I hung out with a bud today while he readied his early 80's Maruishi Mountace MT18 for an upcoming tour. He got the bike as a frame/fork and did a nice job building it up with a bit of a Rivy style. Looks good to me. This frame has the semi dreaded 21.1mm stem/fork but Ben managed to find a nice Nitto stem for the job. I poked around a bit and it seems that Maruishi is still around and that they rebranded at some point for the US market and sold as Jamis. The bike is lugged and well made. Closer examination of the lugs and other details makes me wonder if Maruishi (or whoever made bikes for Maruishi) also made my 84 Bianchi Grizzly. The lugs/fork crown/cable stop/braze ons seem to be the same on the two bikes. The fork crown is no suprise because many Japanese bikes of that era used the same fake bi-plane crown but the other details really make me wonder. Whatever the case it's a cool bike with some unique details.
Just a better shot of the fast back style stay attachment.
Double dimple
Bad pic here but these babies were crazy long. I measured the chainstays at 480mm.
Nice long horizontal dropout.
And for reference the rack mount and cable stop on the Grizz.
more grizz
more grizz
Just wondering: do you guys ever need to face headtubes in order to make the bearing funtion properly? I've got a nice miyata some-sort-of-runner, but the headset does not roll full 360 nicely. It's a nice spline triple butted tubing frame, but it's pretty beaten up. I really don't have the energy to take it to a shop.
ReplyDeleteNope! I never face headtubes on old bikes, and only recently got a facer/reamer, but that's just for building new bikes. If you have the frame painted, that is another instance when its a good idea to give the head tube a light pass with the facer just to make sure the paint hasn't built up unevenly. If the headset rolls wierd, I'd change the headset first, most likely the problem, especially if you consider that it could be 25 years old.
DeleteThank for the advice, I'll try a new headset. The forementioned frame is nice, but some fixed gear nerd has sawn off the derailleur hanger and rear brake posts. The single speed skene is huge here in Finland, but I'm all about derailing chains and stuff. I've got a pair of dia compe bmx brakes that can handle fat tires, but hopefully the braking force won't let me down. The brakes look really nice, though.
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