Thanks. I read that over at Sheldon and saw your flickr page. Very helpful, but still confused.

In the mean time, I got more info on these bikes being special models from someone else. He said:

I can back this story up. I knew about these bikes at the time. The original deal was a cycling tour in Finland with a bike included. So the airline might have been Finnair. Ridgewood Cycle had a vast basement and bought up the surplus bikes. The ones I have seen were orange in color and all 22". Frame and paint to the usual Mondia standards but for the plain steel dropouts. Sugino Mighty Cranks and Suntour derailleurs. Wienmann brakes, clincher tires. The Sugino Mighty BB was Swiss thread, which is very uncommon. I hunted one down in Ridgewood about 2000 and bought it. The shop sort of remembered them then. Probably one of the better oddball cycling values ever. Like a Mirella.