scratchpaddy

It's been two and a half years since I even thought about getting a new bike, but I got the notion a few weeks ago. Space is limited, and everything costs way more than it should all of a sudden. But I started doing some research, and I knew once I started browsing Craigslist and eBay, the battle was lost.

I even started looking at BikesDirect, and Surly, and Wabi, and others, but it seems none of the new bikes have geometry that fits me well (tall, with short arms), and my aesthetic tastes are way out-of-step with the current trend of everything-(matte) black-always. There was a time in the '70's and '80's when bike makers would keep the same top tube length for many sizes, leaving the largest ones with proportionally short top tubes which just so happen to fit me perfectly. Craigslist doesn't seem to have anything but a few gaspipe Schwinns buried under all the mountain bikes and cruisers at the moment, so I spent most of my time browsing stripped framesets on eBay. Starting with a bare frame is the worst thing to do if you want to save money, but building up a bike piece by piece, where every little bit is exactly what you want... that's a lot of fun.

I focused on Japanese bikes, which I think are still criminally undervalued. I'm always drawn to bright colors, but the one that really caught my eye this time, for reasons I don't understand, was beige. It's far from eye-catching, revealing its pearlescent beauty only on close examination.

The seller was the eBay store of a pawn shop in Simi Valley, California. They sent it in a box originally holding a replacement radiator for a '99 Chevy Silverado 6.0L engine. Solid double-walled cardboard, and a perfect fit for a 25" bike frame. That radiator must have been huge.



It's a 1981 Centurion Super Elite, which sat near the top of their lineup, below the Semi-Pro... which seems weird to me. It's not just Elite, it's Super Elite! But not as good as a bike which is only somewhat Professional. Anyway, it's made from very light-for-the-time Tange Champion #2 tubing. Centurion was a brand of Western States Import Co., which also created the Diamondback brand. Most (and until the mid-'80's, all) of their bikes were imported from Japan, contracted out to various manufacturers there. This specific bike was made by Miki of Sakai, Osaka. I think the brand is best known for the Dave Scott Ironman models of the late '80's, which I love the look of, but I was wanting more tire clearance than those would provide.



In the past few years, a bunch of these models have be surfacing new-old-stock, often still in the original box, unassembled. This is not one of them, but it does show signs that it spent most of its life on display rather than being ridden. A shame, really. There's some really nice attention to detail on the frame. I think the delicate pinstriping is what pushed me over the edge into a purchase.



More bits and pieces are in the mail. I can't wait to build this one up!

BTinNYC 

Cheers on the sweet frame. My favorite pinstriping.
28 mm tires fit?

scratchpaddy

Oh yes, quite a bit more than that. You can see from the old catalog pictures that they left quite a bit of room around the original 27" x 25mm tires. There's a huge amount of vertical clearance, especially when slightly downsizing to 700c from the original 27" wheels, so it's a good candidate for fenders if I ever move somewhere with rain. There's about 56mm from brake mount to bead seat.



It looks like the chainstays are the tightest point, which measure 40mm wide where the widest part of the tire should go, so 35mm should be an easy fit. I already have some in the closet I can try when the wheelset arrives.

icemilkcoffee 

That pinstripping! What groupset are you going to hang on there?

BTinNYC 

Wheelset?!
This is no time for humility, what wheels are you going with?

Fenders and rain; a pox on both their houses.

Kabuki12

If it is anything like my Elite RS , it will be a very nice bike. Mine was a 1984 model , I think, Tange Champion butted tubes. I rode that bike for a couple of years before selling it. Mine was a 25” frame and fit me perfectly . Like you, I have long legs for my height and the shorter top tube was perfect. It sported Cyclone MK2 mech and Gran Compe bronze anodized with matching bronze anodized 700c wheels , SS spokes , and SunTour hubs. It was topped off with a nice suede saddle.

DiegoFrogs

The Miki built frames are, I think, some of the classiest I've ever seen and feature top-notch craftsmanship.

