70's NIC Sakura Japanese road bike
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70's NIC Sakura Japanese road bike
I bought this japanese road bike at the swap meet for $30, came with everything except rims and shifters. The lug work looked nice and the frame had that nice vintage feel. Even though the brand is unheard of to me i think it may be more rare than quality. Please give me your opinion because there is absolutely nothing on google.
Frame - NIC Sakura 54cm Mark V: Le luxe ten speed
Cranks - Maxy 3-piece
Bars/Stem - SR Road chamion
Brakes/Levers - Arai
Seatpost/Saddle - Taihei compe
Pedals - KKT RT SF
Rear D - Shimano Titlist GT
Thank you
https://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...911_170017.jpg
https://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...911_170049.jpg
https://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...911_170029.jpg
https://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...911_170212.jpg
Components - https://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...911_170400.jpg
Frame - NIC Sakura 54cm Mark V: Le luxe ten speed
Cranks - Maxy 3-piece
Bars/Stem - SR Road chamion
Brakes/Levers - Arai
Seatpost/Saddle - Taihei compe
Pedals - KKT RT SF
Rear D - Shimano Titlist GT
Thank you
https://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...911_170017.jpg
https://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...911_170049.jpg
https://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...911_170029.jpg
https://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...911_170212.jpg
Components - https://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...911_170400.jpg
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It's a low end bike that was probably made by a different company and then marketed to retail stores under Sakura. Not many were sent to the US, and I don't think that many were ever sold because doing a web search turned up nothing. It may be that none were ever sent to the US and someone bought it in some other country then had it shipped here. I've never heard of the brand in my 40+ years of riding.
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low end boom bike but a good candidate for a beater bike, college campus commuter.
Get some Savogran wood bleach, make a 2-3% solution in water, and soak your steel parts to remove the rust.
I'd convert it to singlespeed and reuse the brakes.
Get some Savogran wood bleach, make a 2-3% solution in water, and soak your steel parts to remove the rust.
I'd convert it to singlespeed and reuse the brakes.
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Hello Owen. It's the Sakura Mark V, so that's got to be better than the I, II, III, and IV, right? I'm not sure where the dividing mark in Sakura's lineup was where you step up to the "deluxe" models. All goofing aside, what you have there is a classic post boom period bike. The foil stickers applied directly to the bike frame was at least popular til the mid 1970's (maybe later), as was a stem design with the hex bolt sticking up like that. The crank and stem look alloy, thats a good thing, as is the nifty riveted head bag (NIC, National Institute of Cycling?). Supposedly, some of the odd ball brands like Sakura were the very same bikes sold under more known names like "Gitane" or "Motobecane" but were badge engineered so that suppliers could sell the same bike to otherwise competing bike shops when one shop had the exclusive right to be the only retailer of a certain brand. My buddy who worked in a brand new Schwinn authorized bike shop (in the early 70's) said that during there grand opening, Schwinn supplied them with exactly "one" bike. There biggest selling block during those years was finding something to sell (and everything did sell). I find these entry level bikes interesting... some may be one of a few with that label applied to it, who knows? Even though these bikes were made in the millions, there lowly status has doomed them, most of them being fed to the scrap heaps. I like them, but I might be one of the three people in the whole of the USA who does. At one time, 99% of the people in the United States were riding bikes like this, perfectly happy with them for their biking needs. Like others have said, it is a good (dare I say great) beater. Try to go a local bike coop or bike shop who shares the same outlook on bikes like this. The secret is to to piece it back together on the cheap, learn some bike mechanic stuff on the way, and enjoy it for the slice of bike history it represents.
Last edited by uncle uncle; 09-12-11 at 06:48 PM. Reason: typo
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Thank you so much uncle, I do agree that this was a bike boom product but definitely not sold in the millions. There are no traces of this brand but it looks well made. Im taping of those decals and painting it a classic orange, Beadblasting that rust off, all i need is some 70's downtube shifters and new cables. I have been buying and selling bikes for a few months now and have learned so much. I have also bought some real strange and great bikes along the way, the most pathetic was the Huffy Aerowind phase one, Most prized is my Frejus professional which is in mid restoration.
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I know I'm raising this post from the dead; but it just came up on one of my random searches.
I'd like to see the pics you posted as they are dead now.
I owned a NIC bike in the late 70's. Here's my thread trying to find out information about it - I got none.
https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...NIC?highlight=
I'd like to see the pics you posted as they are dead now.
I owned a NIC bike in the late 70's. Here's my thread trying to find out information about it - I got none.
https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...NIC?highlight=
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