1988 SM700??

[Mike_]

Interesting that they appear to be a world wide spec - they were also sold as a frame only in the uk - I bought this bike to replicate the bike I owned in 89/90 - that one was bought as a frame and fork from a bike shop in Brighton just after my 16th birthday in 89, it had been hanging over the till for at least 6 months and I saved every penny from a part time job to afford it and replace a muddy fox courier. Only difference I can think of between the frame I had and this bike is the lack of an ‘alpine series’ decal on the seat tube of the current bike.

 

[black lightning 1987]

I wish I had the serial number of my 1989 SM800.

I’ve also got an almost identically specified August 88 built bike, 18 speed Suntour ‘MB’ gearing, diacompe u and cantis, sun rims and nutted Maillard hubs front and rear, mines an 18” and has red frame and stem and white 88 style thinner graphics.
I’m in the uk, not sure where the other posters on this thread live but as the only catalogues I’ve seen online appear to be from American shops I wonder if the uk market had some different spec bikes, or as all this spec seem to be Aug 88 built were they originally going to be SM700s but sales weren’t as good as expected so the last few were built up to sell cheap and not interfere with sales of the 89 red shred?

There were definitely differences in components from USA to other markets in certain years. Nutted Maillard hubs seem out of place, but the Sun rims suggest to me that the wheels are original to the bike.