sold- Nishiki Professional ONP bicycle / frameset

 Nishiki Professional ONP bicycle. 
56.5cm seattube, 
56cm toptube. 
mid 1970s
0.8-0.5-0.8 Chromoly Double Butted tubing.

made by Kawamura for Nishiki. Thin tubes and tight angles it is a nice ready racer from the early/mid 1970's. They came thru West Coast Cycles. Fairly low production numbers for Nishiki.  
We are selling it as either a complete bicycle as seen in the photographs or I will just sell the frameset.

excellent condition. TA cyclotourist cranks 50/32(I will include new TA foil decals)
Phil wood hubs and bottom bracket
Campagnolo early Nuovo Record brake calipers and levers. (flat QRs on calipers, and long reach brake levers)
Campagnolo Nuovo Record Shifters
Campagnolo Nuovo Record seatpost
Cinelli Unicanitor leather saddle
Cinelli 1/A early, oval logo stem(nutted)
Cinelli handlebars
Shimano Crane rear derailleur. 
Suntour Cyclone front derailleur
Sewup rims, tires don't hold air. 
Tange Levin headset
NO Pedals.

Bicycle as seen in the photos-sold
Frameset- Frame, fork, headset- sold

Fender reflector installed on my Hanford

 I recently installed a cool 1950s French reflector on my Hanford. Evidently, I am serious about safety, multiple tail lights, Phil Wood CHP pedals with reflectors and now a rear fender reflector.

Barely visible in the waterbottle cage is a Alex Singer leather tool pouch that a fellow bike collector picked up for me in Paris over the winter. I had one before, and never used it, but as soon as I sold it, I wanted one. Isn't that always the story. It is modeled after the TA one from the 1960s.

Hanford #1 set up for test ride

I have set up the bike to be ridden and to dial in stem length and height, so please excuse the black stem. Simon is going to build me a stem, something that will perfectly compliment the frameset, and also build me a front bag support. I love the French Blue, Bleu Farce.

TA cyclotouriste pro 5 vis cranks with 46/30 chainring combination.
Campagnolo 50th Anniversary front derailleur.

Chris King 'no logo' ahead set.
Campagnolo alloy Chorus 9spd Ergo shifters converted to 10spd.
(I prefer the shiny aluminum look over the carbon)

Recent Campagnolo Record seatpost. Paul Racer brakes.
Cool old foil Columbus decal. The frameset is built with Columbus Spirit for lugs.
Simon did the red lug lining.

Hill Cycle van

I thought this photograph of the Hill Cycle shop van was really cool. It was taken post race, with these young lads in front of a Gitane track bike with TA cranks and an underslung track stem. One kid has a trophy, one has a pump and some boxes(tubes?) and the middle kid is holding something unidentifiable. I assume all prizes. Hill Cycle shop was a big supporter of cycling and cycle races in the Philadelphia area for many decades.

400km bike ride

On Saturday morning I awoke at 3:45am to take a shower and get prepared to begin a 400km bike ride that started at 5am. I should add that I was as prepared as I could be at that point, other than dressing myself, everything else that I needed for the ride as been taken into account days and weeks before. 400km is a bit hard to comprehend, even when I give it the American equivalent of 250 miles. I usually look at distance from point to point- so it would be the distance if I rode my bike from my home in Philadelphia to Richmond, Virginia, or from New York City to almost the border of Maine and New Hampshire.

As one can see from the ride profile, it was a varied course(almost 19,000 feet of climbing) which included a cross over the Appalachian Trail. It is rather difficult to gauge the severity of climbs by looking at these types of charts until you have done enough of them and it starts to make sense. Let's just say, it is tough.

The ride went seemless and smooth. No mechanicals, my body felt great other than a little saddle sore from lack of chamois cream, and I still felt fresh when I finished. My bike has performed very well, given it is was not originally intended for this type of bicycling. It is an early 1980s Eddy Merckx, that I installed 700 x 28c tires(the largest the frame would allow), Schmidt Dynohub with Edelux headlight affixed to the fork with a plastic clamp for a reflector and a Carradice handlebar bag. I also outfitted it with a TA Pro 5 Vis crankset with a 46/30 chainring combination. The bike is fast but lack of braze-ons for fenders, front bag support, and lights were definitely a big drawback. I have now ridden it in this current state for over 1250miles in less than 3 months, and have only had one punctured inner tube. That's pretty good.

