ollin

I found this bike on a friend's shop; a Maruishi RX-5 aparently form 1990 since the serial ends in 90; double butted Tange 1000 tubing. It does seem quite nice, and I can probably get it very cheap, the equivalent of $100USD, but my main interest on it is it's size, it's damn hard to find a large bike in this country. So, I see there is some rust but i'm not sure if it's just cosmetic or if this really is an unrideable bike

I took a couple of pictures hoping your more experienced eyes could give me a clue. Some rust remover and linseed oil will do the trick? or should I steer clear from this piece of crap?

Now; vintage and rust porn:

ollin

more pics, thanks for your opinions!

thinktubes 

Agree with Tbill, not too far gone. $30 or walk.

ollin

I'm building a city bike with sturmey-archer drum brakes and internal gearing, I already have the wheels, so the derailers are not worrying me; I also have some sugino cranks and a suntour chainring that goes well with them. Will also be changing the handlebar for a Nitto moustache bar and I have a technomic stem that i hope will fit the headset. So components are not really much concern. I'm pretty sure i can talk the guy down to $50; the bike does have it's wheels and all, they were just not mounted at the time, we were checking if the frame was bent with the old string method.

OK, great to hear that it doesn't seem to be structural damage; i'll de-rust and repaint it, should look awesome

bargainguy

FWIW, Maruishi (now Jamis) can be incredible sleepers as far as ride quality.

I recently had a Maruishi Emporer that was much, much smoother than you'd think for the price.

ollin

Crap. Just called the guy and now that i've shown so much interest he's having second thoughts... sure, you'll pick cycling back up after 20 years...

ollin

@bargainguy I noticed the Tange 1000 tubing is the thickest, they described it as "for heavy-duty touring"; so, i hope you are correct!

bargainguy

I can only relate my experience. 21" Emporer with barcons. This is what it looked like when I finished.

Unfortunately, someone had affixed a bottle cage with metal clamps that had ripped the downtube decal to shreds, so I removed the decal completely. Seat tube decal wasn't as bad so I left it on.

T-Mar

Based on the non-unicrown forks and what appears to be Shimano Exage Sport components, it's probably earlier than 1990, though not by much. There's a lot of work there. If the external condition if that bad, the bearings probably aren't much better.

ollin

I am bringing this thread back to life just so that there is an easily googleable source saying the following:

Maruishi RX-5 with Tange 1000 Double Butted Tubing seatpost diameter = 26.6mm

I spent and inordinate ammount of time researching and measuring stuff before arriving at this number. It does not help that this things are normally abused and old and that seatpost diameters jump in .2mm increments from 26 to 27. (hey, does this look like 0.2mm to you?)

Hummer

Hi ollin,

I did not see this when originally posted.

The serial number looks like Y8Cxx90, I cannot see two of the digits. If so, the serial number has the same format as those from Yamaguchi Sports Frames.

If this is a Yamaguchi serial number then Y=Yamaguchi, 8= year 1988, C= month March.

ollin

Wow, the bike is almost as old as I am I will post pictures when it's finished. I'm still hunting for the elusive 26.6mm seatpost. (Not easy to order things from american websites from mexico)