Tuesday, October 20, 2015

1990-91 Doug Bradbury Manitou

I can't seem to get enough of Doug's old bikes. In that spirit I acquired another original Bradbury Manitou. This one will take time to restore, but the bones are all there and it should clean up nice. I happen to have a spare rigid fork and so there are a couple ways this build could go.

Based on the dates codes on the brakes (NK/OB - Nov-89/Feb-90), cranks (PF/NJ - Jun-91/Oct-89) and the stamping on the Turbo (July 89) it would seem that this particular Manitou is a 1990/91 model year.

Here are are few pics from the original eBay auction, more to come as I get into it:


I was hoping this frame would be a bit larger than my current one, but as luck would have it is almost identical to the 89 I have, the basic dimensions are all the same. 








It appears to have suffered a seat tube failure at the seat binder bolt at some point and was repaired with an new collar. I've seen another Manitou with a similar repair, so it does that these frames were not immune to catastrophic failure.






Unlike my 89 this one came with a black bodied Shimano rear hub, perhaps another sign of the vintage.