Found a decent deal on a bike I don’t see too often: a very good condition 1985 Bridgestone 700 from the original owner! Everything Shimano 600 except the brake levers.
As as I understand it, the 700 was near top of the line for Bridgestone’s 1985 offerings and was the precursor to the legendary RB-1. It’s triple butted 4130 cromoly; the steel is unbranded, but highly likely supplied by Ishiwata.
He made some small changes that I’ll undo: namely swap the turkey lever brakes for ergo aero levers (TRP RRP), cages for the flats currently there, and a new saddle (probably swap in the orange Brooks C17 on my other bike).
I might put some long reach dual pivot brakes on there to give me the option for 650b down the road.
Otherwise, just the usual stuff: new cables, maybe repack the bearings, new tape.
by twentyflights
2 Comments
Can you tell me where you got the info about ishiwata tubing. I’ve been away from vintage bikes for a long time but always assumed Bridgestone made their own tubes.
One year off of one of my grail bikes even though it’s not really hard to find. It was full Shimano 600 6208 that year. Even though I love vintage bikes I can’t deny the superiority of index shifting. Bridgestone bikes also feel a little short to me and would get a 55cm instead of a 53.
Beautiful bike. Hope it gives you many years of enjoyment.
AFAIK Bridgestone used Isiwata tubing through most of the years they exported to the US. The final year or two, in the 90s they switched to Tange tubing. Here’s the 1985 catalog, likely the page for your bike, and it appears they used their own tubing though the tube sticker is the same size and shape as the ishiwata sticker afaik
i have an 83 400 and believe it has the ishiwata sticker–perhaps their highest end frames were made with in-house tubes?
https://sheldonbrown.com/bridgestone/1985/pages/07-bridgestone-700.html
Bridgestone’s numbering system at some point changed to lower number=better but they are all nice bikes….as far as which company made the tubes, or micro-differences between tange champion 1 and tange champion-2, i haven’t found there is any magic sauce, the ride quality is more influenced by what i ate that morning or how recently i put in a long ride. ymmv