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Old 03-23-20, 12:16 PM
  #12  
T-Mar
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Originally Posted by ramzilla


Yes, I know there were a few higher end bikes like the Cinelli & the Prestige. But, those bikes were pretty rare back in the day. Like the Fuji Opus or, Shogun Samurai. I guess they must have been special order items. They seem to be as rare as unicorns now. Please forgive my biased opinion. But, the main Centurion line up in the mid - late 80's (to the average Joe) was Ironman, Elite and, LeMans. Then, after that it was a hodge podge of low end high tensile steel pipe bikes. What fascinates me about Centurion is the evolution of manufacturers and quality from the beginning of the run to the end. The 88 LeMans I recently sold was an amazingly well finished product.
Bicycles like the Prestige were rare because they were high end, Japanese and from an American full range marketing brand at a time when the American high end consumer preferred Italian boutique brands with a professional peloton presence. The Ironman well sold because it was aimed at the booming mid-range triathlon market, which didn't have the same pomposity, and was was endorsed by Dave Scott with a highly recognizable model name. WSI spent big bucks for the Ironman license and Scott endorsement, so that's where they put there marketing emphasis and rightly so, as the mid-range novice triathlete and racer market was more lucrative. The Ironman itself is no better than the dozens of other Japanese manufactured, mid-range models from the late 1980s.
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