Really nice bike. Im glad you didn’t paint over the frame.
Hah! Yeah, must have been really tempting to powdercoat it white…
Blakey - point taken. Precision is all relative I guess.
Yeah this is looking really nice, Joe.
Tough choice on the bb and head parts…do you keep it original with the current bits, or go all Suntour?! 
I do not think there is any problem fitting Suntour cranks to Dura Ace bbs…by the surplus of Suntour superbes floating around Japan,
and the complete lack of any Suntour bbs floating around, I am guessing that most pros were using 7400 bb sets with the SSP cranks.
PS The suntour NJS bb sets do not have NJS stamps…the BB sets are just rare.
When I took it out to Nagasawas workshop, he was indeed pretty embarassed about the craftsmanship…he said that his new frames are 10 times better than this one, in that respect, but I have never seen him smile the way he did when he was handling this frame, Joe. He kept saying ‘this frame is the start of my story…’’. He dusted off some old archived order sheets, and found this frame…that is how we got the date…I think the original paint was yellow, and the pro rider had it repainted by Nagasawas paint shop in Osaka, a few years after first receving the frame. The bb shell is Tange, I think…hence the CHAMPION stamped letters on the bottom… It was the fork crown, and head tube lugs that he was saying were De Rosa…and maybe the seat stay lug…
The ends are Suntour right!!! The coolest thing was, when I asked him if, ‘he likes suntour?’…he replied ‘‘I designed these ends FOR suntour!’’…
This is the oldest Nagasawa he can recall ever hearing about…it took him a long time and some research to figure out how old it was…the Italian bearing race diameters gave it away…
So, this is pre-chrome fork era, pre-‘N’ fork crown shoulder era…pre NJS.
And, actually, between this frame, and his time at Pogliaghi and De Rosa, he returned to Japan and spent some time figuring out how to fit his steeze into the Japanese bike community…during this period he worked as an apprentice at VENUS, the Japanese NJS builder, but when I asked if any of his frames were still around (venus), he said that the frames would be built, and then pulled apart, and rebuilt, and pulled apart, as training…and then other apprentices would do the same… so, no Venus Nagasawa frames exist.
Then, at some stage during this time, Mr Kozo Sugino (ex president of Sugino…read SOOH-GI-NOH…not SA-JI-NO) offered him a corner in the Sugino factory to set up some frame building equipment…and that was when he started building under his own name…soon after this he got his current factory in Osaka, where he has been for 30 years or more now…
Nice bike, Joe! You bastard…I have been looking for something like that for years…and it was my size too!!
wow on top of wow. I love the story, love the fact that the man himself polished the bearing races for you, and he liked it enough to take the time to check out its heritage.
Here’s a question or two:
If Mr N wanted it back, to have something that represented his early work for a museum or something, and he said he’d build you a custom frame and fork to replace it, would you do it? And if he wanted it for a museum, but couldn’t give you anything in return, would you give it to him, knowing how much it means to him?
Its gawdawful beautiful.
Totally deserved winner. Such a great bike. Ren, it has to be said, you are a freak.
Agree, the hottest and most significant bike I’ve seen for quite sometime, miles ahead of everything else.
I’m so glad this won, the story, the history, the fact Nagasawa himself thinks it is so special… amazing bike Joe, I dream of one day owning something special like this
Totally worthy!
Congrats.
Absolutely deserved winner, what a bike!
If this fits anywhere on the forum, its probably here:
(Remnant promotional decal I found under the paint on an old filing cabinet at work. It must be from ~1986 I guess.)
Here’s a little teaser of what is to come in a few days time. I bet you can imagine 
Thanks for the votes. nice to be stickied. will do my best for next year.
That is a truly superb machine indeed. How can something so simple be so beautiful? A worthy winner!
I just read this on Flickr… not sure how true it is, but it made me laugh…
On my last trip to Japan I was visiting some of the old Suntour people, one of whom is a drinking buddy of Nagasawa. When I mentioned that there would be a demand for his road bikes if they were available again, Taki picked up the phone, called Nagasawa and then announced ‘OK, he will make 60 a year’. Time to start sending in your orders.
Absolutely stunning, and only adds to my resentment that they never made these frames in anything even close to my size.
The saddle is what really sets it off!
This bike is a huge inspiration to the build I am currently doing, simplicity and minimalism is so very beautiful.
really wow, its so simple and beautiful, I know it might not be much coming from me but I am amazed
W o w.
New Stem Update; see above
I saw this in the flesh yesterday…I can never leave the house again knowing that my bike will never be that good.
Stunning bike. Going to hard to beat next year. Something very ‘authentic’ about it especially with the back-up story. You still need to upload the photos of Nagasawa tinkering with the frame.
