since6

This is my waiting for back surgery bike, my turn down the wick and ride what you can with L5 nerve pain, my drop weight and turn a page, this bike is about gratitude.I’m glad I didn’t win the bidding war for that vintage Italian race bike last week, it was a beautiful Italian race bike, but I am glad I lost.Because, you see, it happened again,….for the fourth time.I started this hobby by accident/luck. This hobby, the enjoyment of beautiful, crafted art, of vintage bikes you ride, you participate in. I never could do more than look at them through a bike shop window, in the poverty that is being a young man. But many decades later I went with a friend looking for vintage bike parts at a local vintage bike/car sale and there I came across a Nishiki Professional with a complete Campagnolo Nuovo (sp?) Record Gruppo and for a hundred bucks I started. Since then it has been joined with an even older Nishiki Professional, and a grail bike “H. Hagiwara-Erba” and then there is this, what I found and then won the bidding war on a couple weeks ago.

But first I need your help, here's what I can tell you about this bike from its frame and components:




This is all I know about the tubing used to make this frame, this one decal does it mean anything to any of you?
But there's one more thing, when I took it out of its shipment box I felt "light" and sure enough on the scales without its racing toe clip pedals the bike weighed 20.50 lbs.
Let me know if you can tell me anything about the tube set for this bike (and yes I will post pictures of the frame, etc.) later.

since6

It has this beautiful bottom bracket with serial number as shown above. Does this tell us anything, do you recognize it. Again thanks for all help.

since6

Finally it has these beautiful Shimano drop outs front and rear, rear drop outs have a long entry. Looking at them with the age I believe this bike to be I felt bad tightening the quick release on chrome this nice.

since6

Now as to the components:

Hubs: Sun Shine Pro-Am hubs front and read stamped "76" and they spin like butter still.

Sugino Crank Arm (130 BCD never sure if get that right BCD/BDC you know what I mean): stamped 47-11 which I believe is November 1972

Rear Dearailleur: Shimano First Generation Dura Ace Black marked "X A - 2" , guess February, 1976 (Could not find marking on First Generation Dura Ace Black front derailleur.

Will go take some more pictures and post in a bit, this is as close to a time capsule as my Nishiki Professional, except instead of Campagnolo gruppo, other than the Sugino cranks and Sun Shine Pro-Am hubs the rest is Shimano Dura Ace First Generation Black.

Again any light you can shed on this bike from the above is welcome.

3speedslow

since6

You are looking at a Takahishi Sannow Sport bicycle, made in Tokyo in the mid-late 70s, a race bike for someone who wanted something very special. Lovely head tube badge, you can't see it but between the crown tips the filler is green.

since6

With Shimano First Generation Dura Ace brake levers, and yes I have the brake hoods...but....to say that they are sad, e.g., had to be cut off, is putting things mildly, but note the original (?) cloth bar tape.

since6

But now we get into things I did not expect. I only had pictures to go on and guessed that what I saw was a very nice Japanese race bike with Shimano First Generation Dura Ace Black components and then from posts answers figured out there was also a Cinelli seat, but I never imagined to find this black, drilled relief/cast relief handlebar with the Eagle and World Champion on it. Again if bikes could talk someone put thought and soul into the build of this their racing bike.

since6

And then another thing I did not expect. I knew that the stem was a Grand Compe stem, but I never saw a picture of it head on. Here is a lightened forged racing stem again time machine.

since6

Lovely chromed lug tops, but again I didn't know re-enforced long lugs for the fork stays.

