88ss

A friend gave me this Nishiki as a bare frameset a year or two ago and it has been hanging in the garage waiting for it's fate. Also over the last few years I had collected some other parts including a no-name vintage fixed rear hub, a couple of 700c alloy wheels and the very few other parts the bike would need, so I put the fixed hub into the rear wheel, bought a 1/8" chain and bolted the bike together very quickly and went riding. The bike looks to have originally been sold by the Cyclesport shop in New Jersey, and I was surprised at the quality of it's lugs and details for what I am pretty sure is a straight-gauge chromo frame. Not a super heavy frame, but not that light either compared to the known double-butted frames this size I have had in my hands. Anyway I always wanted to play with a fixed gear bike and now I have one to play with, and have been havinga lot of fun riding it around the neighborhood. The bike needs a few finishing touches such as bar-tape etc. which I will get to on some rainy day in the near future, but it is a darn good looking bike as it is in my eye. I like the little heart that used to hold up a set of shift levers for this 120mm spaced former ten-speed bike. Most all of the parts including the tires/tubes for this bike were donated to me or gotten for free, so the total outlay so far for as it sits is no more than $50. Not sure what make the rear hub is, but it must be older as it has the old style adjustable bearings, not sealed units, which I like better anyway.

GeezyRider 

Nice! You did really well for $50. Only thing I would add is a front brake.

Jax Rhapsody

Not bad. I have a nishiki olympic I made a single speed. I pretty much only paid for the chainring bolts, chain, rear wheel and sprocket. I spent more money in stickers, lol.

88ss

What year and dropout spacing is your frame? And is it double-butted? I don't know much about Nishiki bikes but going from how much detail they put into my frame, which must have been mid-range, they look like they made some really nice bikes.

Jax Rhapsody

It's an 83 I believe. Had a 5 or 6 speed wheel and it's brazed together. It's probably cromo but it's covered in stickers and I don't remember what it is. It's light, though. I wish I could change out the fork and find tiny stickers to cover the blue seat stays and tube connectors.

alcjphil

Kudos for not having lopped off the derailleur hanger

wolfchild

Needs to have front and rear brakes. Even if you rarely use your brakes and do majority of slowing down and stopping using pedals and drivetrain you should still have two working brakes. One front brake is not enough, two brakes is the way to go.

squirtdad

82 83 Nishki's of mid level (Olympic 12, International) would have been 126mm, 6 speed and mostly chromo double butted tubing...some in tange.

88ss

Well this is a 120mm frame, the guy who gave it to me who stripped it bare said it was a ten-speed. It is not double-butted tubing as it was not super light like a double-butted frame, and usually double-butted frames are all marked as such because I bicycle manufacturer does not go to the expense of high-end tubing without marking it and using it in the marketing of the bicycle.

I have been riding the bike around with no brakes, my wish is to experience the safety bike of the 1890s without having the expense etc. of the TOC bicycle.

Mark Dominck

Looks like a fun project and you only need one gear, never understood why so many gears.

terrymorse 

A silver Nishiki International was my college bike, and it looked exactly like the one in the photo. I got it in 1976, and I think it retailed for about $150.

All Suntour components, 2x5 speed. It was a very good quality bike for its day.