After two and half years of absence on this blog, I'm back. Having been (relatively) successful in fighting off the itch to play with bicycles during the last couple of years, here I am again.
My sister thought her bicycle in New York had been stolen (which actually turned up later), but it was enough reason for me to look for a new bike to play with. Coincidentally, this bike was posted on Washington D.C. (that's where I'm at now) Craigslist for a couple of days without having been sold. After a quick Google search on the bike, I contacted the seller and bought it for $70. It sounded like the seller were the original owners of the bike who had put this away in their garage a long time ago and it had sat there for decades.
The bike doesn't seem to have been ridden much -- the tires were original and its treads seem to have very little wear. But it doesn't seem to have been stored very carefully, judging from the scuffs on the frame and rust on chain and other steel parts.
My selection of tools are very limited here, but I did my best to clean and tune up the bike. Tires were replaced (the front wheel is an obscure 547mm size) and I bought Cane Creek gum hoods for the brake levers. Shift cables were replaced as well as the front brake cable and housing. Oh, and the brake pads and chain were replaced, too. Otherwise all parts are original.
1987 Fuji 450 SE - Drive side
1987 Fuji 450 SE - Front view
1987 Fuji 450 SE - Suntour Accushift Alpha 3000 downtube shifters -- supposedly not compatible with other Accushift systems
I don't keep track of most of the things that I sell (largely because I don't think they're rare enough or of high quality). But I did sell a couple of frames and a bicycle within the last month or so, that I think would be recording. I just hope I won't be reading this post later and regret selling these (or the prices that I sold them at).
The first is a 1991 Miyata Seven21 frame. I believe I bought this as a part of a bulk lot of bicycles at a police auction. It's probably an upper-entry level bike, but I think it's somewhat rare. When I brought it home, I realized that the fork was slightly bent inward. I was contemplating whether to use one of my spare forks to build up the bike, but I decided to sell it because the frame wasn't as light as I hoped, and I couldn't remove the bottom bracket cups. It was sold to a guy who modifies the rear dropouts into a track bike dropouts by welding on small plates of steel, then cutting the backside of the dropout. The interesting this is that he keep the derailleur hanger on there so that the owner can switch from single-speed/fixed to geared. I'm not quite sure why one would need to do this if the frame already has a horizontal dropout, but maybe it's more for looks. Anyhow, the frame was sold for $35.
The frame does have a few cool specs. It's got bonded aluminum lugs, got internal cable routing, and has a single hole drilled on the bottom of the down tube. That single hole is supposedly for a CO2 cartridge holder.
1991 Miyata Seven21 (12/20/11)
1991 Miyata Seven21 (12/20/11)
1991 Miyata Seven21 (12/20/11)
1991 Miyata Seven21 - Head tube; Internal cable routing (12/20/11)
The other frame I sold is a 1987 Schwinn Cimarron LE. I have actually kept this frame for a while, and have mentioned it in at least one previous post. Before I found my Univega Alpina Ultima, I was going to turn this into a commuter/tourer. But since I've built up the Univega, this one's been just sitting and taking up space.
This one looks a lot like the 1985 frame, with the same colors. The seat lug and the bottom brackets are lugged, while the head tube joints are fillet-brazed. It doesn't have the lowrider rack braze-ons on the fork like the '85 model, but it has the lugged fork crown (which I've kept). It came with Shimano Deore components, with Sugino AT triple crank. The front wheel was Araya RM20 laced onto Suntour XC Pro, but the rear rim was a cheap generic one. It also had Nitto stem/handlebar and Suntour XC Pro seatpost/pedals. It had significant scratches, especially on the right chainstay from chain suck. There was also a broken bolt in one of the rear dropout braze-ons. I put it up for $5 because of the condition it was in, and coincidentally, the same guy who picked up my Miyata Seven21 ended up with this frame also.
1987 Schwinn Cimarron LE (1/16/12)
1987 Schwinn Cimarron LE (1/16/12)
1987 Schwinn Cimarron LE - Fillet brazed head tube (1/16/12)
1987 Schwinn Cimarron LE - Schwinn Chicago head badge (1/16/12)
1987 Schwinn Cimarron LE - Decal (1/16/12)
1987 Schwinn Cimarron LE - Bit of surface rust (1/16/12)
1987 Schwinn Cimarron LE - Seat lugs (1/16/12)
1987 Schwinn Cimarron LE - (Fancy) Schwinn Chicago decal (1/16/12)
1987 Schwinn Cimarron LE - Bottle cage braze-ons(1/16/12)
1987 Schwinn Cimarron LE - Bi-Oval tubes (1/16/12)
1987 Schwinn Cimarron LE - Bottom bracket (1/16/12)
1987 Schwinn Cimarron LE - Bottom bracket cable routing (1/16/12)
1987 Schwinn Cimarron LE - Serial number (1/16/12)
1987 Schwinn Cimarron LE - Good amount of wear on the drive-side chainstay (1/16/12)
1987 Schwinn Cimarron LE - Drive-side rear dropout (1/16/12)
1987 Schwinn Cimarron LE - Broken bolt inside one of the dropout braze-ons(1/16/12)
1987 Schwinn Cimarron LE - Rear rack braze-ons (1/16/12)
The last record-worthy bike I sold was a complete 1990 Diamond Back Interval. It was fully-lugged, with Tange 2 tubing, and with Shimano Exage components. Because of the small size and the clean condition it was in, I was originally thinking about putting on better components selling it to my friend for very cheap. So I actually overhauled the whole thing, even applying Boeshield T-9 and waxing. During the process,I felt like the brazing of the lugs looked somewhat sloppy. Since I know nothing about frame-building, I figured I would just sell this one, and wait for a better bike to turn up for my friend.
Here are the specs.
Frame: Fully-lugged; 50cm; Tange 2 Champion No. 2 tubing; made in Taiwan Fork: Unicrown; Super Radius Cr Mo blades Crankset: Shimano 400EX, 165mm; 42-52 Biopace steel chainrings Shifters: Shimano 7 speed SIS downtube Derailleurs: Shimano 500EX Hubs: KK front; HG-50 rear, 7 speed cassette Rims: Araya 700c, single-walled, presta valve Tires :700x25c Specialized All Condition Armadillo Headset: some Taiwanese brand Handlebar: alloy (Kalloy?) Stem: alloy (Kalloy?) Brakes: Shimano 500EX; dual-pivot Brake levers: Shimano 500EX Saddle: Selle Italia Turbo Bernard Hinault (tear on the left-rear of the saddle) Seatpost: Kalloy?
1990 Diamond Back Interval - Drive side (1/17/12)
1990 Diamond Back Interval (1/17/12)
1990 Diamond Back Interval - Centurion handlebar (1/17/12)
1990 Diamond Back Interval - Shimano Exage 500 EX brake levers (1/17/12)
1990 Diamond Back Interval - Head badge decal (1/17/12)
1990 Diamond Back Interval - Head tube lugs (1/17/12)
1990 Diamond Back Interval - Shimano Exage 500 EX dual-pivot brake (1/17/12)
1990 Diamond Back Interval - Super Radius Cr-Mo fork blades (1/17/12)
1990 Diamond Back Interval - "Centurion Designed" (1/17/12)
1990 Diamond Back Interval - Seat cluster; Tange Cr-Mo(1/17/12)
1990 Diamond Back Interval - Bottom bracket (1/17/12)
1990 Diamond Back Interval - Shimano Exage 400 EX crankset (1/17/12)
1990 Diamond Back Interval - Shimano Exage 500 EX rear derailleur (1/17/12)
1990 Diamond Back Interval - Rear view; Turbo saddle (1/17/12)
