I never worked on a bicycle from before 1998 before, so when this 1974 Kabuki Skyway made itself available, I just had to take a stab at it...

It looks good in the picture, but the drivetrain was coated in grease and dirt, the brakes were rusted over, the wheels were the wrong diameter (and the hubs are a bit thinner than the stuff I usually run into, 96mm on the front, 126mm on the rear), and it's kinda chipped all over. (I just liked the color, honestly.)



A good scrub and dis-assembly did it some good, but now I'm finding that I'm going to have to replace a lot of nuts and bolts because the ones that were on this bike had either gone soft or rusted through. I'm either going to have to cost-set the fork and chain stays to accommodate thicker hubs, or learn how to make my own wheels. Never the less, I'm going to see if I can either restore it...or make a single-speed.

I had one similar to that for a while. They're OK bikes, a bit heavy and not the best ride, but serviceable. I converted mine to a 1x5 townie setup before I sold it. If it still has the original disc brake in the rear, the first thing I would do is remove it - they are pretty useless and quite heavy. Get a set of modern dual-pivots and start from there; at least you'll be able to stop. Single-speed is not a bad idea either.

Yeah, I popped that disc brake off, first thing. I'm intending for it to be little more than a town ride, so not expecting too much. Single speed, bullhorns, that sort of thing.

Is that a one-piece head tube with faux scalloped lugs?

My understanding is that the frame was constructed by bonding aluminum lugs to steel tubes. The lugs do have rather cheesy detailing that appears to (poorly) mimic classic steel lugs. I can't recall off-hand if the headtube was a single piece, however.