1988 YETI F.R.O. "LAND SHARK"

Story of the bike
Early Yeti FRO from 1988 with original paint by John Slawta (or his brother) at Land Shark.
Serial #588
Seat tube length: 16 3/4 c-c & 18 3/4 c-top
Round top tube
Symplex dropouts
1" BMX headset
no chainsaty reinforcing gusset
Sold in 1989 by Redlands & Riverside Cyclery in SoCal.
Nowadays: www.cycleryusa.com
I purchased it from a guy in Portland, OR.
The bike came in a poor condition. Due to the unique paintjob, I tried to save it and keep it original. It definitely has some patina and looks like it was well used, although surprisingly it has no cracks and was never repaired - as far as I know and can tell from what I see.
Only parts I wanted to keep were the CBR cranks and M732 brakes. When the bike arrived, I realized that the driveside crank arm has a massive crack. I'm still looking for a replacement. I have newer CBR's but I wanna keep this earlier version of cranks as it matches the production year.
Bike is build with a complete Shimano M730 groupset down to the 6s uniglide cassette. I kept the 732 brakes as I liked the black better than the 730 silver brakes.
I used a Tioga Double Lock Nut to avoid cutting the fork steerer too short and it goes well with the T-Bone stem and Prestige bars. Grips are Toad Stool. All those parts are NOS.
Araya RM-20 rims with Tioga Farmer John tires.
NOS Shimano XT 26.6 seatpost with a 1987 perforated Turbo saddle. Original Yeti seat collar with a NOS Shimano QR.
Craig Kundig, founder and owner of Cyclery USA:
Did come from us (Cyclery USA). I remember the paint job the minute I saw it.
The owner was Dale Cooper, an employee in Riverside.
Photo Gallery
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How the bike arrived
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