Doohickie

I'll throw this one out there. 25" Centurion Accordo, SN N3M7773, which would be weeks 25-26 of 1983. The components (that are still on there) look comparable to a 1984 Schwinn World Sport (Suntour ar, etc.) Someone dropped it at the bike shop and they passed it along to me. It's in pretty rough shape.

It's the blue bike in this pic

-holiday76

Lemans
SN F9046726

does that mean it's an '89?

-holiday76

Here's another one i picked up today:



any idea what year it is? Here's the S/N

riva

Picked up a late eighties Le Mans RS yesterday. Like this photo except not as big-

https://farm1.static.flickr.com/175/3...a8ce27f8af.jpg

I'll get the serial posted tonight.

Ksyrium

If you have questions about your bikes, you might want to check with Dallas at Citizen Chain Cyclery. He specializes in NOS with a large amount of NOS Centurions and period correct parts.

I got my bike from him and he was very knowlegeable. You can reach him at:

www.citizenchain.com

RobbieTunes

Riva, I see by your signature that your affliction is progressing well.
Very nice.

Thanks for the tip, Ksyrium. Wish I was in CA....but an old girlfriend is there, so I'm probably close enough here in NC.

lsrose

Was able to snag a Red/White Centurion Ironman frame and fork. It is bare of components except for the Shimano 600 crank.

Serial N6A7196

Here is a post about my rebuild efforts and a picture: https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vintage/567641-centurion-ironman-rebuild.html

riva

Finally took pics of the mini le mans.. I think its like an 87. The lugs on the headtube are a hairs-breadth apart as you can see! Wife wants nothing to do with it though it fits her well. She'd rather ride her mtb on the road for some reason.. have to keep working at it.

Guy listed it at $40, said he would take $30 when I arrived, but I paid $40 anyway. Great deal. Not seen many deals for a long while but haven't been hitting CL much lately. Happened to jump on 2 minutes after the ad was posted. I think the nice suede saddle is worth what I paid for the bike..

Was thinking beige or white for the bar wrap. What do you think Robbie, white right??

T-Mar

Serial number is from late July 1985, but that appears to be Light Action SIS, which should make it a 1986 model.

Chicago Al 

I just posted about the Niko 'Mystere' mixte I picked up for my daughter but maybe it belongs here. As I've read here, Niko was apparently a rebranding of Centurion bikes for the LA retailer Bikeology. This bike's SN, low on the seattube, is J8A0002, which follows the Centurion form but for the unusual J. But I see there are a few SNs listed on this thread with SNs of H, I, and K, which appear to be from the 70s, so maybe ours is a 78.

Our mixte strongly resembles East Hill's 1980 LeMans, as pictured in post #120, in particular the rear dropout, derailer hanger and 'dork disk' are identical. The lugs with their outlining are the most distinctive aspect; they don't quite match East Hill's bike, but are a DEAD MATCH for for Big Woo's (post 203) and curbtender's (#345).

So I am thinking it's indeed pretty likely that Niko = Centurion. Does the J prefix simply mean the frame maker was making it for a different label, or is it some different frame maker than the ubiquitous M and N bikes, or just part of the 70s confusion?

And while I'm speculating recklessly like a complete jerkwad, is there any reason to think that M might stand for Miyata and N for Nishiki?

The Niko has a Tange Hi-Ten frame, Suntour bar shifters, Diacompe brakes, Suntour front and rear derailers (VX rear), upright bars, a 'quilted' vinyl seat. Alloy hubs/wheels are a later replacement.

Pics below.

And now back to your regularly scheduled Dave Scott Ironman-fest!

RobbieTunes

I like white on that model, yep. And if you find a white saddle, she'll like it more.

I like that mixte, will keep that setup in mind for the one I'm building. I like the bars, especially.

T-Mar

The serial number format is very common among Asian manufacturers and there is little doubt that it from 1978 based on the serial number and components, however I would not assume that Niko was the Centurion manufacturer.

