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William Jeff Lindsay/ Mountain Goat Road bike NOS

Not for sale
Ask Derby about this item.

Lindsay's bikes are characterized by a smooth and very, very rigid feeling when pedaling, solidity down hills and excellent adsorption of road shock.
This NEW-UNUSED frame was hand brazed in 1984 by Jeff Lindsay, in Chico CA. It was assembled in January, 2015 by Derby, whose arm was in a sling, and novice Sister Kate, whose help was great.

The width of the rear drop-outs is 126mm, so a NOS
Sanshin sealed hub of this width was chosen to use for the rear wheel. The 175mm TA crank arms are connected by a new TA #314 axle, whose length is meant for a single chainwheel. The ring chosen for the flat terrain near Chico, CA has 49 teeth, and is connected to a new Regina freewheel with four cogs of 17, 19, 20, and 22 teeth by a Sachs chain. The new Campagnolo Nuovo Record rear derailleur is operated by a Campagnolo Handlebar-end shifter inserted in a NOS TTT handleber. The stem and 27.2mm seat post are also made by the Techno Tubo Torino company. The new set of Modolo calipers were found in the Box without their barrel adjusters, so a likely-looking substitute was used. Still looking for a new set of hoods for the Campagnolo brake levers. The saddle is a used Concor. The top half of the bars are stripe-double wrapped with Benotto and ancient English Metalized silver tape. the ends of the wires were all tinned with solder, Derby's standard practice.

About the time this bike was made, we tested a Lindsay against a Merlin TI road bike, both in the same gear, and all of the people who rode them agreed the Lindsay was easier to pedal and sprinted better. This one was made in a time of transition, at the end of the time period when brazing was the usual method for frame production. The amount of detail attention shown on this and a few other road bikes would soon become a thing of the past. As mountain bikes and the use of TIG welding grew, this art of brazing and detail work was practiced by fewer and fewer builders of skill(Lindsay was one of only two US builders licensed to use the ultra thin Reynolds 753 tubing). Greater skill is needed to do TIG welding but you can make more product in the same time, and it shares the advantage of fillet brazing i.e. no lugs are needed (useful if you are a mountain bike pioneer with a stack of odd shaped or oversize tubing and design bikes with angles of your own choosing, either of which would eliminate the possibility of using lugs). Hence most builders of skill began doing more and more TIG work. Also, due to the rising popularity of mountain bikes, Jeff's products were becoming better known as 'Mountain Goat' than as 'Lindsay' frames; hence this one has a Mountain Goat decal on the head tube and the normal complement of Lindsay road and signature decals on the rest of the frame. Please note the frame work detail shown in the photos. The frame was made in 1984, see serial number photo.