Mike’s Bikes

1979 JC Penney Racer  [Shimano 600EX crank, shifters, front derailleur, headset Suntour Cyclone rear derailleur, Sedis Sport chain, Universal 68 brakes, SR Campy-copy bars, stem, seatpost, Brooks B17 saddle, Brooks leather bar tape/ 6-speed x 2] 56cm Tange single-butted 1020 Hi-Tensile 1/.7 gauge frame. Current weight w/pedals: 24.2 pounds Hand-cut & painted lugs on mail-order catalog bike. One thing to love about the 70s. The manufacturer remains a mystery, but similar lugs are seen on Centurions of the time. There is a "JAPAN" sticker on the seattube above the bottom bracket and serial# 9278565 (likely meaning 1978 manufacture) stamped adjacent on the downtube.  I scraped together $179 for this JC Penney catalog bike in the summer of 1979, then slowly spent three times that trying to turn it into one of those $700 Euro bikes I couldn't afford a few months earlier. Teenagers now do this with Civics, you know. It was originally equipped with Shimano Titleist/Selecta c