1982 Kabuki La Veloz (SSN)

Bought this bike off of Craigslist from a woman named Emily. She had been given the bike to her by a family friend that no longer rode it. She was moving and could not take it along. Rear wheel missing three (3) spokes, both tires flat and bike is in need of a general tuneup to include brake and gear adjustment. Bike is from the early 1980's and was made in Japan. More information from the Sheldon Brown website is here: When Japanese bikes were in high fashion, many companies went out of their way to market bikes under Japanese-associated names, including Lotus, Mikado, Shogun, and probably others (i.e. Golden Sport Zebrakenko). Kabuki was a trade name of Bridgestone (a Japanese company with a non-Japanese name!) The Kabuki line used some unusual construction techniques, specifically, a system of sticking the frame tubes into a special mold and forming cast aluminum "lugs" in place around the ends of the tubes. The most notable of this line was the "Submariner" which used un-painted stainless steel tubing, and was marketed in seacoast areas for its rust-resistance. Because the cast aluminum lugs were not flexible like steel lugs, these bikes didn't use a conventional seat-post binder. Instead, they used a seat post with an expander wedge like that of a handlebar stem...you had to remove the saddle from the seatpost to adjust the height, then re-install the saddle! Even sillier, many of these frames had what looked like a conventional seatpost bolt mounted in a projection of the rigid lug, simply to provide a place to mount a cable stop for the center-pull caliper brake! The "La Veloz" model stickers have mostly been worn off and other decals are in bad shape other than the "Kabuki" decal on the down tube. There is also some minor rust spots I have yet to scrape off. Otherwise it looks and appears to be a perfectly serviceable commuter bike you could leave locked up outside without a worry of being stolen.