Here's a Centurion LeMans RS I picked up last night...

Looks to be a 1986 Model, frame Serialized in 1985. Checks out!

Serial numbers and details of a couple more Centurions.


First, a 1987 Centurion 'Team Pursuit', which seems to be an Australian-only model, serial no: M7D00320



The following seems to be original equipment:
Suntour Alpha 5000 rear and front derailers
6x2 speed Suntour indexed/(or friction) shifting with Suntour Alpha 13-15-17-19-21-24 freewheel.
Sakae SA 170mm crankset with 52/42 teeth and 110mm P.C.D. There's barely any wear on either the chainrings or the cogs.
Alpha 5000 Dia Compe brake calipers.
Suntour dropouts at the rear. The front dropouts don't have any writing on them but they have holes with threads for guards.
The wheels have 36 spoke Araya 700c rims, Suzue hubs. And 28mm tyres which are probably not 29yrs old but could well be.
The headset is Tange Seiki with what looks to read: TG235
BB is some kind of unsealed lock-ring one which i should have noted when i overhauled it.
The frame is 'Tange 2' tubing, 58cm c of bb to bottom of seattube scallop and a 57cm top tube c-c. It has a 'Quality from Japan,
Designed in USA' decal. Only has bottle cage bosses on the downtube. The Suntour downtube shifters are the clamp-around-the-downtube
type, no downtube bosses, but i noticed there's an integrated small sheet of metal brazed on the underside of the downtube under the
paint for the downtube shifter clamp to lock around.
A grey plastic Suntour dork disc that has an art deco-ish type line pattern.

I have no idea what stem or handlebars or brake levers it might have had, or seatpost (i put that one on), but it also came with MKS

AR-8 pedals. They may or may not be original.











BTW, while searching i found that someone had posted a similar bike on a thread 9 yrs ago, here:
https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...requested.html and they had even quoted the serial no. and also confirmed some of the original equipment. So that info combined with the above may be useful here.



Secondly, a 1987 Centurion Triathlon Expert, the Australian-version of the U.S Ironman Expert, size 54 with Serial No: N7D6388, as shown as it is currently on page 80 of the 'Post your Centurion Ironman..' thread.

Thxs for posting, sroller. The Team Pursuit is particularly interesting. It has a Miki serial number format at a time when WSI was no longer sourcing from them for the USA market. The logical assumption would be that the Australian importer was designing and sourcing the bicycles, yet it has a 'Quality from Japan, designed in USA' sticker. The relationship between Australian and American Centurions remains murky. It's definitely 1987, as that is the year that Alpha 5000 came out.

1979 Pro Tour Serial#M9L05081



1985 Ironman Serial#KG511859 (first 1 may be an I)



1988 Ironman Master Serial#N7P5192

Got a new-to-me 58cm Centurion Elite GT that is super-light: it's missing wheels!

Interestingly, it appears to be a 1983, bucking the "introduced in 1984" or "only made in 1984" claims I've seen about the Elite GT.

Reasons I think it's a 1983:
* Headbadge is the round stamped metal "C" one marked "1979-1982" on the Vintage Centurion site.
* Serial N3P5862 = August-ish 1983
* Different paint scheme from the 1984 catalog and all the other Elite GTs out there; this one's a charming champagne gold (which my wife informs me is very "in" for weddings this year)
* Downtube logo ('CENTURION') has the U and R entirely separated instead of the UR 'ligature' present in all the 1984 ones

Other interesting attributes:
* Tange Champion #4 tubing (touring-specific?)

Some parts on it that I think are OEM:
* Suntour Symmetric shifters (or "shifter", since it's just one unit)
* Suntour Mountech FD
* Dia Compe cantilever brakes (they look like the 960s I see online, but I can't find a model number; they've got date codes "10 83" "09 83" and "06 83")
* Sugino RT triple cranks (code GC)

RD (Shimano RSX) and brake levers (Dia Compe VX) are of newer vintage. Wheels are... nonexistent.

I found one other presumably-1983 Centurion Elite GT like mine pictured on the Internet, in this old eBay posting: Vintage Centurion Elite GT Touring Bicycle Made in Japan Needs Nothing | eBay (That one's in much better condition than mine.)

My plans with it:
* Try and touch up the paint on this one to prevent (further) rusting
* Maybe replace the headset (races look a little rough, and the lower headtube race is ugly on the outside)
* Slap on some 700c wheels (the brakes look like they'll fit) and some racks (considering Specialized's Pizza Rack for the front)
* Use it for my daily commuter and touring machine!

Pictures:

Whole frame.jpg

Seat tube and Tange decal.jpg

Bottom bracket and crank.jpg

Fork.jpg

got one for you: M8D00886




just arrived!

