This is all your fault, xbiking.

I have a bike. A really nice 2014 Specialized Crave Pro. But I come here, and now I have a Trek 930 project and I decided I also “needed” an 80’s Japanese made MTB. As one does, obviously.

This ‘88 Kuwahara Cougar popped up on marketplace last fall for $300 and I thought it was pretty cool, but out of line on price. A month later it was $150, and a couple weeks ago he took my $100 offer. He was the original owner and it’s a low mile survivor that was nearly all original aside from wear parts. I decided it needed a bit of a RAD makeover and added the Chesters, some Deity Megattack grips, Jagwire cables, an Origin7 seat, new brake pads and Michelin Protek tires. Fortunately an NOS shifter was on eBay in Germany, which was the only broken part on it. It has the full Exage M450 groupset from brakes to cranks and Araya rims on Joytech hubs.

I can find almost nothing on this bike aside from the German catalog online, and it doesn’t show my colorway and doesn’t have my groupset. I found pics of one other like mine, but that’s it. The guy bought it new in San Francisco and brought it Cleveland when he moved, so who knows how many are even near me.

I have thus far resisted the urge to buy pink tires for it, but I may give in. I love it, though…it’ll be fun just to kick around on it.