Is this a barracuda? Enlighten me.
Posted: August 11th, 2014, 2:17 pm
I have an aluminum framed road bike that I got for free from a friend that was emptying out his shed to make room for some new bikes that he and his wife had recently purchased for themselves and their kids. The bike was a wreck, but had some interesting features such as a polished aluminum frame with what must have been an early, mid-nineties colnago/time carbon fork with a steel steerer, along with some old, probably nineties components, including Shimano 600EX 8-speed brifters, 600 crank, Deore front derailleur, a Dura Ace 6400 rear derailleur and front brake caliper, a 500AX rear brake caliper, a 600 front hub and a Deore XT 570? Rear hub. The wheels were a wreck, but the front hub was fine. The rear was fine, but the freehub body was a wreck. After building new wheels around some e-bay 600 hubs and replacing the cables, the bike was fine. I used it as a commuter.
I managed to track down the builder, who was a lad at the time, working for his father in An Siopa Rothar, here, in Limerick. He recognized the bike immediately, though it had been better than twenty years since he built it. It was, he said, the first bike he ever built. The frame was unmarked, so I asked him what it was. He claimed it was a Barracuda frame.
The frame has a serial number up the seat tube, on the non-drive side: AM2K024520. It looks like it could be an A2M, but there's some inconsistencies. The frame could be a mountain bike frame, but the head tube a.) accommodates a 1" steerer, and b.) the head tube is only 10cm long. Otherwise, it seems as if it could be a mountain bike frame. The rear dropout accommodates a 135cm hub, but that could have been the norm for audaxes back then too. I am unsure what this frame's original purpose was.
If anyone could enlighten me as to whether this was in fact a Barracuda frame and, if it was, what model. I would greatly appreciate it.
For what it is worth. I had crashed my racer and broke the drop outs, so this frame now sports full Dura Ace 7900 components, Bontrager saddle, seat post, stem and handlebars and two newly built Stan's No-tubes ZTR Alpha 340 rims with Tune hubs and Sapim super cx-ray spokes, 20f/24r. This bike is light. The frame, sans fork, weighed in at just under two kilos (right around four pounds), so it is a bit heavy by today's standards, but still pretty light.
I managed to track down the builder, who was a lad at the time, working for his father in An Siopa Rothar, here, in Limerick. He recognized the bike immediately, though it had been better than twenty years since he built it. It was, he said, the first bike he ever built. The frame was unmarked, so I asked him what it was. He claimed it was a Barracuda frame.
The frame has a serial number up the seat tube, on the non-drive side: AM2K024520. It looks like it could be an A2M, but there's some inconsistencies. The frame could be a mountain bike frame, but the head tube a.) accommodates a 1" steerer, and b.) the head tube is only 10cm long. Otherwise, it seems as if it could be a mountain bike frame. The rear dropout accommodates a 135cm hub, but that could have been the norm for audaxes back then too. I am unsure what this frame's original purpose was.
If anyone could enlighten me as to whether this was in fact a Barracuda frame and, if it was, what model. I would greatly appreciate it.
For what it is worth. I had crashed my racer and broke the drop outs, so this frame now sports full Dura Ace 7900 components, Bontrager saddle, seat post, stem and handlebars and two newly built Stan's No-tubes ZTR Alpha 340 rims with Tune hubs and Sapim super cx-ray spokes, 20f/24r. This bike is light. The frame, sans fork, weighed in at just under two kilos (right around four pounds), so it is a bit heavy by today's standards, but still pretty light.
