Idiots guide to salvaged 80s roadies

[Wal42]

Rear derailleur is 1989 model, front derailleur is 1988 model, I cant remember if they label the cranks with the same serial coding, but if they did the cranks are 1976, since they didn't do Edge until the mid to late 80's I'd guess the cranks aren't 70's, I'd hazard a guess that the gruppo is probably the standard ones (considering it's all Suntour 4000 series Edge) so I'd date the bike as around '89 or probably very early 90's.

[repcollector]

I bought this bike recently from a guy who claimed it was a Repco Victory Tri A. The owner said he bought it new in the late 80s and it was originally maroon in colour (that was before the incredibly amateurish paint job). He also had custom wheels made. He used to race in triathlons, but the bike had sat unused for a long time and was in pretty bad shape when I picked it up.

Now a couple of friends have looked at it and don't think it is a Repco Victory Tri A. It certainly doesn't look like ones I've seen. That said it is pretty light (10.5kg) and looks to be a racing frame rather than a touring frame.

Hi Zynster, saw this post a while back too and I'm seeing some Victory tri-a similarities here. Like others have mentioned it's def worth putting some time into. I think Wal42 has zoned in pretty close with the diag and the resto advice! Personally I'm thinking the original seller was actually spot on, it looks very very much like an original 89-90 Victory - sans wheels and paint!

Suntour 4050 edge gruppo / dia compe "edge" brakes
Accushift '7' speed shifter (series 1 shape)
"strong" seatpost 26.4mm
seat stay
under-slung cable guides on top tube - bias left
1/2 filled dropouts
Pump nipple
Unicrown
Ovaltech rings 52-42 (standard)
2nd set of bottle mounts (post 1988 tri-a)
Sakae stem and bars
10.7 kg here....

lots of boxes ticked!

some similar piccies in original coats (2 bikes to compare)

bike #2


#1 original rings


#1 "Accushift" 7 spd 1989



#2 "Accushift plus" 7 spd 1990


#1&2


#1&2


Hope this helps


cheers, Andrew

[Zynster]

Thanks Andrew. That looks like a total match. The guy I bought it off wasn't on crack after all.
And thanks Wal for your Suntour expertise.
I'm gonna ride it for the time being and look at some new paint further down the track.

[BRLVR.v2]

Yeah it is 100% Giant built from that era. Serial # confirms it. Olympic 12's are nicer as they don't have an ugly unicrown fork.

[rkelsen]

Yeah it is 100% Giant built from that era. Serial # confirms it. Olympic 12's are nicer as they don't have an ugly unicrown fork.

Olympic 12s are a few years older though. The Olympic 14 (same age as the Tri-A pictured) also had a unicrown.

Don't get me wrong. I love the Olympic 12. The one which had the 'yellow over white' paint option is probably my favourite Repco of all time. It has some great frame characteristics, not the least of which is availability in proper racing geometry. And they take a modern groupset without too much effort.

[Kermit TF]

Scored this "made in Canberra" circa mid 80s Spokesman about a month ago. ($40 !! )
Ive never seen tripple- wheeled derailleurs in the flesh before, the chainwheel is also a tripple. Interesting mix..
Also, can someone tell me if they can view the entire bike in the first pic...on my ipad, it chops 1/3 off all the pics I upload..the entire bike should be visible

[ldrcycles]

Yep it's cutting off on my screen too, but I can see enough to know I like it, good score .

[munga]

ctrl scroll-wheel.

it's the width of the page that's the issue, not the pic.

[LugNut]

Scored this "made in Canberra" circa mid 80s Spokesman about a month ago. ($40 !! )
Ive never seen tripple- wheeled derailleurs in the flesh before, the chainwheel is also a tripple. Interesting mix..

I read somewhere that the triple wheel derailleur was actually a wonderful innovation, as it prevented the chain slap issues that longer cage derailleurs suffered from while taking up the same amount of slack. Fell victim to bad marketing, as many Suntour innovations did.

[WyvernRH]

I read somewhere that the triple wheel derailleur was actually a wonderful innovation, as it prevented the chain slap issues that longer cage derailleurs suffered from while taking up the same amount of slack. Fell victim to bad marketing, as many Suntour innovations did.

Yup, technically a great idea. Gave you heaps of chain take up, no slap and great cage to ground clearance! But.... as you say the marketing failed miserably and so they were woefully untrendy. See the comments on the Disraeli Gears website, pretty typical of what went on at the time. Didn't matter it worked better, it wasn't cool. Even tourists, normally the bastion of the functional vs the trendy scorned it, possibly due to everyone being dazzled by the onset of working indexing in the Shimano world.
Cheers
Richard
PS also very useful on small wheel bikes like Moultons and Birdys