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Fatlanta 1996 Olympic Special Edition #1 of 20 for sale

Ms. Fatlanta

New member
Frame type: Fatlanta 1996 Olympic Special Edition #1 of 20
Frame number: YOM1185
Year of manufacture: ?
Frame size: Medium
Color: Pearl white with Stars and Stripes decals
Location: Washington, DC
Owner name: Judy


Living in Washington, DC means I road bike more than mountain bike. So, I have decided to sell this dream bike because I just am not using it and need the space in my house. I've seen a few dreamers on the web mentioning that they would love to build a retro bike with a Fatlanta frame but weren't sure where any were. Well, let me introduce you to the first Fatlanta built by Chris Chance as part of the 20 bikes built for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. I purchased the frame at Outback Bikes in Atlanta and had it custom built into a race bike I used for one season while racing for the bike shop team. The headset requires a 1" tube, so I used a Marzocchi Super Fly bomber shock to fit.


I brought the bike out to Monterey, California this week for a work trip and it would be great if I could ship it to a new buyer instead of bringing it back on the plane. I will sell the bike as is, with the exception of the saddle, seatpost, and pedals. All other components, including the Superfly shock, are included. The bike frame is overall in good condition. I noticed while riding today (first time in a year), that it will need a tune up soon and the headset needs cleaning or replacing.

I am listing the bike for sale here with my Fat City comrades to see what the best offer is before moving beyond the community. Buyer will pay shipping via UPS. Or, if you live near San Francisco, we could transfer in person on Friday, September 15th. Serious buyers may contact me at judybootie@hotmail.com . I will close offers on Thursday, September 14th, noon PST. Payment needs to be through paypal.

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rody

Member
Judy,

Can you give us some more details of what the build spec is...components, wheels, etc?

Any chance you still have the original receipt or documentation?

Additionally, do you have a ballpark range you are looking for in price? Would appreciate a pm if you do not wish to reveal it in a public forum.

Really neat piece of Fat History, thanks for sharing.

rody
 

Ms. Fatlanta

New member
The frame has been sold

JT from our forum is the lucky buyer of the frame. The bike has been around the world due to my assignments in the military and now will reside in Virginia. I only sold him the frame and now have a Marzzochi Z2 Superfly Bomber shock with a 1" stem available for sale. I'll post a new thread on it soon. I am wondering if it may be useful to other fatcogs because of the rarity of such a high end shock with a 1" stem. I had a very hard time finding it back in 2000 when I was building my bike and I don't think there are any more on the market.
 

IF52

New member
Let me fill in some history

Since the concept of the Fatlanta was actually mine and the store owner's, let me fill in some of the details that I can remember. The concept was to promote our shop and showcase our support of Fat City Cycles. At the time we were still one of the top Fat dealers in the world, the previous year we were actually the number 2 dealer in the world. We figured the Olympics would be an excellent venue to promote the brand, so we approached Wendyll and she responded that she thought it was a great idea and we could work out some of the details when she and Chris came down for the Super Show.

Well to put it mildly Wendyll kind of didn't grasp the concept when we tried to explain it to her. Our idea was to give the thing an exciting yet easy to apply paint scheme, limit the run to 20 hand signed items and they would only be available through us, Outback Outfitters and Bikes, AND they should still be within close range of the price of the regular Yo. She on the other hand wanted to paint them as simply as possible, jack up the price, make them available to as many people who wanted them and/or make us buy all 20 of the initial run up front.

Well, that kind of spoils the concept of a limited edition, no? So we finally worked out the details a bit and agreed to the bland white paint with the stars and stripes graphics instead of the red to dark blue fade with masked out white stars that I had proposed. Chris would hand sign and number them 1/20, 2/20, 3/20 etc. And obviously the frame would be a standard Yo and we would order 3 right off the bat, a large, medium and small.

Well, the large was the first to arrive, and it arrived numbered 20/20, instead of 1/20 like it was supposed to. I called Fat and discussed this with Wendyll and she still kind of missed the point, but I got her to agree to renumber the next two that shipped to us. We had a REALLY hard time selling these things or any Fats at the time for that matter because Atlanta Pro Bike, 3 former employees, were killing us on high end sales by pushing IFs out the door like they were going out of style. So only 3 were ever made/painted and the only one to ever sell is this frame, numbered 1/20 but actually the second bike to arrive at the shop. As far as I know, #20/20 (which should actually be numbered 1/20) still hang in Outback and the third bike was shipped back to Fat and I believe repainted in a stock color and sold.

