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My gut is that’s it’s and 87, just an early one. As you say the shifters and the risers where what did me, but I could see that the Stem wasn’t right!
Hopefully I’ll get it tomorrow evening (it’s just in quarantine in Brockley at the moment) and it will get a full going over in the pub post hills.
It’s got some ‘upgrades’ on it. An XT rear mech, which is an upgrade, so 8 speed is an option (are these hubs freewheel, I assume they are?) and a new chain set, which looks interesting.
Keen for a bullmoose and have the eBay search going, just wondered if you had found a stash somewhere.
More to follow tomorrow
Ecobeard-
Frame width will be your limiting factor for gearing, they are 126mm wide. You can still find good wide range freewheels ie 13-30, or the other option is to fit a shimano Uniglide rear hub with a 7 UG cassette. You could then index a shimano system. Suntour spacing is different again (and there are 3 sub variants) so you'd need the matching shifters and mech for freewheel. The xt mech you have will obviously be friction at the mo, can't see how you could index it other than go UG. I actually have a NOS DX MT63 126mm solid axle hub that you can have for £20 if you wanted to go down that path? I can't see how 8s would work unless you cold set the frame to 130mm and fitted a Hyperglide road hub.
joel_austen
I'm pretty sure that is an '87. It has the look of an '86 from the bars, but I think it's an 87 because: the bottle cage bosses are further down the down tube, it has 87 correct parts (stem, 983 cantis, logo'd hubs). The shifters are 86 spec suntour LD4700s but they are good. The bar is not original as the riser on an '86 is 22.2mm clamp dia. Your stem means the bar is aftermarket ('86 models had a 4 bolt faceplate bmx like Win stem).
Does it have paw print pantographs at the top of the seat stays? They appeared on 87 frames.
You can get repro Bullmoose bars from PX, I think there are two types. Be aware new ones dont have cable stops. They sometimes come up on eBay, I had a saved search on eBay for a couple of years, and specifically wanted an original 80s Nitto one, and didnt think twice when one did come up. There are a couple for sale in the states at the mo if you could stomach that?
Ps think you're right 're mixte option, but even they had differences to the regular bikes. My old dear had one from new also but sadly sold it some 10 years ago.