Narhay

I had a suntour superbe stem with the clamp area milled just like that. Found it in the $5 co-op bin.

since6

I expected the lovely chrome head tube lugs, but again not the gold inside the lug cut out. On the issue of chrome, the entire frame has been chrome plated, with highlights polished.

since6

Shimano Dura Ace First Generation Black shift levers and brakes.

since6

First Generation Dura Ace Black front and back derailleur.

since6

And then the lugwork, brake bridge, chain stay bridge, fast back chromed seat stay.

since6

And then there was that seat that I did not know but you helped me understand what is was and when it was made. Again didn't know, really it's perfect, no wear, no tears and a "Belt" of Japan seat post.

since6

Drilled Shimano chain rings and Sun Shine Pro-Am hubs.

since6

Final surprise, Mavic rims with tubular tires and black Japanese racing pedals.

since6

Gratitude, someone in the 70s built up their dream race bike. It bears chips and one small ding, but somehow it survived. I will restored this to ride, likely change to clincher rims, but keep the Mavic's.
The plan is to fix this up and pass through surgery, then three months of recovery/ P/T and see if I can be ready for the 40 mile Eroica, will they have it? And so I found this bike candy to let it all work, the 130 crank means I can go down to a 38T up front, but with this I can go to a 34T in back, and that's a plan.



Again, gratitude.

cdmurphy

You lucky duck! That bike was built by Miki, and appears to be identical to the Centurion Professional (Very close copy of a Cinelli Super Corsa). Normally, there would be a digit in the serial number between the "M" and "F" for the year, but yours seems to be missing it. (I had a Centurion Pro Tour, also by Miki that was stamped with the same "missing" year digit. It's serial was "MF10125 ", putting it only 425 bikes before yours, in June of 1976. I guess they didn't catch that error for a while.) (Everything else on my Pro Tour was dated '76, making that year pretty likely.)

As for tubing, that's the decal used for Tange Champion tubing, from about 1975 to 1977. It's their top of the line, double butted Cr-Mo tubing, basically equivalent to Reynolds 531 or Columbus SL. I'm not sure if they had multiple thicknesses yet, but later they went to a number system of #1 -#5 , with #1 being the lightest, up to #5 being un-butted, straight gage tubing. The Centurion literature of the time specified Champion #1 on their Professional and Semi Pro models. I would be pretty confident assuming yours used #1 tubing as well.

cdmurphy

Another, more Eroica friendly option might be to swap out your Sugino Mighty cranks for a Sugino Mighty Tour. (If your cranks are Sugino, they're almost certainly 144mm BCD, not 130mm. Shimano (Takagi) were the only ones using 130mm in this era.) They're period correct, and with a 110 BCD, would allow you to run as small as a 34T inner.

Here's my Miki built 1976 Centurion Semi Pro sporting a Sugino Mighty Tour before Eroica;

DSCF4027.jpg

Salamandrine 

Another lovely and unique artisan made bike. How do you find these? I really dig the fork crown design especially. The flower cutout on the BB is amazing as well, and I love the completely unnecessary but wonderful gold fill in the lug cutouts. Awesome. This one's going to clean up very nicely.

What's going on with those handlebars? The color of the sleeve looks like titanium. Are they?? Could be nickel plated steel I suppose.

dr.spatula

since6

cdmurphy who is "Miki"? It is what I love about the collective knowledge of this forum, someone knows the back story or can explain something about your bicycle you never knew. And also thanks for your explanation on the tubing decal and why I'm looking at a 20.5 lb bike without pedals. One last good moment of today, a NOS set of Shimano First Generation Dura Ace cranks came up for sale on the Bay and once I opened the box and confirmed my suspicion that this was in fact a Shimano First Generation Dura Ace Black bike I took them off the market. So now, should I want to, I can replace the Sugino cranks with the correct Dura Ace cranks. Your observations about Cinelli being the design behind this bike was the same as my builder friend who said the same. Also what a lovely bike you have, it will take time and effort to get this bike to look so lovely. There is pitting on the Chrome lugs, rust on nuts, though to my great joy both the seat tube and the stem came out with little rust on either with neither welded to the steerer tube or seat tube. Somewhere four decades ago this bike was put away in a dry place with low humidity and so it survived. Once I have it all cleaned and rideable I will have to think about whether I have the frame clear coated or just go with really good car wax leaving the chips and nicks just as they are.

