Bridgestone Radac RD-570

[Rod_Saetan]

Looks great!

 

[CTK]

Re:

Got out for a ride this morn, nice and quiet didn't need to use the integral bell once! I've been out twice and I'm really impressed with it. Gears run out pretty quickly mind! & have a tendancy to change themselves when honking up hill (?) but brakes are good and bike handles well.

Got some stronglight mudguards (cheap at Ribble) on the way and will likely swap the tyres out for some Contis I have. My winter/pub/shop bike is sorted for a total of £70

Love the practicality of the Shimano A530 pedals.

 

[Rod_Saetan]

Super! I've done thousands of miles on my hybrid version, love the shape and feel of the frame, must be the steel rear end.

 

[CTK]

Re:

Feels like a steel bike to me, I'd be interested to try the Radac with the alu rear end or the carbon one. Here are some different Radacs that have been on ebay recently;
Hybrid Radac sold for £60 odd in London
Alloy rear end Radac sold for $600 in San Fransisco
Carbon Radac (i think) unsold at $999

Here's a link to the carbon auction seller has some good info on Radacs https://www.ebay.com/itm/1988-Bridgesto ... 7675.l2557


EDIT another on ebay.com 31/01/17 BIN $500

 

[CTK]

Re:

Quoting from the auction:

1988 Bridgestone RADAC Carbon

This pretty rare Bridgestone RADAC Carbon has a 55cm seat tube measured c to t with a 54cm top tube. It’s outfitted with complete Dura Ace 7400, Eng. BB and HS, 170mm cranks, 52x42, 13-21 Dura Ace freewheel, Cinelli 64-38 bars and a 85mm 1A stem. The rims are Mavic G40 clinchers, 36 spokes. Selle Italia Turbo saddle.
If you’re bound for L’Eroica, the only changes you might consider (depending upon how “heroic” you want to be) would be to fit a wider range freewheel, toe clip style pedals and new bar tape. The hard-to-find original brake hoods are ratty but useable. Yes, the Eroica rules dictate "pre-'88" but no one cares or will know what this thing is anyway
Only about 20 Bridgestone RADAC Carbons were imported to the U.S. The much more common RADAC was all aluminum in construction and more affordable. The Carbon model up for sale here was made only one year and in extremely small numbers due to the high price and difficulty of manufacturing. The tubes are super thin walled aluminum with a carbon wrap. After much research in the mid-1980’s, the Bridgestone engineers realized that galvanic corrosion takes place between aluminum and carbon unless other measures are taken. By gluing a carbon wrapped aluminum tube to aluminum lugs they could avoid most of the corrosion issues. Galvanic corrosion would later plague carbon bicycle construction worldwide for the next 20 years.
RADAC was an acronym for Research and Development Adhesive Cement. In the early 1980’s Vitus, Cannondale, Klein and others had great success with their aluminum racing frames. The world market scrambled to respond to this clever technological advancement. Bridgestone’s engineers zeroed in on the major weakness of Vitus (the most successful frame in professional road racing at the time), the tendency of the glued joints to fail. To take on this popular tidal wave of aluminum frames construction, Bridgestone’s solution would hinge on a better way to join the tubes and lugs. But it wasn’t just the glue, even though the smart ass punks (I can say this because I was one of them) in the U.S. office coined an inside joke. Said in a whisper, “It’s the glue”.
RADAC aluminum lugs had a small pattern of bumps on the surfaces, so the layer of adhesive would remain equally distributed and therefore provide a better bond when mated to the tube. The presses used to assemble the frames had to work in unison, so the main triangle went together simultaneously, not just one tube at a time. Even with better engineering and a competitively priced product, the RADAC was never successful on the sales room floor, as it was viewed as an expensive “me too” product. As good as they were, it was hard to discern clever engineering and quality construction just by looking at one.

 

[Rod_Saetan]

That top one is currently in my shed.

 

[CTK]

lol of course it is! Same as mine bar the dropouts and DT shifter mounts? I intended to bid on it and was pissed that I forgot. Luckily my one popped up on ebay a few days later, 170 mile drive to Nottm had to be done!

Have you got an alu rear triangle one?

 

[Rod_Saetan]

Erm, no, my other one is identical aside from the decals.

Dropouts, shifter mounts and the exit of the rear internal brake cable.

 

[CTK]

For some reason I thought you had more beside these. What are your plans? Respray? I quite fancied flared drops and bigger tyres on mine but I'm going to leave as is.

 

[Rod_Saetan]

I have one MTB, one steel road bike and two of these aluminium/steel hybrids.

The other one will get a higher end but period flat bar build, XT thumbie and rear mech, 600 hubs, Araya rims, Nitto stuff, the one above is going to be more or less stock with some odd 80s Japanese bits and not much money spent so I don't mind locking it up in London.