Finishing the Takara

When we left the Takara it was ready to cable up but of course I couldn't leave well enough alone.

I had a couple kickstands laying around so I put one on to increase the bikes utility.

And I had this  rear fender left over from the Trek 420 so why not put it on the bike to get it out of my way and again increase the utility of the Takara.

And while we are adding utiltiy why not a rear rack?  I happen to have one that I took off the Motobecane Mirage and and never put back on, I did have to spend a few $$ in nuts and bolts but it looks good on the bike and frees up some storage room for me.

Now you can't have a bike with just a rear fender right?  So I was able to find an orphan front fender at Bikeworks and $5 later its a fully fendered rain bike!  Oddly the Takara fender eyelet braze-ons rather than using the standard M5 bolt actually take an M6, fortunately I had some.

I finally got around to cabling the bike up, I reused the shift housing because its that old style braided metal housing and I liked how it looked, the brakes got new cables and housing.  I had to spend time fiddling with truing the front wheel to get the front brake dialed in and the limit screws on both derailleurs took some adjusting but it shifts and stops now which is more than it did when I got it.

I did fight the urge to use a new SunRace claw RD and 34t big cog 7 speed FW I have in the parts bin that would have made this bike a better climber.  Once you start peeling away the onion layers it just never stops and pretty soon you have the bike torn down to the frame, doing a complete overhaul and the best you can hope for on an entry level bike like this after upgrades is to break even especially trying to sell in the fall/winter.

And finally the pre-used bar tape got wrapped up around the safety levers with some tips from RJ the bike guy.

I ended up spending an additional $15 on the bike for the stem shifters, front fender and rack hardware but I think it will do better as the fendered and racked commuter at this time of year.

The bar end shifters ended up selling for $26 on ebay not great but respectable and that lowers the initial cost of the Mavic/Ultegra wheels to $50.

Its a bit of a dogs breakfast as the English would say, with mismatched tires and fenders not to mention scraped and faded paint and decals, but if someone is looking for functional transport they can lock up downtown or at a transit stop without worrying about it, this is their steed.  I have basically priced it to cover costs so I hope someone will see a deal.  That makes three bikes on CL for October and hopefully by November it will be zero.

Ride.Smile.Repeat.