Fuschas?

I had been shopping e-Bay for a good steel fork for my #3 Titan frame & was outbid on several until Sunday when I won a nice Mondonico for only $51.14 (Including shipping).

I picked up a 21 speed lugged Bianchi Mountain bike, suntour and diacomp. The shifters seem kind of crapy. 45 bucks canadian and i think the breaks are steel with a plastic casing. Oh well the frame seems nice, the wheels are true and it has not been used much or abused, the wheels are pretty damn straight and probably have never been trued. Last weekend I picked up a nice 1975 Apollo Mixte at the Salvation army for 35 CND, all original, not a spot of rust nice shinny steel araya 27" rims, diacomp centerpulls and cool shimano 500 RD, crapy suicide shifter though, tires have air and are not even cracked.

Its a good mid-range Fuji. That AR deraleur is decent and will give you good service. The Sansin hubs are excellent (if they aren't worn out) quality hubs.

I have one that I ride everyday. Its a delightful riding bike. I keep my eye peeled in local shops for one in better original condition.

Thanks, silversmith. It looks like it will be a good rider. Compared to my Bridgestone, it is about 1/8" taller seat tube, 1/2" shorter top tube and 1" longer chainstays.

The only concern I have is some rust on the spokes. I'm sure I can clean it up with some elbow grease and magic potions, but I wonder if there is a danger of them breaking. I checked and the brakes will adjust enough for 700c wheels to work, but it would be a shame not to use those good rims and hubs.

It appears to be touring bike week here in the River City. Here's a little beauty, a Shogun 600 dedicated tourer, look to have barely been ridden. Even has the braze ons on the front fork for front pannier racks. Superb overall shape, Shimano mechs (unmarked as to model except for "z401" on shifters), Sakae triple cranks 52/42/32, lugged and butted tange 900 frameset, Suzue sealed hubs. Alas, the size is not the uber-desirable 62cm, the ne plus ultra of bike sizes, but a midget like 48cm (anything under 60cm is tiny, darnit, why can't folks have longer legs). So it's trade bait or CL or ebay fare, not sure which. Aside from a pair of Treks I found a while back (720 and 620) the best tourer I've found, and certainly in remarkable shape. Think I'll keep the bag, it goes with panniers one of my legion of ex-gfs dropped of earlier in the year. Rusty chain really the only problem with this one.

On another tack, it seems like most of the bikes I find are either ridden hard and put away wet, or nearly unridden, with the edge in numbers to the latter. Makes me wonder what minty stuff is hidden in garages across the metro area... prolly not higher end, but nice mid-range bikes like this one.

Great looking Shogun, but you're right that is a micro-sized frame. A good touring bike is probably what i need to add to my collection next. But that won't be for quite some time. Perhaps the Barracuda Mk.I will get fenders and racks as its wheel base is fairly long, but a nice dedicated touring machine like that one would be indeed a nice find. :)

Poquemahone wrote:
Makes me wonder what minty stuff is hidden in garages across the metro area... prolly not higher end, but nice mid-range bikes like this one.

I see nice bikes hanging in garages all the time, many of them look almost new. Most are junk but occasionally there are decent ones. Which brings up the point, has anyone ever just asked the owner if they are wanting to sell?

Poquemahone, nice Shogun. I love bikes like that, in my opinion the most practical of all bikes, great for commuting as well as touring......Man, does that frame look similar to a Centurion Accordo I recently worked on, both in its geometry and also the way its painted. Different color, but other than that it could pass for the Accordo's twin. I think the Accordo had Tange Infinity, though. Great find-

Me too. I want one for RAGBRAI this summer.

Ragbrais an awesome ride. Sorry that was totaly off topic.

Good lord! How long were you driving around? Looks like about $10,000 worth of bikes at NYC craigslist prices ;)

Chuckk - that's a wild-looking saddle on the huge black bike in the front. What is that?

it looks like the sadle from my kids Mongoose MTB?

