Attic What IZIT #5
by Bikeman • July 05, 2023
We had a lot of fun with the Attic What IZIT back in the day. We'd dig up some of the more obscure parts hiding here and put it out to our loyal visitors to come up with what it is. Bikeman would always know of course but it was entertaining to see how long it would take for someone else to come up with the correct answer. We would post the answer so the winner could take a victory lap. In the event of multiple correct answers we would post the most complete or creative one. We'll try to dust one of these off each week and keep the excitement going of what will pop up next.
Originally Published early in this century
The 5th edition of the Attic What IZIT is here and we have up for grabs a highly coveted Bikeman T-Shirt for the winner. To win you must identify this product. Who made it (Company Name)? What was it used for? Why did people use them? And bonus points for any personal experience with the item or setup tips...
This edition provided a very close contest. In the end it came down to two entries and a couple of extra judges called in to help with the ruling. The winner, David from Bangor Maine, had the most complete answer and even told us how much the item cost, the runner up, Tony from Boston added some flair and gets some points for buying a Monster Fat over a Scott Sawtooth but it just wasn't enough to take the lead. We have posted David's Winning answer as well as a few runner ups below.
Winner, David Emerich-Shanks
"It's a Moots Mount, made in sunny Steamboat Springs Colorado in the late 1980's. With this device one could make any standard road frame into a cyclocross beast by being able to add cantilever brakes. Many of the early Moots mountain bike frames came with these in lieu of brazed on cantilever mounts. If memory serves me right they were about $25 - $30 per set."
Runner Up #1, Tony Valletti
"Moots Mount! from the same Moots frame builders still around today. For people who wanted to ditch the under chain stay u brakes and mount canti's up on the seat stay where they belonged! I almost bought them for my Scott Sawtooth, but ended up buying a original Monster Fat instead!"
Runner Up #2, Troy Nye
"I'm not sure what the exact brand is, and it is slightly different from the ones I can remember from my youth, but I used a set very similar when I was a young pioneer of off road unicycling. It is a "clamp-on" boss for adding cantilever brakes to a frame or fork, or in my case, unicycle body. They were used quite extensively in the custom chopper bike building scene. The one in the picture is a pretty old one, I'd guess around 1980."