"Slant6" (slant-6)
09/02/2018 at 01:01 • Filed to: None
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"Slant6" (slant-6)
09/02/2018 at 01:01 • Filed to: None | 6
| 8 |
1985 Fuji Espree, $50 from craigslist. Should be a fun little commuter, might even try using it for exercise. The Ram is a bit cumbersome in town and everything is within 5 or 6 miles of my place, so a bike seems like a good choice for most days when I go to Walmart to buy more ping pong balls.
Chariotoflove
> Slant6
09/02/2018 at 01:25 |
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Those were neat machines back in the day. And it has the clips on it too. Cool find!
The Crazy Kanuck; RIP Oppositelock
> Slant6
09/02/2018 at 01:26 |
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For $50 you could probably easily flip it, I’m sure there is an 80s bicycle collector who pay decent money for it.
Nom De Plume
> Slant6
09/02/2018 at 01:43 |
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Japanese steel was good quality stuff. If you progress into fitness put a 105 groupset on it and install a threaded to threadless adapter so you can use a modern bar/stem. You can toss that +30 year old saddle with rock hard foam anytime you feel like your ass deserves it.
I’d replace and repack every single bearing immediately. Thin metric cycling wrenches are not optional. Go used and vintage if possible as they are absolutely bombproof compared to the composite tool steels found in something like a PARK tool.
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Nom De Plume
> Nom De Plume
09/02/2018 at 02:04 |
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Wow, missed the 27 1/8" wheels since I almost forgot about them. Have your fun with those tires and try to find a set of 700c wheels. Spreading the fork and frame to accommodate them is slightly skilled labor.
Sovande
> Slant6
09/02/2018 at 06:02 |
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Nice! I just bought my son a new Fuji bike yesterday. And I bought myself a Marin the day before with the intention of riding to work, which should be an interesting experiment.
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Slant6
> Nom De Plume
09/02/2018 at 16:19 |
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Front tire is new, just ordered a matching 27x 1/4 for the rear, anything wrong with that size?
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Nom De Plume
> Slant6
09/02/2018 at 18:07 |
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Wow, they are even bigger than I thought. That is great news.
Just enough in multiple categories is inferior to make the eventual switch to 700c worthwhile. Think of them as a very cheap midpoint between balloon tires and thin racing tires. Tire quality per se wasn’t the issue so much as wheel construction. A true race wheel from that period was heavy and bombproof. 27" are just heavy and incapable of holding spoke tension.
Today, not +30 year distant, the tire molds and construction trails far behind 700c which is now standard. I say this as someone who put on thousands of miles on 27" in the last decade. Those massive tires are amazing fun away from city hazards on unmaintained roads nature is slowly reclaiming . With the smaller 700c you can fit a quite large tire or a quite thin and fast one. It will require spreading the fork and frame as I noted to accomodate the wider over locknut dimension.
Something to keep in mind if you want a little less deflection and more efficiency. Don’t let it stop you from having fun in the meantime.
atfsgeoff
> Slant6
09/06/2018 at 13:55 |
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$50 is a NP for that vintage Japanese gem.