Irreplacable Barracuda :(

I had a Barracuda that I absolutely loved, but I’m not really into bikes as such (I love mountain biking itself, but never paid attention to specs, terminology, components, etc). I bought the barracuda from a small bike shop in San Francisco. Before that day I had never heard of Barracuda, and I almost bought a Giant mountain bike from a large sporting goods store before I came across the Barracuda. Anyway, to this day I cannot identify which Barracuda I had. I have never seen a picture of it, and I’ve seen lots of Barracuda pictures. But first I’ll finish my story.

Basically, I bought this beautiful bike, which I had been told was a racing mountain bike, and I rode it around Marin county and on the trails of Upper Bidwell in Chico, CA, for 5 or 6 short months before it was stolen. And I cried, I am not kidding, that’s how attached I had become to that bike.

I was devastated, and when I went to replace it, it was no longer available. I had gotten it on discount because it had been last year’s model at the time. I did replace it with a different Barracuda, the A2R I believe, but at the time I was completely unhappy with this replacement and felt it was comparatively ugly and nowhere as good as the one I’d had, so I sold it soon after, and don’t really miss that one even now.

I think my original Barracuda was a 1994 because they gave me the 1995 catalog which I kept and poured over for years.

Here’s a layman’s description of the bike I lost:

Bright metallic turquoise/ white frame

bright metallic turquoise rims, handle bar, seat post, and crank arms

rock shox Judy fork

blue/green Barracuda logo

black handle bar extenders

Something else black, maybe just the tires. The color scheme of that Barracuda was very beautiful to me, bright turquoise, black, and white, with so many shiny, colorful parts, and the wonderful barracuda logo, the perfect frame shape — how I miss it!

I paid (if I remember correctly) around $500, and was told that I was getting a big discount.

Because I have not been able to find this bike anywhere I am beginning to wonder if the bike shop mixed up a bunch of Barracuda parts, essentially producing a custom made bike? I know it’s unlikely, but it kind of seems that way to me now, even though they said nothing of the sort.

I don’t even have any pictures either, so it’s really sad. And my stable is empty. I’ve been riding an Iron Horse for the last 10 years, but am searching for a Barracuda. I am one of the people bidding on the COMP on Ebay right now. Unfortunately I don’t have a huge budget though. And I’m not sure about the size I should get since I never observed mine, but I think it was a 16″; I am 5′ 6″. With other bikes I go for a bigger size though, so I am uncertain.

Anyway, that’s my sad story. I guess my biggest regret is that I let it get stolen, because I certainly would never have sold it.