BFisher

The backstory and present plans for that Takara are awesome. Find bike - ask permission - fix bike - ride bike - put bike back. Love it!

Andy_K 

The Takara has some decent components.

Cyclone GT rear derailleur (and SunTour GS dropouts)



SunTour AR front derailleur (which I think is too new for the rest of the bike)



Sugino Maxy crankset



Kyokuto quill pedals



Takara Sports handlebar



Dia Compe brakes

Andy_K 

Decals and such












So, yeah, I think I can pretty much just oil the chain, put air in the tires, and ride this one.

nlerner

Here’s the pic you need to recreate, @Andy_K.

Narhay

Is that gugie top right?

uncle uncle

I wonder how much double butting KCL hi tension tubing saved weight on the frame? Not a very common approach....

Andy_K 

I already have that, along with the front cover pics of Takara Steve riding the bike, in my Flickr album for this bike. I'm trying to figure out how to piece together an outfit to recreate Takara Steve's look. Anybody got a leather brain net I can borrow?

Andy_K 

I don't know, but I did find that if I do a Google image search for that sticker all the "visually similar images" are beer or liquor.

gugie 

Andy's grandson can fill in for the tubular chewer, his daughter can easily pull of the J-framed ladies bike, but I think we'll need to scrounge the neighborhood for an 8-9 year old to be the kid on the left.

bikemig 

So that is you on the right after all? I had no idea you had a hat that cool.

non-fixie 

Spent the day cleaning parts.

MAFAC brakes are quickly becoming familiar. Halfway:



Put the rusty bits in a tub of vinegar and cleaned the rest with a damp cloth. The cute front rack needs another solution.



And done:



The saddle clamp responded very nicely to a vinegar bath:

nlerner

I commenced with the tear down today. Found the RD a might gunked up:



And here’s the serial #. Perhaps @T-Mar can decode:

Andy_K 

I disassembled the Takara last night. Anyone have any tips on how to clean this chain?



Seriously, though, the chain turned out to be a bit of a surprise and, perhaps, a clue about the bike's history. It's a KMC Z-series chain, so while I'm told the bike has been dormant for 10 years, it has been ridden and maintained recently enough to have a modern chain installed.

The other surprise was how few things have been stuck. I'm still working on getting the freewheel off, but some other bits, like the seat post and stem, come right out. Even the fixed side cup on the bottom bracket was easy. In fact, I may have been able to get that out without a tool. It was downright loose. And the bottom bracket was turning smoothly before disassembly. It still had grease in it.




Check out the long lugs on this beauty.



One of the really cool things about clamp on components is that they tend to preserve the original paint. I was wondering with this one whether the paint had a metallic flake, and it seems it did. I bet this was beautiful once.

The seat stay caps are also quasi nice.



The chrome on the NDS chain stay is going to need a little work.



Finally, the current state of things.

retroshifter

The Takara looks like a great candidate for this challenge. The Suntour cyclone rear derailleur is a beauty. The diacompe G brakes are very common on bikes of this vintage, but I have never gotten decent performance from them. Kook stop pads, thicker cables, mob levers - nothing works for me. If I see or buy a bike with them, I just replace them with some higher quality brakes. Has anyone gotten these brakes to perform?

Andy_K 

I can't find a date code on the brakes, so I was trusting VeloBase which says they're from the 80's. The serial number on the frame says it was built in 1976 (as does the date code on the crankset). Were the Dia Compe G brakes available then?

Frankly, there are very few side pull brakes that I've been happy with -- Campy Nuovo/Super Record, SunTour Superbe, and that's about it. I'm spoiled by the high mechanical advantage of dual pivot brakes.

Andy_K 

Offering a more serious answer to this question, I knocked out the headset today and so I have weights. The frame checks in at 5.52 pounds, while the fork is 2.0 pounds. I don't know how much it would have weighed without butted tubes, but it isn't light.

non-fixie 

After cleaning the last really dirty bit ...



... the France-Sport is slowly beginning to resemble a bicycle again:



The NOS orange plastic bar tape came from a swap meet a few years ago for the princely sum of €3. I have a purple version as well, I believe.

The steel pedals, the plastic saddle and the brake levers with turkey wings all came from the Bins of Possible Regret, where I keep stuff I plan to never use again, and should throw out but don't because, well, I might regret that later.

Narhay

I had the G brakes on two mid to late 70s Apollos but that doesn't mean a whole lot.

Unca_Sam

The bins of possible regret. You speak the truth!
If it's ugly and nothing special but still functional it goes in the bin. That can get out of hand though.
The France Sport is already passing the 5 foot test, so good on you!

nlerner

@Andy_K, this Takara is on Boston-area CL and the ad includes a catalog page I haven't seen before. Seems to share some features of "your" bike:

non-fixie 

Thank you!

And yes, the pile of used tires, steel handlebars, cheap steel pedals and rusty low end frames is getting bigger than I'd like. No market for them here, so maybe they should, as verktyg likes to put it, be "recycled into Kia's".

Andy_K 

Thanks! I've been really surprised at the relative lack of information about Takara models. There are plenty of pictures on the web of Takaras and scans of ads or catalog pages, but no two of them seem to quite match.

nlerner

Takara was the Zelig of bicycles!

morri869 

Well, I am officially entering this Raleigh Sports step-thru that I picked up today. I have been wanting to check out an old 3-speed for a while now and this is just the ticket!

Most Sports that I have seen are that dark green or brown. I think this one in deep blue is one of the nicest colors I have seen.

After initial triage, the sturmey archer hub appears frozen, and the front rim is in pretty poor shape. But I think this might just last 100km (because it's British of course!) on the ancient Raleigh branded tires, which is good because a quick glance at the internet shows a real scarcity of tires in this size.

Oh, and for the princely starting sum of $50 I have a nice cushy blue mattress of a bike to ride on




​​​​​

Andy_K 

That's beautiful! I've also thought a 3-speed would be perfect for this challenge, but any that I've seen for sale locally either have an asking price around $200 or wouldn't look half that nice after I got done cleaning them up. Congrats on a nice score!