Salamandrine I don't know how I have been able to find such bikes, though here it was spotting the chrome lugs. I could not see the bike, only pictures and few of them, but then small details, drilled chain rings, one close up of the seat with the stamp in the leather and a post asking C&V members for help led to learning that it was a 70's racing seat, then looking at the derailleurs and finding them in Velo Base, Shimano First Generation Dura Ace Black. As I put things together the quality of components, lugged frame and that single frame decal which I could not read from the picture, I wondered if this was another vintage hand built racing bike like my H. Hagiwara-Erba? It was complete, a time capsule, someone's dream race bike. So I took a risk on my feelings and am so glad that I did. In a way this bike is the bookend to the bike that started this hobby my 80s Nishiki Professional with beautiful lugged Japanese frame and all Campagnolo Record components, whereas here we have again a beautiful lugged Japanese frame but with the best Japanese components except a classic Italian racing saddle and French Mavic tubular rims. Again. someone wanted those parts, if only bikes could tell their stories. But it helps, thanks cdmurphy, when someone can shine a light.

My thanks for any other insights you can share.

since6

I did find a prior post regarding the Sannow Sport bicycle on C&V and a website that has a 1960s Sannow Sport catalog.

Thanks to a post from 2frmMI:

“Zombie Revival!!
Just found this thread, and for the purpose of not letting info be lost, here goes...
I found the Sannow Sports bike shop in Tokyo sometime around 1984 or 85, if I recall. When I walked in the door and looked at the bikes I was immediately in love. The frames were "old school" even then. The jolly old proprietor came out and introduced himself as Takahashi-san. Some amount of conversation (limited by my rough Japanese language ability) and he let on to being an Olympic medalist in the 50's, though I've never been able to confirm that. Anyway, he had a set of candy-apple red frames hanging from the ceiling that were drop-dead gorgeous - like I had died and come back to life in a Cinelli factory. Metal flake candy-apple over chrome. Long cutout lugs in Cinelli style, more chrome on the fork crown and dropouts. I'm told that to do that, the whole frame is chromed, and I believe that, since over the years I've been a bad boy and chipped and banged mine up enough to find chrome all over the place (for example see the closeup of the lug area). Takahashi-san claimed these frames were a contract build for the Korean National Team. This was the start of a 2-week business trip for me, so I had him measure me up for exactly "one just like those". Tange "prestige" tubing, and T-san said I couldn't gain 10 pounds or I'd have to hang it up... When I got back to Tokyo, the frame was ready (though it was too quick for him to get the head badge and decals on), and we debated the running gear. He eventually convinced me to equip it with a majority of Suntour Superbe (and at the time he was the importer for Campagnolo, so pretty honest recommendation, I think). Superbe was some beautiful stuff and the market is the worse without it these days. I particularly liked the pedals and the hubs...sigh. Anyway, having brought the kit back to USA and put it together, I had a lot of interest from friends in Seattle, where I lived at the time. Subsequently imported a few more bikes from Takahashi (with help from a friend in the food import business - Blake, are you listening?), with the idea of becoming a grand entrepreneur, but alas, I am to this day only a bike rider. The bike sits today in our exercise room in an honorary position on a stand. Back in the day, I put a LOT of really great miles on this lovely bike (call it '84 thru ca. '94), including a high-point for me, a 3 digit STP (Seattle to Portland). I hope others will find this thread and add to the history, though the most knowledgeable will probably need translation.

”Sannow sports in 1960s - The catalogs of Japanese vintage bicyclecyclespeugeot.web.fc2.com/reminiscence/sannow60s.htmI've received several catalogs from many cyclists who visited this website. I greatly appreciate them. Here is the catalog of Sannow Sports in 1960s.

.From this 60s catalog I glean that there were Sannow Champion, Eminenza and Santa Rosa models, but I don’t know what model my Sannow is, again any help in identification is welcome.