herr_hest

Hi folks,

I been lurkin about for some time and figured I'd contribute to the forums.
I recently aquired two Centruion Pro Tours and I thought I'd share some findings with you guys.

This thread could be seen as a continuation to the old thread "identifying centurion pro tour"

Unless I'm totally wrong, that OP is also Swedish seeing the iconic "sand" bin on one of the pics and the snow in another

There was mentions of Miyata built centurions in europe, do anyone have more information about this? Could they have used the Miyata 1000 frameset and just centurioned it? So in other words, is this acually a M one thousand? 🤔

The first one is my size (58 st 57tt c-c), Tange infinity tubing. I am currently in the process of fixing this one up as a randonneur for crappy roads, or as the cool kids would say, gravel bike. Since it was very rusty i had to steel wire brush it down to the metal and re do the paint job. I's sitting at my floor with a holographic flake paintjob hardening. Here it is in original paint


Unfortunately I dont think i took a picture of it before it took it apart...

Specs for it:
Suntour self adjusting cantilevers
XCD 6000 accushift Rear Derailleur
XCD framväxel
accushuft index/friction down tube shifters
XCD triple crank 170mm
"Phil Wood of Japan" Kajita Runners Sealed Bearing bsa Bottom Bracket (!).
Araya rims laced to SR freewheeled hubs, quite nice actually.
Sakae Randnner Road Champion [sic] ultra narrow, like 38 in the tops.

Centurion Pro Tour Fork

Off Center decal just like the other Swedish Pro Tour on here

80s vibe downtube logo

Very rusty sadly, luckily it turned out to be only surface rust




size 58 c-c
I usually do not like to repaint bikes as i like to keep things original. But this one was just beyond saving.



Holographic sparkle
https://i.imgur.com/ejkmVn6.mp4

Second looks quite cool, but it was not my size (56 tt+st c-c) and the tubing was a bit heavy. > Hi ten.
Again, I didnt take pics of if when i first got it. I'm an idiot.
It was specced with an awful steel flat bar that could be used to sink boats. Moreover, all the bearings was shot and the wheels were very much out of true.

I added the white outline to the frame, don't know if that was a good idea. And the stem looks horribly out of place. Other than that, it turned out ok.

Don't look at the stem


Too bad an alligator had to die to equip the wheels with tires.

juvela

-----

perchance member @styggno1 may have knowledge of these machines...


-----

Fahrenheit531 

Yep. I think you need to quickly find your way to that 10-post threshold. Responding to your own thread several times should do the trick!

herr_hest

Updated with pics in the first post!
Also, here's the link to the other post referenced;
https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...-pro-tour.html

The second pro tour was almost identically spec:d with the araya rims and so on. I rebuilt the wheels using 36h RS300 hubs which turned out great.

Chicago Al 

I'm not the Centurion expert by any means, but from convos here and looking at bits and pieces online, I've gotten the idea that there must have been a consortium of bike vendors in different countries/regions who used the Centurion name and drew from the same Japanese vendors for frames and components. Then they would come up with a suitable line of bikes for their customer base. Some years ago I found online a German Centurion catalog with bikes that bore the same names as US models, but the bikes were completely different. I don't think that the frame vendor would have been Miyata as the Centurion tubing like on your 'Pro Tour' was Tange and Miyata famously made their own tubes.

(Both bikes look great. I don't even mind the stem on the second one, if it puts the bars in the right position it's fine. Nice tires with that bronzey-green color frame too.)

T-Mar

We don't see many European market Centurion on the forum. Of the dozen or so that have surfaced, I don't recall seeing any Miyata. There have been some from Merida, Miki and Yamaguchi. The best clue as to the source will be the serial number.

herr_hest

Here's the serial

Seiral: WAK19406E

T-Mar

That's a Danish VIN, indicating that the bicycle was foreign manufactured in 1989 for Age Kroll/Centurion of Denmark. It's not the manufacturer's serial number. There should be another number, somewhere else on the frame.

herr_hest

I see! What I don't see is another number though, even after inspecting the frame with a flashlight for the past 20 minutes perhaps it was not as heavily stamped as the Danish vin

Fahrenheit531 

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I really like that stem on this build. It very much fits with the gravel/all-terrain vibe.

DiegoFrogs

I hope you enjoy riding that all over Sweden. I did the same with my Pro Tour, and those 5 years were the highlight of my life.

T-Mar

Danish VIN are typically near the bottom of the seat tube or downtube, on the non-drive side. If the VIN is on the BB shell, then one of those two locations may be where you'll find the actual serial number.

herr_hest

Unable to locate serial, some idiot painted it with holographic sparkle.
It's coming together though!

Custom decals

herr_hest

new findings. the frame is JIS spec:d, meaning 27mm fork crown and 30mm cups. I suspect it might be a Nishiki. They had a very large market share here in the 80-90:s

Dylansbob 

I love the holo decals. Makes me think of old school bmx.

herr_hest

All right fam, it's DONE.


Centurion Pro Tour with R7000 / GRX groupset.

Shimano CX70 cantilevers

Specialized hover bars cause i like em.

Custom laced Novatec / TB14 / Sapim wheelset

The holographic sparkle paint and decals are kinda hard to photograph, they look shimmering IRL.

Indoor pic, it's really black unless the sun hits it.