Shogun Appreciation Society

[rkelsen]

Hey hey!

This thread has been a long time coming. Post up your old Shoguns here...

I'll start with mine.

1991 Katana purchased second hand in June 2009, in this condition:



My goal was a cheap & reliable commuter, but this bike has now become my no. 1. It wasn't until I got her home and started tinkering that I realised that this could have been a fairly serious bike in it's day... Forged dropouts, full Shimano Exage 400ex groupset with Biopace chainwheels, Tange Infinity cr-mo frame with 26.4mm seat post.

So, I, uhhh... spent a bit more than planned... (it's OK my wife doesn't browse this site...) but this is the result:



Yes, I kept the Biopace 'rings, and now I love 'em. Apart from cables, bar tape & a few other consumables, the other upgrades & changes are:
Wheels: Alex AT450 eyeletted rims, Novatec Sealed Bearing Hubs, 32 stainless steel spokes per wheel.
Vittoria Rubino 23mm tyres,
8 speed HG cassette,
2006 Campagnolo Mirage brake calipers with some Kool Stop dual compound Eagle II pads.

We've covered almost 1,200km in the past few months. I started commuting fairly slowly (once per week - it's 21km each way) to get into it, but now I'm doing it at least 3 times per week. Trying for all 5 days this week...

[brauluver]

Nice scoot man, well done.
Keep up the k's, it's a fun way to get to and from work.

[timax]

How about this one........1986ish Shogun Prairie Breaker Pro team issue. I bought this new back then for $1200 with a tax return cheque. It was red/white and black with full Deore Xt and tioga farmer john and farmer johns cousin tires. Raced it in the second ever Mountain Bike championships in the ACT as well as many other races in NSW. Rode in the snow with studded tires , up and down about every trail the the Blue mountains , Royal National Park , etc etc. Flinders ranges , Broken hill area , South Aus and Victoria. Used it to get into trout fishing spots and commuted.Also spent several years as a work place hack for courier services. Now some 23 years on it is still my 1 and only bike. Although I do have a Rocky Mountain I just bought to restore.
Specs... Tange prestige hand made on these early frames
Mavic 217's
Bullseye hub on rear , Chris King front
Sugino crank with only one ring plus pauls chain guide
Suntour pro pedals
XT rear mech 7 speed
Xt V brakes
Avid Levers
Syncros stem and seat post
Brooks saddle
Noah's arch bar
Pauls thumb shift converter
Schwalbe marathon supreme tires
Mavic head set
Ringle seat post skewer
Litespeed titanium wheel skewers


Still a very nice ride.

[hazmat5765]

My goal was a cheap & reliable commuter, but this bike has now become my no. 1.

Very nice bike mate, know that feeling too, my recycled Apollo Concorde sent my 2005 Giant Boulder packing via ebay

How about this one........1986ish Shogun Prairie Breaker Pro team issue. Now some 23 years on it is still my 1 and only bike.
Still a very nice ride.

Wow, obviously built well in the first place, very nice.

[il padrone]

This one began as an $8 frame purchase at our club auction night



My original intention was to set it up as a load carrier, using an Xtracycle. Never got around to that, due to the extra costs. It became a regular commuter when my MTB was out of action getting a new drive train. Last year I gave it a facelift with the North Road bars. These were surprisingly very pleasant to use in traffic (if lacking in aero qualities)



The Brooks saddle was a freebie, donated by a generous friend. It has been impecably comfortable - it's been on two and three-day cycle camping tours and I rode it on a 200k Audax ride on Saturday including 45km of gravel. No saddle soreness at all

[whitestivo]

I think your katana has an identical sibling

Great work starting the thread.

How did you make your headstem higher like that?

whitestivo

[lemmiwinks]

How did you make your headstem higher like that?

Release headstem by undoing the bolt on top slightly (if it comes up as you undo it, give it a whack down to release the wedge) and then pull the stem up. Don't go above the minimum insertion mark.

[rkelsen]

Cheers guys.

Loving all the bikes and their stories! Keep 'em coming...

I think your katana has an identical sibling
...
How did you make your headstem higher like that?

Yeah, I've seen others the same come up on Ebay now and again. I dunno if they only made the Katanas in fluoro orange at one point, but it certainly seems that way. Haven't seen any others out on the road yet.

I stripped the bike and overhauled all of the bearings, so when I reinstalled the stem I left it at the "minimum insertion" mark. My core is too weak to go any lower... but I'm getting there.

[drubie]

Where is lemmiwinks? He's got two sweet Shoguns that would fit right in here.

