1980s Japanese bike with Tange Prestige tubing?
 

I've been tasked with finding a 1980s vintage Japanese steel road bike that is constructed from Tange Prestige. Anyone have some brands/models that come to mind? I know Panasonic and I believe Nishiki had Tange Prestige models. Other than that I'm drawing a blank. Ideas?

Centurian, Bridgestone, Lotus and Miyata. Probably every Japanese manufacturer back then.

Oddly, Nishiki's "Prestige" model (a pretty nice bike) did not have a Tange Prestige tubeset -- at least not the 1986 model that I had first-hand experience of. I think that was Tange Infinity, which if I remember correctly was seamed double butted.

I know Miyata did not; they used their own in-house custom tubing. I know Bridgestone had some Mountain bikes with Prestige but I'm not aware of any of their road bikes that did?

I'll check out Centurion and Lotus -thanks.

Likely not what you're looking for but the Bianchi equinox was made of prestige tubing. It is a really neat cross bike.

New NOS 59.5cm Tange #2 double butted CroMoly road bicycle lugged frame & fork

https://www.ebay.com/itm/12471106678...m=124711066780

This is a non-named frame that a now closed bike shop in the north suburbs of Chicago (RRB) had built for the shop for sale between 1995 and 2000. I bought one and in the middle of building it. Very nice frame, can't say anything about the ride as its not finished yet.

He has different sizes ad colors.

Also not an 80's frame.

Off top of my head:
Centurion Prestige
Bianchi Alfana
Panasonic DX6000
Shogun Ninja
Univega Superstrada (late model)
Performance Focus (Taiwan made)
Medici (US made)

Nishiki Medalist, Champion No.1. Mine is from 1983.

'84/'85 Specialized Allez .. good luck finding one of those :)

May not fit your definition of Japanese but some of the Panasonic built Schwinns are Prestige. Also some of the early 90's PDG Series bikes.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...e449ce3632.jpg
1987 Prologue
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...8faf89ab56.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...ab4f9a47b0.jpg
Prologue TT
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...9cce511fab.jpg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...2cc8e808cf.jpg
Schwinn says these were Prestige.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...bdff0c2d56.jpg
Early 90's PDG Paramount

Tange #1 and Tange #2 are not Prestige, guys. OP is looking for Prestige only.

Vintage Land Shark and Davidson road bikes (both custom builders) are made with Prestige tubing. I have had the pleasure of experience with both, and they are most definitely worth it.

I know you’re looking for vintage, but aren’t current steel frame offerings from Soma made with Prestige?

Does early 90's count? Diamondback Prevail TG

https://farm5.static.flickr.com/4096...d1007f95_b.jpg

Doh!!! Senior moment.

If you're not hung up on the '80s criteria, a few more from the 90's:
'93 and '94 Fuji Roubaix
early 90's Nishiki NFS Prestige (one on Ebay now: https://www.ebay.com/itm/nishiki-nfs...-/254291443423)
Bianchi Virata
Early 90's Jamis Eclipse

I’ve read that current Soma Tange Prestige is not as good as the vintage Prestige. Maybe someone can clarify this.

The Performance Focus, that one is tig welded.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...43e2772d76.jpg

Interesting to see examples of Tange Prestige TIG welded. Seems that TIG welded steel frames didn't become prominent until early 90's. I have a Concorde with TIG'd Tange Prestige OS tubes.

For OP the Panasonic made frames are some of the best examples of Tange Prestige, including the ones they made for Schwinn as the Paramount OS.

Nice bikes - thanks. I need to stick with a lugged example so that's probably going to mean the 80s .. maybe very early 90s.

Discussed in this thread: https://www.bikeforums.net/framebuil...e-quality.html

Short version: the classic 80's Prestige was 7/4/7 butted, whereas the current "Prestige" that SOMA uses is 8/5/8. There is also a current "Prestige JPN" higher grade that is 7/4/7 like the vintage version, but additionally heat treated. SOMA also uses oversized tubes on many models, which further makes them heavier and stiffer than a classic Prestige frame.

EDIT: Later in that thread it says SOMA uses heat treated tubing, which would seem to mean the 7/4/7 Prestige JPN rather than the plain Prestige. So it's closer to the vintage Prestige, but still with larger diameter on most models than a vintage race frame (28.6 top tube and 31.8 down tube vs 25.4 and 28.6 in 80's).

Panasonic DX-5000 was Tange Prestige in some years. Lugged and a nice rider.


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...c627fccff7.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...be9ae094ea.jpg

I bought my wife a Novara Team frame & fork. Sticker says Tange Prestige. It is lugged. I'm not sure who made it for REI but it seems to be very nice.

Have to be Japanese?
https://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/bik...317540160.html

Vintage Medici pro strada 58 - $700 (san rafael)

image 1 of 10

All Tange Prestige tubesets were heat treated. Original Prestige was standard imperial diameter with 0.7/0.4/0.7mm thickness in the top and down tubes, with three different gauges and configurations of seat tubes available. Then, in the late 1980s they introduced Prestige Super Lite with standard imperial diameter tubes and 06/0.3/0.6 in the top and down tubes, and two different gauges and configurations of seat tubes. It was about 100g lighter. In the 1990s a heavier gauge top tube and two heavier gauges of downtubes were added as Prestige options and large diameter Prestige OS was introduced. Prestige Super Lite became (Prestige ) Ultimate Superlight. By the end of the 1990s there were so many options in the Prestige series of tubesets that designers could mix and match to tailor the frame, that the name on the tubing decal was somewhat arbitrary. It was even more complicated for MATB versions of the Prestige variants.

The bottom line is that Soma Prestige is the same quality of tubing but the designers chose a different set of options (possibly even somewhat customized) that were not the lightest. Lightest is not always best. Sometimes you want a little more durability or stiffness. Tange's myriad of Prestige options gave designers the flexibility to design for a particular end result.

I have a lugged Panasonic with that paint scheme. I wonder if Panasonic was building frames for Performance at one point?