Thursday, January 12, 2012

Taiwanese Fat Chance?

Checking my Facebook posts this morning, came across this update from MOMBAT.  

MOMBAT?  That short for the Museum of Mountain Bike Art & Technology.  That's one museum I'd like to spent an afternoon visiting.  It's housed at First Flight Bikes in North Carolina, and if I ever find myself in that part of the country, will drop in for sure.

Back to the update.  Seems they're selling off a few of their vintage bike collection, and one caught my eye, being the Fat City fan.  Fat City Cycles super expert I'm not, but know a fair amount about the history and models - as well as owning a '86 Fat Chance and '91 Yo Eddy - from back in the day.

Fat City bikes were all hand made in the U.S.A.  First at their Somerville, MA location, then later via a joint venture with Serotta, in New York state.  That's what I thought anyway...



According to this ad, Fat City dabbled with frames made in Taiwan for the Canadian market. Out of the many Fat City related articles, catalogs, and other stories over the years - I've never heard of this.  True?  If so, doesn't surprise me since Fat City was growing at the time.  Interesting story anyway.



Picture of the '91 Taiwanese Fat Chance, courtesy of the MOMBAT site.  Click here for more views and details.



I can't confirm or deny the off-shore frames for Canada story, but found it kind of interesting and adds another piece to Fat City Cycles lore.  Would I buy this bike?  Probably not.  But for a collector, a possible cool bike to own, just for the history of it all.  If interested, it could be yours.  Act now.

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