First off, if Niko was a manufacturer, I would think that they would have used the N-prefix on there own brand. Secondly, they would probably have attempted to market nationally rather than regionally via Bikecology. Besides from what I've read, Niko was a house brand for Bikecology, meaning that they owned the brand name and had the bicycles contract manufactured for them.
As for the M prefix, it does not stand for Miyata. I have made a fairly extensive study of Miyata serial numbers and in their case the prefix varies depending on the year. The M-prefix using the manufacturer-year-fortnight, sequnce format indicates either Mikki (Japan) or Merida (Taiwan).

As for being a dead-ringer for a Centurion that's not too hard to do. Bikecology simply tells their manufacturer they want a Centurion clone and voila, it arrives (remember the first Centurions were Raleigh clones). Components, tubing, lugs and fittings are all standard items, so all you have to do is pick the desired item to match the original that you are copying. Sometimes, manufacturers would develop their own or have them customized but this is a very expensive proposition and not one often used on netry level models.

As for J-codes, they do turn up on Fuji models, though that particular format was not used on Fuji during that era. It appears that Fuji enforced the use of their serial number formats on the contract manufacturers, so it's possible that it's from one of Fuji's manufacturers.

This is not to say that Niko is not the manufacturer, but it appears unlikely.

geekrunner

I am so close to pulling the trigger on this frame, but i'm holding back till I can get any info that helps identifying this bike. It doesn't appear to be a Cinelli Equipe. It doesn't have any Campy stamping on the dropouts or the Cinelli stamping on the fork crown. I can't tell by the graphics what year it is, seller calls it a Team model in the listing, and I have received no response yet from the seller to my questions. He's either hiding something by saying it's probably Columbus tubing, which makes me think he wants people to believe it's a Cinelli Equipe, or he really doesn't know **** about Centurions. Please help! geek

https://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Chicago Al 

Thanks for the quick response, T-Mar. I didn't mean to imply that Niko was the manufacturer but was speculating that the bikes may have been made through some side deal: Centurion/WSI simply had the factory do an extra run of some bikes, likely a lot of LeMans, with the Niko badge and paint, and that container-full went to Bikecology. Or, as you note, they could have been clones that WSI had nothing to do with--maybe from the same Japanese manufacturer. That happens today with Chinese factories, this week they make product 'A,' ship it out, and next week turn out nearly-identical product 'B' for a different US company, and they end up on store shelves at different price points!

T-Mar

After Centurion changed their brand name to Diamond Back in 1990, the Centurion brand was kept alive in Europe. It appears to be a European model and is definitely not one of the Cinelli Equipes. Unfortunately, I have little knowledge of the European models, but it doesn't appear to be anything extraordinary. The stay finishing is not great and it uses a plastic BB tunnel. There's no pump peg or front derailleur hanger and only one bottle boss, implying it's probably a mid-1980's model. Hope you get a repsonse from the seller. Good luck.

geekrunner

Thanks T-Mar! Your expertise is unsurpassed on Japanese steel. It looks like a racing frame, since it does not have any rack or fender eyelets. It looks nice, but not nice enough to spend that much money.

geek

RobbieTunes

The "main" frame is very much like the Turbo of 1983, which was chrome plated under the paint, or at least mine was. Same colors, same style and components. The Turbo also had the plastic cable guide underneath, if I remember right.

The fork is not from the Turbo, but is identical to the fork on the 1985 Prestige, except for being chrome plated. Again, my Prestige had what I believed was a chrome plated fork, though probably not polished, painted over.

I'd say if you get a mix of Turbo and Prestige, that's a pretty nice frame. The missing headset would bother me, but the two components together make a pretty nice frame.

With shipping, it's a little high, but I don't think it's a "bad" deal, and I've found the exact same touch-up color as that frame. I believe that frame was a Tange Champion #2, but I sure can't remember.

FergieGirl

Hi folks,
I'm new to this forum and am the proud owner of a 1984 Centurion Accordo Mixte. Serial Number N4E6815. I live in Sydney, Australia and use my bike for recreation and grocery shopping.

I swapped the drop handlebars for moustache handlebars as I found the drops too twitchy for me (this bike is my first road bike...I'd been riding an MTB before and don't have the greatest sense of balance). Sacrilege, you might say, but it works for me.

