Originally Posted by ramzilla

Well.....................

I don't see any lugs. Looks like a butt welded steel frame to me. The chrome steel wheels with little dimples in the rim is a trademark of inexpensive bikes built in the late 70's early 80's.

The Simplex shifters & Weinmann brakes are way out place on a bike with a Centurion label. The Centurions from that era usually had SunTour or Shimano components on them.

I've bought, sold, traded and refurbished at least a dozen Centurion bikes over the last twenty years. Never seen nothing like this before. Just guessing. This bike must have been built for the European market & not sold in the US.

Originally Posted by sroller

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

Attachment 507253

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.

Attachment 507257

Attachment 507258

Originally Posted by Cycling Wombat

First time poster... picked up this same model (number 344 though) last week for $15. It has the drop bars though. Could not find anything about it online so was great to find this post. It is in great condition for its age. (I'm in Australia)

Originally Posted by Hummer

Hello and welcome to the forum.

$15 sounds like a good deal. Was the serial number M7D00344?

I think that the Team Pursuit was only from the year 1987. This model was only in Australia.

The Centurion brand name was owned by different companies in different parts of the world and these companies ordered bicycles to their own specifications. I suspect there will not be much information about your Centurion outside of Australia.

Originally Posted by Gashepherd

Originally Posted by fvernon

Currently cleaning up & getting ready to rebuild this 1981 Centurion Pro Tour. SN M1F15682

I believe this means the bike was built in 1981 for a 1981 sale--the 1982 sale models had all switched to cantilever brakes, no? It seems like the Centurion Pro Tours existed as 3 groupings: the 1976/1977 grouping with partial chrome fork & stays, the 1978-1981 grouping with the full chrome under paint & pin-striping, and the 1982-1984 grouping with cantilevers and 'Pro Tour 15' decals.

Originally Posted by BertoBerg

I stumbled across your post while researching Centurion serial numbers.

I actually own this frame now. Love it!

Originally Posted by fvernon

You did a great job--looks fantastic! I'm glad to know it's built up beautifully & getting ridden--I have a '77 in blue laying around here somewhere I need to get back on the road next.

Originally Posted by cakeat92

Hi All,

Having my '78 Super Elite re-painted, getting the SN highlighted. Unfortunately, I can't post a pic?

Anyway, SN is M7M13593. Seems this is a Miki made in '77 (M7 first two characters). Model year must be '78 though, because that was the only year Centurion made the Super Elite in Pearl Champagne.

Question is, what is the second M? Could be either:
1) Fortnight M (weeks 25/26); or
2) Month M (with "I" omitted as I read somewhere) = December.

Any thoughts? And when I get it re-built, I will post "before" and "after" pics.

Originally Posted by T-Mar

While dating some Centurion models for a forum member, I noticed what I believe to be a series sequence in the format. Based on this, I was able to predict the model years, which were verified using info on the components, tubing and graphics. Due to the small sample size this could all be co-incidence, but I'd like explore the matter further. Therfore, it would be greatly appreciated if Centurion (and Diamondback) owners would summit their serial numbers, including the year (if known), model name, tubing, major compnents and if possible, pictures. You can post it here or send it to me via the forum e-mail or private message sytem. Thank-you in advance for your assistance.

Refer to post #62 for the results of the analysis - T-Mar.