[rustguard]

I was wondering when this thread may come about, I have 5 shogun metros. 2 are tagged as main frame cromo, 1 is tagged as cromo, these all have tangaloy forks. 1 is tagged tange MTB butted tubes and has very meaty fork tubes but in 700c. All of these are 1" steerer tube. The other one is tagged templite 4130 cross tubing on the frame and forks and is 1 1/8 steerer. I'd rate these last 2 as very good frames for anything other than racing

here is the one I am riding now as my utility run around bike-


this bike was meant to be a short term thing but I am still riding it, It is the old dogy main frame cromo. picked it up for $22 and just added racks, guards, lights and changed pedals. It came with the orange drink holder and I still haven't swapped it out for a silver one. might do that today. The one thing I dont like is the high bb, the tange and the templite both have a slightly lower bb

[Matt Zac]

Here's my old early 90's shogun Katana, bought in late '05 from Rozelle markets for $50... she needed a little TLC as a gutter had attacked its wheels some time in the past

"..think I might ride it out on tonight's dinner ride", I commented to my wife, who responded with a fairly good attempt at the rolly eyes smilie... "oh, you laugh.." I returned, and, yes, I made good on that remark

Switched the wheels with some decent second handers, a general service & polish and away we went! Had to sell it earlier this year to finance the purchase of a carbon fibre avanti, but still came out well ahead thanks to fleabay





Wish I had pictures of my mate's early 90's Trail Breaker, the infamous "Green Machine". The thing must have done a million miles and I put a few hours into getting it back on the road a couple of years back.
Over a BBQ last year, I asked how it was going...
"put it out on the pickup last month" he said
"..and you didn't call me, because..." I replied
"Oh, I thought your wife would get upset about having another bike around"
Such a waste... hope it found it way into the hands of a retro lover

Keep 'em coming,

Matt

[lemmiwinks]

Where is lemmiwinks? He's got two sweet Shoguns that would fit right in here.

No decent photos. Will have to take some one day when life settles down again (so in about 10 years?)

[vanbree]

Finally found a frame my size and it,s not flouro orange !

[timax]

Wow , 6 Shoguns and the thread is dead I would have thought there would be at least 7 or 8 people who like them
Actually I spotted a red /white / black prarie braker team issue today in Redfern Sydney with a lady riding it. 1986 ish in mint nick by the look of it. Nearly crashed my car!! Its the only one other than mine I have ever seen.
Come on guys who has a nice old Shogun...

[Minority]

Wow , 6 Shoguns and the thread is dead I would have thought there would be at least 7 or 8 people who like them
Actually I spotted a red /white / black prarie braker team issue today in Redfern Sydney with a lady riding it. 1986 ish in mint nick by the look of it. Nearly crashed my car!! Its the only one other than mine I have ever seen.
Come on guys who has a nice old Shogun...

I have almost finished rebuilding and upgrading my wife's Shogun Mixte.

I'll post some pics when its done (hopefully over the Christmas holiday).

[FXST01]

I have a Shogun Selectra 96-97 vintage, pics to follow when I can wrestle my camera off my daughter.

[timax]

There you go , 8 people like Shoguns!! I though we wold get about that many. Now we just need some pics as proof

[FXST01]

Found the camera and taken the some snaps but will have to wait till the 10 post minimum has passed.

[whitestivo]

Mine is coming, WIP, need to find damn brake hoods so that i can replace old ones and put on new bar tape. not taking pic with shoody looks.

it does look very similar to the first one though, flouro orange, love it.

whitestivo

[Minority]

Here's a pic of my wife's Shogun Mixte with most of the mechanical work done, but before the strip down for paint.

[FXST01]

As promised

[fearenside]

Pardon my ignorance but what is the history of Shogun ? Where are they made? are they a branch of Falcon bicycles in the norh of England?

[rkelsen]

Pardon my ignorance but what is the history of Shogun ? Where are they made? are they a branch of Falcon bicycles in the norh of England?

I don't know their early history, but would love to find out. All I know is that they moved production from Japan to Taiwan at some stage in the late 1980's, and I think they're still manufacturing there. They're currently being imported by Bikecorp.

[Minority]

My Wife's Shogun Mixte 95% completed. It originally came with drop bars, Shimano tourney brakes, Shimano altus FD & RD, alloy/steel crank with non bolt on rings, alloy rims with rusty spokes and small flange hubs.

I built a pair of wheels with polished large flange Schwinn hubs, SS spokes and Ukai 27 x 1 1/4 rims, fitted polshaed Shimano Exage brakes, polished Shimano Light actiuon RD and another FD, polished SR alloy seat post and gel seat, polished Sakae SX crank with sealed BB, polishedS himano Adamas platform pedals with chrome "half" toe clips, different stem with flat bars ( the only things I still want to change) and Shimao twist grip SIS shifters, Shimano Hyperglide six speed freewheel, a new KMC Z7 chain and a new coat of paint.

I think it came up quite nicely.

[timax]

Very nice bike. love the triple triangle. Yours may be the last year they did that. From memory they stopped hand making the frames in Japan in 1987 or 1988 . I can only speak of the mountain bikes here but the later ones were made in Taiwan or China I thought??, were heavy and thought of as being crap because of that. 2 wildly different machines with only the brand name being the same. Fair call I think also as everyone else at the the time were making better , lighter bikes and Shogun take a step backwards???? The triple triangle was seen to be too fiddly for mass production. Gt then did it but these frames were also heavy compared to the early prestige tubed Shoguns and it was really only the GT Zaska in alloy that was close to being race light.