RCMoeur 

My first "real" bike was a Centurion Super Elite I bought on layaway from Landis Cyclery in the fall of 1980. Did many thousands of miles on that bike, and then lended it to an ex-girlfriend's sister - who promptly had it stolen in Tucson. Great frame, great components, especially the Cyclone derailleurs, although the stock SR crank wasn't receptive to lower gearing. I did put fenders on mine, and even raced it in Cat 4 for a while (with the fenders off) until I bought my Raleigh Pro. Still miss it once in a while.

scratchpaddy

Well, this all started when I replaced the freewheel on my Schwinn after 7k miles a few weeks ago. It's obvious I stick to one gear 99% of the time:



So, I thought I'd try out a single speed for once. One of the appeals of this frame is that the shifters were clamped on, so there are no brazed-on shift bosses to cover up. Also, the dropout spacing is about 120mm, standard for track hubs.

Starting with the crankset, I went with a Shimano 600EX, FC-6307. Only slightly newer than the frame, it closely resembles the FC-7402, which may be my favorite crankset of the '80's, but the 600EX is not nearly as rare or expensive. It feels like the perfect transition between the hard angles of the '70's and the sweeping curves of the '90's.



I'd love to polish it up, but the cranks are hard anodized. Removing the clear would be a lot of trouble, and leave it more vulnerable to future scratches. It's really not in bad shape if you're not putting your nose right up to it.



I'm going to withhold that information until I can get pictures after the wheels arrive tomorrow.

That sounds beautiful! The frame should be very similar to mine. They were still using Champion #2 tubing, although they downgraded to a hi-ten fork from the chromoly of the Super Elite. I'd love to see a picture, if you have one?

It does feel really well-made, clearly the work of people who were proud of what they did.

Sounds like you have some great memories with yours. Shame about it getting stolen. It's hard to have nice things.

Kabuki12

Centurion Elite RS


Cyclone equiped


FD and crank
As you requested, I bought this bike from the wife of the original owner. She sold it to me because her husband bought it and never rode it. She also had a matching one that was hers and much smaller but well used that someone else bought. I paid $100 for it and rode it for a year or two and sold it for $300 so I could buy my Raleigh Competition GS . It was a very nice riding bike , but I really wanted the Raleigh so I sold it .

icemilkcoffee 

I'm surprised it has a 120mm dropout considering it's from 1981. But yeah- this would be the perfect frame to go single speed!

RCMoeur 

Lots of bikes on the market in 1980 had 120 rear OL - including my Super Elite with its 5-cog ProCompe. Even though 6 speed freewheels were available (and even Ultra-7s), they still comprised a relatively small market share. I think 1982-83 was when the wider shift to 126 OL occurred.

scratchpaddy

Bold blue tires. Those Suntour and Sugino parts look mighty fine!

Got a few more parts in today...

scratchpaddy

The seatpost wasn't a hard choice. The bike would have originally come with an SR Laprade, which are super common in any size you need (26.8mm in this case). I love fluted seatposts. I was wondering if I could work in a bit of blue somewhere to tie back to the pinstriping without it looking like too much. This was a good opportunity, so I went out and got some nail polish. For the second color, I was going for a more dark-orange to match the lettering on the frame, but that's just not a shade I could find. Too close to skin tone for nail polish, I guess. I picked a dark violet-red instead (labeled Unbreakable Heart). It's not bad.



For the brake levers, I got the inscrutably-named TRP RRL SR, which are a lot like the RL340s I've been using for years on my Schwinn, but more obnoxious, and twice the price. Twice as nice? They do feel really well-made. I don't regret it yet. I already had Tektro's long-reach R559 calipers in my closet from an earlier build which didn't actually need as much reach as I thought it did.



Also in the closet, to my surprise, was the exact headset I wanted, a JIS-sized Tange Falcon FL250c, which is a very light (only 81g!) threaded aluminum headset with sealed bearings. I'd forgotten that years ago, I'd ordered an ISO version, and the seller sent me a JIS by mistake. I don't know why I didn't return it back then, but it's finally found a home.

