Stablemate for my orange Centurion Professional

By now if you've poked around this blog at all, you'll have seen a few posts about my shiny orange Centurion Professional and how I came to have it.  Over the years since I got that bike, I've learned a lot about the brand, and I've seen quite a few other models, but never another Professional in person, and very few even online.

I did however see a fair number of the next model down, the Semi Professional (called the Semi Pro in some years), both in person and online and in various internet groups to which I belong.  I even had a 79-82 Semi Pro frame that I built up and rode as a fixed gear for a few years before selling it (which I regret).  On the IBOB (Internet Bridgestone Owners Bunch) and Classic Rendezvous mailing lists, some of us even jokingly referred to ourselves as a sort of informal Centurion Professional/Semi Pro club.

You can probably see where this is headed... years of looking at and reading about others' Semi Pros got me to thinking I'd really like one as a stablemate to my lovely orange Professional.  In particular, I really liked the pale blue ones, which looked really classy and made a nice complement to the orange.  Now and then I'd look for one online, but never really found one I liked in my size (24.5" to 25.5" or so).  And in the mailing lists, I'd now and then comment on how much I wanted one.

One day I spied a particularly sharp looking blue 1977 Semi Professional posted by the fellow who had recently bought it.  I commented on what a nice bike it was, and we exchanged some messages and I shared some info I had on Centurions.  I of course told him if he ever wanted to part with it, I wanted to be the first to know.  Then some time later, I casually asked what size his bike was, and he responded that it was a 25.5"... and went on to say he'd just been thinking of me, as he was considering parting with the bike.  Well, one thing lead to another, and before long, the bike was at my shop.

It took me longer than I'd planned to get it put back together and ready to ride.  I ended up re-lacing the wheels with new spokes, and put new cables and brake hoods, and a few other small things, but overall I kept the bike as it came to me, and it looks really great and rides great.  Compared to the Professional it's a bit more laid back and stretched out, as it's more of a classic "sport tourer" of its era, where the Professional was meant to be a true racing bike.  The finish is very much like the Professional, with a pearlescent blue paint over a chrome plated base, with some of the chrome showing through at fork ends, dropouts, some of the lugs, etc.

The components on the bike are very good, nearly as good as the Professional.  Front and rear derailleurs are SunTour Cyclones on both bikes, which at the time were the top of the SunTour line (bumped down a notch a year or two later when Superbe was introduced), while the shifters are the PDM Power Ratchet shifters on the Semi Pro vs. the Cyclones on the Professional.  The brakes are Dia Compe Gran Compe, the first generation of that model as near as I can tell.  The crankset on the Semi Professional is a Sugino Mighty Compe, a step down from the Mighty Custom on the Pro.  Hubs on both bikes are Sansin Pro Am, but the rims on the Semi Pro are 27" single wall rims about 22mm wide.  The Pro originally would have had "sewup" racing tires and rims, but mine now has narrow 20mm clincher rims.  The most obvious difference at first glance of course, is that many of the components on the Semi Professional have black elements while the Professional has all silver components.  Both look really great, though truth be told, I'm a traditionalist and like my parts silver.

I set the bike up with orange bar tape, and plan to change out the bar tape on my Professional to pale blue, so the two bikes will sort of mirror each other.  Stay tuned for a "family photo shoot" when I have the time.

Photos of the Semi Professional are here:  1977 Centurion Semi Professional

Catalog Scan of the 1977-78 Centurion Catalog: Centurion Catalog

Photos of the Professional are here:  1978 Centurion Professional

Re-visiting my Centurion Professional

Well, it's well into 2015, and I've only posted a bit about the proposed changes on the C&O Canal.  To try to get back into the swing of things here, I thought I'd re-visit a past post about one of my bikes, specifically my 1978 Centurion Professional.  You can read my first post about it here:

One of My Favorite Bikes

Now, over the years I have tried to learn as much as I can about this bike, and the brand in general.  There's not a huge amount of concrete information out there, sadly, but I have managed to piece together some things from various sources, notably a thread on Bike Forums:

Centurion Serial Number Database

Among the things I've learned...

