Narhay

I like that KHS. Kinda looks like a mastodon.

jetboy 

The KHS is the same bike as centurion ironman-

btw: I realized that my blacked out car-killer may actually be a cyclocross frame. 3 cables bare on the top tube, 46/36 crank, cantilever brakes, mtb/flat pedals. I am starting to like this thing. too bad once its done its going to be a bit too small....

echo victor 

It's certainly a similar paint scheme and has the same Tange 1 / Shimano 600 combination of the Ironman (or Ironman Master), and with the "John Howard" endorsement the KHS was clearly intended to compete directly with the Centurion Ironman.

Or do you mean to suggest that it's the same bike as in they were produced in the same factory?

jmeb

Not sure what he meant to suggest, but given the Centurion contracted out their production (as I'm guessing KHS did) it doesn't seem beyond belief that they are the same bike with different branding. The fork and frame details look very similar.

jetboy 

I am not an authority(and this thread may not be the place to discuss at length) but I know a bit about Centurion Ironman- I have two, and the KHS triathlete has the same tubing, same groupset, very similar.. enough to be the same.. lug work and fork(from the 87 on expert or post 87 master.. before that its not unicrown), and has the same exact paint schemes (not just this red and white, but also the seafoam and white etc of 1987). They also share the early triathalon geometry. Both were sourced from Japan and not made in house.. There is a diminishing chance that they are not actually the same bike with different stickers.

which is a good thing- one of the best bikes ever built.

echo victor 

Yeah, it may be time to spin up a new thread to discuss. I'm certainly interested. I do think I've read something about KHS actually producing frames for other companies at some point, but I can't find the reference at the moment. Certainly the fact that all the decals are above the clear coat lends to the idea that the factory could quite easily have put KHS decals on some and Centurion decals on others. I'll take a look at the serial number - maybe it'll match the Centurion Ironman format.

Nice! If I can get this thing running well, maybe I'll finally get a sense of what people like about the Ironman so much.

bmthom.gis

Before I put a Brooks on it, my Sports would have come in total under $100. As it is now...I have a Schwinn Suburban that I have spent a total of $22 on, and that was for a Wald basket. If it is listed for over $100 on CL I hardly give it a 2nd look! There's a Trek 430 on the CL right now selling for $50. If it wasn't alloy I would probably go for it.

jefnvk

Cool idea! Wish I had the room to buy another, but I've had a 3 Speed Schwinn Collegiate sitting untouched on the project pile for a few months now that I picked up for $24, that's got all of a half mile of my riding on it, that could be interesting to finally tackle and take 100km!

Ha, got the same for the same price, just in red! I'm with you on the cons, though, I've got better plans for it.

Bradleykd

I disassembled most of the Puch tonight. Looks like all I will NEED is cables/housing and brake pads. Maybe will need some ball bearings, that bottom bracket is pretty wobbly.

I should be able to take care of that with stuff from the co-op while staying under my $25 balance. Everything else I do will be free.

oddjob2

I'm not playing, at least not with this Sekai 4000 in black. 56mm seat tube. But if you're within driving distance of Detroit, you can certainly have a fetching entry given all the patina on this frame for a low, low acquisition price. Probable stuck seat post included at no extra cost. Currently mostly disassembled.

Darth_Firebolt

I'm in. One of my friends from high school just dropped off her campus beater since she knows I like bikes. It's a heavy Schwinn 10 speed with drop bars. I'm not quite sure what it is, but the rear wheel is bent and there's some rust. I also have an older huffy road bike with aluminum rims and new tires I fixed up for my FIL. Rode it once and said it hurt his hip, and refused to reimburse me the $75 I spent on it, so I refused to return it to him. If I can get rid of the Huffy and get the Schwinn rolling, it'll be a double whammy and the wife will be glad to see a bike LEAVE the garage for once.

