1996 Volvic PowerBar Trek OCLV
"Susan DiBiase"
Story of the bike
This is Susan DiBiase (USA) Team Volvic PowerBar Trek OCLV Pro Issue from her 1996 season.
Her team mates that season were Ruthie Matthes and Jan Boland.
Susan was a multi talent, racing Cross-Country and Downhill, with Top 10 Finishes in both.
This bike came to me as frame with a few parts. The seller wasn't exactly sure which parts belonged to the bike, as he received it all in boxes, along with several other bikes and had already sold some of the parts.
Either way, it didn't matter as probably all the parts were generic. I pretty much managed to find all of them in 24 hours. That's a record and felt very accomplishing!
Mark Dawson had sent me a photo of Susan from World Championships in Cairns 96' which helped me identify the the frame, as it still has the same UCI tag #74 on the down tube (see race photos).
A small interesting detail that was noticed by one of my Facebook followers, Eduardo Bruno Membrive, was that the 1996 Rock Shox Judy SL had already the 1997 model decals. After comparing photos of Susan's team mates, I realized that they all used the new 1997 Judy SL with the monocoque lowers, only Susan was still on the 96' model with a bolted brake arch, so I'm assuming they just added the new decals to her fork, so the bikes would match.
After contacting Susan, she sent me one of her original jerseys from that season.
(If you wonder about the hieroglyphs on the card - that was my 3 year old daughter..)