yesterbik

Hello,

I picked a Mikado cyclotoureur bike locally. It seems no one using it for years. It s time to have some fun cleaning it up, put some new grease in and get it ride again.
I guess this will be a basic, low-end bike?
I can see a few thing different with other bikes I have.
First, the down tube is bigger than normal, then rear wheel has more spokes, probably 48.

Here are some photos of the bike.
And hope to hear some thought from C&V bike owners/ lovers.
(I am sorry for the dusty photos, I will clean them up)



I took this photo after some cleaning. Handle bar tape needs to be replaced.



Frame number P4352144






Crank is Tourney XT


Direct mount rear derailleur Sachs Huret













Front/ rear hubs are SEALED SUZUE.
Rims 27" x 1 1/4" WEINMANN PATENT-Made in Belgium. Tires are Panaracer 27" X 1 3/8".


The fun is going on now.




Thank you all for reading.

sd5782 

That is very interesting, and looks way nicer than basic. SP11 pedals are very nice. Quite interesting front fork mid mount braze-ons. Oversized downtube and spare spoke holder on chainstay. I will be interested to hear what the experts have to say.

Bianchigirll 

Very nice. I agree I think it a bit nicer than basic and probably in the class of Fuji Touring Series or Saratoga.

clubman 

I'd like to see the brakes...really long pads. I also would like to see that bike with original racks, mudguards etc. Can you manage that for me?

John Nolan 

Nice! Quebec brand...I had one once, but it was too small for me.

yesterbik

Hi clubman, unfortunately the bike comes to me without any racks or mudguards.
Some photos of brakes :

polymorphself 

First mid fork mounts I've seen in this style. Those pedals are a bit coveted! Love them myself. It's definitely not low end. Full fledged tourers were almost always mid-high end. This one seems comfortably mid range to me.

https://guybouchard.wordpress.com/velosbikes/mikado/

https://www.zppays.ml/ProductDetail.aspx?iid=117375392&pr=65.88

stardognine

Besides the cantilever brakes, (and geometry, lol), a good touring bike would have braze-ons for racks, at the dropouts, near where the wheels mount. Two sets of bolt holes is best, for the racks plus fenders. 🙂

Pics of the whole fork, from the side, would help. That braze-on in your pic is in a strange place, and "different" from most, in the way it's attached. 🤔

Tange 900 is very decent, I think they went as high as 1000, in that naming convention. 🤔

The thing that catches my eye most, are the Tourney XT cranks. Very cool. 👍

stardognine

Ignore what I said about dual eyelets, lol, I didn't look close enough, at the rear derailleur pic. 😁😉

Trakhak

Very nice. The half-step chainring combination might take a little getting used to, but many of us prefer that configuration to conventional Alpine or other gear setups. I love being able to maintain my preferred cadence and effort level on mildly undulating terrain by switching between the large and middle rings. If you develop a liking for that feature, you might even consider installing bar-end shifters to increase the convenience of shifting.

rgvg

Tange 1000 is thicker than 900. 900 has similar dimensions to Tange Infinity.

Bianchigirll 

I believe those fork mounts are for certain types of racks for low rider panniers and are intended to alleviate the neeed for something to stabilize them like an additional rack.

steine13

Two thoughts:
#1 Never engage in a discussion about "half-step" gearing. The people who like it are fanatics. Nodding and smiling usually lets me get away.
#2 "Mikado" is a terrible Chinese name for an early-80s bike from Japan. Thank the marketing department. Aside from that, I think it's really nice, and I'd love to own one in my size.

cheers -mathias

retroshifter

the Blackburn low rider front racks popular in the 80’s came with “U” bolts to attach mid way on the forks. The braze ons on this bike appear to me to likely mirror that u bolt attachment style, though I have never seen this before. Usually on loaded touring bikes there is just one threaded hole/braze on in the fork and you attach the low rider rack with the single bolt.

steine13

Later, there was a through-hole through the fork blade, which allowed a second horizontal strut to attach behind and keep the rack from rotating.

That made the "cow catcher" over the front wheel obsolete, or at least optional.

