Pre-1987 ATB’s found in Canada?
 

I may have just assigned myself a project: find a medium sized ATB that one could have found for sale in Canada in the early to mid-1980’s. I’m woefully ignorant of what was available off-the-shelf in the Great White North back in the day. (I already have a small collection of my own ATB’s - the classic UJB - and find them to be amazingly fun bikes.)

I have a Canadian friend and may need to get one for him. It’s actually his fault that I developed the C/V n+1 disease and got involved in Cino in the first place. (He was one of the godfathers!)

I’m looking forward to this conversation to get my creative juices going over the winter. Thanks in advance for your insights!


MD

Did they sell Stumpjumpers up there?

Rocky Mountain bikes are in Canada. Their website states they've been building mtbs since 1981.

https://bikes.com/pages/our-story

Partial list of early/mid 80's Canadian distributed mountain bikes.

Apollo / Kuwahara
Norco
Nishiki (Canadian models designed by Norco)
Specialized
BRC
Miyata
Canadian Raleigh

plus Bianchi and Peugeot. Maybe VeloSport?
Marinoni made a few in the late 80s.
Easiest to find, I suspect, are Norcos and Miyatas.

Was Miele making them that early? Not sure of their history.

Cannondale had their SM series MTBs in 1986. Were there Canadian dealers at the time?

My Aries is later 80s (87/88) so Miele might not fit the bill.

This is all good information. Maybe this is tougher question: what would be considered a “classic Canadian ATB” by our fellow Canadians?

Dukes Cycle and Spinning Wheels were two Toronto two high-end shops that brought in everything. Reflex, C-dales, Lightspeeds, Bianchi's, you name it. You could get just about all of the top US makes but the leading Canadian mtn bike maker had to be Rocky Mountain. Their entry-level Fusion was Deore equipped and was just a fine bike while the top tier Blizzard was one of the earliest slant top-tubes. They also made early aluminum (Stratos?) and several other models.

I had a Rocky Mountain Stratos that I loved, but it was an 1988. It died after too many winter rides. The bottom bracket seized, and the steel to aluminum bond, accelerated by road salt, defeated me and the efforts of 2 others at my LBS.

I'd expect either Norco or Rocky Mountain. Chris Dekerf started welding at RM. Would be sweet to find a Dekerf MTB.

Totally agree - either would be suitable.

BRC Sierra

Nishiki Bushwhacker, Caribou, Carrera

Norco Bigfoot, Sasquatch, Bush Pilot, Mountaineer, Pinnacle

RMB Sherpa

tech Nova

Kuwahara Aries, Cascade, Shasta, Siera Grande

Douglas, Devinci...RMB Hammer and Expert.
Maybe even Aquila.
Brodie!

Building a Tech Nova Pro for my son just now.

Advice is much appreciated!

For mid-80's I would go with a Rocky Mountain Sherpa, the first production MTB to come out of Canuckistan.

Technically could state Ritchey as I think around 1982 / 83 the RMB Sherpa frames were made by Tom Ritchey.

Also thought around 1986/ 87, Paul Brodie was going beyond making components and which led into frames.

Paul Brodie started building at Rocky Mountain in ‘84 handling custom mountain bikes until 1986 when he started Brodie with his 114th bike frame built.
at the same time Rocky Mountain Bicycles were also handling a large amount of distribution for Ritchey resulting in a lot of nice Timberwolf’s and Timbercomp’s lurking around.
the two brand also had a loose collaboration on Toyo built “Ritchey Rocky” builds. Basically a Ritchey Ascent with a few Rocky emblems on it.
As far as I’m aware that’d be the main staples for higher end examples from the earlier days, at least here on the west coast? The explosion came a bit later with many more brands like Moulden, UFO, Off Road Toad, Dekerf, Ripe Pipe, Lavoie, Proctor Townsend, etc…

What year for this Blizzard?
 

OP, this looks like a screaming bargain (my bias) even without some original parts. Also, might be an '87, most 86's pics show little or no slant to the top tube. I think.

https://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/3707571/

Thanks for the heads up, but it’s a 1990 Blizzard. Confirmed by the catalog and the conveniently photographed crank arm with the date stamp of OC (March, 1990) clearly shown.

I think the crank is wrong. The '90's had graduated to Synchros parts (fork, hmmmm) and wishbone stays. Regardless, it ain't an '86!

Good luck.

Lots of options in the early to mid 80’s for sure. I didn’t have one at that time and my first mtb wasn’t until I was in high school in 1990 which was a DB. I’ve made up for it now though and have lots including this 1984 RMB Sherpa.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...90383c8b2f.jpg

I picked up this Canadian made Devinci a couple of weeks ago. Refurbishing it at the moment. First time a Devinci has come my way, sadly, or not, too many projects at the moment. Had two nice old road bikes given to me two days ago. Anyway, my Devinci is gonna be up for grabs in the near future...
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...11cb9a791d.jpg

Univega Rover Sport - Canadian Assembled?

Possibly just a rumor or maybe a single shipment through Montreal in the late 80's...