flagrl

I'm hopefully getting a Nishiki prestige this weekend.
My question is do you think it can pull a trailer? I would love to be able to pull my son in a trailer.
If not I'll be looking into getting a mountain bike for it

Falcon3

What year? Mine was an 85 and it had Tange 2 tubing, which was stiff enough I believe to pull a light trailer. What king of trailer specifically?

nashvillebill

I have a '87 Prestige. Mine wasn't completely "stock" when I got it though, so I can't speak with certainty, but my guess is that it could if you perhaps make some gearing changes. Mine was geared too tall. The chainrings were 52/40, I'm pretty sure they were original. However someone had replaced the rear wheel on mine and put on a 8 speed cassette geared 12-23. For me at least it was impossible to pull a hill on it with that rear cluster. Yours, if stock, probably has a 5 or 6 speed freewheel (if it's later 80's vintage like mine) and stock would probably be 12-28 or thereabouts. That to me is still pretty tall, if pulling a trailer or going up hills. Hopefully someone else can chime in on the stock rear cluster.

The good news: mine has the stock Sugino GP130 crankset, which could accept a third chainring. I've already changed the outer two to 48/38 (and put a 11-32 on the back). But being a 130 mm BCD, it can't go any lower than the 38 without adding a 3rd chainring on the inside (74mm BCD). I've just put a 28 on there, which will make it 48/38/28.

The bad news: the stock derailleurs on mine were Suntour Alpha 5000 with a short cage on the RD. Needs a long cage for those sprocket changes. I threw an old Shimano 105 Golden Arrow on the RD, works fine; just switch the downtube shifter over to Friction mode instead of index. I do not yet know if the FD can handle the triple crank but I'm optimistic it can. The reason I don't know for sure yet about the FD: to get the third inner sprocket on there, on mine the bottom bracket axle is too short, so the sprocket bolt heads were hitting the bike frame. Mine came with a 3L spindle. I have a 3P on the way to me right now which will give me the extra clearance I need to make this into a triple. Cost was less than $10 for the 3P.

I can't speak for the stock brakes, mine already had been changed to different brakes.

So the bottom line: the bike itself seems fine, but some gearing tweaks may be in order. You might start by changing the front chainrings to the compact 48/38 ratio, that's the least involved; then see if that is enough gearing for you to pull the trailer. If you need lower, then you can get freewheels with a 30 or 32 big cog, but the short-cage RD may not handle it. So then a RD change would be required. Adding the 3rd chainring can get you more gearing too, but it also would likely require another RD, and you must go to the longer BB axle.

flagrl

Here is the listing on Craigslist for it
1987 Nishiki Prestige Road Bike

flagrl

I haven't got the trailer yet probably just an instep or something.

techsensei

Not by itself; you would have to ride it.

jcb3

+1 on the gearing changes - unless you are a tinkerer and have access to older parts in your area, needing to redo the drivetrain would point me in the direction of a mtb.

I have a prestige frame a few years older than the one in question, and I'm looking at the tight rear wheel clearance. These are "criterium" frames designed to handle quickly (vs ride comfortably) so you will be very limited at installing a wider tire.

All in all a mtb will be more forgiving than the nishiki. Also, at least in my area, 26" wheel mtbs are plentiful and inexpensive.

Good luck,
Joe

nashvillebill

Yes, good point on the tight wheel clearance prohibiting wider tires. Mine has 28's on there and the rear wheel barely fits. 25 is likely what it was designed for.

nashvillebill

Okay, I'm going to follow up in this thread, about going to a 3P spindle instead of the original 3L if you want to put a third sprocket on this Prestige.. I did get the 3P today and put it on. It works but barely; different manufacturer 30 years later I guess. The original bolt heads had 1 mm interference (hitting the chainstay), this spindle was theoretically 3 mm longer on that side, so I should've wound up with 2 mm clearance...wound up actually only having 1 mm clearance between the 3rd (inner) sprocket bolt heads and the chainstay. I'm going to keep this spindle and use it as-is, it will suffice, but for someone else who finds this thread two years from now: I'd recommend going to the next longer one, a 3N. That will give one mm more clearance; 2 mm clearance would be great (and allow a sprocket bigger than the 28T I used).

And the Suntour Alpha-5000 front derailleur appears to handle the triple, with this slightly different spacing outward, just fine.