E.blan

Bought this bike a few months back (only 40bucks) it's now my daily rider, made me realize what style of bike I like too, I plan on keeping it for a long while.

I'd just like to know make of the bike, that'll be really cool to find out, it's been spray painted before I got it, and I really like the downtube shifting on it 👍

madpogue 

Need detail photos of the lugwork esp. seat cluster, dropouts, headset, fork crown, serial number.

Any markings on the dropouts? Was there anything stamped on the steerer tube?

zukahn1 

Likely early 80's Japanese with out some better photo's can't really say much.

E.blan

What should I photograph to better it?

E.blan

zukahn1 

Some close ups of the the seat cluster were the seat stay join just below the seat , a close up of the head lugs and fork crown and the underside of the bottom bracket between the cranks which is where this bike likely has a SS# and possible even a makers mark.

ramzilla

Bullhorn handlebars can't be original. Brake hoods are all wrong. Spray bombed. Center pull brakes. Fork crowns. Triple chain rings. 6 speed rear cogset with a modern rear derailleur. Quite a mash up. My guess is that it's somewhere between 1970 to 1980 vintage. And, it's got potential to be a good riding bike for somebody around 5'-2" to 5'-6" tall. But, it needs a little tlc.

E.blan

I don't really like the center pull breaks, it's hard to unhook when taking off the front wheel for traveling... And recommendations on break replacement? I wanna replace the levers for sure and give it a wrap once done

E.blan

Would be really cool to paint it all over again, I'd keep the blue color, but would ultimately just like the chips on it gone

branko_76 

It's a good bike whatever it is. I'm guessing late 1970's early 80's made in Japan.

branko_76 

The center-pull calipers may be original in which case the "aero" style levers are not. The original levers would have had a "quick-release" feature that would open up the calipers to allow the wheels to be removed easily.

The rear caliper is a "long reach" type and the brake pads are almost maxed out. It could be that the original wheels were 27" but the current wheels are 700C. Is there a size indicated on the tires?

TugaDude

The brake levers are on the wrong sides too.

zukahn1 

Since the brakes are fairly long reach I would say keep the center pulls, get some new Kool stop pads and add some hangers with quick release and barrel adjusters.

madpogue 

The brake hoods aren't "wrong", the levers themselves are. They appear to be Tektro or some equivalent, but they're obviously regular drop-bar levers; bullhorn / cut-off bars should have bar-end type levers. So for this purpose, they're not on the "wrong" side; it actually works better having the cables exit to the outside. Most of these modern aftermarket aero levers also have quick-releases built in. All in all, an evil genius hack that probably works.

As for the ID, it's still a lot of guesswork without a serial number, or any markings on the dropouts and/or steerer tube.

branko_76 

E.blan , based on the headtube lugs and positioning of the headbadge mounting holes, I'm going to say it's a FUJI

madpogue 

Here's a close match. Lug work looks just about the same, but the hole spacing for the head badge appears slightly different:

T-Mar

Those lugs weren't proprietary to Fuji. They were used by several companies. Pending the serial number, one of my prime candidates would be a Schwinn. They also used widow's peak head lugs and had similar head badge hole orientation. Furthermore, in the 1st and 4th photos you can see what appears to be the heads of screws that are inserted into the inside of the fork blades, approximately 3-5cm above the axle. This is typical of the screws used for the Schwinn axle retainers.

E.blan

Hangers?

madpogue 

^^^^^^ Good eye, that's exactly where the bosses for the Schwinn-style front wheel "lawyer clips" are. The head badge hole spacing made me think Schwinn as well; oddly, I never noticed that the '84 Le Tour frame in my basement has those widow's peak head lugs.

This inspired another close look, and I noticed a few other frame details that might provide clues:

1) Rack mounts incorporated into the seat stays (rather than braze-ons)
2) Some "mystery boss" toward the top of the seat tube. Doesn't appear to be a pump peg.
3) "Top mount" shifter boss, re-purposed as a slip stop for the conventional shifter band.

Edit - per the catalogs on trfindley.com, this pretty closely matches a 1984 Le Tour Luxe - single water bottle braze-on set, top-mount shifters, rack mounts. That mystery boss on the seat tube is the only outlier. https://www.trfindley.com/flschwinn_1...984Ltwt09.html

WGB 

Suntour Symmetric shifter boss??

zukahn1 

Something like this buy having barrel adjuster and quick release they let you easily run classic center pull brakes with modern aero levers which produce very good braking results.

madpogue 

Not all Suntour top-mount shifters were "symmetric", but yes, that's what it looks like. My '84 Le Tour has a boss exactly like that.

Looking again at the third pic in the opening post, I'll bet if the OP removes the rear wheel, and scrapes off some of that Earl Scheib paint, it would look something like this:


Stamped dropout made to look like a forged (a "forgery"?) with a stainless steel plate pinned to the stamped piece. This is on my '84 Le Tour frame, which further suggests the OP's bike is a Schwinn. You can just make out the "E" in "PEND" in the OP's photo.

BTW, the headset on the OP's bike is also a dead ringer for that on my Le Tour.

TugaDude

THe brake levers are definitely on the wrong sides unless you like them backwards. They are ergonomically designed for right and left hand orientation. Sure you can put them any way you want, it's a choice. They're still backwards.

madpogue 

Good point, unlike the early Shimano / Dia-Compe aeros, the moving part on the Tektros is usually curved left or right. Still, the other way 'round would put the cables in a tangle with the rider. So the OP has a choice between swapping in a drop bar and using these levers, or finding some bar-end levers that are appropriate to the bar.

alcjphil

You don't have to unhook the brakes. The levers have release buttons that allow the brake callipers to open up for wheel removal