Originally Posted by
OLDYELLR
@Dr. T You can determine the year from the date codes on various components if they're original.
Go here: ...
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OLDYELLR, That's cool. So the Sugino crankarms have '44-12' stamped on them, which I take to mean (thanks for the link!) Dec 1969.
The front derailleur is labelled 'Maeda Industries, Ltd. 4532 Japan OF. The latter apparently means Jun 1972 (or earlier?)
The back derailleur is a SunTour V, apparently of the third iteration introduced in 1970(?) I have not found a date code yet, but I note that it has the same number '4532' on the mounting plate. Does this have any significance?
That's how far I got this evening. I'll look some more tomorrow. In any event, it seems safe to say that these are probably original parts and that my bike dates from ~1970.
Does that help with the actual
model? So far I have found references to 4 American Eagle models, namely
Olympiad,
Kokusai, Custom Sport, and
Road Compe. Are there more, and/or how does one distinguish them?
Thanks for your advice!