Everyone knows it parallel in pursue of this far fetched Charlie Cunningham inspirational influences ?,
(or doesn’t.. funfact as per title here -> CC never liked wide bars on the bikes he build or rode unless it was a mandatory fit requirement - The rest is ATB History..)
Infact some of his very early Bikes (Indians) had hardcore geometry in the likes of early Ritchey’s as some of these were of course custom orders.. customers who hadn’t quite fathomed the Charlie notion entirely and just wanted a lightweight revolutionary Aluminum bike in "traditional geometry and some extra stopping power" yet the Mtb Concept Charlie dream’t up was even far more that than the some of its details.
Perhaps as history goes you wouldn't wanna mention CC without the likes of his pioneering companions such as Tom Ritchey, Joe Breeze, Steve Potts, Ross Shafer of Salsa, Ibis aka S.N. or Wes Williams and many more,... (Koski, Moots, Merz, Petersen, B. Gordon, C.Chance, B. Groove...)
☆ Hence who wants to find/finance a US-market restricted Cunningham and re-questions themselves if they really can invest into a "museum" bike for their commute or favorite vintage ride?!. Well in this case we are not having an early KLEIN or Cannondale honoring Charlie Cunningham’s efforts to create the perfect nurturing nature em-bathed lightweight Aluminum experience but a rather seldom yet also ground hugging aluminum frame by ABM. Especially rare was a frame made by the company with sloping toptube. If you wanted so none-the-less, there was either only the smallest size available or later geometry adapting models such as the late m-16 and ELF which by then incorporated TT-slope through their line in all sizes.
Sharing in the album here some inspirational pics and rigid Alum forks of the American trials bike model (steeplejack-flip the date filter below) for front end reference and some typical of those 80s Bullmoosebars.
Both "blue bike" cockpits over there (meaning over here in the pic collection not to mention blue jeans of those days) have something special, one being a rare Bullmoose Cunningham Indian and the other a 1st Gen Ritchey with WTB Type1 fork. Such details are also nice reminders how close custom builders collaborated at the time of a small cottage industry..
There are a few other Cunningham’s in the Album for the share and despite them being partly fully rollercam equipped or in older geometry, all this somewhat contributes and references to the "ELF" build and early ATB/MTB-project research.
So with exceptions of : headset, rims, tires and some red-hot decals, the aim was that nothing essential predates 1986.
Speaking of exceptions, there were some attempts to carry the bigger wheels ize of 700C always present in cycling history alongside to the MTB/ATB movement. Tom Ritchey at first noteworthy and more widely know name in the sport as well as Cunningham and Wes Williams together with Bruce Gordon build some cool Bikes. Main factor not being in existence were fresh high volume rubber casing solutions or choices in fact very limited until 1988 (RocknRoad 1,75 28"er) and then 1999 (Nanoraptors of 2,1 29"er). It took another 10 years for the bigger wheels to become a breakthrough...
Frame
The "serial" includes the iconic Number 81 which in some sense happily refers to the official birth of mountainbiking. The year of the first stump jumper for example..
(Another historical fun fact, the 1 1/8 headsets came up in 89, which was the same year American Bicycle Manufacture started their replaceable RD-hanger!)
Overall the frameset as pictured looks more like an aluminum version of a fat chance model that never existed, yet by design and cable routing. A factor you compensate with some extra rare and old parts to draw a line towards early MTB & Wilderness Trail history... Just so that a complete result with the eyes slightly taken away from an oversized headset and headtube could have directly originated 10 years prior in 1984
encompassing a build stretch up to 86 before the 2nd Generation Shimano Mountain Gruppo kicks in. In fact the old non-european american bikes had "the" oversized headtube/headset standard long before 1" spec was adopted into the Americas from abroad. Somewhat proof in reference to that were ABM´s huge headtubes for eccentric headset-cups at a time of experimenting with desired headangles. Cunningham as one of the earliest niche lightweight Mountain and Cyclocross Bike builders out there had some insights probably none else could summon upon parallel and despite his early innovations of braking systems and frame geometry, he also did custom orders with more traditional toptubes and cantilever brake positioning’s for the less radical mind and riding style. The idea for this bike stems from that notion and surely to reference THE FIRST aluminum ATB..
