capnjonny 

This 64 cm Nishiki custom Sport was donated to the bike exchange last week. Nothing special. Just a bottom of the line bike boom 10 speed. It was a tank with steel wheels and Cranks and weighed a whopping 36 lbs. when I brought it home. What made it special is the paint. Practically pristine, the deep Burgundy paint was like new. After a thorough cleaning and judicious touch up with Rustoleum burgundy enamel followed with a wax job it was stunning. I decided to give the old girl some new jewelry and did a thorough modernizing, ultimately replacing everything but the frame and kickstand to create a sturdy, smooth and sexy townie for a big guy . It has a 39 tooth single chainring in front and a 14-28 tooth shimano hyperglide 7 speed freewheel in back, and now weighs 28.3 lbs.

markk900

Wow - that paint is stunning!

sd5782 

Your build is nearly what I did with a Schwinn Super Sport. I used a 6 speed Shimano 14-28 indexing through a 105 rd and Deore shifter, and also with just the 39t front ring. Do I spy a nice Deore shifter on yours also? I also even have some decidedly non vintage plastic pedals on mine like yours. Just a fun and useful build for casual neighborhood riding. My bars mimic yours too. All you are missing is a mirrycle bar end mirror.

OutnBack

Looks fantastic plus you shaved 8 lbs w/ your build. win-win!

dddd

Looks great!

And it's always best to limit spending on any bike used for utilitarian use IMO.

squirtdad

nice.... the frames are well built, nice headbadge and the lugs are lined which I have always thought was a nice touch of nishiki

Korina

It's only missing fenders and racks to be a perfect city bike. Nice build!

gugie 

Bay Area residents just stay inside on rainy days.

Iniezione 

Nice work on this build. I like the way your component selections go together, and would love to hear more about them.

squirtdad

except the dumb ones like me

gugie 

8 years ago when I was living in Redwood City, CA I decided to take a job transfer to Oregon. I had 9 months to prepare for the move. Since I was commuting 18 miles round trip by bike 3-4 days/week, I wanted to do the same in Oregon, and we ended up buying a house that was almost exactly the same commute distance by bike from our house to my new place of work. Knowing that the weather is significantly wetter in Portlandia and wanting to prepare, I made a vow to bike commute every rainy day while still in California. There was exactly 1 day that I rode in the rain in Cali. Sure, there were other days when it rained, but not in the hours I was riding.

The funny thing is that I expected to do weeks and weeks of rain riding after moving, but each year I've been bike commuting I've averaged maybe 7-10 days of actual rain riding up here. The PNW little cycling secret is that the weather report may have 60 straight days of rain predicted, but at any given time it's not raining, and it's more likely to occur at night than in the daytime. There are very few days I need full raingear up here. Fenders are necessary to keep the water from wet roads off of me and the rest of the bike.

But don't tell anybody this, we've got enough Californians moving up here...

capnjonny 

Re my component selections,
I have been volunteering at the Silicon Valley bicycle exchange for about 10 years and soon after I started there I started taking bikes home to restore- customize. Over the years I have accumulated a large collection of parts. Often when I get a bike it will have some inappropriate parts on it that I will remove and store to use on a later build. When the bike exchange moved to our present location a couple years ago I took home a selection of cranks and misc, parts that were going to be tossed as excess of requirements. I also have access to our shop and bins of used parts .

Because of this wealth of options I can usually find something either at home or the shop that works for a particular build. In this case I had a nice aluminum crank in my stash with a 39 tooth small ring. I went to the shop and grabbed a 44 tooth large ring and ground the teeth of it to act as a chain keeper. I had a choice of thumb shifters to choose from and chose the Deore because it was compatible with the 7 speed hyper glide freewheel and Deore derailleur. Since it was to be a casual townie the cushy comfort seat was appropriate and the plastic pedals were chosen because of their light weight. The Weinman side pulls replaced the original center pull brakes to make for a simpler installation and a cleaner look .

randyjawa 

The OP's Nishiki looks great and will prove to be a great errand running bike or a to and from work steed. I like this sort of thing as much as my more exotic rides.

My Bike Boom entry level heavy as all get out steed is one of my favorite bikes (only have four these days). And it does sport original fenders, adding to its vintage appeal...