87 help ID please

[El Charro]

Howdy All,
Trying to get some additional info on my 87. Guessing its a Wicked because HT and ST angles are the same, but I'm getting some conflicting information when researching other threads (seat stay vs chain stay brake mounts, etc.). Picked up the complete bike with what I assume is the original build: all XT except for magura levers, plus Fat bar, salsa stem, and cooks cranks (score!). Unpainted frame. SN=871420. Did production get as high as 1,420 in 1987?? Any help or additional insight appreciated, thanks!

 

[I-ROBOT]

Hello and welcome!
If the headtube and seattube angles are the same - 71 degrees - then you have a Wicked. The regular Fat has a 69 degree head angle and a 2" rake on the fork. It is a bit unusual for a Wicked to have chainstay U-brake mounts but a dealer could have ordered one that way. Most Wickeds had the seatstay cantilever mounts. And, yes, production did get that high in 1987! I went full time at Fat City in June of '87 and we worked like madmen to keep up with the new demand as Chris's reputation for ride and build quality was becoming more widely known in the mountain bike community. Your 21" frame was probably a December bike since that was close to as many as we made that year. Fat City had never broken the 1000 per year mark before that and we blew by that in September. I believe in '88, we started adding the W to the serial numbers of the Wickeds to differentiate them, but I don't remember exactly (that smoky shop thing, you know ). Also, most, if not all of the Wickeds got Shimano double eyelet rear dropouts and the regular Fats got Suntour single eyelet dropouts. For whatever reason, the Shimanos always seemed to weld better that the Suntours and way better than the Campagnolos. Most of those were meant to be brazed so the metal composition and impurity levels were not optimized for arc welding. Definitely my welds on the dropouts. I can spot those pretty easily. Looks like the frame is in really good shape. Best of luck with the restoration
Scott

 

[El Charro]

Hello and welcome!
If the headtube and seattube angles are the same - 71 degrees - then you have a Wicked. The regular Fat has a 69 degree head angle and a 2" rake on the fork. It is a bit unusual for a Wicked to have chainstay U-brake mounts but a dealer could have ordered one that way. Most Wickeds had the seatstay cantilever mounts. And, yes, production did get that high in 1987! I went full time at Fat City in June of '87 and we worked like madmen to keep up with the new demand as Chris's reputation for ride and build quality was becoming more widely known in the mountain bike community. Your 21" frame was probably a December bike since that was close to as many as we made that year. Fat City had never broken the 1000 per year mark before that and we blew by that in September. I believe in '88, we started adding the W to the serial numbers of the Wickeds to differentiate them, but I don't remember exactly (that smoky shop thing, you know ). Also, most, if not all of the Wickeds got Shimano double eyelet rear dropouts and the regular Fats got Suntour single eyelet dropouts. For whatever reason, the Shimanos always seemed to weld better that the Suntours and way better than the Campagnolos. Most of those were meant to be brazed so the metal composition and impurity levels were not optimized for arc welding. Definitely my welds on the dropouts. I can spot those pretty easily. Looks like the frame is in really good shape. Best of luck with the restoration
Scott

Thanks a million Scott! I was remiss in my initial description, the only part of the ensemble that wasn't original was the fork, someone had swapped it for a ghastly Manitou 5 somewhere down the line, so I don't have any data to support whether the original had a 2" rake or not. However, the headtube and seattube angles are indeed the same, and the other evidence you cited (Shimano double eyelets) is good enough for me to go with Wicked. So stoked you're able to provide this information, and great to learn about the history and gain a little insight into the furious late 80's production! And your welds are sweeeeet BTW. Now to decide on a fun color scheme for the rebuild. Thanks again!