About five months ago my friend viewed the movie American Flyers. He is already an avid roadbiker, but the movie inspired him to go classic. For the record the American Flyer movie is 1984, but there is every possibility that the bikes used were constructed in the previous year, 1983. List member, Lou Deeter happened to have a 54 cm Specialized Allez that appears to have been made by the 3Rensho factory. The thing is as stiff as any bike I have ever ridden, but it has lovely details in the frame. We disassembled the bike and bagged everything up. Most of the parts appear to be some variety of Suntour Superbe or Superbe Pro or mystery Specialized Pro look a likes. Michael of Velographics re-did the decals and added some that only appear on the movie bikes. The paint was done by Gary Cole in Miami and the frame looks stunning.
Today we started on the reassemble but ran into the usual problems, and the bottom bracket now needs to be tapped out again English. The owner of the bike has been super nervous about getting all NOS parts or nearly perfect ones to replace a few of the tattered or un original parts. While I was hammering on the headset parts, I went for another tool and my bud was so nervous about wiping off the green grease I was generously layering on the bike that he swung the frame into my hammer resulting in a small paint chip. I told him that many bikes have touch up paint before they even leave the bike shop for the first time. He's still fretting it, but I'm more concerned about the buildup of paint around one lug in a visible spot. A touch up here or there doesn't bother me much.
Photos will be available soon. I too am sentimental about the Kevin Kostner movie but you could go crazy trying to match every detail as the bike changes wheels and groupos from one frame to another. It's skitsoo to see the bike go from Campy to Suntour in a blink of an eye.
Garth Libre in Miami Fl. US