Originally Posted by
msl109
Helpful - thanks ! So they never chromed the head tube lugs of the production Ultimas? Did yours ever have a top tube model name decal? Yours looks much the same as mine with differences you've noted. Only other thing I notice is your fork lugs are different. What makes you guess yours is a 79? I thought they would have had top tube brazes by then, but maybe I'm mistaken. Thanks loads for the nail polish tip. Was going to take the fork to a cosmetics store ...
I've never seen chromed head tube lugs except on that one bike. My 1979 guess was based mostly on the serial numbers here and on the Classic Rendevous list. Since you mentioned the top tube guides, I went and had another look at the scans on bulgier.net. Sure enough, the 1979 pictures show brazed on cable guides but the 1978 pictures do not, though the description in the '78 catalog next to the pictures says that the top tube guides are brazed on. So maybe mine is a '76 or or '77.
Interestingly, in the '78 scans the fork crown on the Ultima looks like mine (except that it has A-D pantographed into it) and the fork crown on the Superleicht looks like yours.