Over winter break from school I was at my friend's house - my second family. I noticed what I later found out to be her dad's old bike (parents originally from NYC - he used to ride a smidge). I joked about how he should give it to me so I could make it into something purdy instead of a dirt collector. It's spring break and he had me come pick it up so I could love on it and make it my own haha. I have two questions.
1) How the crap can I figure out the date on it? I've been googling to no avail. On the bottom is
MODEL NO. 8195-9
2) I'm gonna take the next couple months to make this baby fiiine. I'm debating between making it straight fixed or if I should go with the flip-flop hub (for that reason I'll probably go with the latter). I wanted to know everyone's opinion for parts they think are delightful on their current fg - any reccomendations anyone wants to give me while I'm shopping around. Also, any bike detail painting ideas/tips.

Thanks in advance for any help


// also, any extra information on this brand would be swell.

I have found that whenever I have made a bike flip/flop, I NEVER use the free wheel side.

I can't understan trying to find out a vintage bicycle's history in the SS/FG forum when there's a clasic forum for just that purpose.

Oh and don't add any parts, just drop the deralurs, shorten the chain and pour some muriatic acid in your freewheel to rust the paws in place... thereby makng your bike 'fixed'.


Oh and for god's sake wrap your top tube in some sort of foam protector to save the paint cause now your bike is worth something.

Freewheels on fixed/free hubs are just pretty, heavey thread protectors.

I have no idea how old it is as I'm not too keen on bicycle history. I was unaware it classified as "vintage". All I know is that it's dirty.


Oh, and I'm not painting anything like Starry Night on it. I just want to do something funky.

Man, you old folks can get cranky!

thats what i was going to say when i first read this. recycle, if you dont have info, ignore it. doesnt it waste more time being an ******* and insulting the person than just ignoring and moving on? get out in the world. theres more important people to be mean to i think.

Get a fixed-fixed hub. You can run a freewheel on it, and you have another side in case you strip the lockring threads.

I don't know much about Royce Union from the past but I do know that all they make now are $50 Wal-Mart/Target/Kmart mountain bikes. I suppose at one point they might have been a decent name making decent bikes such as in this review for a 10-speed from 1970: https://www.pedalpushersonline.com/?CID=564

It's a shame that they're x-mart bikes now since their headbadge is pretty nice:

Ya' I was going to say the same. They make a perty all right bike. but it is not great that is for sure. Their frames seem to be put together allright.

like that nathan fabian guy?

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/japan.html
This is from Sheldon Brown, RVA. Scroll down a bit...

Thanks

It's not exactly the bike I have which leads me to think it this one may be a little bit of a later version but it does say it was made in Japan.

Hmm, this should be a fun fixer upper.

you smell pretty....don't look outside...im definatly not in the bushes...no use check..oh **** gotta go

I once had a royce union MTB from the late 80's that I made into a singlespeed. It was a pretty low-end bike and the frame felt like it was made from steel plumbing pipes. It was a pretty solid ride though and it was fully chromed (and the stickers came off easily), so from 5 feet away it looked like a pretty nice bike.

from sheldon's jabbery:

Royce Union
The most widely distributed Japanese bike of this era (the early 70s) was sold under the name Royce Union. This was a 10 speed, pretty much all steel except for the handlebar stem and the Dia Compe brakes. This bike was only available in one size, 20", which was considerably too small for an average American man. It was equipped with Araya steel rims, which were beautifully made, much smoother and truer than European steel rims of the era...but not strong enough to withstand the weight of an average American rider. This was partly due to design, and partly due to the fact that Japanese steel was not as good as European (nor American) steel.

Even though these bikes were not durable, they did have their good points, most particularly the Shimano Lark rear derailer. Although the Lark was quite heavy, it shifted markedly better than the French Hurét Alvits and Simplex Prestiges that were coming through on the bikes from Europe.