By a VERY strange coincidence, I decided to start working on making this bike rideable just one day short of exactly a year since acquiring it and planning to turn it into a backup bike.
For the moment, this is just a normal bike, as I work out which way to power it. Most likely it'll be a boring hubmotor bike with a front Fusin geared hub, but I might make it a light-assist friction or chaindrive, powered from a pancake-style axial-flux brushed radiator fan motor I have, thru a Matex (currie) planetary reduction (or two).
This is how it started life with me, as a thrift store find:
It's a Nishiki, Taiwan-made instead of Japanese made, so at the cheaper end of their era. Pinnacle, Cunningham Design, whatever that means.
It had this cycle computer hanging off of it (the mount was broken):
and it had this kit in it's underseat bag:
The tires are shot, from what appears to be dry rot:
They're not very worn (nothing on the bike is).
The thick tube in the rear was toast, but the front thin one is fine. They also both have a kind of tire liner I've never seen.
Typical 80s Shimano stuff, Deore XT, but something I'd never seen before is that even the *cable housings* were marked by Shimano:
It has my favorite chainrings, the BioPace. These are aluminum, while most of the ones I've seen and have are steel.
The cranks are too long for me, at 175mm:
so I might see if I have any shorter ones that will still let me mount the BioPace rings on them.
QR wheels, but the front also has retainers that can be screwed to the fender mounts.
It's all cromoly, and double-butted, too.
The fork is also cromoly, with vbrake bosses (and brakes)
Brakes and shifters all work ok.
Rims are nice Araya doublewall
Saddle is a Deep Groove Design by Serfas; can't say I like it much.
Odd way of routing the cable; has a curved steel tube embedded into the stem. I wanted to use a totally different stem and riser that is adjustable, but it was for a 1 1/8" steerer, and this only has room for 1" ones, and these brakes need the stop that is in the stem. Another stem I wanted to use wouldn't work because the stop in it feeds from the top, and the cable housing wouldn't be long enough--and no other housing I have is big enough diameter inside for the very thick brake cables this biek has.
For the moment, this is just a normal bike, as I work out which way to power it. Most likely it'll be a boring hubmotor bike with a front Fusin geared hub, but I might make it a light-assist friction or chaindrive, powered from a pancake-style axial-flux brushed radiator fan motor I have, thru a Matex (currie) planetary reduction (or two).
This is how it started life with me, as a thrift store find:
It's a Nishiki, Taiwan-made instead of Japanese made, so at the cheaper end of their era. Pinnacle, Cunningham Design, whatever that means.
It had this cycle computer hanging off of it (the mount was broken):
and it had this kit in it's underseat bag:
The tires are shot, from what appears to be dry rot:
They're not very worn (nothing on the bike is).
The thick tube in the rear was toast, but the front thin one is fine. They also both have a kind of tire liner I've never seen.
Typical 80s Shimano stuff, Deore XT, but something I'd never seen before is that even the *cable housings* were marked by Shimano:
It has my favorite chainrings, the BioPace. These are aluminum, while most of the ones I've seen and have are steel.
The cranks are too long for me, at 175mm:
so I might see if I have any shorter ones that will still let me mount the BioPace rings on them.
QR wheels, but the front also has retainers that can be screwed to the fender mounts.
It's all cromoly, and double-butted, too.
The fork is also cromoly, with vbrake bosses (and brakes)
Brakes and shifters all work ok.
Rims are nice Araya doublewall
Saddle is a Deep Groove Design by Serfas; can't say I like it much.
Odd way of routing the cable; has a curved steel tube embedded into the stem. I wanted to use a totally different stem and riser that is adjustable, but it was for a 1 1/8" steerer, and this only has room for 1" ones, and these brakes need the stop that is in the stem. Another stem I wanted to use wouldn't work because the stop in it feeds from the top, and the cable housing wouldn't be long enough--and no other housing I have is big enough diameter inside for the very thick brake cables this biek has.