Tires, also in the closet. I bought them for my Schwinn a while ago, but the Marathons on it are living up to their name and refuse to wear out after almost five thousand miles now. The new tires are Paselas, nothing crazy, size 700x35c. On my rims, they actually measure 33mm wide. Plenty of clearance on this frame. I should be able to fit up to 38mm here, and the fork is even more generous. The wheel is pretty far forward in the dropouts in this picture.

scratchpaddy

Love is in the details ❤

Vinnems

Weird seeing Simi Valley mentioned.

scratchpaddy

Small world, yeah? I think the seller runs the pawn shop on Cochran & Tapo, but this frame was the only bike-related thing they had for sale online.

scratchpaddy

The bottom bracket and freewheel finally arrived today. I found someone on another forum who achieved good single-speed chainline with a 107mm BB and my same FC-6307 crankset, so that's what I got. Installed BB, cranks, freewheel - nailed it. Chainline looks about as good as it gets, and the crankset still clears the frame. I was worried about that.

Then, I hit my first speed bump. I had opted for a 1/8" chain and freewheel. I know regular 3/32" chains are perfectly fine for single speed, but I had to buy all the stuff anyway - might as well get a chain made specifically for single speed and the wider, longer-lasting freewheel. But when I go to put the lovely new KMC K1SL Wide chain on, it's way too short. 100 links is not enough! My gearing is to blame - I have 52/18, which is tall, but actually slightly slower than the 48/16 I always use on my commuter Schwinn. The cranks already came with the 52 chainring, more teeth on the freewheel means less force per tooth, longer wear, etc. All sounds good until there's not enough chain to wrap around all those extra teeth. And all those extra links I have left over from regular chains I've installed will do me no good, because I had to go for the fancy 1/8" single-speed chain here.

I went ahead and ordered a second chain to get the extra links I need. I'll use the second "Missing Link" from the new chain to splice the extra links onto the first, since the K1SL uses mushroomed pins that don't take well to re-insertion. I'll have plenty of extra links for chain replacements going forward, but I will need an extra Missing Link each time.

scratchpaddy

scratchpaddy

It's done! I started riding it to work on Wednesday, getting the fit dialed in and fixing a few little issues, mostly bolts not quite tight enough. The 52/18 gearing is just right, I think. I do frequently feel like I could shift up, but maybe this bike can teach me to take it easy a bit on a ride, without pushing so hard all the time. I'm sure going taller would be a mistake. Better to top out too soon than have to struggle most of the time.

I took it on a 38-mile ride this morning.



We got a ton of rain last weekend, so much that it still hasn't fully dried out a week later. The dirt is still a little tacky all over, with lots of areas of mud to avoid, but the big tires give the bike more stability when the ground gets loose, not to mention extra comfort.



I'm not sure if I'll keep the cloth bar tape. It looks awesome on the bike, especially in this subdued red shade (Newbaum's "copper"), but even with gel pads under it, I feel like I'd be more comfortable with cork. I'll give it a few hundred more miles and change it out if I still feel that way.

DiegoFrogs

That's super classy!

How are the Paselas treating you in Phoenix? I used to use them exclusively until I moved to New Mexico some years ago... They were no match for the goathead thorns. I should probably re-acclimate myself to them now that I no longer face that threat.

scratchpaddy

Thank you!

I only have 90 miles on these Paselas without a flat, but I used a 27x1-1/4" set on a different bike for about 1,200 miles, and they were okay for durability. I think I only had one or two flats. I got the ProTite version both times, which is supposed to be more flat-resistant, and I use Mr. Tuffy tire liners. I've never had a tire that could last a reasonable distance here without some kind of liner or extra-thick tube, and the liners affect the ride quality less than thick tubes. Wait, now that I'm thinking about it, Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires don't need any help, but they have a thick liner built-in, and they're heavier than most other tires and liners combined.

I did have a bad experience with Panaracer's newer Gravelkings. They were the most fragile tire I've ever used. Even liners weren't enough to make them reliable here.

DiegoFrogs

My experience was nearly immediate flats, audibly within ten or so rotations of the wheels. I even got my last flat from a goathead in my apartment complex in San Jose before I ever got out of the gate, a hangover from my time in Albuquerque.

Before that, in other places like Pennsylvania and Arkansas, they were great. My favorite tire at the time.

polymorphself 

I ride Paselas (PT) almost exclusively in Phoenix and the last flat I had was two or three years ago. I do use thorn resistant tubes.

Beautiful Centurion!