Help me identify this bike

[Tuckervill]

I saw it at a junk shop on the way somewhere. A few hours later, in the dark, I shined (shone?) my headlights on it, only to find I was shining them in some guys living room! But he came out, and looked it over in the headlights, noticed the lugged steel frame and offered the old man $50 for it. It fits, as far as standover, etc.

It's been ridden/made rideable recently, because it has a Wal-Mart saddle and a Slime tube in the front tire. There are absolutely no markings on the frame to indicate who made it--I think it could have been repainted at one point, but it's still hard to tell. Here are the components, in case it helps:

27" wheels
Suntour Sprint front derailleur
Suntour Gt Rear derailleur
Dia Compe brake levers
Suntour downtube shifters (still have the rubber covers)
Nitto Universaide 105 bars
Freewheel I think says Chair and "Made in Japan" on it.
Sunshine quick releases on both wheels.
Looks like the reflectors are new.
Brake calipers are center-pull, but I can find no name on them anywhere (I haven't taken them off, yet.

I intend to do the rustproofing mentioned in the recent vintage bike thread, and will probably repaint.

Pics:

[KnottedYet]

From the shapes of the lugs, my first thought is Schwinn Paramount or Waterford?

Can you give us a close-up of the bottom bracket lugs?

Can you see the serial number on the underside of the bottom bracket? Waterford and the older Schwinn serial numbers can be tracked through the Waterford website.

You can also post pictures of the frame details on the Waterford forum and ask for help from the Waterford folks identifying the frame.

The brake cable routing is very odd. Please post a couple of close ups of the lugs on the frame, and I bet DebW would be able to identify it. How about a picture of the headbadge area? Does it still have a headbadge? (I can't tell from the pic)

Excellent purchase!

[Popoki_Nui]

The brake cable clamps bespeak of a 70's era or earlier frame; by the early-mid 80's even most low end frames had braze-on cable guides. The brake calipers may well be Dia-Compe along with the levers.
As suggested, closeup pix of the headtube/fork crown area, and the crankset, would be helpful. Finding the serial number is another good suggestion. The location and composition (BB/downtube locations, number of digits/letter-number combination etc) could be the key.
Another thing you can try: get close alongside the frame and look at a the frame tubes from a shallow angle, using different lighting. You *may* see remnants or a shadow of the original decals in/under the paint.
Hope you can post some closeups!

~Sherry.

[DebW]

From the components, it would be a middle-of-the-road kind of bike, price range around $150 in 1975. Certainly not a high end Paramount, and any other Schwinn didn't have a lugged frame. So probably European or Japanese. Can you see a brand name on the crankset? Are the rims steel or alloy? You might pin it down to the country of origin by measuring the bottom bracket shell width and figuring out if the fixed cup has left or right threads and the cup diameter and tpi. French, British, and Japanese headsets are also of different sizes. The head lugs are an odd shape that I don't recognize, and that probably means that it's not a Raleigh or Motobecane. BB lugs are pretty standard.

[KnottedYet]

DebW is my guru!!

[Tuckervill]

Nope, no head badge, which was the first thing I looked for. There is rust on the bottom bracket, that I'm a little concerned about. Would that be where the serial number might have been located? I could never find the serial number on the John Deere bike my son is building, either. See pics.

*the bike was upside down when I took the picture of the lugs on the bottom bracket...that's why it's a little disorienting!

[Tuckervill]

with all this sluething around. Lovin' it.

Two more pics. I'm not able to use the flash because it bounces off the white paint too much (doh! I could use the ZOOM!). These may be a little blurry.

Thanks, y'all.

[Tuckervill]

Thanks, Deb. My hunch has been from the beginning that it is Japanese, because of all the Japanese parts. It's not really important to know, really. I can figure out the BB stuff without knowing, but it's sure be easier if I did. And it's kind of like knowing who built my 110 year old house. It's just interesting.

Nashiki is a name that came up often in connection Nitto, but I can't tell if they made bikes this old.

I'm going to hunt around on bikeforums.net, too.

Thanks,
Karen

[Tuckervill]

The brake cable clamps bespeak of a 70's era or earlier frame

That's what I thought, too. They remind me of the bike that saved my life in 1978. (there's a thread around here, somewhere.) I think those clamps are lovely. Familiar.

I planned on buying a new road bike in March. Since my son is building up the John Deere, I thought it would be fun to do one at the same time, and I had been taking cursory glances at garage sales for a few months. It's a rare thing to see any kind of '70s road bike anywhere around here, so I thought I'd snatch this one up. Should be a learning experience, anyway. I can always sell it.

Karen