Tange #1 equipped bike pickup!
 

Picked up my first road bike this week, Takara elitist with Tange #1 tubing and full Shimano 600. Hadn't heard of the brand but the components were too good to pass up for this CraigsList find! Already started adding my own touches (starting with the ugly bar tape).

Bought:

Cinelli Cork Bar Tape
MKS GR-9 Pedal
Power Grips
New brake hoods
And lights!

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=259216

Now get rid of the white cable housing & that is one nice looking ride.

Thanks! That's actually next on the to do list.
After reading about all these Craigslist bikes going so fast, I hopped on this one as soon as it popped up! Had to strap it to my miata with the top down to get it home.

Anybody else have a takara?

Nice looking bike! I had one that I bought to flip a few years ago but yours definitely looks nicer. It was a bit too big for me to get a real sense of how it rode, but overall, I was impressed.

There's another one on my local CL that's a bit of a problem child. It's set as a 1x7 with a Bar Con shifter on one end of the handlebar and a single front brake on the other. Looks pretty rough but if I can get it for $40, I'll probably still grab it.

I don't have a Takara, but that's a very nice bike.
Those forks are ace, and killer lugwork on the head tube and seat stay caps.
Get the saddle you prefer, have the bike fit to you, and go through it, maintenance-wise.

You've got an excellent frameset, excellent components.
The chromed fork, lugs, and seat stay caps tell us it's way up there on the lineup, maybe at the top.

Welcome to the forum. Try not to get addicted.
You find many more like that, you'll have, ...uh,....a problem.

The Japanese had so many brands, it's hard to know all of them. I always recommend judging a bike by it's condition, the material used for the frame, and the grade of components. By this measure, that's a great bike! Hope it fits and rides well, then it would be perfect!

When I bought my Katakura Silk, it sat on Charlotte's CL for several days.$75 for an all chrome hand built Japanese frames?WTF? No one recognized it, giving me the time to get it from outside the area. It should not have lasted ten minutes..

I decided to do some googling while I was there and found out it had some quality. Got 50 bucks off the asking price too!

Well done!!! Beautiful bike, and welcome to C&V ;-)

Cheers,
Chris

Sweet bike, IMO, your add ons are right on time, especially the lights. :thumb:

Agree with Thrifty Bill on this; there were lots and lots of Japanese bike imports and the quality of the parts and the frame matter as much if not more than the name on the frame. Takara was not as expensive as some of the other brands but made some nice bikes. This is clearly a keeper; nice score.

Thanks! Princeton Tec Eos and Planet bike super flash are on the way. Hopefully it'll give me a decent budget setup.

Another
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=259309

Vintage Campagnolo stainless would be a nice touch ...

Black seat and black bar tape too much black? Black on black on black
Already have the cinelli cork, and was thinking about a San Marco saddle. Just not sure on color.

Another alternative would be to keep the white cable housing, add white bar tape and a white saddle. Just sayin'...

Nothing wrong with black all around. Nothing at all.

Never knew Takara had anything like that in their lineup ever. That looks pretty nicely built and equipped. Good snag!

Shankya. I was pretty confused by it after all I'd read about this "mediocre" company.

This bike weighs in at 24 pounds as pictured. Does that sound about right?

It looks like a large frame so I'd have guessed 22 or 23 lbs; 24 lbs isn't that far out of line. Does it have a kickstand and steel drop bars? BTW - she looks really sharp - you got a great catch!

I measured 56.5cm C-T.


Thanks! It already looks better with new pedals. Just waiting on the hoods and I'll put those and new bar tape on soon.

You picked my favorite pedal and strap combo. And on a sweet bike, too. Welcome to the forum!

An "Elitist"... Love it.
.

Cables were changed to black all around. And here's a quick snap of the pedals on:

http://i.imgur.com/0pcRT.jpg

The threads were almost gone thanks to the previous owner jamming in whatever those atrocities were. But with a little re-threading they finally synced up.