Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

Hi all-seen a Repco Victory tri-a on ebay and was wondering if anyone knew anything about them. The seller says it's about 4 years old and is like new. It's 24 speed. Doesn't seem to know alot else, but from the pic it looks like alloy rims and the shifters are on the bottom bar. Seller says they are 27" rims but didn't they dissapear in the early 90's? Maybe it's just a very low end bike and not worthy of my attention-but it looks nice!

I don't know the bike. Repco have brought in some really good bikes AND some really cheap ones. This one is a seven speed - doesn't sound too high up the food chain to me (my cheap hybrid from that time is a seven). 27" wheels? I'd be surprised - 700c was the standard in this country by then. Maybe the seller doesn't have a clue. How about a link to the auction.

Richard

good idea-didn't think of a link
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll ... L:RTQ:AU:1
thanks![/url]

That listing doesn't tell you anything. How did you find out what it is and it's age?

Richard

used the "ask seller a question" button. was just thinking it might be better than the malvern star for the time being. until i get around to affording the bike i want

Looks older than 4 years and I don't see how they have 24 speed with what is apparently a double chainring only.

I wouldn't trust the seller, either they don't know what they are talking about or they are BS'ing.

Theres not enough detail to tell exactly, but it looks a lot older to me.

The seller may well have had it for four years, or it may have been new when he bought it, but it is highly unlikely that it was made four years ago. To the best of my knowledge, the Victory Tri A series is one of the very last that Repco made before going in to hibernation (which they have since stirred out of from time to time). If you asked enough questions, you'd probably find out that the frame is the venerable cro-mo (4130) frame used the Superlites (like Mike's, Peter's, mine and countless others) and the groupset is either 600 or 105 (the 105 name has been retained for a very long time). Greg Walsh won a lot of triathlons on a Tri A.
Depending on the condition of your Malvern Star, it might be worth looking at further. I'd ask the seller another question - along the lines 'Can you tell me what model the cranks and derailleurs are?' Asking 'How many sprockets are there in the rear cluster?' might be a bit too pointed!
If you are Melbourne based and could pick it up, then it's probably

I would agree with all of the above.

I remember this model from a long, long time ago around 1990ish I would say. It was the the model above the superlight I think although my memory is a bit dim on that. I do recall that it had the Tange Infinity frame and forks which if fairly good quality cro-mo tubing - better than plain 4130 double butted tubing. As for components I seem to recall that it was 14speed Shimano 105, but might be wrong . I think the rims are probably araya 700c which are clones of the then current Mavic rims.

One point about the ebay ad is that I see it says 24 speed which would mean 8 cogs at the back and a triple chainring at the front, but the picture does not look like a triple to me. So it is probably 16speed.

Depending on what your current bike is it might make a cheap upgrade

sounds like something i could be interested in as well, if only for a hobby bike to tinker with, have some fun with restoration... maybe a fixie frame... hmm..

a few discouragements for me is there's no sizing nor quality besides "very good" "won lot's of races", plus he's typo'd shmano & speedd ... means i'd have to make a trip there to sticky/ride it, and but tis exam perios atm, so no can do right now...

europa wrote:Repco have brought in some really good bikes AND some really cheap ones.

Interesting you say that... I've kinda picked up a subconscious suspicion of all Repco bikes, this probably since I'm new to the cycling game, and seen waaaaay too many shonky Repco branded K-Mart bikes, which seem to be the only recent stuff they put out nowadays... musta been a good brand once though, with all the stories I hear about Superlites, and seen some sturdy ol Repcos on the streets... sigh...

Back in the eighties, Repco were rebadging Nishikis which were the top Japanese factory at the time.

But yeah, I too have seen the horrible K-mart specials, also wearing the Repco brand.

Richard

europa wrote:Back in the eighties, Repco were rebadging Nishikis which were the top Japanese factory at the time.

But yeah, I too have seen the horrible K-mart specials, also wearing the Repco brand.

Richard

Indeed some of the rebadged Nishikis (which include the superlight, the victory tri-a and my very own "old yellow" which is/was a Repco Nishiki) were very fine machines. Tange tubing, particularly the higher spec tubing, was comparable to anything else on the market at the time.

Is my Repco superlite a Nishikis?

Getting the feeling there's a Repco owner out there pining for their lost love.

My 2c

minor hijack, was Tri-A like a series or something? I just found this on ebay, apparently a Eurosport Tri-A ? same thing? or a completely different model? is it one of the "good" Repcos?

ebay link

thyanks for all the input-if i get time over the weekend I might go and take a look-it's not a long way from me.
It would be an upgrade from my bike which was basically pulled from a rubbish heap and fixed with parts from the same source! Nice to ride tho-even with steel rims, lousy seat and rather average brakes!

stryker84 wrote:minor hijack, was Tri-A like a series or something? I just found this on ebay, apparently a Eurosport Tri-A ? same thing? or a completely different model? is it one of the "good" Repcos?

link

Looks OK doesn't it, but PINK brake cables and decals, it's either one for the ladies or it's off to Qld.

mikesbytes wrote:Is my Repco superlite a Nishikis?

I think all the Repco bike from around that time were rebadged Nishikis.

Mulger bill wrote:Getting the feeling there's a Repco owner out there pining for their lost love.

My 2c

If you are talking about me - then you are right!

uMP2k wrote:

mikesbytes wrote:Is my Repco superlite a Nishikis?

I think all the Repco bike from around that time were rebadged Nishikis.

Mulger bill wrote:Getting the feeling there's a Repco owner out there pining for their lost love.

My 2c

If you are talking about me - then you are right!

I'm pretty sure all of them were. I had two Nishikis from a short period when Nishiki decided to sell them here under their own name - well, that was the story given but the winks and nudges from the bike shop suggested that there might have been contractural differences between Repco and Nishiki at the time. Whatever the reason, Nishiki didn't stay on the open market for long.

I bought my first Nishiki (21" frame) but it took a day or so to realise that having the seat tube that far out of the frame wasn't a good idea (would have been considered normal nowadays but not back then) so the shop swapped my running gear onto the next size up ... a 25" frame. That was oversized and about 6 months later, I found the Europa and traded the Nishiki in on that. I always thought the Europa was a 23" frame but recent measurments assure me she's a 25", so the frame was probably the same size and probably the same frame under the paint (Europa were selling rebadged Nishikis at the time), but the components were a good step up (Ofmega groupset, Ambrosia wheels, oversized alloy bars of some Italian brand).

Richard