Hello all, I recently received this bike that has been hung up in my grandma's garage for probably about 40 years. My grandpa was a tugboat captain and he was ported in Japan and was gambling with some locals and won the bike. He tossed it in his hold and brought it back to the US. My grandpa died years ago, and he told me this story while he was alive when I asked about the bike. I gave it a very light wash with a microfiber cloth and some Dawn dish soap, there's still some surface layer rust on the chrome but it seemed to be coming off just by vigorously wiping the area. I've been using Google Gemini to get more information about the bike and its been fairly helpful, I've tested the Dynamo generator and it still functions but one of the bulbs was not working so I opened the headlight to see what kind of bulbs they were and found a black stamp inside of the housing saying 573, Gemini seems to think it indicates the bike or atleast the headlight housings were produced in 1982. The back tire holds air but the front one has a slow leak, so I ordered a new Dunlop valve and new tires in general because I want to preserve the original. I don't intend to ride this bike outside of just around my neighborhood block once to fully test everything, and because I'd be fulfilling a childhood dream as I've always kind of oogled over it hanging up. Gemini claimed this was a ghost bike likely assembled by a tradehouse who sourced parts, assembled the bike, and slapped their label on it. It claims all of the parts are very high quality though, Araya wheels, Panaracer silver star tires, MBS bike seat, Crane Bell Co. Mechanical rotory bell, Mitsuba generator. The frame is a mystery still, it has a label on it saying EBS but I'm not sure what that indicates. I figured I'd share this with some people that most likely know more than me about these sorts of things. Any pointers, care advice, or anything of that nature is much appreciated.
by MyRectumIsTorn