finnyct90

Sunday was a beautiful day here and I got a nice 43 mile loop in and was back home by 10am. About a quarter mile from home I came across a bike pile with a free sign. Got home, grabbed the pick up and picked this out of the pile, everything else was real junk. I'm not sure what to do with it yet, the paint is real nice on it, the front derailer is missing. I had to find a seat for it out of the parts box. It has fairly new Conti's on it who ever installed the tires did a terrible job...look at the valve stems and the logos!
It may become my winter trainer, it says "free Spirit" so I'm guessing it is a low end sears.
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flashharry80

And as promised, here is the last, and I'm sure best of the weekends catches. This 'un cost me five whole pounds, far the most expensive purchase and is, underneath the the filth,a jet black Raleigh. If anyone has an ID on it, however tentative, I'd love to know. Anyway, 501 tubing, or at least the relevant decal, Sakae stem, Wellgo pedals, indexed Sachs Huret shifters, Weinmann brakes, couldn't see a model name on them, rear wheel is a Rigida rim on a Miche hub and skewer, front wheel is Alesa rim on Maillard hub and skewer, Raleigh branded alloy handlebars and Weinmann brake levers, Shame about the bar tape, and thats literally the worst thing on it except for (very) perished Continental tyres. And this was going to the dump. It makes my daily ride, a very tatty Peugeot of about '85 vintage, look distinctly cheap and nasty. Which it isn't, its great fun to ride. Oh, and it has a further decal proclaiming it was originally sold by Rick Green Cycles, lightweight cycle specialists in Handforth.

And frustratingly, its again too big for me.
Damn.

kdarejr

valve stems and the logos? explain this to me please about the location of the logo and valve stems and the reason for it My bud Bob is nuts about this kinda stuff

finnyct90

line the logos up with the valve stem and you know where to look in the tire for whatevere poked the hole in the tube. The tubes appear to be poorly lined up with the rim as the stems are so crooked.

sonatageek

Well I quickly flipped through a few of the bike magazines I picked up this afternoon. There are some pretty nice ads and pictures. Here is a sample of one back cover.

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sickmtbnutcase

Brought this ST400 home tonight for $70. Thanks to BF for helping ID this before I bought it. No brainer buy

fiataccompli

the st400 - THat's a helluva find there! on all counts!

mkeller234

Wow, that looks brand new. Great find!

mkeller234

Very cool. The write up is so cheesy... I remember reading things like that in music catalogs and just eating it all up.

ShawnBeau

I bought these two off Craigslist recently and they got me and my gal into city road biking ... a 1984 Team Fuji (Blue and Yellow) for my girlfriend and the 1985 Fuji Opus III (mistlplum/black/maroon) for myself.... and thanks to these forums I figured out what they were and that they were a great deal. (Thanks to everyone here!!!)

They look really cool and fast zipping between the cafe's and bars here in Florida. Throwing em in the back of the van for the drive up and then zooming all over St.Augustine was a blast this last weekend.

Also just snagged a 1985 Club Fuji (yellow marques & logos with fire engine red frame) today for $100 in pretty good shape with all suntour cyclone and etc, except the rear wheel is unoriginal, so I am hunting for a pair of gold alloy vintage 27's for the cheap now I guess...will post pics of it when I get a chance...

So I guess I have an new found obsession with the higher end part of the 80's Fuji Racer line... hard not to when you can get these for around $100-$200 down here in Florida... now I just have to track down a 'Professional' model...

Empire

Hey, I'm new to the forums, and new to vintage bikes as well! I've always been fascinated with them though, and decided recently to try and acquire one. I went to my grandma's house, thinking for some reason that she had an old junk pile of bikes that I could look through. However, I stumbled upon a bike sitting away from the others. A tree was growing through the spokes and frame, but it looked to be in nearly mint condition.

Come to find out it was my uncle's old bike, and had been sitting outside for a really, really long time. It's a Kabuki road bike. I'm not sure of the model, but there is minimal rust, and all it seemed to need was a new chain and tires. So I threw my uncle $20 for it and sawed down the tree to rescue the poor thing. I did a little bit of repairing with my limited knowledge... It doesn't shift gears though, so I need to find some time to mess with that, but it really is a fun thing to ride around!

melonbar123

You can get bikes like that for $100-$200?? I'm drooling over your Opus III...

