Originally Posted by
conspiratemus1
Cool. That's a Santana Targa, identical to ours from 1989, including colour and size. We still have it as our backup. Beautiful joints and nice stiff ride. (Uncomfortable rear cockpit for stoker over longer rides though.) Your wheels are likely replacements of the Suntour hubs (36-hole!) that were OEM on ours.
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Thanks for this little blast from the past. Santana didn't make very many Targas. Hope my experience with ours is useful to you.
Wow, thanks for such a detailed response! Out of curiosity, what makes a Targa different from a Sovereign? To me our bike looks identical to the Sovereigns of that era, but I have only seen them on pictures, not in the flesh. What did make the rear cockpit uncomfortable in your case? Was it the relatively short rear triangle? Because the cockpit itself doesn't feel particularly short for my friend (5'3"), we're actually looking for a longer or adjustable stem for her to make her fit a little shorter. We'll probably try a Suntour parallelogram seatpost to deal with the harshness in the rear seat.
FWIW I still haven't heard back from Santana (I've sent them an email asking if they could help me identify this bike), and I can't call them being in a very different time zone at the moment. Suzue hubs also seem to be common on Santanas, so I'm not sure if they're aftermarket. The drivetrain having so little wear makes me think that the original owners never used it a lot, let alone do upgrades.
The tire clearance is tight indeed. However, I could fit a 28 mm tire in the rear and I will try to put another one in the front. A fender will definitely not fit in the fork with a 28 mm tire, but in the worst case scenario I could use something like sks raceblades which do not go under the fork crown (see:
www.bikeinn com/f/13662/136627342/sks-raceblade-pro-700x35mm.jpg).
Replacing the brakes was the first thing I had in mind when I got the bike, as I hate setting up cantilevers, but once done they actually work pretty good, so I decided to keep them as is.