TropicWind

Just want to get a quick sanity check on the following bike that I am picking up tonight. See if another set of eyes can verify authenticity and value. Seller has it listed at $300 with the following details (pictures are included in link below)

[Copy link below]
imgur.com/a/9myTSSM

- 3Rensho 1990's Road Bike
- Frame - Sakae (SR) Litage (Aluminum)
- Horizontal Top Tube
- Built with Shimano 600 components (includes Shimano 105 wheel hubs for front and rear)
- Saddle - San Marco Roles
- Purchased and built at original 3Rensho shop in Japan

Questions:

1. Does the frame look authentic?
2. Are there any glaring issues that I might not be seeing?
3. Any additional pictures/angles that would be worth requesting?
4. Rough cost for an age appropriate tire set?
5. Good value?

Thanks for all of your expert advice!

brian3069

Link assist https://imgur.com/a/9myTSSM

TropicWind

The frame does seem a bit peculiar to me in that it appears to be missing most of the classic 3Rensho features and appears to just be a Litage with 3Rensho decals on it. Not sure if 3Rensho eventually started producing the last of their bikes this way in the 90's once the owner was paralyzed, but the closest I could find was this which seems to suggest some authenticity: vintage3rensholove.blogspot.com/2012/03/3rensho-sr-litage.html
@T-Mar any thoughts?

xiaoman1 

Hi,
I was looking at this frame last week and called the experts at Yellow Jersey and sent them pics, they said that they had never seen a 3R like that and that their best guess was that it was another maker...If you bought it and it is a 3R I missed out on it.
Here is my email correspondence.
Good Luck, Ben
There was a Bridgestone Radac of similar styling
https://www.pedalroom.com/bike/bridgestone-radac-5220

At any rate 3Rensho didn't build it.
No small workshop like 3R could ever afford tooling for a cold-process aluminum frame system.
It's from some large industrial entity.

What you have there may have been sold as a 3Rensho or it may well have had those graphics added later- people do that with Colnago and Cinelli graphics too.
-- Andrew Muzi

TropicWind

Hi Ben,

Thanks for the information. Looks like we both went down the same road! Andrew also commented that the frame was certainly not a 3Rensho and at the very best was rebadged by 3R for sale at their shop.

I suppose its it’s not a bad frame but I too may pass given the mix of parts and the rebadged frame.

Good luck on the hunt!

T-Mar

The frameset is definitely a bonded SR Prism/Litage aluminum frameset. Being a rebranding, it won't show any 3Rensho traits beyond the decals, which is where the problem lies. I'm not sure if 3Rensho ever marketed a this frameset with their decals. Even if they did, for me, the 3Rensho branding has zero prestige, as they didn't add any value other than paint and decals, which is another concern. As marketed by SR and Prism, these frames were anodized , not painted. They even had anodized graphics. So why 3Rensho would want to add a painted finish is perplexing.

These framesets came out circa 1988-1989. They were very light for their day (61cm frame weighed 3 lb 4 oz. + 1 lb 5 oz fork). Te subject bicycle is fairly small and the complete bicycle is likely sub 20 lbs. The frames were very aggressive, with steep angles and short chainstays and wheelbase, so make sure you take your tools to adjust the stem, post and saddle, so you can take it for a test ride to ensure you like the handling traits. The Easton tubing is all slightly oversize, to make up for lost stiffness and they had the reputation of better stiffness than a Alan or Vitus but not in the Cannondale and Klein league. FYI, if you need/want a replacement seat post, it's a small 25.8mm size.

Original MSRP on these framesets was $700 US, so $300 for a complete, ready to ride bicycle with a Shimano 600 Ultegra and 105 mix is probably not unreasonable for most markets.

TropicWind

Wow! You are a wealth of knowledge. Thanks for such a detailed response. The seller is saying that the frame was purchased in Japan in 1990 directly from the 3Rensho shop as an OEM from Sakae Ringyo and was built and painted by 3Rensho. Quite odd that they would brand a bike as theirs without having any influence over the frame but there seem to be a couple of others floating around with similar components, 3R branding and the same frame so perhaps it’s possible. Either way, not as exciting as a true 3R frame but perhaps if anyone is in the Seattle area they may find this to be a good project!

EddyR

When I was heavy into flipping I owned two Radac bikes. There were two style Radac. One was all aluminum and the other was aluminum and steel. Neither looked like the pictured bike.
ed

jbchybridrider 

I missed this thread from a while back. There's nothing unusual here, Sakae was a company mainly focused as a component builder. They had a go at building frames as another one of there "components" and while they did brand them as there own too there frames were mostly sold in bulk to other brands world wide.
There must be well over a dozen brands from Europe, America, Australia and Japan who used them. Not all were anodized and had a rough and raw textured finish so paints stuck better for other brands.