After three years, I finally finished my restoration and build of this 53cm 3Rensho XR-7000 bike.  I acquired it from Japan as a frameset, and discovered it was made under license  by Yamakuni.  Check out this prior article for the history and background.  I had the fork re-chromed, but left the main triangle as-is.  I bought a barely-used Georgina Terry Despatch from 1988, and stripped it for the 6-speed Suntour Cyclone 7000 groupset and the 24″ front / 700c rear wheelset.  I’m aware the 3Rensho catalog showed it built with a Shimano 600 group, but they also sold it as a frameset.  Cyclone was Suntour’s second-best group in the same way that 600 was a notch below Dura Ace.

The rear Araya rim had a crack in it, so I re-laced the hub to a brand new Araya RC-540 rim.  The stem is a NITTO S65 Crystal Fellow with NITTO RB-021 bullhorn handlebars, matched to the NITTO S66 seat post.  The 3Rensho saddle finishes off the build in style.  Read on for more photos and ride report! 

The NITTO Crystal Fellow stem is quite rare nowadays.  I’m not sure which years it was being sold new, but at least two decades ago.  NOS examples, when they turn up, now regularly sell for $175-200.  By contrast, the Crystal Fellow seat post is still made by NITTO, and has been a Rivendell favorite for years.  The two pair perfectly, and have an understated class to them.  In the upper left image showing the stem, you can also see the brake cables that have been run inside the handlebars, with the cables existing on either side of the stem clamp.  On the right side, check out the iconic 3Rensho aero fork crown.

This bike was a wild ride!  Initially, it feels very weird and twitchy as you get into position.  Once you’re seated and get moving, it totally changes and you “lock in”.  A sort of tunnel-vision takes over, and you’re 100% focused on the road ahead while the bike accelerates under you.  The XR-7000 is meant for speed, on a closed time trial course.  That didn’t stop me from riding it in Brooklyn traffic to a friend’s rock show, but I probably wouldn’t do it again.  Suntour’s Accushift system was their index-shifting competition to Shimano in the late 1980s.  It works well, with no missed shifts and solid clicks.  I like the understated look of Cyclone 7000, and I’m always a sucker for the 80s futuristic fonts.

One other cool detail is the chain stay reinforcement that has the front derailleur cable passing through it.  It is similar to the fin found on the Ohtsuya cast bottom-bracket of the steel SRA (Super Record Aero) 3Rensho frames.  On a related note, it seems like by the late 80s, 3Rensho were slapping the same “Katana” and “Super Record Export” decals on a wide variety of bikes.  This can lead to collectors being confused about what model of bike they have, which in fact the decals often bear no relation to.

To the left is the 3Rensho saddle.  It’s not original to this bike, but according to the catalog photos I have seen, it is the same model that would have come standard on an XR-7000.

Below it, you can see the crazy NITTO S66 triathlon seat post.  It’s designed to be as stiff as possible, and allow the ride to move the saddle significantly further forward than a regular seat post.  The logos and overall design matches the stem exactly.  It reminds me of an eagle’s head or similar bird of prey.

This was another fun restoration, even though I stretched it out over the course of two years.  I’ve always been fascinated by time trial / pursuit bicycles of the 1980s and 1990s, and I spent a lot of time researching how they were typically configured before I built this one up.  During the build I shared in-progress photos with other collectors, getting their feedback and making adjustments to fine-tune the details to be as faithful as possible to the original, while adding my own touches.  I can’t say it’s a type of bike I’d personally ride much; it’s quite a thrilling ride but also one especially mismatched with the potholed, traffic-packed roads in Queens and Brooklyn.  I will probably move it on to another collector soon, and perhaps they’ll have the kinds of roads to fully let this bike shine.

Build Details:

• Frame – 3Rensho XR-7000, Yamakuni 7000 aluminum tubing.  52 cm seat tube, 56 cm top tube
• Groupset – Suntour Cyclone 7000, 6-speed indexed.  Cranks, front & rear derailleurs, shifters, brakes, brake levers, headset, bottom bracket, and hubs.  Suntour 6-speed Accushift chain and freewheel.
• Pedals – Suntour Superbe Pro
• Stem – NITTO S65 Crystal Fellow, 90mm
• Seat post – NITTO S66 Crystal Fellow triathlon type
• Handlebars – NITTO RB-21 bullhorns
• Wheelset – 24″ Sun Mistral front, 700c Araya RC-540 rear, Suntour Cyclone 7000 hubs
• Saddle – 3Rensho