Pompiere

I am debating using the $5 Huffy that I got last week. It looks like it hasn't been ridden 100 km total. New tires and tubes, a little grease and oil and it can do 100 km. Maybe not all at once, but 10 km over 10 rides shouldn't be a problem.

jetboy 

lets see some pics @Pompiere and @Darth_Firebolt I need to size up the competition.

dweenk 

I am in with a step through Raleigh Sports bought for $20.00. The rear tube is OK, but I'll need to replace both tires and one tube. When I hung it from my over-the-joists work stand, everything seemed to work.

Here is my starting point.

Narhay

Nice sports. Lots you can do with $80.

New contest rule: no talking about a potential contest bike without photos. We need pitchers.

Andy_K 

So I've hardly done anything but planning, and I'm already really enjoying this challenge.

I realized that I'd never be able to bring the Schwinn I pictured earlier in under budget without going back to the original fork and trying to straighten it, and even then I'd probably have to delude myself about the value of some parts I had on hand. I might still try that as a secondary project, but in the spirit of the challenge I decided it was back to the drawing board.

That decision was made easier by coming across this bike on CL for $30.



Seeing how it looks in this picture also clarifies for me the likely nature of some of the earlier pictured project bikes. I had been thinking that people going out and buying a very nearly ready bike just weren't challenging themselves, but looking at the picture above I see that it looks pretty decent, whereas in reality it's a pile of rust that I wasn't really comfortable walking next to without checking to be sure my tetanus shot was up-to-date.

echo victor 

Hahaha. Well put.

Yeah, your Clubman looks pretty good at first glance. I had to look quite closely to see its true Clunker potential.

Bradleykd

It's the "Rule of 10s." At 10 feet away or at 10 mph, they look pretty good.

Meanwhile, I spent some time cleaning gold spray paint off of my brake pads last night...

Pompiere

Here's my $5 Huffy Techtra. According to the decal on the seat tube, it is "designed and engineered with advanced high strength lightweight materials". So far, I have only washed it and sprayed all the rust with WD40, and I threw some tires on for a short test ride. With the low starting price, I can afford to put a lot of lipstick on this pig to make it suitable for 100 km.

Fahrenheit531 

@Pompiere: After the game you can probably sell that one to @Johnny_Mullet, our resident Huffyophile.

jmeb

Tempted to try to extract this bb on a $60 mt hood to make a go of it (include new BB as well). Currently trying to decide between it and the GT below....

Kobe 

Is that Ross chromed? Chrome always gets extra style points. As long as that is not your seat I height I would use the Ross.

Andy_K 

I thought I'd share some detail pics of the Steyr Clubman above to illustrate the awesome power of the "Rule of 10s" but also perhaps the potential of this clunker.



I know the wheels are replacements and I'm fairly certain that the SunTour shifters and cable stops are not original, as everything else on the bike right down to the kickstand and the toe straps came from a European company, but I think it's mostly "as sold." It's got an AVA stem that I think would perfectly complement the Ishiwata fork on my Trek.

This last bit of ugly has me concerned. I'm hoping that it's just some sloppiness in the dropout attachment weld that has subsequently picked up some surface rust but preparing myself for the possibility that this will have to be just a donor bike. I haven't have time to take a closer look since discovering this ridge.



Even the camera didn't want to look at it, preferring instead to focus on the freewheel.

jetboy 

nice crop of clunkers. I wish I had more time to work on mine as I am pretty excited, but I am busy with travel etc for the next two weeks.. so I wont even get to finish stripping the paint until July. I am now decided to attempt a full cyclocross - the biggest issue will be the tires and the 9 speed rear cassette. I think I can swing the cassette but the tires..... I have been eyeing the recycle bins at the various LBS to see if anything usable comes up.

rules question: My clunker find came with a pretty nice ultegra FD - best component on the bike (but for a road crank - bottom pull), if I can trade that for a decent top pull mountain/CX FD can I call that even?

edit: and dang, that clubman is rusty. 100% a clunker. Hope that dropout is just ugly and not structural.

crank_addict

If there was a vote and at this time, I'd probably select this one. Go for it with just a few cans of WD40 and Slime to the tubes. Nothing more. The challenge is if it'll make the 100k.