Kabuki by Bridgestone Superlight
 

Not sure what year or really much else about it.

Some google-fu tells me it's probably mid to late 70's. It is most likely aluminum and the "lugs" should be aluminum cast around the tubes themselves while the they were in a jig or something like that.

Not sure about it's value or any history of the bike. It's gonna need a complete overhaul. Everything cleaned and repacked. Some parts are gonna need a rust bath. New cables, housing, etc. The tubes still hold air but i will most likely just replace them. The tires have some kind of moss growing on the sidewalls so they will need to be replaced. Wheels appear tru which is one plus.

All the components appear to be the original parts

Suntour stem shifters
Derailleurs are
Suntour VGT luxe (rear)
Suntour Compe-V (front)
SR Cranks w/ BS crests on the crank arms (Bridgestone?)
Dia Compe center-pulls and levers
Sakae Champion Bars
Some Chrome top tube cable clips
Araya Alloy 27 x 1 1/4 rims
Hubs are nasty and i can't tell what they are.

Soo what's it worth? I only paid $30.00

http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/g...8/IMAG0682.jpg
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/g...8/IMAG0683.jpg
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/g...0914-00010.jpg

Thanks for your time!

Looks to be a pretty good deal for $30. Late 70's model in what looks like decent condition pretty orginal and complete. It does have realy small from for someone about 5' to about 5'4" which does add a bit of a premium to the price. Nicely cleaned up and tuned ready to ride to should be worth about $150. Likely needs all the bearings serviced new cables tires and and chain to get it riding real nice.

Based on my currrent understanding of the Bridgestone serial numbers, this one should be circa 1975. It's a great find for $30.

Cool good info i wasn't sure if Kabuki would use the same Serial Numbers as Bridgestone bikes. It's way way way too small for me but i wasn't going to leave it sitting in the rain any longer for only $30.00

Well if it's not your size it should be pretty easy to do quick clean and fix up flip for a pretty good pofit. Also if your into C&V stuff a building up fixing old road bikes it has about $100 or so worth of parts if you wanted to strip it for future builds. About $40 for the shift group and $60 or so for the vintage alloy wheels plus whatever the other parts are worth. You did good not let this one sit in the rain for this price I would have snapped it up as well.

I really find it interesting how many eyelets and braze-ons there are on this thing. it has top and bottom eyelets on the fork and two sets on the rear dropouts. then it also has two on the insides of the chainstays in the back. any ideas what those would have been for? It definitely appears to have been intended to be a touring bike.

The eyelets on the bike are interesting. All of the Bridgestone built bikes I have seen from the 70's also had the multiple eyelets. I suspect this is because Bridgestone made its dropouts in house and likely used the same ones on all of the lower end models. The chain guard eyelets inside the frame are for the five speed commuter models that had a chain guard and full fenders.

Most boom era, entry level bicycles had dual sets of eyelets, one for fenders and one for a rack. It was not uncommon for even high racing models to have one set for fenders. This was copying the European convention where the entry level models served as commuters and recreational tourers and the amateur racers used fenders for training in the wet, spring weather.

As for the extra eyelets inside the rear triangle, they're not for a chainguard, though they could be used for that purpose. A chainguard would only require one eyelet and the chainguard equipped Kabuki/Bridgestone of the era actually used a clamp on the seat stay. The eyelets are for mounting a disc brake caliper.

i can only imagine 1970's disc brakes and calipers it just sounds scary.

Thanks for the info. I am going to check one out for $50 this afternoon.