Huffy Timberwolf better than average early 90's Huffy - Pic Heavy

[Nagant]

Found this Huffy Timberwolf on Craigslist and picked it up today. Only one picture in the add but I could tell it had been stored indoors and that it had some extras. The owner was a really nice person and he was the original owner of the bike. As best as he could remember he purchased it in 1991 or 1992 from Toys R Us for $190 some dollars. Before he mentioned that I had already looked it over and was surprised by some of the components and therefore didn't really doubt his memory. Going by the colors I had in my mind late 80's to early 90's as my time period guess. Anyhow here is the the bike and the unusual components that I don't believe were typical of Huffy department store bikes of the time period.

The quill stem was a little above the minimum insertion mark. That concerned me but the tube inside looks okay. Will know more at a later date because I will be breaking the headset down to inspect, clean, regrease....... Got to love those retro colors and splash scheme. Oh and the black sprocket cluster cover.

I was surprised by the Made in USA Sun Levanter alloy rims front and back with intact labels. Don't know anything about them but at least they were made here. Both are fairly true although the front has some spokes that are a tad loose.

The 26 x 2.0 Swallow tires are replacements according to the original owner but they have dry rot issues for sure.

Dropouts and chain-stays are nothing special. The Shimano SIS front and rear derailleurs work really well.

Seat stay is a bit different than typical I believe.

Center pull caliper brakes? They work well but I have never owned a bike with these before.

I sort of like retro strange sprocket cover so it will be staying.

Plastic pedals but they were made here.

Duralite High Strength Steel hmmm. Fancy name for springer steel? Probably but the bike is not to bad in the weight category. Haven't weighed it but it's definitely lighter than many steel framed inexpensive mountain/ATB bikes I've owned in the past.

Rear hub is marked N.K.N. Nakano Made in Japan. I haven't looked at the front hub yet.

Better shot of the unusual to me center pull brakes.

May the members of this fine forum and the good Lord himself forgive me for posting so many pics of a Huffy Timberwolf ATB / Mountain style bike. Not a popular type bike here or anywhere else for that matter but I can honestly say that I really like it so far. But I tend to like unloved an unpopular items such as this bike. It needs basic maintenance and the seat raised for me. My plan is service, fix, keep, and ride it. I replaced the dead battery in the older wired Bell bicycle computer that came with the bike. It came on asking for the wheel diameter. Lastly, the price was $30 plus a bit of a drive to Evansville, IN. My Mother came along for the ride. Neither of us had been to the rural east side of Evansville for some years.

 

[CRASH]

The late 80's/early 90's MTB mechanic/racer I used to be initially cringed at the site of it. But the "nostalgic/vintage appreciation" part of me can really see the "80's" in that thing. You could preserve it as a time piece. Yes, it's a piece of crap. But it's a very stylized to the time period piece of crap.

 

[Nagant]

The late 80's/early 90's MTB mechanic/racer I used to be initially cringed at the site of it. But the "nostalgic/vintage appreciation" part of me can really see the "80's" in that thing. You could preserve it as a time piece. Yes, it's a piece of crap. But it's a very stylized to the time period piece of crap.

I find the four letter word you use for it a bit harsh, but that's just me. Back in the day of this bike things were not good at my house as a kid. I would have loved to have owned this bike in the late 80's early 90's but my family would not have been able to afford this for me. Even though I have better bikes today I still do not turn my nose up at these older loathed by many department store bikes. I just ride whatever bikes I enjoy regardless of popularity or lack of. Maybe that is because I remember vividly when all I had was a 20" worn and beat department store BMX that was to small for me but took to places far away from home.

 

[whitefiretiger]

Lol I've been seeing a l good number of late 80s- early 90s huffy mountain bikes popping up lately that look like they were never ridden. Maybe cheap bikes but kind of cool to to see some in perfect or very close to as apposed to the normal rusted apart ones.

Cool find; almost got a Huffy Stalker that looked like it lived its life in bubble wrap but passed on it.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

I like seeing these "time capsule" bikes, always interesting to see what was considered to be cutting edge brake or technology wise 20 years ago...

Luke.

 

[Nagant]

Lol I've been seeing a l good number of late 80s- early 90s huffy mountain bikes popping up lately that look like they were never ridden. Maybe cheap bikes but kind of cool to to see some in perfect or very close to as apposed to the normal rusted apart ones.

