Got a chance to do some wrenching on it, and ditched the hideous super riser stem. It had one of those welded steel stems with about an 80+ degree rise, that was way taller than needed. Sugino Impel crank, 9 speed XT with brifters eventually. Need an FD and some gravel grinder tires. CrMo frame and fork, with the frame sticker stating made in the US from US and Foreign made components. It doesn't state what parts were made in the US, however. Maybe the frame, since all of the components were Japanese? Using some Deore LX canti's for the moment, but they're the dreaded plastic spring casing, so who knows when they will give up. I have a 31.8 Bontrager drop bar, so I may get one of the affordable Nitto steel stems. The plan is to do some light offroading with it. Lets hope Knobby 700's are easier to find now, than 3-5 years ago. Back then the only CX style tires I could find were tubulars, or heavy as hell Origin 8's.,,,,BD

I also need a set of 9 speed wheels. I am NOT looking forward to shopping for them. Too old to be common, and too new to be back in style.

Great colors. Aren't most wheels 8+ speed these days? You should have tried to find fat knobby 700c tires back in '94 when Bianchi more or less invented the '29er but called them 700c Mountain Bikes.

Yeah, but 700c 9sp. with wide enough rims that aren't aero road rims = not easy to find. I want to run 35-42 tire size. I found a set of Velocity A23, that takes a 9sp. cassette, and not super narrow. They might work. Most of the wheels I "could" buy are disc brake hubs, and no braking surface. 29er's or CX. Sometimes up to a grand a set which is ridiculous for a bike I spent $92 on. The super reasonable ones all seem to be freewheel threads. 7 speed is the absolute maximum for a freewheel in my humble opinion. At an average of 230+ body weight, I would snap hollow 7 speed axles in two on a semi regular basis.

If you have a pair of sturdy 7spd shipmano wheels why not find a donor hub and swap out the axles set and the freehub body? Lots of guys used to use MA40s for 'cross back in the day.

Looks mid-1990s. It's actually a Nishiki Sport XRS. The USA reference could be to the Raleigh factory in Kent Washington. West Coast Cycle Supply, the Nishiki owner, had been purchased by Derby in 1989 and Derby also owned the Raleigh brand. So, it might be Kent assembled or even a Kent manufactured frame. If so, the serial number should tell us the exact manufactured date.

These will work for tires, only a tiny bit smaller than I wanted. BTD though... I ordered a set of tires from them once, and it took 17 days to get them, after being charged immediately. I would love some skinwalls, but that seems to be a premium price,,, $75 each on average for GOOD tires.


https://www.biketiresdirect.com/prod...yclocross-tire

I know, was just doing the whole brevity thing. It actually seems to have two serial numbers. One in a tiny font, and the other much larger.

YF940J0656 & R932540053

Frame sticker....
.

Rims are made in USA Weinmann's.

I wonder if Parallax or whatever, is Shimano interchangeable. Seems like it would be. The rear on the bike stock is a 7 speed cassette type, and I have a 9 speed mountain wheel set which might be a good donor if I can pull it off. I am building another 9sp mountain bike, and I am not going to be using those original wheels due to hourglass brake wear. I have an NOS set of grey Deore LX hubs, and got a set of Rhyno Lite rims for them, that I am going to have built for the mtb. I have not had my local guy build a set of rims in a loooooong time, but he is an artist, and works cheap! He rebuilt a set of wheels for my 84 Trek 520, and they only went out of true once on the first ride and barely noticeable unless put on the truing stand. Once straightened they have been perfect, and have never warped even a mm since then.

We've seen the double serial numbers before. The frame was contract manufactured then shipped to Kent. Other samples show paint fill in the Kent number, so it appears that Kent painted , decaled and assembled the bicycles. The frame was stamped by Kent on day 354 of 1994, which should make it a 1995 model. Decal matches my literature in that the CrMO tubing is unidentified and thee's no mention of butting. The lack of butting isn't surprising given the $320 US MSRP.

Don't restrict your self to 9 speed wheels. 9 speed cassettes will fit on 8 speed freehubs, as the cassette is only ~1mm wider.

The mtb I am also building at the same time. Yeah I know too modern to be vintage. It should perform well though. The donor wheel for the 9 sp conversion shown mounted.

I don't have any 8 sp. hubs, but I do have the 9 sp hub to rob parts from, on the mtb shown. I have to find that HUGE allen wrench though. We might have that size at work.,,,,BD

Your Nishiki is a lot like what I did a few years ago with a Trek 700. It rode nice on the hard pack trails!

Total luck!! I opened a drawer on my toolbox, and found the quill to threadless adaptor! So, I have set of barson it now, the bars I wanted to use all along. Origin 8 Gary Bar. Feels like a perfect fit!,,,,BD


Nice Trek!!! We had a thread a good while back about hybrids being turned into do everything bikes. I wonder if it could be dug up and resurrected?

Ordered a set of these! Can't wait to see how they ride.

Got the axle out of the donor hub this evening after work. One of the cones is blown out, and the other is perfect. Hopefully I have enough parts from the two hubs, to make one good one. Either way it will be nice to have freshly built/lubed hubs to ride on. The hub the parts are going into, seems to be the same general shape, but from before the "Parallax" designation. Hopefully the cones are good, or will interchange. The freehub came undone like buttah. Didn't even have to force it.,,,,BD