Originally Posted by
chukdivad
Thanks oddjob2. As I continue to research and learn I see what you mean about the sum of the parts. As far as I can tell this bike seems to be quite a nice build for its time with some rare(ish) components. Safe to assume this was not a factory build?
Its over 30 years old. Many bicyclists routinely changed components over the years. When I find a 30 year old bike with all original parts, its usually because the owner rarely/never rode it. Bikes that get ridden get tweaks, sometimes to better fit rider, sometimes because the owner preferred other parts, sometimes just for the heck of it. Bikes that get such changes almost always do better on a part out.
And far as a factory "custom", realize Nishiki was a marking company, not a bicycle building company (no factory).
My guess is that bike did not originally come with a triple crankset. So the derailleur was probably changed to accommodate the triple crank.