I bought my bike on eBay last year. It was a one-owner job - a guy had bought it new for his wife for her to go riding with him. She rode it three times and hated it (must be those drop handlebars! :-) ) and it had sat in his garage since then. So I got a bike in pristine condition, no modifications, factory spec gears, brakes etc, no rust, nothing to do but have it checked over by the bike shop, a quick tweek to the rear derailleurs, swap the saddle for a gel model and get riding. I swapped the handlebars after a week, I just felt too precarious with the drop bars.

Here's a pic of my lovely bike...
Cheers
Fergie

RobbieTunes

Great looking mixte. Very few Centurion mixtes around here. Excellent transformation, too. Welcome to the forum.

FergieGirl

Thanks for the welcome. Can't understand why more people aren't riding Centurion Mixtes - lovely stable frame.

Fergie

EddyR

I have had 8 Centurions in the last three years and I came across this 1987 Ironman one year ago. I mentioned this bike here and said I was going to do a 7/11 replica paint job and so here it is. It was in the worst shape of any of the Centurions I had bought but I decided to keep this one as it is my size and it is one of the best they built. The rust was so bad that it was flacking off in large 2" strips. The bottom bracket and the headset was beyond touch up and the crank was corroded so bad it looked like a dried up lake bottom. It looks OK in the original picture but it was not ridable and the headset had the wrong bearings in it and they were rusted in place. It took a lot of time to get the frame rust free and the crank now looks new. I have some 7400 Dura-Ace break levers and down tube shift levers from my Cannondale coming over to this bike. Also the Cinelli Volare saddle is correct for the 1987-88 7/11 bikes. I will post the finished pictures in about two weeks when it is finished. I am waiting for some STI shifters I ordered for the Cannondale so I can steal the Dura-Ace pars from it. I am also looking for a new handlebar set for it.
Ed

Shaggy0911

My father owns a mid 70's (75-77?) Centurion Lemans equipped with dia compe centre pull brakes, sun tour derailleurs and shifters, sugino crank etc. I will update shortly with a serial number and a picture or two.

What tool would one use to remove the bottom bracket to perform surface on such an old road bike? Apparently the guys at a local shop have no clue what they are looking at, and could not even recommend a place where I might be able to purchase said tool.

Any help would be appreciated.

Chicago Al 

So I was lurking around in the corners of the internet and I found a search function for the old 'BOB' email discussion group. There is a an authoritative (sounding at least) post from 1998 by a guy named Daniel Wood, who is apparently a writer for the Christian Science Monitor as well as a bike buff, about Centurion's history. And he says, for sure, that Niko was a rebranding of Centurion:

>>The 1980 Centurion Pro Tours and a few others sold near the top of the
Centurion line were also sold by Bikecology in both their Santa Monica, CA
stores and their mail-order catalog under their label. The frames came
with riveted headbadges and the brand names were silkscreened on the clear
coat, so it was easy to tailor them for sale under different names.
Bikecology's brand name was "Niko" with unique model names.<<

This whole post is here:
https://search.bikelist.org/getmsg.as....9801.0265.eml

RobbieTunes

EddyR, that's going to be aching cool. Got me thinkin....a Livestrong edition, maybe. txvintage has a custom coated US Navy version in the works, and one of our members in NY has had one re-done in the purple smoked fade, looks amazing....we may get enough for a thread, eh?

Shaggy0911, find a bike shop with an old mechanic. They almost all have the tools, your young wrencher may simply not know they're there. I think one bb cup was a 34, 35, or 36mm flat wrench, and the other side can sometimes carefully be removed with a large slip-joint pliers. The tool for that looks like a tool for pulling teeth, it's like a large pliers with nubs that fit in the little slots around the L bb cover. Photos may help others make better suggestions, I'm kind of a doofus on bike repair.

Chicago Al, thanks for adding some more ammo to Centurion's sometimes identity crisis. Because a lotof the frames were built by Panasonic, and Centurion was purely an importer, there are lots of instances like yours, with virtual clones by other brands and the Cinelli/Centurion import. Appears someone at Bikecology had an inside connection... Now I can take a second look at Niko's if I see one.

solbrothers

hello all! i recently bought a centurion road bike. it had been repainted, the only indication it is even a centurion is the headtube badge. where would i find the serial number?