ShawnBeau

Thank you! I didn't realize until a few weeks after I got it and got used to riding it exactly how nice it really is.

The 85' Opus III was just over $200, I have the original handlebars and brake levers for it, but not the original rims... current rims are unlabeled 700c but look to be aluminum. Hubs not labeled either. Everything else is original to spec. It is obvious after looking it over closely that someone took a lot of effort hand building the frame. It just looks like a high end piece of work. I am really really lucky to have snatched it.

The 84' Team Fuji was just over $150 and it is all original except for the granny gel seat
(that is getting thrown in the trash this week when a new seat comes in the mail).
This bike is fast as heck. I wish it was my size and not my GF's.

The 85' Club Fuji I got today was just over $100 after paying for tolls to get it, and factoring in the gas to drive back and forth... unfortunately the previous owner..er should I say middleman who was 'selling the bike for an old buddy of his', despite being a nice fellow looked like Sgt.Schultz from the old Hogan's heroes movies and thought he would be cool and try to hop on it from a cinderblock to test it before he sold it... never actually having ridden a road bike before, and it being significantly too big for him he described how the bike flipped up and he fell back and threw his back out... only in Florida...

...in the process he bent a couple spokes on the rear non-original wheel... so I need a 700c (not 27" my mistake) rear wheel now...as it doesn't match the original front one anyway... but seeing how it has the vintage Suntour track race pedals + some cool vintage suntour componentry and nice dia compe brakes, and a total weight of 23lbs I think the Club Fuji was a pretty good deal too, and now I have a beater bike.

melonbar123

You can't go wrong with full (sans wheels) Suntour Superbe Pro. Excellent catches. Need to move there.

ScottRyder 

ShawnBeau, you've got a good start on the upper Fuji line. The Professionals are scarce ... I'm curious, what size are you looking for?

Scott

ShawnBeau

Hi Scott, cool profile image.

My Opus is a 54cm and the Club Fuji is a 52cm both feel comfortable, but the Opus has a shorter stem and deeper bars than the Club, also I think the measurements of the angles differ between those 2 models, but I have not measured the tube lengths...

I have read that the Professional models are super scarce, I have never even seen one for sale on the web since I started googling to see what these bikes have been selling for. I know a lot of people look down on the Japanese bikes in favor of the French, and Italian makes, but I thinks these are really cool machines, even more so for being more likely to be found for a deal... seems though that people are collecting these now too and driving up the prices!

Cheers!
Shawn

ScottRyder 

Shawn, I'll put you on my list if I come across anything. We ride different sizes, I'm a 58-61cm. PM me when you get a chance, I might have something for you.

Scott

Bianchigirll 

unless there were two Sovereign bikes I would say the misaligned tires and the seat are about the only thing good on this bike.

also along with finding objects in the tire aligning the label to the valves is helpful for pit mechanics to invlate tires quicker

droobieinop

Day trip to "the oldest city?"

Empire

HM I stumbled on this ad on craigslist... haven't decided if its worth a look. this Schwinn Cruiser certainly looks to be in good shape, and for $35?? anyone care to share their opinion on it?

https://oklahomacity.craigslist.org/bik/1460343335.html

USAZorro

Empire,

Post this as a new thread in the Appraisals sub-forum.

You'll get much better visibility and response there.

curbtender

Looks to be early 80's.

Bikedued

Looks like a nineties cruiser, identical to the old school models except a welded head tube, alloy stem, and a few other details. It "could" be a Heavy Duti model, but it would have stainless fenders.,,,,BD

sonatageek

So I have picked up 3 bikes in the past few weeks, here are two of them. First up is a Huffy Techtra won on Ebay for just over $26. Why, you ask, would a bike person in the know pay that much for a Huffy? Well it is super clean and has new Specialized Armadillo tires, new Serfas seat, new bear trap pedals, a Bell cycle computer and oh, alloy Rigida rimmed wheels.

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Next up is a smaller Miyata 110. Looks to be an early 80's model as the main tubes are cromoly but not butted. It has steel wheels and there is a parts swap in the near future of this bike and aforementioned Huffy.

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ish

Here is probably what will be one of the most significant catches in my life, 1981 Stumpjumper #241. It's even my size. Bonuses were a Jim Blackburn rear rack and Kirtland Tour Paks.