mainstreetexile 

Can anyone help id this Kobe frame or the partial tubing sticker below?

Haven't found much information on Kobe, most of what I saw were high-tensile frames. Picked this up for cheap, mainly for some parts, I wanted the triple crank for my girlfriend's mixte. The owner didn't remember which model it was, had it listed as a Kobe touring bike, maybe just because of the triple. Wasn't expecting much from the frame but it's really light, which is probably a given since it's 49cm.

It has some alright components, not sure what was original: Deore green/blue era front derailleur, suntour vxgt rear, sr laprade seatpost (26.8), Sugino Pro-Dynamic-S japanese copy of a TA cyclotouriste crank. Most of the components were manufactured in 1980, so I'm figuring this is either a 1980 or 1981 model.

It has a partial tubing sticker and it looks like it says 'Butted Tubes' at the bottom. Never heard of a butted high tensile frame, so I figured it might be crmo. Does the 26.8 seatpost diameter indicate a butted frame? Not sure what the *ESS was in the middle, but I thought that might be 'Tange' at the top, can anyone that has seen one of these stickers before fill in the missing blanks?



Here are some more pictures as I got it. The original owner had a bike shop swap out the drops for flat bars at some point, they put a Nitto Technomic stem on and some shimano sis thumb shifters that I'll probably use on a townie bike conversion at some point.

T-Mar

I agree, it does look like it may say Tange and 26.8mm is the most common size of post for Tange tubesets. It's common for Tange #2, and #3 CrMo butted sets, but it was also used on their butted hi-tensile steel set, commonly known as #102. Japanes bicycle brands seemed to take delight in hiding the level and/or brand of tubing using customized or generic decals and this may be one. If you're prepared to remove the fork, there may be a manufacturer's stamp and date code on the steerer. We may also be able to confirm the year via the serial number.

YoKev

A good looking bike you've got there. Interesting fork bends though...

mainstreetexile 

The serial number on the bottom bracket is pretty hard to make out but it looks to be something like: H0908317

If that follows the univega/miyata year codes, I guess that would make the frame a '79? Was this a standard convention for serials?

Thanks, the bottom pictures are actually from the craigslist listing. There's a weird optical illusion going on in the side one that makes it look like the fork ends are bent back. Before I went to check it out, I almost posted a thread on here titled "Is this fork bent? (seriously this time)" until I eyeballed it pretty closely. If you look at the bottom shadow of the fork pretty closely you can see it's in line with the fork end. I didn't think to take any more pictures other than the tubing decal detail