Restoring a steel Japanese bike from the early 80s

Question

I recently picked up a Shogun 2001 touring bike from the early 80s. It's hardly been ridden and has a beautiful double-lugged frame with F&R racks, Al fenders and brazed-on threaded fittings for all of those those. It's an 18-speed with Shimano 600 DX brakes & hubs, Deore front & rear derailleurs & triple crank and some odd Deore pedals (see the pic). It even sported the original tires, w/the Shogun name, which are barely worn. But I have a couple of questions moving forward about bringing her back and upgrading.

1. I want wider handlebars -- 44cm. Where do I get those? What (stem) clamp size do I need to be looking for? Obviously it's not 38.1mm.

2. It has natural gum-rubber brake-lever hoods that are deteriorated. I want to replace these. What will work? I don't care about the color; synthetic black rubber hoods are fine.

3. It has braze-on downtube friction shifters. I want to install bar ends. What, if anything, do I need to be watching out for when I do this? Given that it's a 6-speed, do I have to us old ones, such as a set of Suntour 3090s? Or can I use newer ones that are 9 or 10 speed?

4. I've never seen pedals (see photo) that attach to the crank arms quite like these. There's a fat bolt spacer between the pedal and the crank arm, and they appear to be held on the back of the crank with a bolt. I don't object to these pedals but I'd like to know how to remove them if they ever need work. Can they be replaced with conventional pedals if need be?

Answer 1

I want wider handlebars -- 44cm. Where do I get those? What (stem) clamp size do I need to be looking for?

As far as I know, 25.4mm was pretty standard internationally for handlebars for a long time. You can probably improvise a pair of calipers by pinching the bars with a crescent wrench, then measuring the gap.

It has natural gum-rubber brake-lever hoods that are deteriorated. I want to replace these. What will work? I don't care about the color; synthetic black rubber hoods are fine.

These are typically referred to as non-aero brake hoods.

It has braze-on downtube friction shifters. I want to install bar ends. What, if anything, do I need to be watching out for when I do this? Given that it's a 6-speed, do I have to us old ones, such as a set of Suntour 3090s? Or can I use newer ones that are 9 or 10 speed?

I'm not sure about all models of bar-end shifters, but the Dura-Ace ones can be set in two different modes: indexed and friction. Indexed shifting clicks into place for each gear, and friction shifting requires you to manually fine-tune the placement of the lever. Obviously, indexed shifting will not work for 9/10-speed shifters to a 6-speed freewheel.

I've never seen pedals (see photo) that attach to the crank arms quite like these. There's a fat bolt spacer between the pedal and the crank arm, and they appear to be held on the back of the crank with a bolt.

Disclaimer: This is purely speculation, BUT

I would wager that the bit you see on the back is actually a kind of large-to-small-diameter bolt hole adapter (not sure what it's actually called). I suspect you might be able to remove the pedals normally, and then unscrew the adapter from the back of the crank with a socket wrench.

(N.b. left pedals are reverse-threaded; i.e., righty-loosey, lefty-tighty.)

Answer 2

I put 44cm handlebars and a new quill stem on my 1980 Rayleigh Super Course a few years ago. You can get new Dia Comp brake hoods as well.

I got mine from the bike shop that Sheldon Brown worked at.

They had bar end shifters as well but were a bit expensive. You can also look at Rivendell.

The hard part is the rear hub. The drop outs are 126mm apart and finding a recently manufactured premium 126mm free wheel hub is difficult.

I gave my Rayleigh to my son when he moved to Europe so I haven’t recently looked but for a lot of money, there was one offered by Phil Wood a few years ago. If you can rebuild what you have, I suggest you do.

You can get hydroglide notched free wheels. They are a bit touchy on a down tube friction shifter.

At a certain point a new bike is cheaper and better

Answer 3

Other parts have already been answered, so here is info about the pedals:

They are Shimano Dyna Drive, a system that has bearings partially inside the crank and no axle through the pedal instead of the setup with bearings under the foot. To make room for the bearings, the crank has larger than usual hole. The supposed benefit is that the foot is right at rotational axis instead of above it, or zero stack height.

If you want to install normal pedals, there are adapters available. Search for "dyna drive adapter".

Answer 4

Those pedal adapters are possibly Q-factor adapters, intended to increase the width of the pedal platform.

You'll find the pedal threads into the spacer and the spacer is fastened to the crank.

As long as noone has drilled or tapped the crank eyeholes, you'll be able to fit a normal 9/16" threadded pedal axle. Left side will be a mirror of the right side, so left hand thread on the left side.

Mind out for any thin washers - if there are washers keep them in place on the new pedals to help protect the crank's eyelets.

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I know this model-name was imported into New Zealand and resold as "Healing Shogun" to test the market.

The early ones were double butted Tange steel and had decent spec. Later years were made locally with cheaper single butted tube so were heavier.