Old School Bonty

This was a bit of a "project" bike when I picked it up during the summer of '04. I found it on eBay, and along with the frameset the auction included a Bontrager Composite fork. I was interested in both the frameset and the fork, and together they sold for about what the fork was worth. The Composite fork ended up on my Bontrager singlespeed and I took to the task of building the frameset with mid-80's era components.

Although I'm not positive of the age of the frame, the SR seat post included with the frame appeared to be original and is dated "1984." Based solely on that I've assumed this to be the age of the frame. The frame and fork are both fillet brazed, and the workmanship appears to be quite good. The frame has a fairly short top tube length for it's size (about 22-3/4"), giving a somewhat upright ride. Small diameter tubing is used for the seat stays, giving the rear of the bike a more road or cyclocross look compared to other mountain bikes. I imagine the frame was built fairly early in Keith's mountain bike building days.

On the trail the bike rides well. It climbs well, descends excellently, and handles surprisingly well. The shortish top tube is noticeable when pedaling in flatter areas, but overall it's not that much of an issue. Eventually, a longer stem may possibly find it's way on to the bike.

Other than the seat post and the headset, the components on the frame were scavenged and attached to the frame by me. Over an 18 month period I acquired the components that I felt might have been on the bike originally.

The serial number is difficult to make out. On the bottom bracket, there is definitely a "68" or "89" (depending on which side of the bike you stand on) and potentially another number on either side. When staring at barely visible numbers, paint wear can easily start looking like numbers.

-el