Hi there! I need some help identifying an old bike I bought years ago.
I bought it to commute in town back when I was in college in 2019 except it started snowing something like two days later (so I bought an old Rockhopper), and a few months later the pandemic closed everything, so I never got around to ride it. I decided to start fixing it up as a lockdown project but life happened and it never really took off. I took it out of storage recently and I'm still having the same problem I had a few years ago: I have no idea what it is.
I bought it thinking it was a Campagnolo frame (due to the stickers) except I found out Campagnolo never made any frames. In fact, there isn't a single marking on the bike pointing to a manufacturer, and there is only one stamping, located at the rear, which reads 4175751. I assume it is probably the serial number.
I started dissambling the bike during the first lockdown and I moved a few times since, so most of the parts are probably stored somewhere, but it had a cottered crank (which was an absolute pain in the ass to remove), I believe a 2-speed or 3-speed one. Rear wheel has a five-speed cassette.
Rear deraileur seems too recent for the bike's apparent era: I bought another old bike, a Supercycle, a few years back and the deraileur was clearly much older.
Shifters are Shimano-branded, and have a Centeron marking on them.
Any help to ID the bike's manufacturer and to approximate its year of fabrication would be greatly appreciated.
by FlyingVentana
8 Comments
This frame might be impossible to identify. You’re correct it’s not made by Campagnolo. This appears to be a fairly low-end lugged-steel frame, possibly repainted, but likely from the 70s or 80s. It appears to use standard tube dimensions (not American/department store tubing). The rear dropouts remind me of a Peugeot UO-8, but the rest of the bike doesn’t corroborate that. It’s also unclear if any of the parts are original to the frame. You will want to remove the bottom bracket and figure out if it is English-threaded or something else (French, Swiss, Italian, etc), as that can narrow things down and, more importantly, help you figure out what parts are compatible with it.
To be clear, a low-end steel frame is not a bad frame. This bike will be heavier than a high-end steel frame, but it will provide an excellent ride, as steel always does. This is the ideal frame to use as a commuter – unknown history, fairly low value, and durable enough to be worth putting parts on. Make it into whatever you want. Try to donate parts you won’t use to a local co-op so that they can be re-used by someone else. It’s getting difficult to find parts for cottered cranks.
It’s going to be tough to identify. The frame construction tells us it’s a fairly basic, entry level bike. It’s also hard to date, because lower end frames like this were pretty similar throughout the 70’s and even into the early 80’s.
The serial number format doesn’t ring any specific bells for me, but it *could* be a format where the first digit is the year and the 2nd one is the month, meaning 1974 and January, but that is a guess. I think it’s a guess that makes sense based on the frame, but it’s still just a guess.
The only frame components made by Campagnolo are the “ends” and the rear mech cable stop on the right chainstay. Those components are always stamped with the Campagnolo trade mark and are luxurious quality.
The ends on your frame look mass produced to me. I’ve never seen fork ends as basic as the ones on your frame’s forks.
There are no brazed-on fittings e.g. gear lever bosses, cable guides, front mech hanger, rear mech cable stop, etc.
Overall, it looks quite low-end to me.
The third picture looks a lot like [this](http://www.bikeboompeugeot.com/Serial%20Numbers%20and%20Dates/Kaczmarczyk_Late_1960s_UO8_Serial_Number.jpg) which is from a Peugeot UO8. Peugeot went to seven digit serial numbers in the seventies with the first digit sometime being the year This [site](http://www.bikeboompeugeot.com/Serial%20Numbers%20and%20Dates/Serial%20Numbers%20and%20Dates.htm) might help.
I agree with the other posts. Low end, heavy, low quality frame. Repainted with meaningless Campagnolo stickers.
Not a Peugeot UO8, as the lugs don’t have the “Aztec” cutouts. The pinched fork ends say ’70s department store bike. Like others say, further identification is probably impossible, and more importantly, it’s irrelevant. What would someone do with this information? It’s like trying to find out the provenance of a used plastic spoon.
Looks like a Campagnolo neutral support bike. Early 80’s.
Not a European frame, with those lugs. Older Japanese or Taiwan perhaps. Early 1970s C.Itoh is one possibility. Solid, but nothing special. The front fork may not be original.