jonwvara 

To me, the special thing about Univegas is that they were the first quality low-priced bike I'd ever seen. In 1980, I worked at a hiking/mountaineering/bicycle shop in Burlington, Vermont that sold Univegas, and I remember just being astonished by them. In my experience until then, $100 would get you something like a Raleigh Grand Prix: a bike with steel rims, a steel cottered crank, and kind of crummy steel derailleurs and shifters--usually Huret Allvit or similar. But holy crap! Look at this Univega! Nice aluminum Araya rims, nice Suntour derailleurs and shifters (the first Suntour stuff I'd seen, though I was maybe a little behind the curve) and the cotterless SR cranksets that are now such a pain in the butt because they use 118 bcd chainrings. All that plus nice paint and decent-quality saddles.

They were a great buy. I never bought one then, but I've since built up a Viva Sport from that era from a frame I obtained in a trade. I ride it on rollers all winter and whenever the weather looks iffy throughout the year. As a result, I probably spend more time on it than any of my other bikes. It's a great ride.

RichardMc

Interesting thread. I work in a shop in SoCal owned by the brother-in-law of the late Ben Lawee. In 1984 I bought a Univega Superstrada with a full DuraAce AX group. It was my first "real" bike - I don't count a Nishiki and a crappy Raleigh Grand Prix. Through many conversations with my boss, I've got a pretty good "anecdotal" history of the Ben Lawee ventures as well about the man himself. While Miyata manufactured many of the Univegas (all the upper end) they were NOT rebranded Miyatas. Ben "specced" all of his models and they were built accordingly. We have in our shop a "one off" Univega built by Miyata to showcase the then new DuraAce AX group. Fillet brazed, oval tubes, totally insane. Sew ups never even glued. Shimano wanted to buy it and send it back to Japan for their museum but my boss declined.

Kind of a "bookend" to all this, I have a Bertoni TSX built from an NOS frame that had been hanging in the shop since 1991 or so. My friend Brian built the twin to it when I persuaded the owner to sell it (he didn't want to because of the emotional connection.) It's a spectacular ride and over-the-top in a way only the Italians could do it. Search Bertoni for some outstanding pics.

Lamplight

Have a picture of your Bertoni? Mine was also TSX and (I always assumed) from the early 90s.

RichardMc

Still haven't figured out how to post quality pics but here's mine.

Lamplight

Nice! Mine was the only Bertoni I'd ever seen in person, and while I've seen several online, I think yours may be the only one I've seen with the same paint job as mine. I've also seen a Daccordi with the same paint.

TheWrench

I have one that looks just like this, that used to be white. The previous owner sprayed it black.
Total Frankenbike: Mavic Open Pro wheels with Campy hubs, Campy shifters and derailleurs, and a 105 crank. It was the first road bike I ever owned, and I got it for $160 15 years ago. I hadn't realized what a steal I'd gotten, save for the "custom" paint job.
When I hosed my spine, I figured I'd never ride again, so I got rid of all my bikes and kit... I only kept this one because of its sentimental value. It was my first road bike...the bike I rode my first Tour De Tucson on (which was also my first century ride at 109 miles)... It meant a lot to me. Prior to a couple weeks ago, I hadn't touched a bike since 2010, and it's only now that I'm finally able to get moving again. Now I have 40 lbs to lose and blood pressure to get under control, and my first bike is starting all over again with me.

If my train wreck of a body allows me to keep with this, I'm buying a Kestrel next year.
But so far, so good.. I've seen marked improvement on every ride. And even though I look like a circus bear on a tricycle riding it (220 lbs at 5'10"), it gives me a little hope. Those downtube shifters, though.....

Cougrrcj

As I stated earlier, the Univegas were built by Miyata to Univega's Ben Lawee's specs, so they ARE 'comparable' but not quite exact matches to offerings by Miyata.

My '84 Univega Viva Sport 'after' some component changes and weighing in at 24.1 pounds: The main differences in specifications between this bike 'after' and the same-year Miyata 710 are the wheel diameter -- the Uni being 27", and Miyata being 700c. I prefer bar-con shifters, so.... and I 'upgraded' to aero brake levers.



and my '84 Univega Gran Tourismo 'before', which is actually a bit ABOVE the same-year Miyata 610 specs in that the Uni has mid-fork rack mounts.



The Gran Tourismo will also be getting Aero brake levers and barcons when I get around to the refurb to my own particular tastes... Oh, and I already have a better seatpost and saddle...

Lazyass

They're well built, good looking and you can usually get them pretty cheap.

