Sunday, October 30, 2016

Nishiki Maricopa Bike

That deal for the '86 Nishiki Olympic road bike fell through. The seller kept discovering things wrong with the bike and offered me a discount or a refund. I chose a refund. Oh well.

So, today I bought this Nishiki Maricopa at Dick's:



It weighs about 24# in the small frame size that I bought. Frame and fork are 6061 aluminum. Three chainrings up front with 8 in back. The modern "brifter" shift levers are neat. I.e., the gear shifters are part of the brake levers.

I took it for a 6-1/4 mile shakedown on the Schuykill River Trail this afternoon. It rides well, much livelier than my Trek 820 mountain bike, even with narrow slicks.

The one upgrade I plan is to replace the pedals. They are pretty crappy and don't have toe clips (I'm not going to get clip-ins, but want toe clips). I'll add lights and probably a kickstand.

BTW, Nishiki is now a Dick's in-house brand. They bought the rights to the name for US distribution in 2010.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I have this same bike, though the 2014 model. For the price I paid for it, I'm not going to complain.
I have swapped out a few things since I bought it. I changed the tires to ContiGP 4000 SII's, a carbon fork, Origin 8 pro brakes, a Nashbar FR1 saddle.
I love the gear combos and climbing up hills is no problem on this.
I know there are far other better, lighter bikes out there. But being the sole breadwinner for my family, this decent bike easily fit my budget.
-Tim Bazzinett
"friday1970" on bikeforums.net and bentrideronline