All that said, I can't wait to ride my new bike(Hanford built by Simon Firth), currently at the painter(Peter Weigle), getting painted. One more ride until I am qualified to ride Paris Brest Paris.

vintage packaging for various chainrings

I have always liked bicycle ephemera with an affinity toward paper-catalogs and packaging. Below are some of the envelopes that chainrings were packaged in.

I love the boastfulness of this Stronglight envelope. (what didn't they win!)

For the Stronglight Mod. 63 Super Competition chainring

TA's logo was simple and beautiful

Earlier Campagnolo envelope, for 1"pitch track chainring.

early 1980s Campagnolo track chainring envelope.

French Aluminum cottered crank arm

This French aluminum cottered crank arm was manufactured after WWII in the late 1940s. Stronglight had already been manufacturing aluminum cotterless cranks for over a decade, so it seems a little strange that manufacturers didn't all move toward using square taper crankarms over cottered. All that said, TA did introduce their Criterium crankset that employed a cotterpin-like system on a pear shaped spindle around 1961, well after Campagnolo had started producing their iconic Record crankset using a square tapered spindle.

TA waterbottles

Nice selection of various TA waterbottles. I wonder what I would put in the hip flask?

Couple of different TA chainring patterns

TA offered various chainring configurations.

TA Criterium pattern

TA 3pin Criterium triple chainring pattern

TA Randonneur pattern

52 cm Motobecane Grand Record sold

Original paint and decals.
the decals are worn, not in the best shape. usual nicks and scratches for a 30+ year old bike.
bike is ridable, but I would recommend an tuneup.br> as the bike is over 30 years old.
Campagnolo Dropouts.
Reynolds 531 double butted tubing.


Campagnolo-

• 1975 Nuovo Record rear derailleur
• Nuovo Record front derailleur
• Nuovo Record high flange hubs
• Nuovo Record shifters

TA Professional crankset with rare chainguard and bottom bracket, the threads are excellent.
Weinmann centerpull brakes and levers.
Stronglight Competition headset
Brooks B-15 leather saddle. no pedals.
Philippe CTA stem and Philippe Franco Italia handlebars
the handlebar wrap is some kind of rubber. it is stamped Motobecane. I was told by someone that it may be a little newer for the bicycle, as it might be from the late 1970s.Seat post is SR Custom.
700c Super Champion clincher rims(straight), the tires are replacement newer ones.
No rust.
52cm center to center seattube.
$sold

1963 Jack Taylor Super Tourist sold

1963 Jack Taylor super Tourist. Excellent condition. Super example of
an unrestored one and just waiting for an overhaul and then some
waxing and cleaning.
I made a fake attempt at wiping it down, it will polish up amazingly.
Not kidding.
62cm center to center seattube, 64cm center to top seattube.
58cm center to center toptube.

27" Fiamme clincher rims with Campagnolo low flange hubs.
TA triple.
Cyclo rear derailleur and shifter.
Mafac cantilever brakes.
Campagnolo early Record derailleur with cable stop.
Lefol hammered fenders.
Lucifer generator and lights.
Jack taylor racks and 9.5cm stem.
Brooks B-15 leather saddle.
Cyclo competition freewheel.

more photos here-
http://picasaweb.google.com/viabicycle/JackTaylor
Paint and decals are beautiful. the pump peg was broken off- it was
placed behind the seattube, and it was not well conceived, as it would
not work well with the fenders.

Porteur chainguard

I decided after work to finally install the chainguard I got from Velo Orange a year or so ago. It was as difficult as I imagined. I was kind of limited to TA cranks with the small diameter of cutout(they have since made one that accepts more variety or cranks- with a larger hole). The original Porteur bicycles with steel cottered cranks were offset to allow for clearance so neither the crank arm or the chainring would rub against the guard. I created a "spacer" to move the position of the chainring over a little, away from the chainguard, out of a Lambert outer chainring. The mounting brackets were fabricated at Via Bicycle(I bought the chainguard without any hardware). After about 2 hours of work, I had it mounted and it did not rub, but it was a lot of measuring and was a bit of work to put it into the proper position so it would not rub. I noticed, after the final tightening, that the chainring is not center into the cutout hole. That sucks. But that is the position where it does not rub, so. . . where it will stay.

More info on Porteur bicycles here on Joel Metz's website



a chainguard mounted on a Bilenky Porteur owned by my friend Pat built by Bilenky Cycles. It is 9th Bilenky he has had built. the Pinstriping was done by Simon Firth at Bilenky Cycles, he is really coming into his own with it. (as you can see, some rubbing. I assume my might end up like this too. well I hope not).