TheWrench

Mine is a Competizione that the last owner sprayed black *facepalm*. It looks like it used to be white. The name on the top tube is still visible because it's slightly raised. With the Campy/Mavic/Shimano accessories and pump and seat bag attached, it comes out to a little over 22 lbs. Don't have any photos, though. Not a very aesthetically pleasing beast.
It still perplexes me why someone would go through the trouble of building Mavic Open Pro wheels with Campagnolo hubs, outfit the frame with Campagnolo derailleurs and downtube shifters, and then *spray paint* the frame. -__-

Kevindale

That's a great frame. You might get some organic paint stripper and try it in a few places. If the PO didn't do proper prep work for the home paint job, you might be able to get the black off without wrecking whatever's left of the original white and decals. Or just media blast the frame and get a nice powdercoat job.

OldsCOOL

For me, it is the magic of owning something others havent even heard of, especially out on the singletracks. They have a quality and ride all of their own.

Here is my all original '84 Alpina Uno as given me by the original owner....
[IMG][/IMG]

aihene

Hi, I would like to know more about this Univega bike I picked up. It's vintage, tange chromoly frame, supra sport, serial m9d50230, has 'chromoly' signed nest to Univega logo. I like it. It's super light compared to my cross or mountain bike. I'd like to change the gear system on it, but the guy at wheel-a-world said that the parts are way too hard to find. I think it's a 1984. Any thoughts or more info about this bike would be great. thank you.

Murray Missile 

Parts aren't hard to find, they just aren't available through his regular sources and he doesn't want to mess with it. Don't know Univegas but sounds like a decent one.

T-Mar

Welcome to the forums. That is not the serial number format I was expecting. However, it is a pretty common format and suggests a 1979 or 1989 model. There was no Supra Sport in 1979, so that would leave 1989. Still, we'd need pictures and/or brands and models of the major components to be sure.

Hummer

Hello aihene,

the serial number is for frames made by Merida of Taiwan. The first digit 9 indicates that the frame was made in 1989.

Univega was getting many of its frames from Miyata of Japan. When the Japanese yen was revalued in 1985 it became less economical to get frames from Japan and many brand names switched to Taiwanese frame manufacturers.

Here is a link to another Supra Sport from the same year:

https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...formation.html

merziac

There's plenty special about them. Just the other day I saw an Alpina Pro, smoked chrome, great shape, looked to be mostly original. I could not stop staring at it, so cool!

Bikerider007

Although I don't own one, Univega holds a special place for me. From the age of 7/8-15 there was a hippie in my neighborhood named Mario (late 70s). He rode a Univega everywhere. He was a big influence on me riding. I was your typical kid, BMX was the thing so I went that way after banana seat bikes but had my first road bike by 10. I have 5 brothers and no sisters and a couple others guys named Danny and Larry (other bros best friends) rode with Mario all the time.

I was enamored by these guys working on these derailleurs and adjusting things.A couple of my brothers had a Charger and Challenger which also got me into cars and fixing them up. But, I still think Univega when it comes to road bikes.

In reality not exceptional, but not bad and with many bikes there are models.

Y0SH

Hey everyone. I just picked up a 94 Univega CB6.3 MTB Frame. For some reason they made the wheel hanger on the right side of the stay arm removable. Does anyone know what this bracket is called or if I can get another.

danmyersmn

One of these might work https://derailleurhanger.com/manufacturer/univega/

TigreBici

Hello!

I might just buy a (it seems) 93 univega activa country. Rims are in bad shape and it has a lot of mixed parts but looking for a shout out of the price and if its worth it to fix it. It will cost me around $40 bucks
Sorry for the crappy pics, my phone has a crappy camera

Goofball

What's so special about univega ? I ride one, that's what ! 🐥

VtwinVince

Just finished building up this '94 CB. Can anyone elaborate as to why the frame looks identical to the Giant\Cadex lugged unit?

otherself

I've never ridden a Univega road bike but their Alpina range mountain bikes from the 90s were excellent value for money and rode very well. You got a quality triple butted bi-oval tubeset on a bike that cost $300-400. They had good paint finish,a very neat welds, triple bottle mounts and pannier eyelets so would convert to rugged touring easily. Typically the sort of frame quality you'd see on 600 to $800 bike.

ShannonM

It very well might be a Giant... Giant started as a contract builder in the 80s, and were still doing it in the early 90s. Even though they were selling bikes under their own name, they were not the... very large thing... that they became.

--Shannon

Hummer

Univega was a brand name and never made frames that I have seen. As far as I know all Univage frames were built by companies contracted to supply frames.

In 1993, 1994 and 1995 some of the Univega frames were made by Giant. Giant frames have identifiable serial number location and formats.

The serial number of your bicycle can be used to determine if your bicycle has a Giant frame.