The History of my Frame?
 

A few months ago, I bought this old 70s or 80s road bike, and I've been trying to figure out an exact year for the bike. It's a Jupiter King, a brand that I have never heard of and can barely find any information on. It's Japanese, as the badge says, but that's all I know.

Over the past few months I have absolutely fallen in love with this bike, I've been riding it around Amsterdam daily, and will totally be bringing it back to the US when I move back.

Here are a few pictures...

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7079/7...f1fb74b9_z.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7107/7...45e9ef83_z.jpg

Cool bike! Perfect colour for riding around over here, especially with the european championships coming up - expect to see the whole city in orange.

How did you get ccyccling shoes to match the bike?

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7107/7...45e9ef83_z.jpg


I never heard of it before but it looks nice. Does or did it have clamp on shifters at one time? is there a RD hanger?

Haha, I already had the shoes. Chrome Southsides.

It did have clamp on shifters, had a hanger too, if I recall correctly. I stripped most of the original parts when I made it fixed.

A few other interesting things. The handlebars are "Alps Industrial Co. LTD Japan".

are you missing a seat binder bolt?

Er, nope.

Great looking bike! I've never heard of it either. Very tasteful decals and excellent color. Are there any markings on the bottom bracket shell? One other place to look might be the steerer tube. While you're looking there, take a close look at the fork--is that rust near the top of the right fork blade?

Yes, there is a serial number.

And there isn't any rust on the fork, expect for some minor specs on the chrome parts of the blades, and a tiny bit on the headset. The bike is surprisingly quite rust free.

Hah, on second notice, I probably saw you riding it a few weeks ago. You was with someone on a green bike iirc, and I though "gee, why didn't those guys remove the outer rings of the cranks". :) or it was someone else on an orange fixie with the same superfluous outer ring.

That serial number may be the key to dating your frame, if you can find a website (or a real human) to decode it for you. Glad there's no rust, I was worried your fork might be bent, but I think it's the camera angle.

You probably did, actually. I'll "remove" the chain ring when I replace the entire crank. :P


And I've been trying to decode the serial number. It's been tricky finding any info on it.

I don't know if I'll find anything about this company, the brand doesn't even show up in any bicycle database, and I can't make anything out of the serial number (Y0D4164).

But hey, that makes it even more interesting.

Simple. It's the 41st frame Yoda built in 1964.

Looks like a Velobase member posted an identical headbadge back in 2010, identifying the bike as 1978-1981. That narrows it down a bit. Maybe he's made more progress since then and you could reach him on that site.

http://velobase.com/ViewHeadBadge.as...f94&AbsPos=360
http://velobase.com/VeloImages/Headb...64BA1C277.jpeg

You have a drive side pic? I like it.

looks like a nice fixie