enjoybikes

here's mine. This is the first iteration a few years ago, single speed. It's a little more dignified now with gears.

obrentharris 

It was early 1991 and Paul Sadoff of Rock Lobster Cycles had just bought a TIG welder and was eager to put it to use. Coincidentally I was looking for a way to build up a bike for my daughter's 10th birthday but was very low on funds. So we struck a deal: I installed the 220 volt service to Paul's shop and he used the new TIG machine to build this lovely frame for my daughter. Up to this point all of the Rock Lobsters were either lugged or fillet brazed. This was TIG bike number 1.





We outfit it with a hodge-podge of components that we either had sitting around or could pick up at a good price: Suntour, Dia-Compe, Shimano, Specialized, Mavic all make an appearance on this bike. Kind of a different build I guess - pieced together components on a custom frame, but a very nice bike in the end. My daughter and I had a fine time applying the yellow spatter paint to the blue powder-coated frame.









My daughter eventually outgrew the bike but she held on to it all these years, still riding it with the seatpost way up. A couple weeks ago, when she was visiting us, she fell in love with an old Peugeot mixte that I restored last winter. It fits her much better than the Lobster! Having no room in either her apartment or her life for two bicycles she insisted that I take back the Lobster and find another home for it.

So I've spent a few very enjoyable hours on this rainy day cleaning and tuning up the little Lobster and reminiscing about time spent with an old friend putting together the bike and time spent riding bikes with a little girl who is now an adult with a baby daughter of her own.



Brent

inkandsilver

Such a cool bike and story!!

inkandsilver

NIP Michelin WildGripper(s) -- I think this is for a pair but it's hard to tell for sure. Might help you complete that sweet vintage trail bomber.

https://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=218...arch=&ad_cid=5

neo_pop_71

Hello Brent,

That is a very special Rock Lobster, I'm quite envious! The story is wonderful, I enjoyed reading, thanks for sharing! I painted and built a bike with my 8 year old this past summer, now we are working on building her first road bike. We had a great time and those are very special memories that I'll happily carry forward as we continue to ride. I hope you hang that bike up and present it to your granddaughter when she is tall enough to ride it... that would be a great photograph for the wall!

Thanks again!

-D-

due ruote 

Very cool bike and story. Before you know it, your daughter's baby will be big enough to ride it.

corwin1968

I just picked up this 80's Takara Highlander on Craigslist for $50. I bought it out of curiosity about this style of MTB as much as anything. I plan to play around with it and see if it's something I might want to overhaul and start riding.

neo_pop_71

Hey Chris,

Really nice score! Glad you found one close to home, I was following your thread and I think you found a winner and the price couldn't be much better! I figure with some trial and error, you'll find the proper set up and have a great bike. I experienced the same flip flop up front thanks to the slack geometry and the fork rake, I'd suggest a tire like the Small Block 8, that really cut down that sensation and smoothed out the steering. That bike will be super on fire roads and light single track.

Enjoy the new bike!

-D-

obrentharris 

Great idea! Thank you both.

Brent

Italuminium

perfect bike+story. Just keep it as a heirloom for your granddaughter

Vonruden

Just picked up this Reflex TWX Limited today. Some cool colors and Ringle anodized components. Ringle Stem, skewer, Seat clamp, water bottle cage, and Graphton Cranks. Ritchey Vantage Sport rims with Wheelsmith spokes and Deore XT rear hub, LX front hub. Derailluers are Deore XT. other components include Rock Shox fork, Easton Hyperlite bar, sram grip shifter, and Shimano brakes. Needs a new saddle, some non original sticker removal and a good cleaning.

I'm not very familiar with the reflex, other than Easton built them, if anyone has any more info or links would be greatly appreciated.

Italuminium

That bike is so nineties, not even Will Smith on a Nintendo could beat it.



sure is a nice bike though, that will clean up nicely.

due ruote 

That Takara looks like a very nice frame. Crazy setback on that seatpost! With already slack angles, if it was any longer you'd be behind the dropouts.

Chrome Molly

That reflex is so over the top. Are you going to name it Crockett or Tubbs?

frantik

ano purple frame? nice...

cyclotoine

Wow, the ringle stuff is now near unobtanium. It sells for prices that would make campy aficionados queezy. Same with anything by grafton. Those parts are amazing. THose handlebars are silly light thinwall tubing and the faceplates on those ringle stems are very prone to cracking! Be so careful! I love the mix and match blue/purple... so 90s.. The ringle holey stuff is impossible to find for reasonable money. It's a little scratched by could easily be sanded and re-anodized, but the patina is also cool. I'd leave the old stickers on for posterity.

obrentharris 

No Ringle seatpost! I guess that after breaking a couple of them the original owner, like the rest of us, finally gave up.
Brent

Vonruden

Thanks for the info Cyclotoine!

obrent - funny you should mention the the seatpost, the Ringle clamp is cracking, I was thinking of replacing with a nice purple or blue Hope anno seatpost clamp.

Aemmer

Dig the Rock Lobster.

Bikedud

My 1991 Fat City Cycles Fat Chance Wicked.

obrentharris- I Love the Rock Lobster

Aemmer

A lot of potential, but I can't take it seriously with those V brakes on there.

obrentharris 

Yeah.
That's what my Klunker-riding friends here in Marin tell me about my cantis.
Brent

Bikedud

The cantis were fine until I moved to North Georgia and started riding down Hanging Mountain (and many others), dodging baby heads, and trying to pick a line at 35mph. I quickly came to the conclusion that effective braking is very important. FWIW, I still have cantis on my CX bike.

obrentharris 

Thanks for all the nice comments about the little blue Lobster. They made me feel so good I decided to post the other little Lobster in our basement.



This bike has its own story.
In 1996 Paul Sadoff decided to sell some less expensive production bikes with the Rock Lobster name on them. He found a large bike company willing to do a small run of frames built to his drawings and specifications. In 1996 I was looking for a bike to give to my 9-year-old son for his birthday. One of the production frames came through with a slight misalignment of a rear dropout which caused the wheel to cock to one side in the frame. This was easily fixed with a little file work in the dropout and Paul was willing to sell me the frame, which was already bargain priced, at a significant discount. Paul decided he would rather stick to custom frame building so there were no more production bikes in this country after that.



My son was thrilled with the frame. After his birthday we purchased all the components for it at the local bike swap. Quite the assortment of parts!









The original fork was a Manitou with elastomer suspension. The pedals were replaced at one time and the tires have been replaced a couple times. Other than that the bike is a pretty good example of what was available at local bike swaps for someone trying to set up a bike on a budget in 1996.





My son outgrew the bike, as kids will do. It has been hanging out in the basement, unridden, with the other bikes so I decided to clean it up and show it off in this thread. As for my son, he has a bit of an N+1 bike habit himself: I think he's up to 4 bikes at this point.

Brent

Aemmer

I personally never felt the big step up with V brakes compared to canti's (different opinion when hydraulic disc brakes appeared) but if it made you more comfortable at high speeds bitd right on. Certainly we all made what we felt were major/minor upgrades to our bikes constantly over time as things broke or we just felt the need. Now you have a beautiful foundation for a restore from an era past by new technology. The time is ripe to put it together as it once was new or how you always dreamed it to be. That Fat is a jewel. Or just pull the kid trailer for a few more years with it as it is and then restore it in another decade or so. Whatever you do, enjoy the heck out of it. It's not going to look right though until it wears a nice set of M734's again.