It's a 700c lugged hybrid or touring frame with a unicrown fork, cantilever studs, semi-horizontal dropouts and an early Shimano LX silver drivetrain. That dark blue band on the top tube is its original medium blue.
Any idea who made it? Where it came from? Chimayo Backroads or Backroads Chimayo? I asked the Google and came up dry. More pics to come...
6 comments:
Backroads is a venerable supported-touring company. It might be a private-label kinda thing.
I was sort of thinking along the same lines. The faded paint suggests that it may have spent a lot of time outside someplace sunny...like New Mexico.
Still sort of wonder who the manufacturer may have been...
Yeah, Chimayo, that is here. In NM. Woooooo! Check it. This is chimayo, sort of:
http://tsaleh.blogspot.com/2005/10/comma-kai-yai-yikki-yikki-yay-sorry.html
See the left of the weird stone tower? That is chimayo. I am pretty sure you can not score a bike in chimayo, but you can score red chili and heroin.
Red chili and heroin as one dish, or would that be two separate transactions?
I have one too! From what I've been able to tell, they are older bikes that Backroads touring company used for their tours and then sold off. It's been hard to tell who made the frame, but the best guess is that's it's Japanese, and likely makers are Centurion/Diamondback or Miyata. It's a decent to nice touring frame with good geometry. The components on my bike were all a matched Shimano LX groupo which dated to 1991, so I peg the bike at early 1990s. It was probably build toward the end of the lugged frame era and is Tange 2 tubing. Great bike! Feel free to email me with questions.
This is way late. But, I just stumbled upon your blog. I worked at Backroads for ten years beginning in the late 1980's as a regional manager, and a tour guide.
From roughly 1989 to 1997, they had their road/touring frames made by Fuji, with spec'd componentry of Backroads' choosing. They went through three iterations of Fuji lugged steel frames, beginning with the steel blue Mistaya in 1989, then moving onto the Blue Chimayo in 90/91, and finally the red Chimayo frames after that.
The blue Chimayo paint was somewhat defective. It faded prematurely, as shown by the band of darker blue on your frame, which was probably the result of a Zefal pump peg being attached there, inadvertently protecting the new paint.
The silver sticker on the top of the down tube had a four digit number on it for the company's inventory. The first digit referred to the frame size in inches: 1=19", 2=21", 3=23", and 4=25".
The stock componentry was usually of Shimano LX variety with some substitutions on brake levers and bar end shifters if it was a drop bar bike. An Avocet Touring 1 or 2 seat, and Blackburn rear rack was part of the standard equipment as well.
Since I left working for Backroads, I've seen these bikes in my home of vancouver, B.C., and in far flung places such as New Zealand, Thailand and all over Europe. Not surprising, seeing as we often sold our bikes to the staff of hotels and restaurants we used when the fleet was being turned over.
FYI - The Backroads mountain bikes at this time were dark blue Cannondales.
Hope this was helpful - albeit years late.
Cheers,
Mark
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