Nishiki Linear

Quoted message said:

I'm looking at an older (late 80's) Nishiki Linear 12-speed bike my
neighbour had in his garage sale on the weekend. It is not the Nishiki
Linear time trial funny bike that shows up on most searches for this
make and model. It has a "Designed by Norco" sticker on it so I think
they were just recycling frame triangles or something when this bike
was made.

It is in excellent shape as he bought it for his daughter 17 years ago
and she rode it lightly for a couple years. Looks new and ran well on
a little 8 km test ride I took it on. Responsive ride and shifts
smoothly. Chromoly main tubes, Shimano derailler - LS I think and
Araya allow rims. Seems like a decent bike at a decent price CDN$75
(~US$70). Probably needs relubing and some minor adjustments but seems
sound otherwise. Any precautions or advice? Thanks.

Robbie

At that price if it rides you are not risking much.

Quoted message said:

I'm looking at an older (late 80's) Nishiki Linear 12-speed bike my
neighbour had in his garage sale on the weekend. It is not the Nishiki
Linear time trial funny bike that shows up on most searches for this
make and model. It has a "Designed by Norco" sticker on it so I think
they were just recycling frame triangles or something when this bike
was made.

It is in excellent shape as he bought it for his daughter 17 years ago
and she rode it lightly for a couple years. Looks new and ran well on
a little 8 km test ride I took it on. Responsive ride and shifts
smoothly. Chromoly main tubes, Shimano derailler - LS I think and
Araya allow rims. Seems like a decent bike at a decent price CDN$75
(~US$70). Probably needs relubing and some minor adjustments but seems
sound otherwise. Any precautions or advice? Thanks.

Robbie

Garage sales are meant to get rid of unwanted stuff so if it is still
unsold, offer him $20 US and plan on replacing the tires and tubes
with the other $50.

Regards,
Bob Hunt

In article <[email hidden]>,

Bob said:

Quoted message said:

I'm looking at an older (late 80's) Nishiki Linear 12-speed bike my
neighbour had in his garage sale on the weekend. It is not the Nishiki
Linear time trial funny bike that shows up on most searches for this
make and model. It has a "Designed by Norco" sticker on it so I think
they were just recycling frame triangles or something when this bike
was made.

Nishiki's ownership history is hilariously complex, but at the time this
bike was made, it was a subsidiary of Norco, and almost all Nishiki
models paralleled a similar bike in the Norco lineup (see also "Fiori"😉.

They are perfectly good steel bikes of their time. Taiwanese or
Japanese-made frames.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

It is in excellent shape as he bought it for his daughter 17 years ago
and she rode it lightly for a couple years. Looks new and ran well on
a little 8 km test ride I took it on. Responsive ride and shifts
smoothly. Chromoly main tubes, Shimano derailler - LS I think and
Araya allow rims. Seems like a decent bike at a decent price CDN$75
(~US$70). Probably needs relubing and some minor adjustments but seems
sound otherwise. Any precautions or advice? Thanks.

Robbie

Garage sales are meant to get rid of unwanted stuff so if it is still
unsold, offer him $20 US and plan on replacing the tires and tubes
with the other $50.

Take Bob's advice, but do buy it. Probably middle-to-good Tange or
similar tubing, and while it has no cachet to speak of, the bike will
give you years of super service. I would snap up a machine like that for
$20 in a heartbeat, and repeatedly do so when I visit garage sales.

The only note of caution is that it may be a bike with 27" wheels. This
isn't a reason not to buy it, but in general 700c bikes are preferable
and more valuable, mainly because you have access to more choice in
wheels and tires. A fun thing to do with a 700c bike is either upgrade
it to somewhere between 7 and 10 speeds, or downgrade it to a fixie or
freewheel bike. With a 27" wheel, either course will require a custom
built wheelset (says he, preparing to be proven wrong by a URL for
prebuilt cassette wheels with 27" rims...).

--
Ryan Cousineau [email hidden] http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos

Ryan Cousineau said:

The only note of caution is that it may be a bike with 27" wheels. This
isn't a reason not to buy it, but in general 700c bikes are preferable
and more valuable, mainly because you have access to more choice in
wheels and tires. A fun thing to do with a 700c bike is either upgrade
it to somewhere between 7 and 10 speeds, or downgrade it to a fixie or
freewheel bike. With a 27" wheel, either course will require a custom
built wheelset (says he, preparing to be proven wrong by a URL for
prebuilt cassette wheels with 27" rims...).

http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?category=131&subcategory=1199&brand=&sku=6238
http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?category=131&subcategory=1198&brand=&sku=6239

Well, is "freewheel" close enough? The description claims they have
cassette hubs sometimes....

I only know about this because my Nishiki 80's road to
single-speed/fixie conversion has rusted spokes on the front wheel.
It would probably be cheaper, if not better, to replace the whole
wheel with one of these rather than have a local shop rebuild it.

-alan

--
Alan Hoyle - [email hidden] - http://www.alanhoyle.com/
"I don't want the world, I just want your half." -TMBG
Get Horizontal, Play Ultimate.

Ryan Cousineau said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

Bob said:

Quoted message said:

I'm looking at an older (late 80's) Nishiki Linear 12-speed bike my
neighbour had in his garage sale on the weekend. It is not the Nishiki
Linear time trial funny bike that shows up on most searches for this
make and model. It has a "Designed by Norco" sticker on it so I think
they were just recycling frame triangles or something when this bike
was made.

