seedsbelize 

I do have some bicycle aesthetics. I cannot grasp the look of the threadless stem. Or those plastic things which are so popular these days.

Classtime 

28s just barely fit on mine.

RobbieTunes

Handling horses is not for the meek. We had Amish neighbors. The boys our age were always interested in wrestling. I'm fairly certain they'd have been great at it. They used draft horses for everything, and of course, no machines at that time.

Manual labor is satisfying, though.
Hardest work as a kid, daily: carrying 5-gal buckets of milk from the cows to the bulk tank and dumping them in. Generally a bucket in each hand, while the machine milked the next cow in line. 57 cows, generally two buckets per cow. Yeah, I counted trips. Dad would not spring for a step-saver.

Hardest work once out of high school: in a cheese factory, heaving large chunks of cheese around, but worse, holding the 3-piece "boxes" together while carrying them from the hopper to the press, keeping the bottom and top squeezed together in order to turn them sideways (no gravity assist) and set them in the press. Then removing them, 40-lb blocks at a time, wrapping them, putting them in boxes, and stacking them in the cooler. When the truck came to haul the goodness to CA, of course, we handled them again, once onto the conveyor, give them a good push, and once more stacking in the truck.

When we did barrel cheese, the 55 gal drums weighed around 400 lbs or so. We moved these onto the dock with hand trucks, then tipped them down to drain. The next day, we tipped them back up. Young guys all, we simply had no mercy for anyone who couldn't handle it. I came home with arms aching a lot.

Never matched the devastation of a 2:21 marathon, though, or a 30-mile forced march with pack. Both really sucked.

I sometimes think America needs a good dose of what labor really entails.

RobbieTunes

On a different note, serial numbers:

My '87 Master: N6N7989

My '88 Master: N7S5606

No clue what either means.


And the Carbon-R: 91C0165

Pemetic2006

Thanks much.
Really looking forward to checking out this bike. I hope it fits.

seedsbelize 

My dad was a farm boy. He often compared himself to Gomer Pyle. During basic training, in the early 40s, they would do 12 mile runs in uniform and combat boots. He claims to have enjoyed it.
i still work myself to exhaustion on occasion, but only on occasion. During our time in Belize, I did it daily. I would swing that machete until I could do it no more, and then realize I had a half mile to walk home. We lived on the top of the hill.
Once italics are turned on here in this forum, they cannot be turned off by the usual procedures.

jetboy 

i tried manual labor, decided it was not for me (though i still work in a type of construction). I never did hay, which is often considered one of the most backbreaking work one can do (around my area anyway). But I did a fair bit of logging, mostly setting choker and wielding a chainsaw all day, and also ditch digging... i think ditch digging is worse. spend 8 hours just digging a trench.. blaeach backbreaking and boring.

I will tell you the worst job though: Weeding a cranberry bog. you can only do it by hand, and its not all that difficult--- but Sisyphus type of situation. You can spend a week bent over pulling weeds, every day, 8 hours a day, and look up and see that you have cleared like 20% of the bog and the first 10% now has new weeds.

texaspandj

Worst job? I can't compete with y'all boys. My father said don't lift anything heavier than a woman's under skirt and I was an obedient child.
But the best gig I had was when our band played every Tuesday for a month or two at a strip club. We would replace the DJs music. Best part the dancers Tipped us! I had never been in a strip club til then.

seypat

Definitely a difference between gym strong and farm strong. Wrestling farm animals and the stuff/labor that you have to do gets you in shape both physically and mentally.

seypat

I don't think anyone has asked yet, so I will. With the existence of the Zunow bikes confirmed, which sizes do we need to pay special attention to?

texaspandj

Good question.
58cm. But fleslider would have to confirm.
Both Dave and Mike were from California however, they both would spend time in Colorado. So maybe those two states are our best chances to track the rest down. But the Centurion on the seat tube is probably the best way to identify a "Pro" bike (not counting the Carbon Ironman as that has the Centurion on the seat tube).

seypat

A 58 is too big for me. If I magically find one, it will be handed off to someone else.

jetboy 

got me curious to look around for a 58cm centurion/zunow and i found one... but not the centurion part:

https://sacramento.craigslist.org/bi...741327156.html
wants top dollar for the production frame but it does have cool paint and prestige tubing. I think these might have been made by panasonic as the zunow titanium frames were.

RobbieTunes

I think it's a good price. My size and I'd be interested.

fleslider 

Correct the Zunow/Pro frame is a 58cm frame.

I would guess that the best place to find them would be Southern California, as there was alot of Triathlons and Tri-Athletes. as well as WSI's main office was in Newbury Park. But then again Texas seems to have the market cornered on those "Summertime Blues" Masters

fleslider 

Ohh man thats a cool bike! and Sante my

It looks like maybe a Mid 80's because it doesnt have the Zunow Custom Lugs that from what i read happened in the late 80's

fleslider 

@RobbieTunes. Got the package today. Thanks a million!

Now the pro has a 7 speed Dura Ace grouppo

rccardr 

RobbieTunes

I can't even spell sublime, much less figure out what it means.

Deal4Fuji

Sublime = California druggy white boy reggae

Just checking back in to say how much I'm loving the ride of my '85 IM !!

texaspandj

58cm is too big for me too but, I'd be more selfish and Keep It and try like hell to ride it.
To put it into perspective it would be like finding a Hinault bike if you started riding in the '80s or Indurain bike if you started riding in the '90s or a Merckx if you started riding in '70s and so on.
In the '80s I started riding a bike to participate in a triathlon and in '86 Pigg become a triathlete to watch but then in about '87 the aero bars came out and Pigg became the fastest cyclist the triathlon world had ever seen. He was always strong on the bike but suddenly he was the fastest. In a world class pro field of 30 or so he'd come out of the water in the top 10 then one by one he'd pick them off then proceed to put at least a minute and a half on them for some 3 to 5 minutes. The only triathlete who had a chance of beating him was Mark Allen. Allen felt like if who could stay within a minute and a half off the bike he could run Pigg down. Pigg meanwhile felt like if he could put a minute and a half on Allen he had a good chance of winning. And so it went. At the time Pigg said " Oh I love tearing people up on the bike. In short course races my goal is to say see if you can go as hard as I can and if you can see if can run as fast as I can going that hard. And I just love that, I love it and if you can stay with me great now let's see how well you run".
He was young, confident and tough. Pigg Power!

​​​​​​​So Irongents, what would you do if you found a Pro Ironman bike?​​​​​​​

seypat

So some Zunow frames were made by Panasonic? This is becoming the "six degrees of Centurion."

Deal4Fuji

sometimes you just have to find a way to make it work

jetboy 

Zunow had a moment when they went into more serious production and some frames were made outside the Osaka shop- the hummingbird(model name not paint scheme.. the paint scheme was on lots of bikes) and the titanium were some of those. Perhaps it all comes around and those zunow hummingbirds are very close to a centurion? were centurions made by panasonic? its some sort of inverted pyramid!

the serial number looks familiar:

texaspandj

Yes the bb looks very similar. I'd love to see the lugs on that production Zunow. But judging from the pic it looks closer to the experrt style frame.