Apparently, the Centurion brand started out as an early effort by Raleigh to have some of their lower end 10 speeds built in Japan, specifically the Grand Prix model.

Mitchell Weiner was a California bicycle sales agent. In 1969, he got involved in a project to help Raleigh Industries of America import a Japenese copy of the Raleigh Grand Prix. The corporate parent, TI-Raleigh, nixed the plan, and Weiner was stuck with 2,000 bicycles painted in Raleigh Grand Prix colors, including the pin stripes. So he stuck Centurion labels on the bicycles, and sold them at a profit. This lead to the formation of Western States Imports, which imported Japanese bicycles and sold them to dealers at lower wholesale prices than comparable Raleighs or Schwinns.

Berto, Frank (2012). The Dancing Chain, 4th ed., San Francisco: Cycle Publishing/Van der Plas Publications

 I also learned that the first version of the Professional model was made by Acer Mex, better known for the Windsor brand in the US.  In fact, the early Centurion Professionals were essentially Windsor Professionals with different decals.  Like the Windsors, they were more or less a "knock off" of a Cinelli, complete with Columbus tubing and Campagnolo components, both from Italy. A nice example of that can be seen here:

http://cinellionly.blogspot.com/2015/01/centurion.html

Sometime around 1977, production of the Professional moved to Japan, and the bikes changed significantly. The frame tubing was now from Tange, and components were a mix of Sugino, SunTour, SR and DiaCompe. This is the version I own, and it's a beauty.  Until recently though, the only information I had about the model was a pdf file from the author of the Centurion page on Sheldon Brown's site:

http://sheldonbrown.com/centurion/index.html

Then a few months ago, a fellow on the Classic Rendezvous list posted a for sale listing for an early Centurion brochure.  After looking at a scan of a page or two, I knew that contrary to his thought that it was from 1975 or 76, it was most likely a 1977-78 brochure, as the photos and specifications were an exact match for mine!  Needless to say, I bought it on the spot.

It's great to finally have some official company documentation on the bike, especially since such info seems to be pretty scarce for the brand.  There are only a few catalog scans out there online, including this from 1979 on Velobase and this from 1984 on Sheldon Brown's site.

The picture at the top of this post is the 1977-78 cover, featuring "my" Professional.  Below is the specification page.  The remainder of the pages can be seen on my Flickr site:

Centurion Catalog 1977-78

And photos of my bike are here:

1978 Centurion Professional

If you have more to add to the Centurion story, please comment below.  You could also join my Yahoo group dedicated to the brand:  Centurion Bicycle Fans.

Do You Know Where Your Cyclecomputers Are?

Yes, the obvious answer is "right there, on my handlebars, where else?"

But you see, I've moved a few times in the last couple of years, and each time my organizational scheme seems to fall apart somewhere, and as a result, I don't know where most of mine are! As regular readers, friends, family and my staff knows, I own a LOT of bikes... and most of them have the wheel magnets, pickups, and wiring harnesses of some sort of bike computer attached to them. But at the moment, I have no clue where most of the main computer units are for most of my bikes! Somewhere there's a box...

So, as a result, most of my rides lately have been of indeterminate time, speed, and distance. And you know what? I don't mind that at all. There was a time it probably would have bugged me, when I carefully logged all of my miles, and average speed, with notes about the weather and type of ride (commuting, group, solo, casual, fast, etc.). Nowadays, it just doesn't seem as important to me... I'm out there just to have a good time. I'm slower than lots of folks, and faster than some, and that's fine with me. I don't need to know the specifics all the time.

That's not to say I'm going to throw out all my computers when I do find them... I'm just not in a panic about finding them, and doubt that I'll be very consistent at tracking my stats when I do find them. It's all about the fun, you know?

Here's the Bike of the Day, my 1978 Centurion, bought for a song back when I worked at the Community Cycling Center in Portland, OR.  Mostly original, and a classy looking bike, no?

One of my favorite bikes...

