Originally Posted by
mjons
I bought a Mizutani and a Schwinn a few years ago for $50 and rode it a bit. Then I got more into bikes an realized how heavy and likely hard to upgrade the bike really was. But what drew me to it was all the intricate little fasteners and the badge and such. I figured it looked like it was built with care and functionality in mind. It appears to be the 'Sports' model but has the fancy badge and appears to have come that way. I can't tell if it's older or newer than the blue one above, it does not have those little welded on 'rings' for cables, it has shinly little clamps.
vannergy, if you could take a look at these and offer any info I'd super appreciate it! '
https://picasaweb.google.com/1166281...eat=directlink
The Chocolate Brown Mizutani you have is early to mid 70's and it was the entry level bike, "sport" or "Seraph" is what we called it and it had chrome front fork. the mid range was the "spree" had chrome on all forks, and the top was the "super" (chrome forks and luggs.) The badge is what confuses folks. I'm a little mixed up myself. I thought the multi-colored badges, like the one on your brown bike, wasn't on the sport; but rather, a black/gold badge (like on the blue one - I'm thinking the black badges were late 70's on the lower end bikes? I guess the badge should be totally ignored when determining the model. All the badges say the same thing.
The blue bike pictured was mid/late 70's. the blue color was later as was the seat-tube sticker (red letters). The older ones had a shiney foil sticker that covered most of the seat tube - if they had a sticker at all. And yes, the cable clamps were on older models. Don't remove the ones on the top tube unless you have better ones to replace them with. They are hard to get back on without scratching - they're very cheap.