Regarding riding it for the team, when and whose team? You didn't ride it for the Outback team while I was still working there, nobody did.

Regarding why it became so hard for us to sell Fats - We weren't as good at hocking them as the guys who started APB were. When they left our shop our sales numbers plummeted. They were outstanding salemen and dragged a huge chunk of our high end customers with them to their new shop, where they completely vilified Wendyll and Chris for abandoning the IF boys. They sold more IFs in there first few months of business than we sold Fats all year. All of the sudden Fats were popping up on the used market so people could buy IFs instead. Even I bought an IF, which I still own.
 

kevin881

New member
Wow, interesting recount of this bit of fat history. Thanks for posting IF52.

Amazing to hear that there are only 2 of these left... nice purchase by JT.
 

IF52

New member
I was also trying to remember how we had the bike Judy just sold built originally. I remember building that bike up for display and the other two were left as bare frames. We built the medium because it would fit more people and be more likely to sell quickly. I put it together in a red, white (silver) and blue theme for obvious reasons. We wanted to have the thing be kind of eye catching, but it was probably, in hind sight, kind of goofy looking. IIRC it was assembled with Topline cranks, Ringle hubs, stem, and seatpost, and many other ano parts to match the theme. I don't recall the colors of each part, but it doesn't really matter because the person who wound up buying the bike eventually, who I guess was Judy, had us disassemble the bike and replace most of the goofy high end ano parts with more reasonable bits and pieces. I think my pal Stephen was the salesman.

I want to stress a couple other things too. First, these were nothing more of less than normal Yo! frames. They weren't special tubes or sizes or anything more special than a standard Yo! They also more likely than not were not build by Chris, as many of the frames were not built by Chris. IIRC the frames built in Glen Falls were built by Serrota welders.

We were really slack about taking pictures of these bikes before they went out the door and I kind of regret that now. It would be kind of cool if Judy still had the original inventory/sales ticket and could scan it and post a picture of it.
 
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lucifer

New member
i still pester the new owners to sell me that large one every time I am anywhere near little 5...

One day they will succumb. It's ridiculous that they hold on to it considering that none of them were involved in any way.
 
Fatlanta Update

YO, y'all,

Yeppers the fatlanta still hangs in the shop #20 of #20. Thanks for the history of the frame Michael. My name is Pete and i bought Outback Bikes in 2001. The Fat has been on display since 1996. I have been thinking of building it up retro style and keeping it in new condition. The frame has never been ridden or built. Michael is right about the team thing Outback has had teams over the years but '96 was a rough year in Atlanta, everyone thought the Olympics was going to be the bomb, no pun intended. If anything the Olympics showed what mass transit was about. The streets were empty everyone rode MARTA or biked everywhere. I have had people from New Zeland, England and Europe asking for pics of the frame a few years back and i sent pics, never thought a frame would be so revered. I found the orginal inventory ticket it lists the frame for 1300.00. Was that the retail when you ran the shop? I may not have been involved with Outback in 1996 but I have been involved in the bike business since 1985 racing mountain, track and road for most of those years. I do not remember anyone pestering me about the fat but for now its such a piece of outback history i am not looking to sell her.

peace
pete
p.s. i'll take some pics and post soon.
 

henk19

New member
fatlanta

Yo pete if you ever do want to sell that thing let me know I have # 1/20 size medium. in the process of building it up but the derailer cable hanger on the seat tube was broken off when i purchased it off the original owner.


J.C.
 
everyone has #1 of 20

bummer about the hanger, I still employ Nate who worked for Michael in 1996 and he confirmed the story that there are only 3 frames ever produced. The one in the shop is a large and the first to arrive marked #20 of 20. Nate and Tyson who also worked there and now does again say they remember the small that was sold but never saw another. So I guess your medium never made it to the store. I am interested in finding a rigid fork for it. I love the look of the Chance fork, anyone want to part with one? I bought a Mountain Bike from Outback in 1987 could not aford a Fat or a Ritchey (which was all the rage back then) But I had a sweet Specialized, Rockhopper, u brake underneath(great brakes in North Ga red clay mud, j'king) When I purchased the store after working there a year and a half I looked up my card( we still have records of every bike ever sold) & there was my purchase in the card file marked 1986-1987. If anyone who bought a Fat from us ever wants a copy of the inventory card shoot me an e-mail, need the year it was purchased as computer records only go back 2 yrs.Nice website here and glad to see and read about all the Fat fans.

