JSmyth

hahaha, so did I when I saw it sitting in the corner of someone's shed!

ErikaC

My Japanese Schwinn Le Tour of (currently) unknown year.

(update) We have discovered that it is a 1975 Le Tour.

Ferrite

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ScottRyder 

It's pretty tough to follow up after that Zunow .. wow!

I posted my '72 chrome Fuji Newest awhile back, I've got some updated photos on my Fuji blog, VintageFuji.Posterous.com.



Scott

ColonelJLloyd 

1981 Schwinn Super Sport. Tange Chamion #2.

auchencrow

That's really really nice!

Roger M 

This is my commuter bike. I found it for $20, rebuilt it, and added fenders & rack. It's built like a tank(almost as heavy also).

auchencrow

A Royale can't be all that heavy with a CR MO frame! 20? Nice snag!

Sixty Fiver

Nope.. .with the added weight of the mud I picked up on my ride today I must have had the U.A.V. curbing out at 55pounds.

rothenfield1

They must love you up there in Canuckistan, you make some the most practical, hard-working bikes I've ever seen. Beautiful looking country by-the-way, be sure to post some pics of you riding in your spandex shorts in January.

Sixty Fiver

Thanks... but if I wear any spandex in January it will be when I am in Portland.

It was a good day to give the bike a good road test which, for the most part, took me off road and the bike passed with flying colours... and fall here is one of our best seasons.

rothenfield1

That bike is 'so' awesome in so many ways for today's bike market, I hope the quasi-independent bike fabricators are keeping notes! i.e. Surly, Salsa, Soma. Oh, wait; I believe they are. Keep up the good work Colonel.

Bicycle Funk

Decals/honjo fenders are still in the mail but I took her out for her first run two days ago and saw this alley way and had to take a picture! 1981 Univega Specialissima.

auchencrow

Hi bicycle funk -
Please post more and bigger pics without distracting backgrounds to show off your (apparently) very sharp bike.

Bicycle Funk

When it's finished I'll gladly start a new thread with many detailed photos. B) I have to ask though, I made the image only 147kbps and tried to post the full size picture but it STILL said 'remote file too large.' How are you guys doing it?

ColonelJLloyd 

Thanks! I agree, you could build this bike up several ways (700cx28mm with fenders or 32mm w/o fenders as it is now), but I REALLY wanted to make this a 650B bike. I didn't have a set of 650B wheels, though, and needed to do as cheap as I could for a buddy.

hamanu23

Droid 007 by Lucas James 78, on Flickr

Droid 003 by Lucas James 78, on Flickr

Droid 007 by Lucas James 78, on Flickr

Centurion Master 004 by Lucas James 78, on Flickr

royleroy

rothenfield1

That's the most futuristic saddlebag holder I've ever seen. Did 3Ren design that too? Beautiful bike BTW!

snarkypup

Before restoration, which should begin this month, here's my '82 Shogun Cr-Mo 500, which I'm hoping to give to my boyfriend when it's finished. But it may really be mine. We'll see. I also have my '89 Panasonic DX-5000, but it needs some pretty new pictures before I post it for the zillionth time.


shogun4 by snarkypup, on Flickr

stronglight

Wow! - Now over 500 responses to this thread!

I really should have posted earlier. During the past several years I have really come to greatly respect many Japanese built bikes. Before this, I'd had little exposure to them at all. Like many Americans, I had grown up during the 1960s and 1970s doggedly in awe of the fancy European racing bike names. And I had considered any Asian imports to be inferior lower quality department store bikes. Naturally, I was naive and completely wrong.

What I am delighted to share here is a very unique bike. It was made by a company named Sumitomo and the entire frameset is built of Commercially Pure Titanium. This company was (and still is) a huge diversified Japanese metal corporation and one of the world's largest producers of both raw Ti and finished products. This means that the Ti frame and fork tubing, the forged Ti dropouts, etc., were all made in-house. Virtually unknown as a marque for bicycles, Sumitomo had produced framesets for only a few years during the late 1980s to early 1990s. Much of their market was other well known bicycle companies which were not equipped for the demands of building with Titanium. They had also offered complete framesets directly from the factory under their own marque.

Unlike modern Ti bikes, this Pure Ti and classic narrow tubing offers a very springy ride - I think it compares well to a light weight French racing bike of the 1960s or 70s. This makes it very different from the over-sized tubing and stronger modern Ti alloys which are used today to ensure a much more stiff and laterally rigid frameset - a property which is now considered so highly desirable for a serious racing bike.

I built up my frameset using full Dura-Ace 7400 series 8-speed components from around 1990 - which means pre-STI integrated shifting. This was intentional because I wanted to retain the "throw-back" appearance of this bike which I tend to view as one of the last examples of a racing bike still built in a traditional narrow-tubing style with classic geometry, horizontal dropouts, etc. This top-end frameset model was even offered factory fitted with Dura-Ace headset and bottom bracket, so I suppose it might even be considered a Restoration project of sorts.

When Sumitomo's brief experiment in fabricating spare-no-expense and highly labor intensive framesets was suddenly canceled by the corporation [not enough profit compared to their other products, I suspect], all of their remaining frames and forks were simply placed in storage and so this frame had never even received any decals.

Here is a photo of my built up bike - the frame and fork were highly polished by the factory... This alone is something you'll rarely see in any Ti frameset.



And here is an image from an original factory catalog showing a complete bike with Sumitomo factory decals and late 1980s 7-speed Dura Ace 7400 components.

A full set of photos of the bike may be seen here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/strongl...7602133562948/
If you're a fan of the beautiful 7400 series components, be sure to select the larger image options.

I was graciously given an original factory catalogue by The Yellow Jersey - the bike shop in Madison, Wisconsin which had purchased all of the remaining larger sized frames and forks directly from the factory back in the 1990s. Fortunately for me, my frameset was one of the last which they still had in my size and it seems to fit me perfectly. That rare 4-page brochure I have scanned and offer here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/strongl...7602133007834/

Technically weaker than modern alloys, CP Titanium is no longer used for any bicycle frames. So, this bike would be impossible to ever replace or to duplicate. To me it represents a unique moment in bicycle history. It also shows what a huge manufacturer (one accustomed to producing precision Ti aerospace components and Ti racing motorcycle engines) can accomplish when presented with a set of frame design specifications and given full reign to go crazy and simply make the finest product possible. The welds are so smoothly finished that the bike is usually mistaken for a steel bike which had been filet brazed and then nickle plated.

Of course, above all, I just truly love the ride of this bike...

They can bury me with this one!

cb400bill

^^^Stunning!^^^

auchencrow

WOW! That is SOME story Stronglight Bob! and a fantastic looking bike!

royleroy

Good one. I moved that piece of patio furniture after this pic, but of course none of the others turned out.

old's'cool

stronglight, great post!

Beautiful bike, very tasteful build, and great back story!!!