Centurion Elite fork
 

Just grumbling a little.

I'm STILL working on that old Centurion...slowly but surely. I've decided I'm not amazingly thrilled with the fork. I thought that fork seemed a little bit of a tank, and it turns out it's High Tensile steel. Ugh.

Maybe I'm just being a spoiled prima donna, wishing it was Cro-Moly.

The bike is still turning out pretty, but I'm torn about whether I should keep my eyes peeled for, perhaps, a Centurion Comp TA fork on e-bay. If I bought that it would hardly count as a restoration though. It hardly does now, but that would really be removing a huge part of the original bike.

Sigh.

Wow, A. Winthrop...thank you for that incredibly informative reply. Had I known Comp TAs were so scarce, I would have bid on the frame I saw on ebay two nights ago...in my size, in great shape, and with a current bid of $99.00 with 17 hours to go.

I didn't because I figured my wife would kill me.

My bike is an Elite RS, 1984. N4E7473. The steerer on the fork is stamped TANGE MADE IN JAPAN and elsewhere is stamped deeper with 4C.

I really enjoyed reading your reply, and learned a fair amount. Thank you.

Cheers!

I am Japanese-American, and I'm hoping to get stationed at Misawa AB for my next assignment. It's near the town of Aomori on the northern tip of Honshu.

Banzai is my "callsign", partly because of my Japanese heritage, and partly because of some more creative (and unsuccessful) tactics.

Again, thanks for the reply. As of this afternoon the wheels are finally laced for this bike...thanks to some other BF members who helped me track down some good vintage hubs. The headset and bottom bracket arrive next week, so it's all coming together.

This frame kinda "fell in my lap" for free from an acquaintance, bringing my bike total up to three when it's done. I had been holding out for a ridiculously impractical go-fast toy for my third bike, and I fear that my wife will draw the line at three. Heck, I feel I should draw the line at three, considering one of the two gets out 90% of the time as it stands right now.

I'm an F-16 guy by trade. My "avatar" to the left is a picture of me that my wife took from the boom of a tanker. Our squadron arranged a spouse tanker ride once, and my wife made sure that she was warned when my formation showed up so she could actually watch and get a picture pre-contact.
In newer aircraft (i.e. F-16) the spent shell casing just continue along the train back into the ammo drum. A lot of older aircraft simply ejected them, and the F-4 didn't have an integral gun...they had to mount pods on wing hardpoints, so I'm almost 100% certain that those casings were simply flung overboard by the system. The practice of jettisoning was discontinued for a couple of reasons; fear of ingesting a casing into the engine, and I understand that with an integral gun it is less likely to hang if everything is simply re-routed.
I tried that. There's a perfectly nice bike that spends it's life hanging in the garage. We do ride the same size, but hers is set up differently...shorter riser stem and women's specific handlebars. One day I subtly suggested that I could set it up differently to make it easy for me to ride too, and she got very angry about the fact that I was taking her bike. So there it sits.
I ski'd a couple of times back at Hill AFB, which is outside of Salt Lake City, UT. It's not something that would ever become a primary hobby, but I felt it would be criminal to eventually leave Salt Lake having never enjoyed the very convenient and very nice ski slopes. I suppose the same may happen if similar locations exist near Misawa AB.

Cheers!

While my experience with Air Force aircraft was limited to taking off in C-130s that I had no intent to land in, I do have a Elite RS that was identical to the one in the ebay ad. Thanks for the info. I had been convinced by others that it was likely the stays were hi-ten, to my disappointment.

My RS was left outside for a bit. I bought it as an original bike minus the wheels for 52 bucks on ebay. Nice bike. It has been powdercoated clear over the sandblasted frame which gave it an olive-bronze color with yellow "highlighting" where the brass shows around the lugs. Applied framesaver last Friday, and hope to get the headset and bottom bracket cleaned, polished and in this week.

The original intent of stripping the RS down and building it up with Shimangolo parts was to build the last bike I'd ever need to buy. Well...

N5L7225 is the serial. The tubing stickers are gone. The downtube said tange #2 and the fork said tange, but I can't remember anything more.