Cool find; almost got a Huffy Stalker that looked like it lived its life in bubble wrap but passed on it.

Thanks. It is surprising how many older bikes that are out there that have been ridden very little. This one has seen some riding but it was fairly well taken care of. This bike is the only complete bike purchase I've made this year. Doubt that will change as I don't need anymore.

I like seeing these "time capsule" bikes, always interesting to see what was considered to be cutting edge brake or technology wise 20 years ago...

Luke.

I'm a history buff and therefore I dig time capsule bikes and other items that interest me as well. No denying the colors of this bike are unique to the time period.

 

[Bicycle808]

Loved this thread, mostly b/c I recently (maybe a year ago, probably more like 10months) I refurbed a Huffy almost identical to this ones. It had the same textured/splattered paint job, only grey with black/white, had the same shifters/rear derailer, the same Lee-Chi brand fake roller cams, the same wishbone seat stay arrangement, color-matched flat bar, the same MUSA Sun rims, the same black fork, and it had a plastic cover on the crank, but if I recall correctly, it was different looking. A co-worker brought in some bikes her family hadn't used for years, and she asked me to drop them off at the co-op. She had the grey Huffy ATB, a Murray Monterey cruiser, and a tiny Huffy 20" BMX. (Tiny in that it has a very short toptube.)

Another one of my coworkers wanted to keep the bikes; her girlfriend wanted a cruiser and that Monterey needed basically nothing but some lubrication. Easy fix. The Huffy had the cables run in a ridiculously wrong manner; apparently, the co-worker's brother had tried to tune it up years ago, and stopped riding it when he realized it wouldn't ride after he re-cabled it. My first impulse was to abandon all hope, but upon further inspection, I realized it was worth saving. I took it home, cut and reran the cables/housing, lubed it all up, tuned the brakes and shifters, and gave it back to the 2nd coworker. She ended up buying new tires and a different saddle at the LBS; she still rides it when the weather's nice enough. (She broke up with the Monterey girl within a few months; I kinda wish I'd kept that one; men's frame, turquoise, with a Suntour coaster hub....)

Point is, it was actually a pretty decent bike, despite being more used and dirtier than yours, Nagant. The paint was flawless once cleaned, and the little bit of wear on the drivetrain and rims was minimal; plenty of years left in it. Definitely NOT one of the terrible Huffy derailer-bikes we all loathe so much. I'd have to say, the only things crappy about it are that it has almost $0 collectors' value, and the clip-on cable guides make tuning a bit of a hassle, although the full-length housing has its benefits.

Nice score. Hopefully, I can get my coworker to snap a pic or two of her grey one.

 

[Nagant]

Loved this thread, mostly b/c I recently (maybe a year ago, probably more like 10months) I refurbed a Huffy almost identical to this ones. It had the same textured/splattered paint job, only grey with black/white, had the same shifters/rear derailer, the same Lee-Chi brand fake roller cams, the same wishbone seat stay arrangement, color-matched flat bar, the same MUSA Sun rims, the same black fork, and it had a plastic cover on the crank, but if I recall correctly, it was different looking. A co-worker brought in some bikes her family hadn't used for years, and she asked me to drop them off at the co-op. She had the grey Huffy ATB, a Murray Monterey cruiser, and a tiny Huffy 20" BMX. (Tiny in that it has a very short toptube.)

Another one of my coworkers wanted to keep the bikes; her girlfriend wanted a cruiser and that Monterey needed basically nothing but some lubrication. Easy fix. The Huffy had the cables run in a ridiculously wrong manner; apparently, the co-worker's brother had tried to tune it up years ago, and stopped riding it when he realized it wouldn't ride after he re-cabled it. My first impulse was to abandon all hope, but upon further inspection, I realized it was worth saving. I took it home, cut and reran the cables/housing, lubed it all up, tuned the brakes and shifters, and gave it back to the 2nd coworker. She ended up buying new tires and a different saddle at the LBS; she still rides it when the weather's nice enough. (She broke up with the Monterey girl within a few months; I kinda wish I'd kept that one; men's frame, turquoise, with a Suntour coaster hub....)

Point is, it was actually a pretty decent bike, despite being more used and dirtier than yours, Nagant. The paint was flawless once cleaned, and the little bit of wear on the drivetrain and rims was minimal; plenty of years left in it. Definitely NOT one of the terrible Huffy derailer-bikes we all loathe so much. I'd have to say, the only things crappy about it are that it has almost $0 collectors' value, and the clip-on cable guides make tuning a bit of a hassle, although the full-length housing has its benefits.

