Kamra Aero II- snagged while out antiquing
 

Rough old beast that has no chance of fitting me. But the 3 pulley ARX RD caught my eye along with the Symmetric shifters, From appearances I was expecting both the seatpost and stem to be stuck. Lot's of light surface rust on the chrome fork and plenty of rusty paint chips in the very faded paint job. Faded decal says Nishiki and the headbadge is similar. Pretty sure I read these were Kawamura built though. TIres dry-rotted but holding air. So with all these negative I snatched it up anyway for the RD.. Thinking about putting it on the Team USA "gravel" bike to let me run an even larger cogged rear cassette.

Got it home and yeah, seatpost and stem stuck. Stem was freed with one blow from a rubber mallet. Seatpost is soaking. If I can get the seatpost free without too much effort I may just steal the RD then sort this out and give it to the bike collective. If the seatpost is stuck permanent I'll probably tear it down for the parts and scrap the frame. Hate to do that though with something like this that has "aero shaped" tubes. Oh, and hitting the fork with a quick bit of chrome polish showed that the surface rust will easily be cleared up.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...00bc2948c9.jpg
61 cm by 58.5 CTC with a quick measure.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...be3211c59d.jpg
I want this RD
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...33a603c557.jpg
Sugino made? Guessing....
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...a58898bbe7.jpg
First set of these. Wonder if they really auto trim the FD
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...1f40a51619.jpg
Dia Compe brakes
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...71d75c9ce7.jpg
Dia Compe brakes
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...a72667c2cc.jpg
Wonder if I have hoods for these
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...ae8b43ec2e.jpg
Ovalized down tube

The Suntour Symmetric aero shifters do auto trim the FD. The left lever is on a eccentric shaft connected to the right lever.

Well....crap! This is how I wind up spending too much money on these bikes. Raining all afternoon so I put this on the stand just to "wipe it down". Went after the rusty fork first. Some fine steel wool and then chrome polish and all the rust is gone and it looks pretty much like new now. Pedals were seized a bit too. Some PB blaster and a pipe extension on one side got them right off. Wheels seem in good shape with smooth feeling hubs that do seem a bit dry. Both hubs were really shiny one the grime was removed. Freewheel and chainrings seem good. The inner chainring is plated, teeth all look good. Dust caps came off the crank easily as did the 14mm bolts. Inner threads looked good but I haven't dug out the crank puller yet to see if they'll come off. Some play in the BB but I need to get into that and service things up. No luck on the seatpost yet, I just keep hitting it with PB Blaster. I did take off the saddle and loose clamp pieces. Thick rod through the seatpost opening yielded no movement. If I can get it off without too much effort I'm probably going to put more into this than I should. Only real bad part is the condition of the paint which I have done anything about yet.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...e855b26035.jpg

Like the bar tape. Nice design that works with the paint.

"......has no chance of fitting me.". Given your fleet, I would take what you need and move it on ... soon. Sitting on it only makes one wonder...... What if.

Shifters I liked on a Centurion triple, because of the front trim. Chrome forks for large frames are worth cleaning up. The heavy RD is versatile. Good wheelset. Etcetera.

Very original bike :thumb:Looks like a 58cm sized frame

Interesting. That must be an earlier iteration of the Aero II with round top and seat tubes and traditional fork (assuming fork is original). My Aero II has oval top tube, and seat tube is ovalized in the middle, but round at the top and bottom, and the fork has aero crown and blades:
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...f8467860c.jpeg
Unfortunately this is one of my stalled projects!

From researching a little the serial number seems to indicate an Asian market bike from 1985. But none of the other examples I've seen have a chrome fork and all seem to be quick release. This has a nutted front wheel with lawyer tabs as does the fork. Yet it's a Sansin hub with Araya rim like the rear.

The top tube on this is ovalized but not the seat tube. Pretty sure the fork is a replacement but can't see any sign of front end damage.