Paul

Based on the serial number, your Elite RS is a 1985 model, in which case the stays are definitely not hi-tensile. They could be Tange CrMo or Tange Mangaloy

The original color scheme of my Elite RS was the same blue and silver as on the ebay bike. It was in rough shape, thus the clear powdercoat. Hope to have it on the road by spring, w pictures posted.

Yes, I left C-130s in flight, and from the looks on the flight crew's faces, they thought we were crazy. OTOH, after taking off in those rattling old Herkybirds, I look at them the same way for landing 'em.

While it could be a 1986, the evidence indicates the probability of this is low. The color scheme indicates it could be as early as 1985. Furthermore, the derailleurs on both SKS's (from my database records) and the Ebay Elite RS are the friction version of the New 600EX. Given that the 1986 LeMans RS had indexed Light Action derailleurs, it would be improbable that WSI would spec an upmarket 1986 Elite RS (if it existed) with friction shifting.

I appreciate where you are coming from and took the graphics into consideration. I wouldn't totally rule out the possibility of it being a 1986. Given the current evidence, I just think there is a higher probability of it being a 1985. You have to weigh which situation is more probable. Did they make a running change to the graphics on the 1985 models or were the 1986 models introduced before mid-year, using existing friction derailleurs, when they were almost certainly aware that indexed New 600EX would be available within a couple of months? Of course, we could also call it a 1985-1/2, like they do with some car models.

Regardless, even if we play it conservatively, it warrants your suggested update to the website to show the Elite RS being available until at least 1985. I've collected some other new info that could be included. I'll try to send you an updated version to forward to Sheldon, but it may take a couple of weks or even longer, as things are starting to pick up at the store, with the new models coming in.

Another case for the standard catalog disclaimer "specifications may vary". My reference material does differ, also on the Elite GT (Tange #4 versus Tange 900), so there appears to be more to it than something as simple as a typo. My initial thought is to state that reference sources indicate differences in specs and that we should include the variations, in the event that both are legitimate.

In the interest of completeness, my Elite RS had the friction 600.

Final note to Banzai: I have an aluminum fork from a carbon fiber and aluminum lug bike, a top of the line bike from a second string builder. I thought of substituting it for the fork on the Elite RS. Truth was the difference in weight was miniscule. I kept the old fork. For the looks and to avoid fooling with the geometry.

Thank-you, but I was already aware that you had the friction RD-6207 derailleur, from the info in my Centurion database. You must have mentioned it in the original post, when you acquired the bicycle.

Thanks. If for nothing other than looks alone the fork would stay unless I happened to find a Comp TA fork that happened to go on a 50cm frame...I think that's the only way I could match up anything else, and even then, you never know.

I was simply grumbling about the Hi-Ten fork with no real aim or purpose in mind, and had no idea that I would get to read and participate in such an interesting discussion. I'm glad I decided to grouse a little bit.

No doubt, this one should be a 1986, given the serial number. Too bad it was stripped of the derailleurs. However, the presence of a 600EX crankset, if original, only strengthens the argument that the other samples were 1985 or 1985-1/2 models, as they had Sakae cranks. In the end, this sample only proves the existence of an Elite RS though at least the 1986 model year.

While T-mar may have this in his Centurion database, my elite came with the entire friction 600 group, derailleurs as well as cranks and has the funky downtube shifter mounts.

Does anyone know of a source for cable guides for those mounts, else I will be filing standard mounts to fit, as I could not bear the thought of removing the originals when the frame was stripped.

Finally, T-mar's continued participation blows a theory of mine as to his mysterious identity. He isn't Sheldon Brown's alter ego. That's a compliment.

Your other option is to stick with the original friction
shifters. Cleaned up and ajusted properly, they do shift
nicely, though it takes a little time to learn how to make
perfect shifts.

I'm a fan of downtube friction shift and run it on my daily commuter, but the centurion project is supposed to end up with a set of Campy Veloce Ergo 9 speed shifters. Rebuildable, for the last bike project and usable for fast riding, touring, and light cyclocross riding. Currently I have a standard set of adaptors and a file. I think it'll work, but it may take a couple of tries, and even the screws on those downtube mounts are a non-standard size.