This latest model American from 94 was chosen to loosely build upon a Cunningham version of race Bike as the frame itself sports really light extra oversized & most likely butted tubing. Geometry goes already for slightly suspension corrected which lead to the challenge of choice for a nice working rigid retrofit fork being relatively simple. Besides a custom fork (although the one used here actually also is one of such..), the aesthetics of frameset really played well with the classic early segmented CC-Proto Typell fork design. Upon comparing a 1st Gen Manitou suspension forks would measure 405mm including sag, so that’s here being exactly what this fork was build to work for.
In those targeted early days Fat Tire Flyer Festival had American ABM as a main sponsor & thus the reference!
As funny logos and head badges at the time often prevailed with innovative design one man businesses, also the Wolf-Figure was to become the early marketing symbol as mountainbike evolution of #CC/Wtb.
Fork
Rody Walter Groovy Cycleworks early suspension corrected 400mm axle to crown measure FAT CHANCE Reproduction Custom fork. Modern Steel gauge for even more stable superior performance to the original non heat treated early Chris Chance design without the back gussets and nicer crown assembly. Anyhow the whole segmented tubular crown design was originally a Cunningham idea and prototype execution.
☆ Stem/Bar combo & historical Bullmoose Bars
Tom Ritchey most notably build the first so called Bullmoose bars and everything fillet brazed under the Ritchey name, which were a triple tube unit stem/bar combination with fixed upsweep and relatively high backsweep in combination with the headtube angle. The original was finely fillet brazed and came in two (4 including reach) different versions of rise, then it got copied by Nitto and later by many others. In the research here, there are a few other extremely prominent bar references made to give a memory-picture of the early era ...
Then there is also the quill flatbar stem which came with the American frame and its 1 1/8 measure for those were the changes of the times back then, although luckily the brand all throughout their evolution and process often remained very traditional in detailed aspect of their design solutions just like any small custom builder would.
As to fairfax bike l. there is the optional off-road dropbar cockpit solution at hand for further experimentation.
more text to read in picture caps/descriptions !!
Link(s) to build thread & pics,
Documentation & Pics S/N: 4EL081
https://www.mtb-news.de/forum/t/american-fairfax-flair-wilderness-trail-manifesto.937467/For the second project build bike:
Fairfax Flair B2 - DIA Cunningham_O_Potts (WTB-PHOENIX)
https://fotos.mtb-news.de/s/97221ABM American frames Info & History as departure testimony from the heavy Klunkers
http://mombatbicycles.com/MOMBAT/BikeHistoryPages/American.htmlAdditional Infos on WTB
https://www.oldschoolracing.ch/archiv/wtb/& an Offroad Dropbar research
https://fotos.mtb-news.de/s/92009Riders of the days & times (early MTB Album)
https://fotos.mtb-news.de/s/91247Cunningham Archive
http://www.vintagemtbworkshop.com/vintage-charlie-cunningham-bicycle-photos.htmlCharlie Cunninghams latest pursuit and endeavor for bigher wheels/tires on his full rigid timeless artisanal MTB`s (the 29er E-Series)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/46195580@N03/albums/721576385254861661998 WTB Ti Phoenix - CC or Steve Potts Homage,
(What would an attempt of a mid/late 90s Cunningham-Homage be without mentioning this 98 custom off-road dropbar gem, build mix with late 80s cockpit & fine CC_made details. Also of note the 1 1/8 headtube yet none suspension corrected geometry) and 8Spd XTR cross compatibility..
https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/1998-wtb-ti-phoenix.231130/ Buildthread
https://www.flickr.com/photos/halaburt/albums/72157632067810709 Build #l
https://www.flickr.com/photos/halaburt/sets/72157632046658758/ Build #ll
