AlexByi

Dear all,

I recently bought a Pinarello Cristallo MTB. The bike doesn’t exactly look like an mtb but it’s great as a city bike. I would love to find out more about this model and the background story but information about it is not so easy to come across. I can’t post pictures since it’s my first post but what I can say is the bike has the pinarello sign both on the frame and the front fork , it has shimano exage mountain gear shifter. If anyone knows more about this model I would really appreciate if you would share it with me.

thank you

Maelochs

https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...tain-bike.html

A lot of results from Germany, so I figure maybe most were not imported to the US?

Similar specs to a Bridgestone MB4 (1988) I used to own ..... a great ride but a little heavy at 30 lbs (large size.) I used it as a commuter more than a trial bike and it shined---also a great tourer.

indyfabz

At a high level, it doesn’t look much different than my early 90s Trek 930 MTB.

big john

That's what mountain bikes looked like back then.

wheelreason

I'd take a 90s 930 over that Dog all day long. Got to see them being made in Wisconsin, they extruded and mitered the tubes in house, as well as built the wheels by hand, and the beer was good....

SoCaled 

Link above is to my "Not Pinarello" a Specialized Rockhopper Comp, repainted as a Pinarello

When I got the bike and tried to research Pinarello Mtn bikes, almost all roads led to Europe. There does not seem to be much info available. That said, agree with posts above that is very similar to various other quality (but not super high end) bikes of the era. If yours has an Exage group, then slightly lower than the Deore models.

veganbikes

I don't understand the need for a fake logo on a bike. The frame looks good but you could easily do the same paint job and put Specialized on it which would look cool especially in the Pina-font A tribute to the bike without rebranding it something it is not. Though it does look neat and I do recognize that back in that era Pina ridden by Big Mig was always pleasurable to look at.

I don't go for passing off something as something different but do like doing an homage but making it clear it is just the original item.

Maelochs

So .... one of the infamous "SoCaledarellos" then?

SoCaled 

That is nice, I went with the double merge "Pinalized Rockma"

SoCaled 

Agreed! I bought it that way, didn't know exactly what is was, but was right price, size and good components. I forget now, but I paid less than Specialized money for the bike. Someone in the original thread also pointed out - the Specialized originally had nice paint! The amount of effort to repaint and re-decal and then sell for cheap, was one I never understood. Aside from it perpetrating a fraud, the repaint is now failing pretty badly, don't think they did much prep. The wild thing is I bought it from a guy in a nice neighborhood with a $150,000 SUV. He told a story of his brother riding the bike thousands of miles all over Europe and then him having it in his garage for a few years. A couple of weeks after I bought the bike I saw another ad he had listed (for headphones) and reached out to ask about the repaint, I had to explain a few times before he understood what I was saying. He sounded as dumbfounded as I was and said as far as he knew the bike had been like that way as long as they had it. He now sounded curious and said he was going to reach out to his brother in Europe to see if he knew anything, that was the last I heard.
The bike has been my main errand running beater. I have had back burner plans to get it stripped and powder coated with custom hybrid decals, I don't have the photoshop skills for a proper mock-up but it would be original fonts Pinarello + Specialized = "Pinalized" Rockhopper + Dogma = "Rockma"
FYI - no none has looked at this bike for more than 3 seconds without getting the backstory - it hasn't so much been "passing" as it is a conversation piece.

Maelochs

Doghopper.

georges1

The trek had the better and lighter True Temper OXP Platinum II tubing , the Cromor wasn't the lightest tubeset from Columbus back then

georges1

Specialized used mostly Tange and Ritchey Logic Nitanium from1991 till 1997/1998 and all the high end steel frames were either made in Taiwan or/and Japan.