These four idiots found the other red mixte. An old Centurion Sport DLX. They told me they spotted it at a shack while on a fast food joint dumpster jamboree and this was to be had for $5 plus tax. I've looked it over--it's been in the weather a bunch so there are some rust/paint issues as well as some other repairs needed.

Unfortunately, I'm a poor excuse for a wrench and painting anything beyond popsickle sticks is beyond me. Beyond a good cleaning I'll need help. If any of you in between Northern California and Washington can help fix this one up for her the crows and I would appreciate it. (They would fix it themselves but anything larger than a walnut or a small bag of french fries is hard for them to get a hold of, and their short attention spans don't help.)

If anyone can help out please let me know.

Not a true mixte unless my eyes deceive me! I only see one downtube.

I think that there are 2. In the second pic, one of them can be seen passing on the right side of the seat tube. And the small tube diameter is another clue. I can't tell in the first pic, but the downtube looks bent! Or is that an optical illusion cuased by the cable housing?

Here I am, I go off to bed, happy and content. I've got a pair of new cycling knickers, a new helmet, a new Topeak Alien multi-tool, my very own toolbox kit from Park Tool so I don't have to keep borrowing things. Uh, plus other things. I wake up. I'm filled with the joy of the season, but still cranky that now I have to get up and go to work. Oh well, it's a light day, no FedEx dispatch, no PDX to send out.

I get up. I head for the computer. What's this?! BlankCrows has come forward and pierced the veil of mystery...it's another red mixte! Perfect! The Raleigh will be scarlet with GOLD outlining around the lugs. This one is scarlet with SILVER outlining around the lugs...nice...

Those are some excellent helpers you have, BlankCrows. They work cheap, too. Perhaps they are from the same gang that I fed Wheaties to about two weeks ago when we had snow up here . They're actually pretty sharp. In fact, they're smarter than some of the people I with whom I work . However, they are easily distracted by shiny bits. Perhaps the chrome is still too shiny.

Thank you, BlankCrows, now I just have to figure out how to get it up here. I think this is going to call for one of those Great American Road Trips.

East Hill

Decided to hit the thrift store today, the same one where I get all my bikes. Walk in, and got lucky again. Schwinn World Sport. Well lucky for me since I needed a set of 27 inch wheels. It even has fairly new Vittoria's on it. The rest of the bike is pretty nice shape. I will probably use the clear housing and several other parts for my Le Tour project. Hate to tear down such a sweet old bike, but it's way too small anyways. I'll probably sell the frame.,,,,BD

Not bad for a CrMo (main tubes) Just $18.....

Hmm, maybe I'll build a siq azz fixie, LOL!

I had no luck on bikes per se on my thrift sore run today, but I did score a like new Rhode Gear bike rack for $5. I already have one, but it fit my girlfriend's car perfectly.

I can't paint but I'm pretty handy with a wrench, and live over by Mt. Diablo. I can get it ship-shape if you can get it to me.....

I'm sure the Centurion won't be as classy as the pretty Raleigh with the gold trim, but maybe it will work out for poorer weather adventures when East Hill still needs to have a red ride.

It's not a big frame, but I'm not sure what to measure on it to determine the size. Serial number is F31J5806. I still need to give it a bath and some cleaning time for the wheels and components.

I can get it to you bigbossman. Let me clean it up first and I'll dash out your way with it pretty soon.

Here's some other photos of the frame which shows the biggest paint issue below the lug over the fork. There are sufficient down tubes for a mixte, correct?

Ah, very nice! It's definitely a mixte! It's a nice red, too. Yah, those pedals are rusty! I thought things only rusted up here in the PNW, not California (joking). And assistance from bigbossman, cool!

My only question is, what did they do to that poor downtube? Perhaps it was the crow helpers. Good thing there's many, many colours of nail polish...

It looks great for $5.00 and change, though. I am not complaining about a thing, and trust me, a bike for wet weather adventures is always useful here in Puget Sound .

Did I mention it snowed here last night? I'm still going for a ride as soon as I finish here.

East Hill

I'll be waiting. What's it need -cables, housings, etc?

BTW, that looks like crash damage, maybe. Is the frame bent? I can't tell if there's similar paint cracking up where the thin tubes meet the head tube, but if there is, that bike may have hit something head-on.

Bigbossman comes to the rescue! Thank you, bigbossman. I took another look at the photo, and to me it doesn't look like crash damage, but someone being vicious with pliers or something. Or as if someone had attached something there and removed it by twisting whatever it was around leaving gouges in the paint. Or as Mr. East Hill likes to put it, 'scrapin' things'. Could have been an evil teenager attacking it. I think you'll be able to tell better up close though.

East Hill

You're welcome.

Once a year I try to do something nice and philanthropic in order to balance my usual grumpy, cold-hearted, self-involved, curmudgeonly demeanor.

I don't really want to you understand, but the wife says it's good for me and I don't like sleeping on the couch.

This “catch of the day” story is from a few months ago, but I wanted to share it:

Last summer, I knew only two things about road bikes: 1) I wanted one, and 2) I didn’t want to spend any money to get one.

I combed craigslist and the local “freecycling” listings daily, and eventually saw “Pivo bike – getting thrown away, pick it up and it’s yours free.” Um, what’s a Pivo bike? The picture showed a skinny, dented blue thing with its skinny wheels off, leaning dejectedly against a garage wall. But it had the loopy handlebars that I knew signaled “road bike,” and the price was right, so I grabbed it first and asked questions later.