Nice score. Hopefully, I can get my coworker to snap a pic or two of her grey one.

Thank you. I'm glad you, Luke, and others enjoying seeing this unusual time capsule. I would like to see pics of the grey one your co-worker has. That's great that she is still riding it. To bad about the Murray Monterrey, I like those as well.

Today I tightened the loose front spokes. I didn't true the wheel but it only needs very minor adjustment. Therefore no brake rub issues. The spokes where all tight on the back. Raised the seat, added some needed cable ties, and took it short test ride. It rode fairly well. The seat will have to be changed. My backside only likes shaped seat pans. It shifted into and out of all the gears very smoothly. The original owner told me he never had to adjust the derailleurs. I had forgot how much nicer these older inexpensive thumb shifters are compared to the inexpensive twist shifters of today. After a good cleaning I might take a couple of pics since it looks like it will cleanup very nice. But service work to all the bearings and such needs to come first. I'll get to all that when I'm able to.

 

[partsguy]

Hmmm...

Mr first bike was a used circa 1988 Spectra (old and short lived division of Murray) Mtn. Madness 20in. mountain bike. I was 8 yrs old and it came from a garage sale. Dad took the 5-speed deraileur off and we shortened the chain. Rode it for 3 or 4 years and the chaingaurd flew off once while street racing (and I lost the race, adding insult to injury!), some neighborhood kid stole it once and stripped the parts off it (caught the SOB and got my parts back...most of them...), then the headset rusted out and the handlebars would lock up. Afterwards, me and the nieghborhood kids had compition Figure-8 races and demolition derbies and used any old heap we found in the trash or scrap yard. I used that Spectra and won twice, even after a BMX peg hooked the front rim and dragged it!

I smashed up bikes as old as the 70's and it was great fun. These old mtn. bikes aren't as bad as they say IF YOU MAINTAIN THEM. The frames, wheels, fork, bars, all are rock solid. The shame here is that many of them had the worst drivetrain components on them, such as Falcons. Swap those out and you'll be just fine!

 

[JustMe]

Found this Huffy Timberwolf on Craigslist and picked it up today. Only one picture in the add but I could tell it had been stored indoors and that it had some extras. The owner was a really nice person and he was the original owner of the bike. As best as he could remember he purchased it in 1991 or 1992 from Toys R Us for $190 some dollars. Before he mentioned that I had already looked it over and was surprised by some of the components and therefore didn't really doubt his memory. Going by the colors I had in my mind late 80's to early 90's as my time period guess. Anyhow here is the the bike and the unusual components that I don't believe were typical of Huffy department store bikes of the time period.

View attachment 5342
The quill stem was a little above the minimum insertion mark. That concerned me but the tube inside looks okay. Will know more at a later date because I will be breaking the headset down to inspect, clean, regrease....... Got to love those retro colors and splash scheme. Oh and the black sprocket cluster cover.


View attachment 5343
I was surprised by the Made in USA Sun Levanter alloy rims front and back with intact labels. Don't know anything about them but at least they were made here. Both are fairly true although the front has some spokes that are a tad loose.


View attachment 5344
The 26 x 2.0 Swallow tires are replacements according to the original owner but they have dry rot issues for sure.



View attachment 5345

Dropouts and chain-stays are nothing special. The Shimano SIS front and rear derailleurs work really well.



View attachment 5346

Seat stay is a bit different than typical I believe.


View attachment 5347

Center pull caliper brakes? They work well but I have never owned a bike with these before.



View attachment 5348

View attachment 5349

View attachment 5350

I sort of like retro strange sprocket cover so it will be staying.


View attachment 5351
View attachment 5352

Plastic pedals but they were made here.



View attachment 5353

Duralite High Strength Steel hmmm. Fancy name for springer steel? Probably but the bike is not to bad in the weight category. Haven't weighed it but it's definitely lighter than many steel framed inexpensive mountain/ATB bikes I've owned in the past.


View attachment 5354
View attachment 5355
View attachment 5356
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Rear hub is marked N.K.N. Nakano Made in Japan. I haven't looked at the front hub yet.


View attachment 5359

Better shot of the unusual to me center pull brakes.


