Friday, July 3, 2009

From the Archives: 1994 Fat City Cycles Catalog

Recently pulled from the Official Dan O Vault - Fat City Cycles catalog from 1994 - now posted for your amusement and reference.  This was the last (or next to last?) year for Fat City to produce frames in Somerville, Massachusetts. 

They later moved to New York state and produced frames in the Serotta shop.  The '96 and '97 Fat catalogs I also pulled from the Vault-O-Rama are from the New York location.  I can post 'em at another time.

Ponder and wonder at what was cool in '94.....



Fat Cogs refers to the Fat Chance Owners Group, the Fat club - complete with secret hand shake.  I was a member, a freebie deal through fellow Fat fan, Elisa Shostak - who was friends with Chris Chance's wife at one time.  All I know was, the packet arrived with a Fat Cogs t-shirt (that I still have).  A nice surprise in the mail.  



Being from the East Coast, gotta wonder if they all needed a tick check after this shot.  Man, I don't miss that.



Early rear suspension design, complete with Rock Shox fork up front.  This stuff looks incredibly dated now.


This is one of the nicest Fats ever made.  I'd still go for one of these today - even with the rigid fork.  If you have one, hang on to it.  Elisa's hubby Walt, rides one to this day.


The famous Team Yo Eddy model.  Really, really nice steel bike - still worth lusting after.  I have a '91 model with the original rigid fork as well.  I'll get it posted on here sooner or later.


The Buck Shaver was a lower priced model, named in honor of a Fat City employee, who passed away during the Fat era.  If I found a clean one, would grab the small frame model for my son's next bike.  Would be pretty trick for a 10 year old, no?


The Wicked Lite was a more all-around design.  It reminds me a lot of my '86 Fat that I still own.


I always thought the Fat road bikes were really cool.  I posted about this sweet bike previously.


I still have my Blah, Blah, Blah t-shirt hanging in the closet - only worn for formal occasions.  Dude I work with has the Fat jersey pictured.  He wears it occasionally as I weep.





Well, there you have it.  If you're from this era, a peek back in history. If you started riding mountain bikes recently, probably thinking "Who cares"?  Or maybe you get a kick out of seeing some mountain bike history.  I know I do.

New or old bike - ride on.

5 comments:

  1. Hi Dan,

    nice to see the original photo's, i think i will steal these from you one day ;)
    Also fun to see that both Fat's are mentioned after eachother : first the Fat Titanium with the exact same decal colour i have, and seeing it with the Syncros revolution crank makes me think i will put it on mine instead of the Cooks and replace it with the Nuke Proof.
    And the Yo Eddy in aquafade,....such a nice frame

    keep up the good work, i wish i could write like you do

    Cheers
    Bas

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  2. Bas,

    Thanks for the nice comment. I'm just a hack, but writing about bikes seems to come easy to me.

    You have an amazing collection of vintage bikes. Always cool to check your blog for the latest updates.

    Dan

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  3. Just added you to my Google "followers." Great blog. That catalog brings back some memories. I always wanted a FC bike, but the closest I got was taking home a catalog. Now, I'm on the hunt for my own M/L Yo!

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  4. 45Ronin - thanks!

    The Yo Eddy is a great bike. Keep cruising eBay and you'll find one. If I did it again, would go with a M/L as well - my medium is just a tad small.

    Thanks for reading.....

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  5. These pics bring back great memories! The last of the Somerville Greatness. I still have this catalog floating around somewhere. I felt like a rock star for 2mins!

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