Re: [CR]Need Help IDing Manufacturer of Vista Model Bicycle

(Example: Production Builders:Cinelli)

Comment: DomainKeys? See http://antispam.yahoo.com/domainkeys
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2005 06:37:50 -0800 (PST)
From: "Peter Jourdain" <pjourdain@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [CR]Need Help IDing Manufacturer of Vista Model Bicycle
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
In-Reply-To: <B4DB63332789614B9634745DAD2707D617CBD4@awnjexch1.andrew.com>
cc: "Kahrl, Michael" <Michael.Kahrl@andrew.com>

Hi, Michael--

I'm not positive that your 81/82 is the same model, but it sounds like a somewhat updated version of my 1978 Vista SILVER SHADOW, which had Shimano 600 components. Bar-end shifters. Araya 631 tubing. Lugged. Araya 27" rims. I know they made that model for several years. Same color scheme as yours, powder coated. I had wanted to buy a beautiful red Lejeune from a downtown Syracuse shop but the guy at the rival suburban store convinced me that this piece of Japanese steel was a better value, for my purposes---sport touring. In a way, he was right. Though I wish now I had the Lejeune.

Not that the Vista Silver Shadow's a bad bike, mind you. The SS went fully packed on many a trip up and down the East Coast and survived getting thrown over the chainlink fenced walkway of the George Washington Bridge (another story for another day). Not only do I still have the bike, but, until my Cinelli, Ideor, Holdsworth, Carlton and Bertrand are fully built up, it's my ONLY ride, as I'm only a year into this vintage game.

I believe in The Complete Book of Bicycling the author shows a cheaper, unlugged Vista as an example of a frame that broke apart at the head tube! The Silver Shadow is a MUCH better bike.

I rarely see them on ebay, but when they sell it's usually for fifty bucks. Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Peter Jourdain
Whitewater, Wisconsin


--- "Kahrl, Michael" wrote:


> Does anyone remember a bicycle with the model name
> of Vista from around 1981 or 82? I can't remember
> the name of the maker. I think it was Japanese. The
> one I had was black with a red head tube, lugged,
> and the component group was Shimano 600EX in the
> arabesque style.
>
> Michael Kahrl
> Columbus, Ohio

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