View attachment 5360
View attachment 5361


May the members of this fine forum and the good Lord himself forgive me for posting so many pics of a Huffy Timberwolf ATB / Mountain style bike. Not a popular type bike here or anywhere else for that matter but I can honestly say that I really like it so far. But I tend to like unloved an unpopular items such as this bike. It needs basic maintenance and the seat raised for me. My plan is service, fix, keep, and ride it. I replaced the dead battery in the older wired Bell bicycle computer that came with the bike. It came on asking for the wheel diameter. Lastly, the price was $30 plus a bit of a drive to Evansville, IN. My Mother came along for the ride. Neither of us had been to the rural east side of Evansville for some years.

 

[rickpaulos]

There might be a 2 letter date code on the backside of the Shimano derailleurs.

vintage trek component date codes web page will help you there.

I' had a Huffy Black Hills that was pretty similar. old stove splatter paint job with black and white drops on a grey background. Ugly as all get out. I added fenders and emptied a few rattle cans on the fenders. I kept it at work as a lunch time beater bike. And yet someone stole it. I got it a my local goodwill store way back when they sold all bikes for $5.38. I got 2 at one time. The other looked new and was stolen within days.

My local bike coop gets a dozen of these Huffys every hear. I'm constantly seeing model names I've never seen before. Huffy had more model names than we could ever track down. Way more than any other company. I've converted a few to coaster brake bikes. Every now and then we see a unique bike like the Slither or Compressor or Metaloid. I suspect there was a designer that was able to get stuff made without corporate oversight.

Huffy manufactured gas pipe bikes. That was their business. The frame material is carbon steel sheet metal delivered to the factorys in giant rolls and formed into tubes and other bits. Regular steel is pretty cheap, easy to stamp, roll, weld, drill, paint, etc from a manufacturing viewpoint. Some companies tried to fancy up a name for what is just plain steel. The mtbs generally ride pretty poorly, especially if you try to pedal hard. The skinny stays and stamped dropouts flex a lot and suck up your energy. Deraillers scrape on the chain and the bike wallows. Best if just used as a slow speed cruiser.

The very few "nice" Huffy bikes were usually made by some other company with Huffy decals slapped on them. Huffy Sportsman 3 speeds were either all English or USA made with English hubs. (Sturmey Archer). I had a "Tectra Oregon by Huffy" that was quite rare for a Huffy. It claimed to have cromo main tubes. There are some pretty cool pre-bike boom Huffys like the Twin Flex and Radio Bike. Now the name is owned by Pacific and mostly used on low end kids bikes. By far, the worst they ever sold is the EZ Build line that requires no tools to assemble (2019+). Super wobbly since the parts just snap together.

 

[the_undecider]

I spotted one of these at an area Goodwill a few days ago for $20. Almost bought it because it had a nice new set of Specialized Hardrocker tires. I have been collecting some vintage mtbs, but I wasn't sure what I would do with it since it's not something I would normally get. Still, I think department store bikes are an important and integral part of mtb history. A lot of people got there start on budget bikes and there's no denying the awesomeness of that paint job!

I have to run some errands after work, so I might stop by that goodwill and see if it's still there...probably shouldn't lol.

 

[Motorclocks]

I find the four letter word you use for it a bit harsh, but that's just me. Back in the day of this bike things were not good at my house as a kid. I would have loved to have owned this bike in the late 80's early 90's but my family would not have been able to afford this for me. Even though I have better bikes today I still do not turn my nose up at these older loathed by many department store bikes. I just ride whatever bikes I enjoy regardless of popularity or lack of. Maybe that is because I remember vividly when all I had was a 20" worn and beat department store BMX that was to small for me but took to places far away from home.

Hello, not sure where this note is going but i just pulled my bike out of the shed after about 20 yrs and i punched in Huffy Timberwolf 18 speed and this article of NaGant popped up, the exact same bike down to the make of tires, rims, bike color, blew me away, it would be nice to get hold of him but not sure how, any help appreciated Mike

 

[RustyGold]

Hello, not sure where this note is going but i just pulled my bike out of the shed after about 20 yrs and i punched in Huffy Timberwolf 18 speed and this article of NaGant popped up, the exact same bike down to the make of tires, rims, bike color, blew me away, it would be nice to get hold of him but not sure how, any help appreciated Mike

He last signed in during 2017...you could try to PM him, he might get an email notification.