karmasoft

Howdy. Judging by this thread, its been a while since I brought up Kobe bicycles around here.

Back then, I wanted to tackle a bike restoration project to renew some faded skills and interests. Well, so much for great intentions. The project languished for three years apparently.

Anyways... Over the past few months I've squirreled away time here and there, and wouldn't you know it? I "finished," the project. Finished in quotes because, is it really ever finished?

I chose the word rejuvenation instead of restoration because I installed some new stuff on there. I wanted new brakes for example. I also wanted a new freewheel. The size in my dropouts is 124mm. Its a very tight squeeze. Not sure I'm completely ok with it, but for now, it works.

I plan to update this thread with a list of all the parts I retained, why, and so forth. I need help and ideas with a couple things too.

For now, here's a link to the pics. I hope you enjoy them.

Narhay

I think you've done a great job. Looks quite good. Was the paint a powdercoat, rattle can or actual paint?

OldsCOOL

Love the barcons!

karmasoft

Its powdercoated by a shop here in SLC. While the color is what I wanted (three years ago), when I fast-forward to this year, and beginning to reassemble the bicycle, I've found the paint to be, "soft." A couple of stray wrench turns surprised me by dinging the paint. Is this to be expected with powdercoat? In hindsight I would have kept the silver.

As fate would have it, in between buying the Kobe and restoring it, I purchased an old Gold Wing. For that project I did the painting myself, including provisioning my garage for the work. So for the next project, if I want to paint, I wouldn't send the job out, and I wouldn't powdercoat it.

juvela

thanks for posting.

the forum just had a recent Kobe Cobra thread you might like to see also:

https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...serial-no.html

karmasoft

Thanks for the link. The serial number topic is interesting. The number on my frame is: TA73267. Can anyone decode that?

On a related note, here's a picture of the left over bits.

karmasoft

Here is the parts manifest listing old part, new part, and brief explanation of my rationale.

ncrnelson

Looks really nice, but how do you not slide off that saddle? Makes my hands sore just looking at it.

Remedytech

Where was your serial number located? Still haven't found a definitive number/letter combo to tell me.

karmasoft

Its interesting that you mention / observe this... while I wanted the seating position to be somewhat aggressive, practically slipping forward when mounting is rather too much. It doesn't help that the frame is 54cm and I should be riding a 56. =/ I did two miles on it the other day and yikes. Should I try another seat, or another seat post?

karmasoft

The serial number was located on the seat tube, left side, just above the bottom bracket.

T-Mar sent me a very detailed analysis of Kobe serial #'s. (thanks!) According to his analysis my bike is a ~1977 unit, given the 76.10 on the seat post.

However I thought the 73 following the TA in the serial number meant 1973... ? Would it be possible the frame was made in '73 but not assembled until years later? T-Mar went on to suggest the TA stood for Tano, a manufacturer at the time. Very interesting.

ncrnelson

Velo Orange sells a nice liking setback seatpost, Thompson does as well, though it's not as vintage looking. If you want aggressive you should be able to have the saddle relatively level, but further forward over the pedals. For more relaxed riding you'd want it further back so more weight is on your butt. I need mine sloping back a bit otherwise I find myself slipping onto the nose. I keep mine further back to reduce weight on my hands, but I don't ride hard on my bike with a Brooks.

I'm no expert on fitting though, try different things and go with what feels right for you.