it. does the same to the rear. wtf, over? turns out they be brand new wheel and no one remembered to put in the rim strips, bare sharp holes against thin butyl tube for 40 miles. no flat. nice to have a karma stash when ya need it.
That firetower climb is still in there. It's not quite as bad as when they'd water the sucker down to bury everyone in 6" of mud, but it's still a highlight of the race. One guy on our team always made a big deal by riding the monster sitting down in his middle ring, grinning like a maniac at the thousand people hiking up the side. He died of a heart attack last year. Used it all up on those climbs, we figured.
Gary Crandall still rides his American Breezer. The decals have long since rubbed off, but you can spot that thing from a mile away on rides. Beautiful bike.
I don't think they were ever imported here. I know they made them for a few years and could still be making mountain frames for all I know. Very similar to the 'cross and road frames. The tubing was larger diameter and the one I had was partially painted instead of the run of the mill annodizing.
Until they were available through a bunch of mail order companies there weren't too many of them outside the land of 10000 lakes.
One of my favorites for sure. A buddy of mine has one of the first Complites and I have an early 90's version. The welds are great and I love the cable stops integrated into the downtube gusset.
a Robichaux. built in florida in the late 80's, by Dave Robichaux. looked a little like an alloy Grove x, there was an article in MBA about them in the 89-91 time span if i remember correctly. no one ever seems to know much about them, and he died before the internet became what it is today, so there isn't much out there on the bikes, that i can find, at least.
we had a race team back in 91-93 that was sponsored by American. the first year they raced on Complites, but the next year they all had ELF's, i was always stoked on looking out the shop window and seeing 9 or so polished Elf's with tons of red Ringle stuffl all over them.
up until 2 years ago we still had a M16 in grey hanging from the cieling.
always wanted the ELF for some reason, maybe cause i was infatuated with racing style rigs at that time.
oh, and if anyone ever needs the replacable dropouts for americans they still have a lot.
I'm still riding a Comp Lite (have it built up as a sweet SS). Might be cool to have a spare dropout in case the original gets tweaked. What's the contact info to get one of these?
What about Northstar? Mark Grayson (who worked with Richard Cunningham for a while) made a sweet and very lite bike. Late 80's early 90's.
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