mark.

Hi!
I was wondering if anyone would be able to help me date this old Norco Avanti. I know it's not a great frame, but I do like it. I bought just the frame with no original parts so that makes it a bit harder to identify.
Here's a link to some (not very good quality) pictures:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/implode...7626297987250/

Any help would be greatly appreciated. And let me know if you have any questions!

sportridertex

Why don't you ask NORCO ??

mark.

Thanks for the suggestion. Norco doesn't have much in the way of email contact info but I found something and after a work-week I still haven't heard anything. I thought that maybe some Bike Forums members would have gone through this or know about serial numbers. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

randyjawa 

Look at the component numbers on the bicycle - derailleurs, brakes, etc. Compare those numbers to the reference material offered on this page. Doing so should give you a close estimate of the bicycle's vintage.

Hope this is a help.

Sixty Fiver

Norco has an interesting history and believe that they had distribution / manufacturing agreements with West Coast Cycle who developed the Nishiki brand and Norco used the Nishiki name to distribute bicycles in Canada.

Believe that all these early Norco road bikes were built by Kawamura in Japan who made a wide range of bicycles with the Nishiki usually being a higher end and better equipped bike than their Norco counterparts... Nishiki bikes were made by Kawamura and then by Giant when manufacture shifted to Taiwan.

With that being said the Avanti was a pretty decent entry level bike and think these sold for around $250.00 - $300.00 in the early 80's and that yours is a slightly earlier model (78-79) based on the style of frame sticker.

These old Norco frames use decent materials and are very solidly made bikes.

The MAX

Yeah I just bought a Norco Avanti and was able to date the Suntour components on it to 1984. Yours is definitely a little older than that.

mark.

Thanks for suggestions and comments! Still haven't heard back from Norco. And, as I said above, I only bought the frame/fork with no components so I can't date it that way.

Thanks for the bit of history, Sixty Fiver. You suggest that my frame is probably from 1978-79 and The MAX posted pictures of his Avanti from 1984 which has different decals than mine. But I couldn't help but think the decals on mine had an '80s look' - then I found these pics: https://loopframelove.blogspot.com/20...o-folders.html (Sixty Fiver: I think you commented on these!)
Though folding bikes, the decal on the U-tube is identical to the decal on mine's down-tube and the decal on the head-tube is the exact same image as the head-badge on mine. Though the title of post says "1983" there's nothing in the post itself that says the year or how they came to that date. I wonder if it's possible the decals changed from 83 to 84? or perhaps those folding bikes are actually from the 70s?

The MAX

I think it's safe to say real late 70's or real early 80's

Doesn't seem to be too much info on Norco around.