This one was my best bike bargain yet. I bought it in May '99. I had considered getting a road bike, rather than continually changing tyres on my MTB, but always had better things to spend money on.
This one was my best bike bargain yet. I bought it in May '99. I had considered getting a road bike, rather than continually changing tyres on my MTB, but always had better things to spend money on.
Then this one came up in the paper when I was looking for a cheap commuter bike for a friend.
It is a Kojima Eagle, about a '95 model. It's built of straight gauge Tange Cr-Mo tubing with lugged and brazed joints. Not a particularly exotic frame, but good enough for my purposes.
It came with a full Shimano 300-EX group (2x7 speed), except for the nasty riveted crankset. Araya rims are laced to the hubs with cheap plated spokes. It had Look-style Exus pedals and Netti shoes. The bike was in a few parts, missing a brake pad, and in desparate nede of a clean up and lube. He wanted $100 for it. Back together and in working order, it is worth much more than that.
The frame is much too small for me, but with a long seatpost I can just about get away with it.
The shoes were too big for me, so rather than buying a pair of road shoes (for more than I paid for the bike) I swapped the Exus pedals for Shimano Ultegra pedals (SPuD compatible) with somebody off a newsgroup, and swapped the shoes for a friend's old Shimano 105 brakes, which are dark green anodised so as to clash nicely with the disgusting pink paintjob of the frame. I can, and do, ride the Ultegra pedals in my MTB shoes.
I found a new-ish 105 front derailer second hand when I needed a new one for the tandem, but it didn't have a long enough cage for the tandem's triple rings, and ended up on the schmoad bike instead.
As time goes by, it is gradually turning in to a dedicated commuting and town bike. It now has big 700cx32mm "touring" tyres on it, and I swapped the 13-23t cluster for a 12-28 off my MTB. I don't need such close ratios, and a lower low gear is never a bad thing.
I'm toying with the idea of putting flat bars on it instead of the drops. Drop bars give you lots of hand positions, but none of them are actually comfortable...give me a flar bar with a good sweep any day. I have boxes full of old centre-pull MTB brake levers, which have suitable mechanical advantage to use with road calipers. I could have a flat bar, levers and stem as a quick swap-in option, if I could be bothered setting it up.
