Narhay

I picked up this beauty a couple weeks ago. I saw the pristine condition and obvious pride that the owner had in his bicycle and knew that I would have to just hop on the bike and ride into the sunset.



Note brown, earthy colour. This changed to black with the application of 'water and soap'. It was an unexpected but pleasant surprise.



The cockpit. The additional rust spots ensure additional grip while the uneven foam grip allows for air circulation under the palms as you hold on for dear life. The stem shifter is of course the most reasonable part, ensuring that you do not need to leave the handlebar to shift.



The brakes are unusual in that although they are aluminum, they too have been 'rusting away'. Classic Nishiki right there.



The cables have been tried and true and I am reluctant to remove such an original piece of the bicycle. The 12 pound rear derailleur is completely impervious to breakage from snagging anything short of a redwood tree.



The whole world lies ahead.



The head of the beast.


In short, this bicycle was rusting away in the confines of some Surrey'an's home. I was very pleasantly surprised that the seatpost slid right out, the headset popped open and the bottom bracket was still nicely oiled. I have no idea how this happened other than perhaps it was ridden thrice then stored away to rot.

Narhay

Don ye yer scarves and your beanie hats in the middle of the summer. Turn up your music that no one else would probably know about and sharpen your graphic design skills. Slip on your thick black rimmed glasses, your plaid and groom your bear. Your hipster steed has arrived.











Only the frame, forks, headset, bottom bracket and seatpost are original. I swapped in some drop bars, new tape and new saddle. I have a single 44 tooth crank on order to complement the 16 tooth fixed gear rear wheel. It will be a brakeless fixed gear. I like the simplicity and the paint, especially the head badge and the filled in lugs with the gold tracings.

cyclotoine

Amazing how that old paint shines up. As always your threads are of great entertainment value. Thank-you. I love ye Nishiki's... My first hipster bike was a Comp II. here I am with my Nishiki conversion C.2006 in Vancouver.

candid

How you convert to Fix Gear with the drop out like that? I used to convert a road bike to Single speed with coastal brake.

Narhay

Cyclo...nice conversion you have there. I believe your bike would be 3km/h faster if your facial hair were about an inch longer.

As far as how to convert it to a fixed gear...that is an excellent question and my answer so far is "I have no idea". I am just winging it as I go. I imagine I'll just throw some cranks and a chain and that will be it but things are almost never that simple when I touch them. I can foresee quite a bit of swearing, some ' are you sure it is supposed to bend like that? ' and eventually I will triumph, kick back with a can of pabst blue ribbon and listen to some vinyl or take a crank arm to it and never speak of that moment again.

I had a look and my bike has a horizontal-ish dropout...should be enough.

Tulok

Haha, I just did this to a "Sport". The cheap frames always ride so smoothly, Be warned, you will become addicted!

did you wax or polish the paint?

Sixty Fiver

These used to be the preferred bicycle for messengers here... the frames are well made, they ride nicely, and as you can see the finish quality on the paint is really good.

I have converted countless Nishikis to ss and fg bikes here.

Tulok

It looks better than new already!

Narhay

I washed it and applied some polish but im not sure how much the polish really does other than get stuck in my tire tread through my somewhat careless application. That catalogue photo depicts it almost exactly except mine does not have the two gold stripes on the seat tube.

JJPistols

The lug lining looks fantastic!

Saguaro

I'd add the gold stripes. It wouldn't be hard to do.

Narhay

Probably not hard but not on my to do list...I like it as is. The crank will arrive within the next week or two so there will not be much progress on this one until that happens.

cyclotoine

it seems to me that for every road bike sold of every other brand one nishiki was sold between 1975-1985 in the lower mainland BC.

Edit: wow that was terrible. What I mean is half of all bikes sold in those years were nishiki

Narhay

You're also forgetting apollos. By Jove, those things are like locusts. You look on any street corner and you'll see three of them in varying states of disrepair.

Narhay

So I realized that the frame triangle is certainly wasting a lot of space that could otherwise be used for this:

https://imgur.com/kSeRtdH

mikemowbz

Now THAT is convenient. One, two, three sets of bottle cage bosses be dam#ed! And really, with the weight you save dispensing with derailleurs, well, you could be dispensing...

Narhay

Italuminium

Night and day. Great conversion, I even dig the splash tape!

Narhay

Thank you. The crank isn't my ideal vintage look but it was what was available and does the job. The rear wheel is in the shop to get a new spoke and a hop removed. I rode it around and at first riding it terrified me but soon afterwards I was getting the hang of how it should work. I like the look of no brakes but for practicality it would benefit from one. I will let the future owner decide that one as I don't have any space for more bikes.

Tulok

Nice! the splash tape even looks in place!

Narhay

That splash bar tape was my 99 cent w/ free shipping ebay snag. I was so pleased with it...until it arrived and I had no idea what to do with it.