Identify early 80's Nishiki?

[ratava99]

(I hope I'm posting this in an appropriate room)


I've recently acquired this old Nishiki Cascade mountain bike to restore, but I can't find any information on it. It appeared to have a red stem and white handlebars, long since faded and corroded.

It looks like an early 80's model due to the Biopace crankset and the chainstay brake location, but I draw a blank from there. Any info would be appreciated.

 

[jimo746]

The Bio-Pace rings and brake make me think it's more late 80's, apart from that I haven't a clue I'm afraid, looks nice though

 

[legrandefromage]

its from about 86 onwards, prob 87 by the style of the graphics.

low end parts so dont get too excited

drown it in Wurth Rost Off for a day then 3in1 then call me in the morning...

 

[ratava99]

Wimpy parts, but a nice,double-butted 4130 chromoly frame. That could make for the foundation of a sweet road machine....hmmmm.

Nishiki no more. being a low end model, I decided to rebuild it as a custom single-speed.

I repainted the rims of a set of wheels from a Schwinn Rampage white, then slicing some "VISION" decals in half to make the fictional "Ion" brand for the wheels. Forte' slick tires (26x1.25) set at 90 psi make for a smooth and fast ride.

Likewise with modding a low-end crank for it (alloy arms, steel rings), drilling out the rivets to remove the extra rings for less weight, then repainting to match the bike.

The rear brake was painted satin black, but the fronts were substituted with a set of already-black STX stoppers. Bars, stem, brake hoods... everything was nasty-looking and had to be re-finished. I made good use of wire wheels and sand paper on this puppy.


The frame took several hours of sanding due to severe chipping of fairly thick paint...Then came white primer, gloss white overall and then finally the gloss orange, followed by 1/8"-wide red automotive striping tape.
Came out pretty good IMO...AZONIC decals finished the job.










The only other task is to get a new seat for it. This one is an old temp saddle installed for ride-testing purposes.


.

Rides like a dream.

 

[legrandefromage]

thats er...

******* amazing!!!

 

[jimo746]

thats er...

**** amazing!!!

quite... those handlebars look interesting.

 

[ratava99]

Thank you.

Yepperz. You've heard of handlebar mustaches,... then why not a mustache handlebar?

Of course it's an inverted low-riser bar. Flipping them put me in a better riding position, wind-drag wise.

 

[jacklero]

Great Job

That looks :shock: WICKED! gotta love what a little creativity can do to give new life to something.