That most certainly is the Mongoose logo. Crazy saddle, wonder who in the world thought that would be a good design for a saddle!

After a long dry spell, I ran across a find today. Nothing special, but clean and pretty - this should get a decent sized squeal out of some lucky coed. ;)

For $20, what I found was a French made 10 speed mixte. Badged with the "Regina" label, it is a Hi-Tensile mixte with steel wheels and cottered cranks. Malliard high flange hubs with Atom QR skewers, Mafac Racer centerpull brakes, steel chrome toe clips, and Simplex shifters/derailluers. Naturally, the FD has cracks and will need replacing. Tires and tubes are good, the bike is very clean, and is a very nice burnt orange color. Even has a Plescher rack! All it needs is new cable housings, a FD, and a quick scrubdown.

Looks a lot like Peugeot to me. I never heard of Regina - any of you guys able to help out with additional info?

Here's a couple of quick pics, after I loaded it onto the truck.

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/1781/p81400091vl.jpg

http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/4748/p81400100ln.jpg

Anybody ever heard of the British bike maker Armstrong? I just bought a 1969 British three-speed by this maker in all-original condition. A beauty, though the seat is a killer... A question: does it matter if I trash the old plastic/vynl seat and get new cable housing, or will this ruin the age-old perfection of the thing?

Nah. By '69 these were made by Raleigh, just like almost everything else, I'm pretty sure. There's a seat better than that springy mattress pad?

Pogue - any interest in a Centurion Ironman frame? I now someone with a 60+cm frame, but I need something around a 56cm. If you think that might be something swappable, send me a PM. I can't wait until I get back to the states and have something to post here.

North San Diego County area - I saw a repainted Fuji in the Goodwill in downtown Escondido yesterday (1/24) for $15. The bike looked like a junker but it had a Brooks Professional saddle in good shape.

Nice catch Bossman!!!! I just picked up another Centurion mixte over in Alameda for $25. Surpringly enough it too is in great shape. Just a little clean-up and it will show up on a campus real close. What are you replacing the FD with? I've got a crack on my Gitane Mixte FD too! I just picked up a body from my local shop for $5.00

for $80 CND i procured this Norco, Victory made in Japan 1985, full 600 including headset pedals and likely BB, with cool black suzue hubs and black ukai rims, I am thinking it would be cool to get them relaced with black spokes or relace them myself as my first wheel building experience but can't really justify the expense.... Anyway, I think it's pretty nice looking bike, the craftsmanship looks a little shoddy although I am guessing it was made in the same factory as my nishiki international (which I can't give enough praise to). This bike says racing series and has zero braze ons for fenders and the like, but it does have this hideous flat piece of metal with a hole in it above the rear brake bridge (like a second bridge for moutning something else; anyone know what that is about?) Oh the bike is Tange 900 (what can you tell me about that tubing?)...

I'm surprised you came all the way up to Alameda to get it. I gave Mike a heads-up but he turned up his nose at it. I didn't feel like driving over the hill, but if I'd known you were interested I'd have shot you an email, as well.....but I guess you didn't need me to. :D

I just replace the broken Simplex FD's with low level Suntour stuff - Hero's, Sprint's, - whatever I have in the pile. Once I even used a Falcon that came off a Huffy :eek: It worked just fine and the bike ran well when I last saw it..... :)

You need a FD? Have I got a deal for you....... ;)

Yeah, I was surprised I went that far too. When she said it was almost in mint condition, that was the hook!!!!! :) She wasn't lying either. Even the housings look new. As for the derailleur, I have a bunch of front derailluers sitting in a box (Suntour, Shimano) but something about an all original parts vintage bike tells me to go out and find what I need. Luckily, I got a bike shop that's close by that has such parts. Show me pics of that Regina after you clean it up.

The Velo Schauff is a nice looking bike. I appreciate the top tube brazeons for the rear brake cable...no "French pastry" there, just a straightforward this-to-that.