1987 Vintage w/lugs from Japan

SeeingisBelievingGTMuseum

Old School Grand Master
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Part of my past was running a couple bikes stores from 1981-92 and Panasonic was a line sold at both those stores. Back in the fall of 86 I thought this was one of the hottest bikes being shown for the 87 model year...so I saved up the bucks and put one on the pre-season order for late winter/spring delivery. I loved the bike and the way it rode back then. I recently had a chance recently to pick one up another one and relive a little past from the golden years. Panasonic MC 7500. (The MC stands for Mountain Cat which was a prefix to Panasonics mountain bike line over the years) It's from the M730 XT 6 speed rear end era and pretty much complete group. The frame is lugged Tange Prestige tubing w/Lost wax seat lug, chrome plated drive side chain stay and fork ends. All Japanese made stuff back then....Including the Tange Supple grips...which I'd buy more of today if I could find them. What's weird about this pick up is how it came to me....It had a Power Cam brake and a wheel set from the MC6500 model which had the same spec black RM-20 rims but Suntour XC Sport Hubs and Winner Pro freewheel. I'm wondering if it was maybe a show sample bike or something and parts got mixed or exchanged between models as the 6500 rear brake spec was also Power Cam. Possible that a previous owner of this bike had one of each and mixed the parts. In very decent condition not a spec of rust and most all of the hardware is in great shape...big bonus in the tires... while not the original spec Panaracer Ibex they are newer Smoke and Dart light skinwalls with the mold knobs showing yet. I ordered a NOS Selle Italia Mundialita saddle for it and am lacing new XT hubs into the wheels to get it back to original. The Breeze & Angel Hite Rite was on it when it came out of the box so I left it on. As most all bikes from this era it has a few paint nicks and scratches probably mostly from storage...It certainly wasn't ridden much. Oh, and this bike...yeah it was a production bike but made in much smaller numbers than MB-1's and similar XT production bikes. The color..... Lemon Lime/Lime Green fade. Panasonic was and still is sold in parts of Europe so some of you may remember this one or the Euro equivalent to it. May have been a different color in Europe or slightly different spec.

Here's a link to the original US catalog page from 1987. Found at the Panasonic Bicycles Virtual Museum.
http://picasaweb.google.com/scarsgo/198 ... 2631509730
 

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Early bikes always look so handsome IMO. Those lugs are so nice. I good find.

S
 
Lovely machine

Thats an excellent looking machine.
The colour really sets it off. Great spec as well.
Well found.
Will it be a user or a garage queen?
Thats too cool a bike to keep to yourself ;)

Jamie
 
Lugtastic. That is a very sweet machine - I'm envious.

Nice that it's one you had a thing for all those years ago.

:cool:
 
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