JunkYardBike

Here's one to get your hearts racing! I found this garage hanger, a Cyclepro Optima, at a sale for a couple bucks. I know it's low end, but I was wondering if anyone had any information on Cyclepro bicycles. My internet research has yielded very little information other than it is possibly a Swedish make, and that Cyclepro manufactured some notable BMX and mountain bikes in the past. I found this spartan website, but alas cannot read Swedish. Or is it related to the company that manufactures inexpensive bike parts and accessories?

Date code on the Suntour components places it about 1987. It sports Tange 900 Double butted main tubes, while the stays and fork are probably high-tensile. It's probably a Taiwanese build, but that sticker appears to have fallen off.

The components are nothing unusual: Suntour Alpha 3000, Dia-Compe brakes and levers, Joytech hubs, Sakae SX crank, Hsin Lung bars (never seen these before - maybe for good reason).

Components are cheap, but the frame looks decently built with not-so-sloppy lugwork. It also has a pretty pearl white paint in great condition. Decals are horrible, but probably easy to peel! The Tange label was applied crookedly. Is this a case of a company buying a frame, then slapping some parts and their decals on it for sale?

Anyone know anything about these bikes or the Cyclepro marque?

P.S. Yes, it's missing a freewheel. I removed it for servicing

repechage

CyclePro was a brand of West Coast Cycle Supply, the importer on the West Coast for Nishiki. First used for accessories and parts. Not sure why they added a brand, perhaps to sell to shops that could not sell Nishiki (territory issues) and that they wanted to sell to.

Don't know who built them. Is there a country of origin label on it?

JunkYardBike

No, no labels like that. On the frame, a label has fallen off; most likely a "Made in Taiwan" label. There are two number codes pressed into the non-drive side of the downtube "DS70" and "518433" - I'm sure those are meaningless.

The frame does look very similar to a Nishiki Sport currently in my possession, and that one was made in Taiwan.

M-theory

I thought that Cycle Pro was Italian. I had nice Cycle Pro headset on my Viner track bike...it said: Cycle Pro Italy. I remeber somebody remarking they thought it was an off-shoot of Miche.....?

wrote4luck

My dad had a fairly nice cyclepro mountain bike in the early 90's. It had those elliptical chainrings on it. I rode it till it fell apart when I was 15, and it was a nicely built bike.

raverson

I picked up a CyclePro mtb last month on CL. It appears to be all original except for the rear derailer which had been SunTour and is now Shimano. It has SunTour ratchet thumb shifters and chrome bull moose bars. Also Dia Compe canti's that are stamped '83. The frame has a sticker that says Japan.

rmikkelsen

I can read enough Swedish to tell you that the site you mentioned has nothing to do with manufacturing. It is sort of the home page of an intended fan site with Velonews-style asipriations. They promise to present the "true picture of a cyclist" and provide news from the international cycling scene, such as biographies of international stars and Swedish amateurs on the way up.

balindamood

As mentioned, Cyclepro was a brand of Est Coast Cycle. They were made in Taiwan in the mid-80's. They were a step down from Nishiki, but good entry level bikes (better than Takara and others of the time). I sold a number of them. I think the frame construction and paint were very good for the price point, with servicable, albeit low-end, components. I wouldn't mind finding one in the shape you have, though I have always has a soft spot for their three-speeds.

roughrider504

I helped part a Cycle Pro road frame for the co op, it was a nice frame, but the tubes were rusted through. If you can find one in good shape its a nice bike. The rusted one was hacksawed into "art".

gm1230126

Anything stamped DS out of Taiwan from that era was produced by DODSUN. The first bike manufacturer in Taiwan to have ISO 9001 in place. Yes even before Giant, Merida and all the others. They were a full line manufacturer producing frames, doing assembly, painting. In most recent years they have been mostly a final assembly factory, sourcing the frames and doing the painting and final assembly in house. When the industry shifted from Japan to Taiwan many bike companies had Dodsun producing bikes for them. Specialized, GT, Iron Horse, Raleigh, Nishiki, Derby and many others. spent more than a few hours in their offices in the mid 90's.

raverson

It's been quite a while but I finally got around to snapping a picture of the bike plus another one I acquired. Says Ram on the top tube which I assume to be the model. Sunshine Gyromaster hubs are stamped 11/82. Serial # KC14479

The other bike is a CyclePro Skyline model and it has a 4130 cromoly sticker. SR brand hubs are stamped F and K 83, which I figure are June and Dec. of '83. Serial # DSBM 31205393

Interesting that these would appear to be manufactured in '83 and '84, but with different serial # formats and coming from different factories and countries.

T-Mar

Well, based on the serial number the blue Cyclepro ATB is definitely a 1983 Kawamura built frame. That's not surprising given that Kawamura also built Nishiki, another of West Coast Cycle's brands. In this case, there's absolutely no doubt to the lineage, as the shell has the WCC logo.

I'm also not suprised to see the bicycles coming from two different manufacturers, despite the close time frame. During this period, Nishiki production was split between Kawamura and Giant, typically with Kawamura handling the mid and upper range models while Giant concentrated on the entry level models. It's hard to tell if there's a difference in the level of the bicycles, as the blue one appears to have a replacement rear derailleur and forks, but conceivably the Dodsun frame is just a bit lower level, at a point where Kawamura was not cost effective.

I'm not sure that this is the case, but Cyclepro may have taken over the position of the Azuki brand in WCC's product line.

raverson

Thanks for the reply T-Mar.

Interesting comment, and one that would explain how Azuki somehow vanished from the early 80's marketplace.

curbtender

Reviving an old thread. Picked up a CP Skyline today and it came with Shimano Deerhead components. Original pedals are bearclaw with a fourleaf clover (?)

sailorbenjamin

Interesting. Tom just gave me a lady's 3 speed with the Shimano 333 hub. Not a really interesting bike but there's a neighbor around here who could use it.

curbtender

I think it was too close to breakfast,ha, beartrap pedals...

vintagepedals

my vintage cyclepro arroyo mtb with deore components & with a bullmoose stem!