This setup is probably an early attempt to do the same.

cheers -mathias

Bianchigirll 

I don't think I ever worked with the Blackburn ones but I put a similar set of Cannondale racks on a Cannondale MTB with those huge pepperoni forks. What a pain in the bum. We had to go to hardware store and buy bigger U bolts. We got it all set up front ant rear bags, racks. The owner came looked everything over and “can you easily remove the racks for shipping the bike?”

T-Mar

I've seen a few of these in the past. One had a serial number that only varied from the OP's by the last digit, which was poorly struck but appeared to be a '2'. However, its model name was Nomadic, so they appear to have used the same frame with different component configurations to create multiple models, which was common in the industry.

There have been several Mikado brands over the years. This one is the Canadian brand, which has changed ownership at least three times over the years. Originally the brand was owned by Poliquin but circa 1983 it was acquired by Lambert, a Quebec based bicycle importer and distributor of bicycles, parts and accessories.

Based on the components, the subject bicycle appears to be from the mid-1980s, Lambert era. The serial number format is consistent with a Taiwanese manufacturer, Pacific Cycles, and if so, it indicates 1984 manufacture.

The necked downtube was a way to incorporate a stiffer, oversis\zed downtube, while still using standard sized lugs.

polymorphself 

It's a Japanese name. And why terrible?

steine13

>> It's a Japanese name.

Wow. Beware things you know that ain't so.

The game "pick-up sticks" is called Mikado in German. And I learned at a very early age that that was Chinese. So I KNEW that. And I was wrong.

>> And why terrible?

I thought it was "terrible" because it inappropriately mixed two cultures. Turns out it was me who did it.

Good thing I get a little smarter every day. Thanks for helping with that.

cheers -mathias

yesterbik

Hello,

Thank you all for your input.

This is very new to me. Hope I can figure it out when riding the bike more.


Today I've made a good progress in cleaning and greasing the bike: front/rear hub; bottom bracket, headset. . ., new handle bar tape.
Take it for a test ride. It seems to run smooth.
By look the old grease, I guess this bike got very little use.
I am happy that now the bike looks nicer and is able to be on the road again.

thinktubes 

Super-cool bike!

stardognine

You do pretty good work, for a "newbie". 😉
Stick around, you'll fit right in here. 😎

The Golden Boy 

That's an interesting bike, I don't know about the Tange tube naming convention back then- but the parts- that's an "eclectic mix" for sure. The SP-11, Nitto and XT bits are all top notch- Sealed bearing hubs are pretty top notch and off the top of my head I can't think of a second tier bike with a 40 spoke rear wheel. Then there's the Duopar Eco at upper mid level and the Tourney XT crank and AL-11 brakes with those levers which would strike me as lower mid level stuff.

All in all, a pretty cool bike.

I'm not exactly a fan of half step gearing- but it certainly does serve a purpose with a wider range 5 or 6 speed freewheel. I'm not one to figure out a gear chart- but I do know when a gear is too hard or to easy for me and being able to go a little bit easier or a little bit harder is appreciated.

I appreciate a 10 speed cassette more without the hassle of fiddling with the front gears.

randy_here

I rode a green Mikado Cyclotoureur in 1984 on a 9 month, 10,000 km bike tour. Rode from Saskatoon to Vancouver then down the Pacific Coast highway to Mexico, then back to LA, put it in a box and took it to New Zealand for 4 months (basically everywhere), then Australia for 3 months. Fully loaded with lowrider front bags, handlebar bag (filled with my walkman, 12 cassettes and instant noodles), rear panniers and rack with tent, sleeping bag and blue foamy on it. It was a great bike, super comfortable, would soak up the bumps, and handled great with 70lbs of gear on it. Mine had a non-standard, semi-sealed bottom bracket and pedals (some weird Suntour type with a 25mm thread) which proved to be a pain in the ass. Had to change them in San Fran when I had grinding from the bottom bracket and accidently cross threaded the pedal. I don't think the rear derailleur on yours is correct, I remember mine to be a Suntour. The rims were Weinmann and were awesome, never went out of true even with all the abuse I gave them! Bike was stolen when I moved to Vancouver, but I still have the seat and seat post!

robobike316 

Super cool vintage Japanese steel! Half step plus granny! You just need a gear ratio chart taped to the stem now and off you go effortlessly into the endless sunset.