bark_eater 

Picked this up the other day, primarily to rob it of its racks and fenders. Its actual got a lot of neat little integrated features that I'll get better pictures of before taking it apart. Its got 26 x 1 3/8 wheels on it and the replacement rear derailleur is an interesting mechanical interpretation. One neat detail that I need to get a picture of is a rear hub polisher made of braided jute. Tre' Wabi -sabi...







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randyjawa 

At a yard sale, less than a block away from my house, I scored this old Skyway for five bucks. Disc brake, elliptical cottered crank rings, tool boxes - lot of littlee features, just as the OP said. Cleaned it up and donated it to Bicycles for Humanity several years ago...

bark_eater 

The head tube on this one has a weird wear spot, I guess from the brake cables. It looks like it might be chrome underneath.

T-Mar

Skyway were imported into Canada and the USA by C. Itoh, a Japanese trading company who partnered with Bridgestone and Nissan. During the early 1970s boom era, C. Itoh had their own eponymous brand, Kabuki and also imported Bridgestone. We've seen several Bridgestone manufactured Skyway. Randy's example is Bridgestone manufacture, as it has the distinctive, bulky lugs with faux spear points that are indicative of Bridgestone's, die cast aluminum lugs. The OP's bicycle does not appear to have the die cast lugs but does appear to have the Nikko Sanyo bulge formed head tube with integral lugs and crimped stay ends with spot welded dropouts that were found on many entry level Bridgestone products. If it is Bridgestone manufacture, the year can be determined from the serial number.

bark_eater 

You can see the rub mark on the head tube above the badge. it certainly could be aluminum. I'll confirm tomorow.

thumpism 

It looks from here like the derailleur claw is bolted to an eyelet in the dropout instead of using the little C nut in the dropout slot. Not uncommon for someone to bodge this if they lost a small part or were unfamiliar with the conventional mounting.

cudak888 

Any closeups of how that rack bolts on, by chance? Straight to the fender, or to the fork crown?

-Kurt

T-Mar

I'm used to seeing the aluminum, die cast head tubes having faux lugs, similar to Randy's. I guess yours could be an earlier version but I think it's a steel, bulge formed unit. A magnet test will confirm the material.

BTW, I went back and checked my (undated) Skyway catalogue. There's a model similar to yours that was listed as a Sports Mark-3, so yours may be a newer variant.

Kabuki12

Kabuki made mostly low end bikes but they were not priced as low as the other bikes in their category. They also made some interesting higher end bikes that were of basic chrome molly tubing but were fairly light and had tight geometry. My late seventies Diamond Formula that I purchased new is a fully lugged frame with vertical rear dropouts that was, when I purchased it new, a very light , quick bike. I immediately upgraded the bike with SS spokes laced to Gentleman wheels , replacing the 27” with700c that was all the thing back then. I still love the way that bike rides and it is now back to 27” Araya rims laced to Campy HF hubs and Campy NR everything else. Sentiment being the better part of the equation , it is one of my favorites! I chose my BF handle because of that bike. I was living on a sail boat and my wife and I did not drive cars for a while. Kabuki made a SS bike called the Submariner which I bought for her. A very heavy bike but they held up pretty well in the environment. Joe. joesvintageroadbikes.wordpress

T-Mar

Kabuki was not a manufacturer. It was a marketing brand owned by C. Itoh, a Japanese trading company. Originally, C,Itoh partnered with Bridgestone, who manufactured the early Kabuki models. C.Itoh also handled the distribution of Bridgestone owned brands. After the early 1970s bicycle boom went bust, many of the Japanese bicycle manufacturers severed relationships with their distributors and set up their own USA distribution and sales divisions, eliminating the middle man in an attempt to preserve profit margins. The relationship between C.Itoh and Bridgfestone followed this pattern, starting to break down in the wake of the boom. C.Itoh started sourcing from less expensive sources and Bridgestone eventually set up their own USA based division.

Kabuki was originally a full range brand, The boom era Diamond Road, Diamond Touring and Diamond Track were very fine bicycles, on par with the best of the Japanese mass production manufacturers, such as Fuji and Miyata. However, when the boom crashed in 1975, bicycle sales were cut in half. Most affected were the high end models from the mass production manufacturers. Independent distributors, who no longer had access to the mass production manufacturers were introducing brands from smaller manufacturers who concentrated on mid and high end models. Consumers looking for high end models flocked to these new (to the USA), exotic brands. As a result of this market shift, the Kabuki product line was reduced in the late 1970s, eliminating the poorly selling upper end models. Your Diamond Formula is a late 1970s, downgraded successor to the highly regraded Diamond Road.

bark_eater 

One thing I noticed is that the brake pads are all the way up on both brakes calipers . Any chance the bike was originally designed for something besides 26 x 1 3/8 wheels?

Kabuki12

You may be right as I was just getting into cycling at the time. I relied on the sound advice of my friend who raced and owned a bike shop at Channel Islands harbor. Stan Johnson built and rode some beautiful racing bikes and after cycling class at the local community college, he would teach me about cycling(cycling vs riding a bike) , encouraging me to do much longer and faster rides. The Diamond Formula could keep up with the more expensive European bikes and was lighter.Now that I own bikes I could not afford back then, I see the wisdom of the Columbus or Reynolds tubing and the forged dropouts on the higher end bikes of those times. The main thing for me was the comfort of the tight geometry and the fork angle just works for me on my Kabuki (again sentiment being the main factor!)plus they have a really cool head badge(humor). I have had a couple of discussions with Grant Peterson about this, even though my bike was prior to his involvement with Bridgestone. I cannot even begin to count all the miles this bike has on it and has many more to go , God willing. I always appreciate your incredible knowledge of these bikes and I am amazed at how much information you have retained, a true keeper of the flame! Thank you , really . Joe

bark_eater 

Got some more pictures. The lugs are aluminum and the rack attaches to the fender. I also did a quick eyeball MKI check and it looks like I could swap the wheels out for 26" wheels. The existing calipers might just hit the rims but long reach center pulls would definitely work. Maybe a little goofy but my son will be big enough for this bike at some point and I'm not letting him ride anything with steel rims.

John E

My 21" 1962 bottom-of-the-line Bianchi Corsa had a steel head tube with fake lugs, complete with pinstriped outlines, gold on my red one and red on my brother's gold one.