Originally Posted by
SoCaled
A trip down memory lane for me...but I get lost on that lane, these days!
This was the first "serious" new bike I bought from a dealer BITD and same color scheme but perhaps a year or 2 later than '72.
Pretty much same details (Silk fork and chrome lugs, mainly same components with a lousy quilt-top saddle) but the OEM wheels on mine were some model Ukai tubular with "plastic filled" rims and that was what killed the love-affair for me!
Couldn't ride more than a week without hitting "puncture vine" (AKA goathead or devilhead thorns) and then trying to master tubular tire repairs as a newbie?...not gonna happen!
IIRC these were fairly light frames, pretty well finished and some flavor of Cro-moly tubing I suspect was the forerunner of Tange Champion No.1, plus priced very competitively,
This New Brand (Nishiki, ne American Eagle) was after market share in the Bike Boom!
I traded mine back to the shop for a "Semi-Pro" in rootbeer brown that fit me better and had clinchers, but was not in the same league as these "Pros".