It was originally a 1983 or '84 Schwinn Sierra (near as I can tell). At that point, Schwinn was having their mtbs built in Taiwan, by Giant. Later, after Schwinn unexpectedly canceled their contract, Giant began selling bikes in America, under their own name. Some say that this was the death knell for the original Schwinn company, which couldn't compete with quality and price of the Giants.
It originally had a 6-speed cogset and a double crank, and has a "Twelve Speed" decal on the chain stay. (The High Sierra had a triple crank). I bought the frame and fork off of eBay, a while ago, to use the nice lugged fork on a project. Unfortunately, the steer tube was too short, and I ended up having to source another fork, which left me with this frame set.
So, I used the wheels I had built up with disc hubs (which were on my 650b conversion RockHopper) to build up a 650b fixed gear mountain bike. The RockHopper is going through a bit of a process, right now, for which I built up some wheels with non-disc hubs. More on that, later.
The 18.25" chainstays accept the 2.3" wide 650b tires with no modification necessary. (If measured the same way as a 26" mtb wheel, a 650b mtb tire is the equivalent of 27.5", by the way.)
I geared it with a 38 tooth ring and a 20 tooth cog. This gives me a 52.25 inch gear, which is pretty good for off-roading. There is a 20 tooth cog on the freehub, on the other side of the wheel. If need be, I can turn the wheel around, and use the bike as a coaster singlespeed for faster downhills.
So, that's one bike off of the to-do list.
Oh, and there was a snake in my yard, the other day...
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