Since I was on a caffeine high I decided to go ahead and tear this down. Either so I can reutilize the parts or clean and service them if the seat post can be removed. Had hit everything with PB Blaster last night and tearing this down was just a matter of a few minutes. The inner threads on the crank arm were perfect so the crank puller made short work of pulling those off. The BB was nasty but seems in good shape. No real rust inside the BB shell surprisingly. I cleaned out all the old grease and it's clean inside. Only thing left to do is to open up the headset and service it. It feels pretty good as is though. Right now I have the frame hanging upside down so I can keep spraying PB Blaster in the seat tube. I don't it will work since it's an alloy seat post in a steel frame but maybe I'll get lucky. Next attempt will be something like drano to see if it can break the bond. I should be able to clamp the seat post in my vise also and then try to leverage with the frame.

Oh and the handlebars are very heavy, rusty, and steel, I think. They will probably just be tossed and replaced with something from the stash if I do rebuild this.

Pics from the tear down just for anyone researching parts on these Kamra bikes.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...942f278ab0.jpg
Tight but broke free pretty easily
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...0652c804ee.jpg
Cage bearing, I so prefer loose ones
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...dff63c7fc5.jpg
Seems symmetric but I'll measure to confirm
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...3317a9731a.jpg
Grease was tacky and dirty but not dried up
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d99828c282.jpg
Pretty much broken down. If the seatpost comes out I'll compound, polish, and wax this up before reassembly
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...8c010cf07a.jpg
Builder confirmation?
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...e47a3efb95.jpg
That's a piece of rubber I'll clean up and treat
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...61468b1c26.jpg
Nasty bars!
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...08c00a05f8.jpg
Grimy parts

With the rainy/snowy weather I'll probably just turn on the NASCAR race and then tear into the wheel hubs next.

Was there any sign of damage to the downtube behind the headtube?

Nope, none at all. Sort of wish there was, that would make it easier to just strip it down and trash the frame without feeling guilty. ;)

I'm guessing that maybe it's easier to trash aero forks without damaging the rest of the frame.

Well the bike is almost 40 years old, who knows what happened to the original fork....

I did find a similar one in a four year old sale ad. It had a painted matching fork, same color paint and decals as this one.

Well.... I keep going back and forth on what to do about this one. So far the fork is still stuck. Part of me says just chuck it. But another part of me feels that is so wrong. As I do other bike stuff I've been polishing up the parts piece by piece. Still need to take apart the RD and service the jockey wheels. Need to figure out how to remove the one though that is on the pivot. I think it's be the recessed screw there but haven't researched that yet. Yesterday's bike work was one silly problem after another. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. I ended the day but stabbing myself in the meat at the bottom of my thumb on my left hand with a knife. That's what happens when your shoulders are so jacked up you change the way you do things to avoid the pains. Anyway, point is today I am either chucking the frame...doubtful, or hanging it on the wall to attack the next time I take off for a week or so of leave.

I have one of those Suntour 3 pulley RD’s and on a lark, put it on my Masi with a compact crank, 6 speed friction shifting. It works really well!

Yeah I want to use it on the Team USA bike. That one is running a 48/34T crank with a SRAM 11-30T cassette. Surprisingly the Superbe RD shifts all the gears on this setup but I think the 3 Pulley RD is a better and safer option.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...73cb13404e.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...945fccd676.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...87fcfa7947.jpg

I hope you decide to set it aside soaking to help free the fork. It doesn't look like total garbage.

Last night I addressed the headset on this one. Tore it all down and removed that "replacement" fork. The steerer on the fork was marked "Lungi Taiwan". A little research shows some of Kuwahara BMX bikes had these, hmmmm....

The fork is just like this one.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...2aee494f2d.jpg
Found at this link:
https://www.velosaloon.com/products/...ome-steel-fork

Anyway, I removed what rust was left under the crown of the fork, removed some rust and pitting off the headset parts, degreased it all, polished it up, lubed it up, and put it all back together. Not sure who made this headset but it had two lock ring that had just notches in them. I've been the smaller end of my hook wrench on these.

I still haven't given up on the stuck seatpost yet.

Oh and something interesting last night. I couldn't find any steel wool at first but their was a dry Mister Clean Magic Eraser sponge on the work bench. That actually took off the surface rust and small pitting on the chrome headset parts while not scratching up the shine, surprising.