It doesn't really deserve 3 exclamation marks, but it was reasonably priced, hence the excitement. Just picked this up tonight, here is the kijiji pic, I'll post better ones tomorrow!

Tange MTB tubing, old school mountain bike fun:

winter beater devin?

It's exciting to me.

Yeah, that's pretty much what I was thinking! It's actually got pretty nice stuff on it - sealed suzue hubs, araya rims etc. and it's surprisingly light considering. It was really the "drop bar mountain bike thread" that got me thinking when I saw the bike listed, because it seems to me to be a good candidate. I'm thinking off-road tourer.

Devinfan,

Looking at your recent find, I can understand about all the excitement. That's a great looking old school MTB. Any history that you know about ? I've not a clue. Price was certainly a nice "feature" as well !

I'm into the MTB's as of late myself. 3 projects running right now. 2 on the road( 87 Univega,94 dropbar Mongoose) and 1 a frame build-up(93 GT). All different build wise but really just for dirt path/city bombing use.

Looking forward to any pics you wish to share

XC or XT?

Nice looking Sakai. I don't think I've seen the the double A Sakai before. Yours looks to be in great shape.

I just finished a rebuild on an 85 Schwinn Mirada that can be seen on my blog. No major modifications, but still cleaned up very well. And presently finishing up a Nishiki BackRoads that I will be post some pics of within the next week.

Not that you asked but...

Hi all,

Thanks for the comments and also the information! RaleighSport that's very interesting, I didn't know that it was made by Miki - I've never even heard of them. I just figured looking at the frame that it had pretty nice lugs and forged horizontal dropouts so I thought the frame had potential to go in a number of different directions. It is super clean but also in need of a complete tear down and rebuild, which I will do over the holidays. I'm still not sure where I will go with it. Singlespeed off-road with drops maybe? It would also make a cool Rando build, but I already have one of those, so...

Suggestions are welcome!

I like that idea, but I'm biased since my next planned personal build is about the same. Oh and most everything in my Sekai database thread applies to just about all Miki frames, although the same can pretty much be said of Nishiki too.

Well - here she is! Kind of a quick and dirty conversion. I was determined to keep the price tag reasonable so I kept myself to parts bin-only. I think she came out pretty cool. What do you think?

Nice job. What kind of tires are those? What kind of riding? I'm guessing in the city when there's snow on the ground?

Thanks noglider - tires are the original Panaracers. I am thinking winter bike and also trail bike in the summer! The seatpost has a cool quick release so I figure it will make a good lock-up bike as well.

Funny I saw an almost identical one the other day at the LBS, and a Sekai Sasquatch.. I was tempted to snatch both up. I think it'd make a fine winter bike Devin.

Wish my parts bin had that Swift in it!

Really pretty bike and conversion. I'm thinking 83-ish?

Gross!

And by gross, I mean dope!

Would be easy to check with the serial, the OP can find out easily

I'm jealous of your parts bin! That Sakai looks like a blast to ride. Have fun!

Take those tires off and sell them. They ride like crap and people want them for restorations.

Edit: Thought they were these radial tires. Carry on. Lol.

Thanks all! I'll try to nail down the year - the model is a Landmaster. I was really impressed by the fact that everything was sealed and still buttery smooth, including the bb. I haven't gotten it on the road yet but I can't wait!

This is from the Nishiki database, but it applies more then likely.
Kawamura manufactured frames (1972-1987*)

Serial number format XYZZZZZ where:

X is a letter indicating the market using the following codes:
C = Canada (pre-1985)
K = USA (pre 1985)
W = USA (1985-1987*)

Y is a letter indicating the last digit of the manufacturing calendar year, where A =1, B = 2, C = 3… J = 0. Exception is letter S, used on all frames prior to 1975.

ZZZZZ is a five or six digit number, apparently representing a sequential frame manufac turing number for the year (or era in the case of pre 1975 frames)

Example 1: KA24587 is the 24,787th frame produced in 1981 for the US market.

Example 2: CG231117 is the 23,117th frame produced in 1977 for the Canadian market.

Example 3: WE54612 is the 54,612th frame produced in 1985 for the US market.

* Serial number format may extend beyond 1987, but there are no reported examples, to date.

Woah... that's pretty comprehensive! So M5805418 would be...

That one's easy, 85.

Awesome! Thank you, that's very cool. I guess my neon colour-scheme just works, then.