peace
 

IF52

New member
Pete,

We did have 3 in total in the shop at one time. Can you look in the inventory cards for the Fatlanta that did sell. It would be late 96. I am still pretty sure the one we sold was the medium #1 of 20 and I am pretty sure Stephen sold it. I know I built it originally, you should probably see MOM (actually MPM) written in the "assembled by" section. I know we only sold one and sent one back and you still have the large #20/20 which would make 3.

Regarding price, IIRC the Yo was $1195 at the time. We may have put a premium on the Fatlanta, so $1300 would be about right.
 

IF52

New member
I just read the for sale thread regarding Fatlanta #19 of 20, size small. It was purchased from Serrota which makes sense because it could be the one we sent back to Fat after keeping it in the shop for a while. That clears up that 1 of 20, size medium was the only one sold by Outback Outfitters and Bikes back in the day.

My memory is a bit cloudy about something though. I definitly remember 20/20 size large being the first frame to arrive at the shop, but I thought we caught it there before we received any more misnumbered frames. Therefore 20/20 was the first and then 1/20 (medium) and 2/20 (small) arrived. If that memory is correct then 19/20 size small would be a forth Fatlanta frame that was never sent to our shop. Again, there should possible still be a voided inventory card to clear that up.

Also, regarding the Outback team. 1996 was actually the first year we informally had a team. Susan and Richard had sponsored Earl Bob in the past before he started riding for Fat, but we never sponsored riders with jerseys or contingency money until 95/96. Nathan and Tyson may still have the green jerseys I designed (and were poorly executed by InMotion) for the team. It was admittedly a pretty weak attempt at sponsorship, but it was there nonetheless.

The Olympics were horrible for business though.
 

AB

Active member
The most logical scenario from current facts and info as far as I can figure:

3 frame produced all mis-numbered (20-18) and sent to Outback.

Medium frame (most likely to sell) sent back to be renumbered (only frame to be renumbered).

OR large and small first to arrive at Outback and the medium was held up for renumbering

Medium frame sells, but the large and small frames don't.

Outback keeps the large and sends the small back to Fat for whatever reason.

Small sits at Serotta for 2 years unaltered then sells.

Hence there should be only one sales card for the medium on file at Outback.

A fourth frame doesn't make much sense.

An interesting story nonetheless. Thanks to all involved for their insight.
 

IF52

New member
The most logical scenario from current facts and info as far as I can figure:

3 frame produced all mis-numbered (20-18) and sent to Outback.

Medium frame (most likely to sell) sent back to be renumbered (only frame to be renumbered).

OR large and small first to arrive at Outback and the medium was held up for renumbering

Medium frame sells, but the large and small frames don't.

Outback keeps the large and sends the small back to Fat for whatever reason.

Small sits at Serotta for 2 years unaltered then sells.

Hence there should be only one sales card for the medium on file at Outback.

A fourth frame doesn't make much sense.

An interesting story nonetheless. Thanks to all involved for their insight.

Well, I know as a fact 3 things, because I was the one who arranged, co-designed, ordered, received all FATlanta frames that came into Outback. As far as that era in Outback history is concerned, Pete didn't exist.

Fact - 20 of 20 Size Large was the first frame to arrive and was misnumbered. I called Fat and bitched at them about it and ask them to make sure all additional frames were numbered correctly, 1 of 20, 2 of 20 etc.

Fact - 1 of 20 Size Medium was the only frame we sold. Period

Fact - ? of 20 Size Small was sent back to Fat after we held onto it for a few months.

Where I get cloudy is what numbers were on the size Small. When we receive the first misnumbered frame I called Fat and I sorted it out with Wendyl (sp) and she said all the rest would be numbered as we wanted. What I am not sure of is if the first Small we got was also misnumbered or if it was numbered correctly. If it was numbered correctly then the 19 of 20 small may have been ready to ship and Wendyl quickly had another frame painted and numbered up correctly and sent to us, and the misnumbered frame sat on a shelf for a couple years. The inventory card should have the series number on it IIRC. AND, if teh voided inventory card is still around Pete should be able to tell us the frame serial number too.
 
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