harijan

I'm interested in purchasing this bike and rebuilding it but I am wondering about it's year, and whether it was a high/med/low quality bike in it's time to see whether it's worth my time and so i don't spend too much on it!

It's got that sports-tourer look to it, with brazed bits on the fork (forgot to take a photo of), a hole at the top of the fork and the style of the dropouts.

53cm seat tube c-t
28.6mm seat tube
27.2mm seat post
Suntour V-Luxe rear derailleur
Suntor Compe-V front derailleur
Dia Compe centre-pull brakes
Sugino Pro Dynamic cranks
Kyokuto Pro-Ace pedals
27-1 1/4 tyres/rims
There was also another sticker on the fork which said "Tagaki" or "Takagi" but i forgot to take a photo of it (doh!)

What's got me a little confused is the seat post width (I measured it with calipers) which should mean that's it's a fairly high quality frame but it's not lugged as you can see and has average/low end components. The rebranding of the frame doesn't help much either.

Any more information would be of great help.

Chris W.

Welcome to C&V!
The bike looks very interesting, it kinda reminds me of a Schwinn Sports Tourer. Would like to see a full drive side pic.
The hole in the fork I'm not so sure about, but it would'nt stop me from buying the bike if the price was right.

Cheers,
Chris

harijan

It does look very similar to the Schwinn. Yeah sorry about not having a full pic. When i went to see it i was all excited by trying to identify the componentry.

As for the hole in the fork, looking through the few katakura catalogues online, it looks like it was used to attach a guard of some sort i think.

Chris W.

Did you buy it??? (thought about that bike all day...)

Cheers,
Chris

harijan

I haven't yet but I think I will go for it - at the right price.

shnibop 

the right price would be <$50

wrk101

Not sure about the $50 mark, that sounds low to me. It is a low end frame, based on the stamped drop outs, fork crown, and other details. The higher end Silks had forged dropouts, and other features. The frame is all cromoly, so it is not bottom end.

The Silks are hard to find, the paint looks good, should clean up nicely. If it is a keeper build, I would go for it.

Could be 1970s, as always, date the bike based on component codes, there will be a dozen or more on that bike. I don't see bottle braze ons, but there is not a complete bike pic. No bottle braze ons means 1981 or earlier. But this bike looks older than that to me.

Here's some pics of my recent 1985 Silk pickup. Note the decals/logos are quite a bit different, ditto fork crown and dropouts.

harijan

Someone else offered $200 (!) for it. Way out of my price range, oh well.

It did have braze ons for a bottle cage on the seat tube.

ScottRyder 

Something that showed up on the Fuji Serial Number database:

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...2#post13302482

Post #319

Scott