Sekai 5000 1970s YJ Special Order Road Bike_08-16-06.jpg

The donor knew nothing about the bike – she was storing it for a friend who’d moved away. She called it a Pivo because of the Pivo engraved on the handlebar stem. Other parts had funny names on them like Campagnolo, Specialités TA, and Fiamme Ergal. Thus began my research and restoration project. I pestered the donor’s friend with questions, visited Yellow Jersey (our vintage-specialty LBS), got a couple of bike repair books, became an eBay junkie, and discovered some great Internet vintage cycling sites, including a wonderful discussion site called bikeforums.net.

The Yellow Jersey store owner identified the bike as a Sekai 5000 he’d sold new around 1977, for $900 or so. “We sold hundreds of those … Mark Pringle won the US Nationals on one in 1975 and so they sold very well.” Then a mechanic weighed the bike at around 19 lbs. and said “holy sh*t!” I began to think that maybe this piece of rescued junk was something special. And it even fit me pretty well.

My cyclist friend laughed over the tubular tires. “You’ll get so many flats!” (Not one yet, fingers crossed.) The first time I rode the bike any distance, the rear derailleur cage fell apart.

Six months later, I’ve spent about $350 (a lofty sum for me, cheapskate that I am … so much for not spending any money) on parts, tools, LBS service, and assorted bike gear. Plus uncounted late-night hours working on the bike. I’ve touched up the paint job since these pictures. I’ve learned some vintage bike arcana. And I’ve also learned that my wife and friends really don’t care about the difference between cartridge bearings and cup-and-cone bearings, or how hard it was to find a 23mm crank puller for $20. There’s plenty more I could do to improve the bike (like getting it dent-rolled and repainted) but I’m trying to keep the costs down here, so I need to pace myself.

Bikeforums.net has been an terrific resource, and I just wanted to thank everyone for all the helpful advice!


Sekai 5000 lo-res_11-05-06.jpg Sekai 5000 front lo-res_11-05-06.jpg Sekai 5000 head lugs lo-res_11-05-06.jpg Sekai 5000 seat lug lo-res_11-05-06.jpg

I try to do something good for people at the end of the year too. I have gotten too cynical after working for the USPS for 27 years...it helps me retain some semblance of kindness to my fellow human beings.

But Mr. East Hill would never send me to sleep on the sofa. He's funny that way. Dare I admit he is even nice enough to let me warm up my cold feet on him .

East Hill

sekaijin: very nice find, astounouding what you can pick up for free! Perhaps you can track down some proper decals for that, shes looking naked!

looks like yellowjersey used to have decals, but they are out of the ones for the 5000 model.
https://www.yellowjersey.org/sekai.html

there's a 1975 sekai catalog there. it says the 5000 from that year is made from "Tange Professional 0.6x0.3 double butted Cr-moly throughout" and that it weighs in the low 4 pound range with the headset. that is an obscenely thin tubing diameter, and an obscenely light frame. with that in mind that it has received some dents is unsurprising.

a big +1! on that!
Certainly qualifies as a "Catch of the Day"!

Now that's funny, I was going to tell sekaijin that the Sekai looked quite elegant and sleek! Still, a nice find and good job on bringing the bike back from the dead.

East Hill

seriously, 0.6x0.3 tubes! that's thinner than ishiwata 015, which has a maximum recommended rider weight of 125 pounds.
https://www.desperadocycles.com/Tubin...per_Tubing.htm
now yours may be a different year and have different tubing. still, i would suggest treating it nicely.

We're all funny that way (men, that is.... )

Well I try to clean road debris, I cleared a fallen traffic sign, and a whole road of palm branches.
Sooo windy, not Seattle windy but bad.

We should all be so lucky! NICE find!,,,,BD

Green Bay Wisconsin is the windiest place I've ever been. It's that straight line never lets up kind of wind that
drives you nuts! Second was Central OK. Holding the steering wheel crooked to go down the interstate is a bit
freaky, hehe.

Thanks for the feedback all. I’m really enjoying restoring and riding a great old bike that almost got thrown away. I am doing my best to treat it nicely.

Re decals: If I really wanted to, I could cut-and-paste the downtube decals that Yellow Jersey has in stock, to create "Sekai 5000". But I kind of like the naked/stealth look. Nobody seems to have heard of Sekai anyway, so it's not like decals would add cachet like if it was a Paramount or something. Maybe I'll reconsider and add decals if I ever get the bike repainted and clear-coated.

Re the tubing: don't know the exact model year, so I don't know if it's the Tange Professional 0.6x0.3 tubing shown in the 1975 catalog. Between the Yellow Jersey owner's recollection and some very helpful PM input from T-Mar, best guess is it’s a 1977 frame. The BB is stamped "CHAMPION" and there is no serial number.

But the tubing is definitely very thin. Squeeze one of the main tubes with thumb and index finger, and it bends in a little bit. The top-tube and seat-tube dents are probably from repair-stand clamping. First (and last) time I brought the bike in for repair, they said "oh don't worry, we'll use this special gentle clamp on the seat tube, there's no way it can cause a dent." But sure enough it did ... and from now on I’ll wrench the bike myself at home, thank you.

Also the rear dropouts are Campagnolo replacements - maybe that part of the frame was damaged worse in a repair stand. That could also explain the lack of serial number, which might have been on an original rear dropout.

I’m a pretty skinny guy, but no 125 pounder … hopefully this bike can handle a little more than that!

Salvation Army find today, Taiwan built Centurion Cignet, Way too small and too nice to part out, so it's probably going to a friend. I did raise the seat and ride it a little, not a bad machine.

At least I can say I used to have a Centurion!

I can make a decal set for you when you're ready. See www.velographicdecals.com