Classic & Vintage - Hey T-Mar, others - Need help ID'ing thrift store Univega

My brother and I were looking for clothes in a local Salvation Army and about to leave when he spotted this baby. He asked me how it looked. I glanced at it and said, "Oh, it's probably cr- oh my god!" :eek: It had apparently just come in, but they kindly priced it for us at $14.99. "We'll take it!" :D He is in desperate need of a working bike (the project that I put together for him has run into some snags), so he bought it. Lucky b@stard! Anyway, I'm trying to get as much info on this bike as I can.

Anyway, here's what I know about the bike: it's a Univega Sportour with 27-inch alloy rims, old-school non-aero brake levers (the lack of safety levers was the first thing that caught my eye), Dia-compe single-pivot sidepull brakes. I don't know what part group the brakes are from, but I wish I did - they are lightweight and lovely, but still wide enough for fenders. The DT friction shifters and front derailer are Shimano 600. The rear derailer is a Suntour ARX. The double crankset is a Sakae "Custom" and the rear freewheel is probably a Suntour. The pedals are even pretty nice - they are designed for toe clips, and even have teeny-tiny little clips attached to them. The frame sticker says "CROMO Steel Molybdenum Tubing," and the bicycle itself is very light (around 20 pounds or so) with delightful steering. The ONLY damage to the frame are a few superficial dings in the paint job on the seat stays. Other than that, the bike is in need of a good cleaning, but the beautiful, shimmery sky blue paint job is clearly visible once the dust has been brushed off. It is obviously a mid-to-upper mid-level bicycle, but I don't really know it's exact place within the Univega hierarchy. So what I'm trying to find out is:

1. Where the bike fits in the Univega lineup. Value (price when new) would be nice, too.
2. What model year the bike fits into. The brakes are stamped with a G, which I think is a date code.
3. Whatever else you can tell me about it! The serial number is J498083.

The bike is totally rideable as it is. The only thing wrong with it are the cracked gum brake hoods and the crappy old dried-out brake pads (a test in the thrift store parking lot demonstrated their total inadequacy). A quick run down to the nearby bike shop solved that problem for about $24 (new hoods were 10 bucks! Ouch.). Total cost? Less than $40. My brother is a lucky man! I have informed him that if he ever feels that he no longer needs it that I will happily take it off his hands :D. I am going to try and trade him a different set of pedals. He hates toe clips, but I love them, and the pedals he has are better suited for clips than mine.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, but I'm having some technical difficulties with my #$&@! cheap-butt camera. I'll get them up as soon as I can.

Thanks!

Well, I believe that the "G" is an indentifying mark for what type of brake it is. Like 500G, etc...I think I've seen this on other Dia-Compes. Sounds like a nice bike!

You could attempt to date it by reading the codes from the components at vintage-trek.com, but it sounds as if there has already been a bit of parts swappage (Shimano & SunTour derailleurs on the same bike - not bloody likely out of the factory). Anyway, you could try that, disregarding whe codes on the derailleurs.

Great acquisition. Your brother is, indeed a lucky man.

That's a good point, USAZorro - I was very puzzled when I saw that the rear derailer was not Shimano 600. I honestly don't know which parts came spec. I'm inclined the think that it was the 600 stuff, but it's really impossible to be sure. But who buys just a pair of shifters (butter smooth shifters, too!) and a front derailer from a group? Perhaps something happened to the original Shimano derailer. Or perhaps the original shifters and FD were replaced. I dunno. Anyway, thanks for the vintage-trek reminder.

With no further ado, here is a photo (click the thumbnail):
http://img319.imageshack.us/img319/7116/univega5jv.th.jpg (http://img319.imageshack.us/my.php?image=univega5jv.jpg)

Purty, isn't she?

Jackpot! Thanks for the link, USAZorro. According to vintage-trek.com, Dia-Compe 'G' calipers are stamped with a date code on one of the arms. The brakes on this bike are stamped 1180, so we're probably talking about a 1980, maybe 1981 bicycle. That date casts doubt about the 600 equipment being original equipment, I think, although I don't know that for sure. I was expecting a mid to late 80s bike - this is older than I expected. Not that it matters much. What a find!

EDIT: Yet more information has come to light. Shimano 600 was first introduced in 1982, apparently. Assuming that the brakes are original (and I think they are), there is no way that the 600 stuff came spec'd from the factory. Cool. Also, the code on the ARX rear derailer dates it to April, 1983. So the 600 parts and the ARX rear derailer were almost certainly installed at about the same time, with the owner choosing a Suntour over the Shimano derailer, for some reason.

I had one of these briefly... picked it up for resale. I believe the original components were Suntour V-GT on the one I had; so even if the ARX isn't original, some kind of Suntour quite likely was.

Many of the Univega frames were manufactured by Miyata. Assuming this, your serial number puts it circa 1981-1983. This is consistent with the components, so it probably is a Miyata frame. The Sportour was an entry level model, but not bottom of the line. It was closer to mid range. I'm aware of at least two Univage models below the Sportour during this timeframe. Price would be in the $275-$325 US range, depending on the exact year.

Regarding the derailleurs, normally one would suspect the rear derailleur to be the replacement. However, in this case, I believe Brokenrobot is correct. The ARx is likely original and the Shimano 600 are the replacements. Sugino cranks and Dia-Compe brakes were typically spec'd with SunTour derailleurs, the ARx is more in line with the level of bicycle and my Univega specs for this period say ARx. BTW, Shimano 600 made it's debut back in 1976, or thereabouts.

I agree with el twe on the model of brakes. They were spec'd as Dia-Compe 500G.

While the bicycle is probably lighter than what you are used to, I think that 20 pounds is a bit optimistic. It's probably closer to 25-27 lbs.