Hi everyone, I've been reading here on the forums for over a year now and finally, here I am. I thought I'd introduce myself here since I'm more of a classic/vintage type guy than anything else. All the multi-thousand dollar carbon bikes kick sand in the faces of my steel (and one aluminum, but it's cool) bikes and I have to stick up for them. I don't have any snazzy Italian bikes and only one sad UO-8, but I seem to have made up for that in sheer volume of fun and cheap Other Stuff. I hope I'll be able to add something to the great fount of wisdom that is bikeforums every once in a while, but alas I'm not old enough to have been around when all the fun stuff was happening so all my info is second-hand. I've enjoyed going through the 'classic/vintage rides' thread and I'll have to put some of my girlfriend's and my rides up there as soon as I finish editing pics.
I commend you for reading this far... On to the questions!
One of the more interesting and unsusal frames I've come across in my travels: a Nishiki Olympiad. Not "Olympic", "Olympiad". My girlfriend picked this up for $10 at a thrift store a few months ago. Forged dropouts with "WCCSC" on them (I have what looks like an early Nishiki International with the same dropouts, anyone know what they are?). 70mm BB shell (didn't know they ever did that on Japanese bikes). 26.0 seatpost. Serial #: KS135164 with a little winged "W" below. Sticker at the top of the seat tube says "KB Bicycle" in a box with a diagonal stripe (bottom left to top right). Sticker at the bottom of the seat tube says "Produced for American Eagle in Japan". Originally had steel cottered cranks with the Nishiki or KB 'box and diagonal stripe' logo on it. Dia-Compe gut-ripper 21.16mm quill stem with 0.833 (size in inches) and "1P" stamped on it. Dia-Compe suicide levers with no date code inside or out that I can find.
Had Weinmann center-pulls on it I think, but unless "74-7" stamped on the back of the front arm is an early date code we're not sure where they are right now.
I've done all the homework I can think to do, but seeing as how there's almost no info on American Eagle/Nishiki out there I'm stumped. I've found only one reference to a Nishiki Olympiad on the internet (and that only after hours of searching) in the March 1973 issue of Texas Monthly, but it doesn't look like the article focuses on the bike and they want money to browse the archives so nuts to them. I'm guessing this thing has to be a 1973 transition deal from when Kawamura changed the American Eagle name to Nishiki, but why the weird BB shell? And who is 'KB Bicycle', I thought Kawamura was the head cheese around there? And why doesn't everyone have one of these things... that orange is great, it's what I imagine the inside of a clown looks like!
Anyway, sorry to take up so many electrons and thanks for all the expectant knowledge (hint, hint, T-Mar
).