This is a 1985 Schwinn Cimarron--originally their top-end mountain bike, but now converted into a commuter and rough-road tourer. This one fell through the cracks on eBay and I picked it up for $50. The current setup (first picture) has come together over the last several months, and works great for me now as a daily ride and on the rare day- (or night-) trip.

The construction is interesting. It's an all-4130 frame, and the top and down tubes are "ovalized" and fillet-brazed to the headtube (second picture). It really seems more like a rough-road tourer than what we'd call a "mountain bike" now (although admittedly the very high bottom bracket is more like an mtb).

You can see something close to the original setup in the last picture. It looked like a gangly comfort bike in that version--seems odd for a mountain bike, even for that era. But I've kept the original Nitto removable-plate stem and riser bars just in case...

A few of the new/replaced parts: *Nitto B115 bars (45cm) and Periscopa stem with grey Shimano 600 aero levers *Suntour barcons, new LX rear derailleur, 13-34 Megarange freewheel *Schwalbe 26x2.0 Big Apples *Carradice Nelson LF

More details at: http://home.ntelos.net/~certhia/cim/

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[ scott clark <*> charlottesville va us ]

certhia@ntelos.net