Thanks Fabio, everything I read says late 80's early 90's so I'm going to lean toward '89 since the graphics are different than the brochure you posted.

What's the difference? i don't see it. Or do you mean some decals are missed or on another place?

I also only ran standard cranks. But a few years ago I got into single speed bikes which is what I now ride most of the time and I run a 50-18. So now on my geared bikes I prefer a 50-34 and in the area I live with just some rolling hills (Scotland Co, NC) I'm in the 50T 100% of the time, I don't even go into the small ring when I come to a stop. And I still have lower gear options than my SS. Heck, I hardly have to use my 28T cog. But the 34 is a great climbing gear when I go out to the mountains so I personally would be good with a 48/34.

That's a beautiful bike, one of the coolest ones I've seen. If I didn't have too many bikes already I might have posted it after I bought it.

Yeah your catalog photos show large seat tube & downtube decals. I'm fine and actually like just the smallish top tube decal, but I'd really like to have something on the head tube, it just looks so bare with nothing there. I wonder if Velocals would have or could make a Litage head tube decal?

We're both on mostly flat land and I also never use the small ring, but on my last acquisition I got to experience a 53 up front and a "corncob" rear cluster and I love it ! I guess my longer legs just make me more of a masher and I was noticeably faster on that bike than any of my others, especially when sprinting for the "end of ride" finish. I'd even like to try going larger than a 53 just to see if my performance keeps improving, but on the Litage as a minimum I'd like to get to 52. I do have experience with a 48, my 2nd bike ('12 Trek Alpha) had a compact set up with a 48 and I was just never very fast on that bike.

Check cyclomondo.net under Japan

I had more than I remembered on my harddisk.

Does the name SR SAKAE that appears on the above catalog pages preclude the possibility of there being any connection between the Marui-SR brand and the later SR Litage bikes?

From earlier posts in different threads, the SR bike brand distributed by Windsor Industries seemed to be associated with these Litage bikes, but I suspect otherwise.

I sort of recall seeing a Litage-branded, bonded aluminum stem on a mountainbike, but could I be mistaken about that?