I made a post few months ago inquiring about two bicycles my aunt found in my uncles attic after his passing. One was an Atala and the other turned out to be a Tsunoda. It was hard to tell too much from the pics, other than the Atala was an entry level Corsa model from the 60's and the Tsunoda was likely an entry-mid level bike probably from the early 70s. Well, they've now made their way to me from the Bronx by way of my aunt. The atala is in extremely bad shape, and is just what you would expect from an entry level model of that decade, so I won't even post pics unless somebody cares to see it.
The Tsunoda, however, is very quirky and interesting to me. My uncle toured Mexico on this thing and then road it up the west coast to San Francisco. While I know late 70s-late 80s Japanese bikes and components pretty well, I'm not at all familiar with the brand, and not familiar with a lot of what is on the bike either. In fact, it's hard for me to even discern where in the lineup this would have fallen due to some inconsistencies. Can't tell what is original or what he may have added later on. It's got Shimano stem shifters, turkey levers, a Shimano rear derailleur, front DR says Thunderbird, alloy Araya wheels, an odd light system that he rigged up, cool fenders, a mirror, a pretty and interesting mechanical bottle cage, cotter-less cranks of a variety that I've never seen before, nice gold pin striping on the lugs, two racks that don't match and the front one is odd looking. He clearly had this bike setup for touring just the way he wanted it, despite it not being an actual touring model, but I'm thinking many people back then weren't as keen to look for such a thing and would tour on what they had if it felt right to them. This bike seems very utilitarian and like he really used it the way he wanted and I appreciate that.
Despite it's potential place in a lineup, the frame is quite pretty (The green will shine under all that dust) and seems to be on the lighter side, I enjoy some of the accessories that are on it and I have a handful of Shimano and Suntour groupsets that I could throw on here and it's a little sentimental, so I would like to overhaul it and build it up as commuter with some upgrades. I have a lot of initial questions followed by a lot of photos.
1. Any leads on nailing down the year and model? Catalogs?
2. What appears to have been original (or not) to the bike? Would it have come with stem shifters? If so, Shimano? These fenders? Etc.
3. Any ID for the fenders, front rack, bottle cage and mirror? What's the plastic thing hanging from the handlebars?
4. What is this crankset?
5. It measures seat tube to bb as 23", but appears smaller than my 23" Miyata 310 when they are side by side, and when I stand over it it does seem a tad smaller. The reach is definitely shorter, which I appreciate as I'm a bit too stretched on my Miyata. No question here, just an observation.
There is also a box with random assorted components, and I'm thinking some of these may have been original to the bike, such as the brake levers as they are Japanese branded. The ones current'y on there are "Cherry". Photos of these extras will be at the end and I through in two videos showing the bottle cage and a cool canister of old Schwinn oil.
Thanks all for any thoughts and considerations on this bike. I'm going to get started with the teardown tomorrow but wanted to have as a good of an idea as possible as to what I'm working with here.
