Lotus Unique
 

My buddy picked up a lotus unique off ebay recently... it showed up over the weekend and while its far from pristine condition its pretty nice and shifts so smoothly.

Looking over the frame I'm not sure it wasn't in a front end collision but everything is straight and it tracks just fine. The components are a bit odd, and honestly I don't know how anyone was riding it in the state it showed up in but its all pretty nice considering the price and the relatively small amount of work required to get it on the road.

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_C_ZmRsQylO0/TG...0/IMG_1612.JPG

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_C_ZmRsQylO0/TG...2/IMG_1644.JPG

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_C_ZmRsQylO0/TG...0/IMG_1638.JPG

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_C_ZmRsQylO0/TG...0/IMG_1618.JPG

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_C_ZmRsQylO0/TG...0/IMG_1615.JPG

Components are sort of all over the place... Derailleurs are Suntour Cyclone MKII and shift wonderfully, shifters are just run of the mill suntour friction shifters, not ratcheting. Brakes are 1st gen Superbe, brake levers oddly enough were crapola Dia-Compes with the Turkey Legs unscrewed. TA Crankset, but the non-drive-side arm is a sugino...no clue what became of the matching TA arm.

We replaced the Levers with $5 nashbar aero levers, new stainless cables all around, housing was lined and in good shape...the chain was about a mile too long and I have no idea how anyone was riding the bike that way...there was no way to hit the granny ring without the chain dragging on the chainstay. I removed like 4 links and its fine now.

Gearing is half-step plus granny and the shifts are silky smooth.

Serial # is EN00339, i dunno if there's a Lotus Ser. # database but if there is please kindly point me that way, I'd love to know the year on this.

Interesting. Mine is the same size but has Suntour BL derailleurs, a Sugino double crankset, and oddly enough, a long Cinelli stem.

What Year is yours? Got any pics?

Is there a Lotus Catalog Archive?

Here's the thread about it, with the original CL pics. Another C&Ver has pics of his Unique as well, with different components as well:

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...t=Lotus+Unique

Althought thread is called c1988 Lotus Unique, wrk101 said he thought is was approximately an 84. Has the same lettering style as yours, although my wraparound decal is missing. My 88-ish Excelle has the later logo style.

As far as I know there is only that Wooljersey Lotus catalog scan out there, from like 81 or so.