Jeez that 88 looks good.
Posting the rest of mine soon.

Looks good at 5 feet, lots of touch-up paint!

Ohh nice looks to be a 1979 or so Semi Pro. Given the Chrome Lug work and the Headbadge according to T-Mars fine detective work it looks like the frame would have been built in 1978

total impulse buy. now I have to figure out what to do with it. I am sorta leaning toward setting it up as a light touring bike.. bring it more towards its brother the pro-tour with a triple and bar ends some fenders... combine some comfort, style with a touch of speed. a semi-pro-tour

Looks like you may be onto something, Badging and Paint point to a 1983 ish model, also the interesting thing, according to the 1984 catalog the brakes on the Elite GT is a std caliper brake. but this one and the ebay link is a cantilever frame with the cantilever bosses.

the 84 had 27" tires so 700c will be shorter. so you will need to take that into account for the brakes.

Good luck and keep us posted on this guy..

sounds good to me!

what size is the frame?

60cm. good for me, top tube might be a bit short but nothing a longish stem can't help.

Catalog shows the Elite GT equipped with cantilevers.

It wouldn't be uncommon for a frame to be brazed and serialized months before being complete, especially if a manufacture were getting ready to release a new model.
My '84 Elite GT also has the bronze "C" headbadge.
It also carries the seperate U and R graphic, and the serial has 3 for the second digit.
Paint however is the classic '84 blue/silver.

OOps.. you are right the Elite GT had cantilevers, i must have been looking at the R/S, Could have been an early 84 model since it has a mix of colors and badging of 1983?

Keep us posted on it. I would like to find a Semi Pro one day..

I picked up two framesets recently. Both are definitely "projects".

1987 Ironman Expert, Miami Vice color, ~56cm, rusty with stuck seatpost
S/N: N7B5985 <= Jan. 1987 mfg. date?

1987? Ironman Master?, repainted ugly black but may have been yellow/white, ~62cm, sloping fork crown indicates Master, not Expert
S/N: N6M9163 <= June 1986 mfg. date?, so may have been '86 or '87 - original paint color under the ugly black might indicate which year

I can build up the Master? frame and if it rides well I'll strip the paint and get it refinished as original as possible.

1987 Ironman Expert, Miami Vice color, ~56cm, rusty with stuck seatpost
S/N: N7B5985 <= Jan. 1987 mfg. date?
Miami Vice color was one year, so yes 1987, T-Mars SN, Deciphering would say yes week 3 or 4 of January 1987

1987? Ironman Master?, repainted ugly black but may have been yellow/white, ~62cm, sloping fork crown indicates Master, not Expert
S/N: N6M9163 <= June 1986 mfg. date?, so may have been '86 or '87 - original paint color under the ugly black might indicate which year

The color will surely help to what year it is, since its a late 1986 it is probably a 1987 Model, Give the fork then agree, a Master. if its Yellow and White that would also agree with a 1987 Master. there was a Yellow and White fade in 1988, but I would guess that the frame given the June 1986 MFG date it would not be a 1988 model.

Post some pics when you can.

No problem. I actually have a spare set of Master decals if you decide to go that route, I think the '88 version. My experience with Ironman re-do's is that a decent blast and powdercoat is appropriate, cheaper, and much more durable. Then build it and ride the heck out of it.

Agreed, Robbie. Some examples:

Mightn't yours be a 1983, too? I looked at the pictures you posted of your bike; for comparison, here's a photo of a 1984 blue/silver Elite GT that shows more typical 1984 stuff (decal on headtube, U/R combo on downtube graphic).

Blue/silver was one of at least two color options in '84 -- maybe it was an '83 option as well? (Most of the '84s I've seen have been just the reverse of mine (catalog scan, another example).

That all sounds good, except the Elite GT was a one year only option.

But it seems there are two distinct kinds:

(A)
* Metal headbadge
* Champion #4 tubing
* dark color on headtube / light everywhere else
* 'CENTURION' downtube decal all separate letters
Examples:
N3P5862
Yours (minus colors, which are different)

(B)
* Decal headbadge
* Tange 900 tubing
* light color on headtube / dark everywhere else
* 'UR' ligature on downtube graphic
Examples:
N3S9106 (not in this thread, and no pictures, but the Tange 900 is mentioned specifically)
N3S9133
N4B5201

It looks like they made the switch between P and S of '83 (around August?); maybe they started production for the new year's model, then made the cross-brand design (and tubing) changes shortly thereafter? That would also explain the relative rarity of the earlier type; they're '84 models with '83 styling.