Originally Posted by
Murray Missile
Spotted this last night on CL for CHEAP. Year unknown, a little rough but fully functional and it has some decent parts. Champion No.2 tubing, Tange forged fork ends and dropouts. Has me a bit puzzled because out of all the pics I have found, and it's a lot, of Shogun 500's this vintage not one had stem shifters. It has a Sakae triple crankset and everything else is Shimano including the hubs, no model name on any of it but it appears to have been decent stuff. I'm wondering if the original owner had it switched over from DT's. Not sure what I'm going to do with it, I'll either clean it up and flip it or part it out. I'm leaning heavily toward parting it out.
This was under the gel pad........ nothing special but in excellent condition except for one tiny scuff on the other side.
It's possible someone changed the DT to stem because that bike didn't have braze-on DT mounts but instead used a band mounted shifters; however they did make a few with stem mounted shifters so more than likely if they're Deore shifters their probably original.
see:
53cm SHOGUN 500 12 Speed Road Bike ~5'4"-5'7"
and: http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NDgwWDY0MA==/z/8U4AAOxyVLNS4hgI/$_72.JPG
Shogun was not a brand it was decal or what is also known as a importer brand which means some company made it and then the importer slapped a name on it like Nishiki and Centurion, and now Schwinn and Cannondale just to list a few. That does not mean it's a crappy bike though! Tange Champion 2 was among the best touring frames (though the 500 was a sport geometry which means the frame was in between a tight geometry of a race frame and a stretched out geometry of a touring frame) on the market at the time, but the cost to buy the tubesets were less expensive then other touring tubesets so Tange had a bad rep till later when people caught on that it was good stuff.
If the rims are 27" I wouldn't bother changing them to 700, there are a few really nice tires you can get that are 27", my favorite light touring type of tire is the Panaracer Pasela TG, if you want a smooth tread instead of one with a tread then the Conti Gatorskin is a great option, or if your wanting to do heavy loaded touring then the Schwalbe Marathon (can't recall the exact name but you find it on their website) makes a very beefy 27" tire but that bike wasn't really made for heavy touring so that tire would be a waste unless you need a nearly bullet proof tire to commute on. There are also some cheaper 27" tires but those are junk.
A 700c tube will work just fine with a 27" tire. However to that you have to convert the 27" rim from Schrader to presta so you can use 700c tubes and that can be done real cheap and easy, see:
Wheel Mfg Presta Stem Savers at BikeTiresDirect Simply peel back the rim tape by the valve hole, insert the adapter and replace the tape; or better yet replace the rim tape since it's probably old and rim tape is cheap, then insert the adapter and cover it with the tape to hold it in place.