Nishiki's ownership history is hilariously complex, but at the time this
bike was made, it was a subsidiary of Norco, and almost all Nishiki
models paralleled a similar bike in the Norco lineup (see also "Fiori"😉.

They are perfectly good steel bikes of their time. Taiwanese or
Japanese-made frames.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

It is in excellent shape as he bought it for his daughter 17 years ago
and she rode it lightly for a couple years. Looks new and ran well on
a little 8 km test ride I took it on. Responsive ride and shifts
smoothly. Chromoly main tubes, Shimano derailler - LS I think and
Araya allow rims. Seems like a decent bike at a decent price CDN$75
(~US$70). Probably needs relubing and some minor adjustments but seems
sound otherwise. Any precautions or advice? Thanks.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Robbie

Quoted message said:

Garage sales are meant to get rid of unwanted stuff so if it is still
unsold, offer him $20 US and plan on replacing the tires and tubes
with the other $50.

Take Bob's advice, but do buy it. Probably middle-to-good Tange or
similar tubing, and while it has no cachet to speak of, the bike will
give you years of super service. I would snap up a machine like that for
$20 in a heartbeat, and repeatedly do so when I visit garage sales.

The only note of caution is that it may be a bike with 27" wheels. This
isn't a reason not to buy it, but in general 700c bikes are preferable
and more valuable, mainly because you have access to more choice in
wheels and tires. A fun thing to do with a 700c bike is either upgrade
it to somewhere between 7 and 10 speeds, or downgrade it to a fixie or
freewheel bike. With a 27" wheel, either course will require a custom
built wheelset (says he, preparing to be proven wrong by a URL for
prebuilt cassette wheels with 27" rims...).

--
Ryan Cousineau [email hidden]://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos

Hi there.

I have a Miele Uno circa 1980s that must have had 27 inches wheels
originally. With older long reach brakes (Exage and Dia Compe are two
styles that I have used) or the newer long reach dual pivots that is
not a bad thing. Why? Because I am able to run 32 mm Cyclo-cross tyres
and full fenders because of the clearances of the seat and chain
stays.

The rear wheel currently un that bike is a Ritchey cassette hub with a
700C Alex 22 rim.

Cheers from Peter

In article <[email hidden]>,

Alan Hoyle said:

Ryan Cousineau said:

The only note of caution is that it may be a bike with 27" wheels. This
isn't a reason not to buy it, but in general 700c bikes are preferable
and more valuable, mainly because you have access to more choice in
wheels and tires. A fun thing to do with a 700c bike is either upgrade
it to somewhere between 7 and 10 speeds, or downgrade it to a fixie or
freewheel bike. With a 27" wheel, either course will require a custom
built wheelset (says he, preparing to be proven wrong by a URL for
prebuilt cassette wheels with 27" rims...).

http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?category=131&subcategory=1199&brand=&sku=62
38
http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?category=131&subcategory=1198&brand=&sku=62
39

Well, is "freewheel" close enough? The description claims they have
cassette hubs sometimes....

I spit on your 27" freewheel wheel! Ahem. Yeah, that's the common style,
and bike shops around here have them on quick order or sometimes even in
stock. But a cassette version would be a little bit cool.

Quoted message said:

I only know about this because my Nishiki 80's road to
single-speed/fixie conversion has rusted spokes on the front wheel.
It would probably be cheaper, if not better, to replace the whole
wheel with one of these rather than have a local shop rebuild it.

Your local shop is likely to have them in stock or short order. When an
errant car bent the rear wheel on my last 27" commuter (now my father's
commuter...), a local shop handled the replacement in a day. The new
wheel was some cheap-and-cheerful freewheel affair, nothing fancy but
entirely serviceable.

--
Ryan Cousineau [email hidden] http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos

Quoted message said:

I'm looking at an older (late 80's) Nishiki Linear 12-speed bike my
neighbour had in his garage sale on the weekend. It is not the Nishiki
Linear time trial funny bike that shows up on most searches for this
make and model. It has a "Designed by Norco" sticker on it so I think
they were just recycling frame triangles or something when this bike
was made.

It is in excellent shape as he bought it for his daughter 17 years ago
and she rode it lightly for a couple years. Looks new and ran well on
a little 8 km test ride I took it on. Responsive ride and shifts
smoothly. Chromoly main tubes, Shimano derailler - LS I think and
Araya allow rims. Seems like a decent bike at a decent price CDN$75
(~US$70). Probably needs relubing and some minor adjustments but seems
sound otherwise. Any precautions or advice? Thanks.

Robbie

Hi again.

Today there is a Nishiki on Craigs List Toronto for $100 CDN.

The description is a hoot so I added it here:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Classic no frills Italian roadster circa 1991. Great for the city AND
open road.
Alloy wheels (Ambosia 19 Extra)
Racing toe clips
Tubeless tires (which need replacing) 27 X 1 1/8
23 " frame
12 gears

Low mileage. Stored in basement for 10 years, so needs a tune up.
Worth at least $600 new, I'm asking $100 OBO.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The 27 in wheels and 6 speed frewheels were more than adequate for a
large number of casual riders. Put on 700C wheels and you have plenty
of clearance for wider tyres or tyres & fenders. The frames were often
very pleasant rides.

Cheers from Peter