Hey everybody, first post, figured I just read this front to back so Ill contribute. I have a dark green, 1968-70 American Eagle Semi-Pro, got it off my dbag ex buddy, Corey. We were smoking some buds in our mutual buddy's garage when I point at this old relic hanging from the ceiling. I had a 90s Fuji Palisade, but snapped the frame pretty bad at the very front of the down tube (250lbs of poor decision making meat on the seat). Our mutual buddy is 6'7" and I'm 6'4" so this looks like my size, I ask whats up with it. He says it needs tires and a tune up but works, and that I can have it for free. I told him I would swing by the next morning to get it. Morning comes, and wouldn't you know it, Corey already came and picked it up, looking for fast cash no doubt. After taking the pedals for himself he offers me the bike for $40, which I accepted. Apparently he spent all of his money on an Iro frame, Brooks saddle, deep V rims, etc and was only pedals shy of his most recent creation being completed.

No worries though, I got what I wanted.

Serial number KS47659, the lowest number semi pro I've seen. A whole digit shorter than most and 25k smaller serial number than the nearest numbered Semi-Pro here. It has a "Stones Cyclery of Alameda CA" glazed emblem on it, cool since I live there and frequent Stones. Also cool, it has a CA bicycle license sticker on it, Expired December 31st 1970. It also has all of the original stickers, except for the red/silver stickers on the forks where the chrome meets the paint. The hubs are sunshine high flange with the larger non circular holes, but I need to lace another rear outer rim to the original casette and hub as for some reason the front was all alloy, the rear had a rusty steel outer rim but matching hubs. For now my Fuji's rear wheel does the job. I polished the one piece Taihel Compe seat post until it revealed it's markings, and with a little hand sanitizer the Fuji seat no longer said Fuji on the sides, good enough for now. It originally had the very early compe stem seen in this thread, in the odd size, but it wasn't perfect and made the bars rest uneven. I took my Nitto stem off the Fuji and spun it and it's wedge on a lathe, then sanded very lightly until I could juuuuuust get it to slip in. The original drop bars were narrow for me so I went wide with Soma Roundwise 142mm drop 90mm reach bars, and rebuilt the stock brake levers with new shims and bright red pivot pins. Finally I unbent the secondary safety levers. I liked the look of the original all metal shift lines and I managed to find see-through (to the metal inside) housing material for the brakes but not the shift lines. Turns out you can use brake line housing for your shift lines even though the sizes are different, squeezes in the lugs just barely. MKS AR5 pedals from the Fuji also went on.

Being a tall frame means the Swiss made Pletscher rack that came with it sat crooked, but after some finess work with my BFH and little extenders where the rack meets the dropouts my rack now sits parallel to the top tube.

Funny enough the bike didn't have caps on the crankset, dug through the parts bins at the local shops and ended up with one cap from one shop, one from another shop across town to make a matching pair (stoner recall memory is hit and miss, that day it hit).

I have some questions though.

1: Does this bike have a detent to the steering when pointed straight ahead?

2: How old is my bike? Anywhere on the components I could look that doesn't require disassembly?

3: It has a chrome levered, stem mounted shifter with S's on the end of the levers instead of black plastic like later years. Appears factory but I have yet to see anyone else with them. Anyone seen these?

4: Honestly I know the front wheel isn't the strongest, it flexes to the point where I can hear it rub slightly when I'm pushing hard. Brakes are not set super tight, and it's pretty true. Between that and the fact that the original rear needs to be laced up should I get new outer rims laced to the original high flange hubs (original quick releases too) or would I be better off picking up a new set of wheels all together? I'm trying to keep it retro as possible without dying from a 50 year old design. I say this because the lip on the rim isn't tall as on modern bikes and I've been told to only go up to 70 psi for fear of the tire blowing off, if I don't taco it first. rim is an Araya "light alloy 27 x 1 1/4 w/o H.P." whatever that means.

I'll get pictures up later tonight. Sorry for rambling.

-Streichholzschächtelchen