Hey Gang!

I haven't written much lately, but a recent "side discussion" with some members of the BOB (Bridgestone Owners Bunch) list has inspired me to write a bit about one of my many bikes. Oddly enough, it's not a Bridgestone, but if you look at the info on the BOB list you'll see it's not really just about Bridgestones.

Anyway, a member of that list (and coincidentally, a member of my Yahoo group, dedicated to older Miyata, Specialized, and similar touring bikes) started a conversation among several of us who have or have expressed interest in old Centurion road bikes. I'm fortunate to be the owner of a 1978 Centurion Professional, a bike that just isn't all that common... in fact, I've never seen another in person, and have only heard of a few other owners through the internet. Centurion was a brand created by Western States Importers, back in the late 60s/early 70s. They weren't truly a manufacturer... there was never a Centurion factory, as there was a Miyata, Bridgestone, or Fuji factory. Rather, the bikes were designed by WSI in the US, and the construction was contracted out with first Japanese and later Taiwanese factories. More detail on the company and bikes can be found at http://www.sheldonbrown.com/centurion/index.html, an excellent article by Ashley Wright on the late Sheldon Brown's website.

My Centurion came to me through the Community Cycling Center, in Portland, Oregon, where I worked for about a year and a half. The shop took in donated bikes, and some of those bikes came to us through other shops in the city. One day the Bike Gallery truck pulled up, and as I was helping unload a pile of Huffys and Magnas (low end, discount store bikes), I noticed what looked like a nice, striking orange road bike all the way at the front of the truck. I said to the Bike Gallery guy "That orange bike looks kinda nice!" and he said "If it was my size, it never would have made it on the truck." To which I replied... "It looks like it might be my size!"

I pulled it off the truck and was immediately taken with it. I'd mostly seen low end Centurions at this point, and certainly never a high end one from this early in their production. It was clearly well made and really, really pretty. Among its features are a gorgeous pearlescent orange paint, applied over a fully chromed frame and fork, built with lugs and other fittings that look remarkably like a Cinelli (high end Italian road bike) of the era. It came to our shop in beautiful condition, and I was sorely tempted to negotiate with the shop to buy it. It didn't help that one of my co-workers kept walking by me saying "That orange bike sure looks nice.... and it's your size...."

By the end of my work day, I had to give it a try, so I pumped up the tires and took it for a quick spin around the block. I was hooked! Back to the shop for a little negotiation with the manager (it helped that I was assistant manager at the time), and the bike was mine for a more than reasonable price. A little work on a few things, and a set of pedals, and it was ready to ride. And what a ride! Fast and nimble, and just stiff enough to feel like you get good acceleration and power when sprinting or climbing. And did I mention pretty? Definitely one of the most visually striking of my many bikes.

For the bike geeks in the group, here are some specs...

The frame is built of Tange double butted Champion cro-moly tubing with "fastback" seatstays and fully sloping fork crown, along with long point lugs with round cutouts, very much like a Cinelli, as I said. The components are high end Japanese parts of the era, with bars and stem and seat post from the SR Royal series. The crankset is a Sugino Mighty Custom with drilled out chain rings and milled arms. Brakes are early DiaCompe GranCompes, and the derailleurs and shifters are the first version of the great SunTour Cyclone series. The hubs are Sansin Pro-Am model, which were laced to a set of Mavic Module E rims, one of the few parts that I'm sure were not original. According to catalog info provided by Ashley Wright, the bike originally came with Araya "tubular" rims, but those were obviously replaced by an earlier owner. Also missing from the original parts were the SunTour Winner freewheel and the pedals, which would have been MKS UR-K Customs. I've made reasonable substitutions along the way, but the bike isn't 100% original, and I'm okay with that.

I've tried to get a Centurion Yahoo group off the ground, but it's suffered from a remarkable lack of activity. If you're curious it can be found here:

http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/centurionbicycles/?yguid=208457705

And a few more photos of my bike can be found at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/43828356@N00/sets/72157604257636170/with/383372542/