So lets get down to what it is. It's a Bridgestone of unknown vintage. It's somewhere between a 92-94. I have perused Bridgestone catalogs from the era and have found the purple color of the frame and the original wheel size 26". What I haven't found are the rack mounts. It looks like a XO-2 but the fork isn't right. It's not a MB-3. The MB-3 doesn't have the rack mounts. However it does have the right fork and the right color. The MB series was also a lugged frame. Mine is not. So it looks like what I have is a 1994 XO-5 except the wheel size is all wrong. Have a look, try to figure out what bike I have - http://www.sheldonbrown.com/bridgestone/
Here's what made it home in the back of the bed of my truck...
So lets take stock of what we have. It's a steel framed Bridgestone bike. Some one has added canti mounts to run 700c wheels. They have also added top tube shifters. Not downtube...toptube shifters. It's missing it's rear wheel. Some one added Tektro mini v brakes. It has a older Salsa drop bar on it. It has a Shimano 105 rear derailleur. There's a lot of rust everywhere.
My plan. Find a rear 700c wheel add that to the bike and see if it fits me. I think it will. IF it fits I will strip it down to the frame. Then I will strip all the paint off the frame and remove all the rust. I'll try to work out the pits as best I can. Add a Bridgestone sticker to both sides of the raw frame and clear coat the whole thing. Lacquer clear over the whole frame and fork. After that clean up all the parts that are on the bike and assess if they can be reused. I'm pretty sure the shifters, headset, 105 rear der, and maybe some bits off the Tektro v's can be salvaged. I gotta change the huge blocky chunky front derailleur thou. It looks awful. I think I actually have a XT one sitting around. Hope it's a top pull. Rebuild the bike. Add racks and panniers front and back. We will see how far I get on this project. Should be interesting anyhow.
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