Ricardo Appreciation Society

[davehirst]

thanks

[singlespeedscott]

sigh. I miss this frame and still to this day wish I had never sold it

As a fixed gear I loveed the stiff Tange 5 tubing and the clearance for fat tyres and mudguards

Has anyone on here got a similar era frame in 23" in reasonable condition they wish to part ways with?

[chinaplate]

Hi all

Only new here found this in the shed after a clean up of all my old racing bikes. Not really sure of the model. Just after some more info. it is a bit big for me but I might build something out of it. Have a heap of record pista stuff laying about.

It measures 57cm cc seat tube and 58cm cc top tube. It seems light but there is no tubing stickers.

If anyone can help me out it would be appreciated

Cheers

China


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[Thoglette]

Not really sure of the model.

The eyelettes front & rear, pump pegs and a bolt hole in the seat stay brace indicates a touring or utlitly oriented frame.

The serial number is interesting, which along with the stickers suggests (to me) perhaps '70s vintage.

Is it set up for recessed or nutted brakes? (See Sheldon Brown) Some close ups of the drop outs might help, along with information on seat stay length, distance from axle to brake bolt hole and hub spacing, especially the rear.

[steelisreallyreal]

Update:
Ask the question and you get answers. Am now the owner of 2 Ricardo's
An Elite Sports with original Exage 300, tyres and Araya rims. A lot of grease later the Exage is in good condition same with the wheels. Paint.. white frame with cherry red...hot pink?? over spray, (but now faded paint) Serial on BB L9Z0073

The second is a frame & forks only, in light metalic blue with decals in darker blue. Previous owner was going to re spray/powder coat, so only rear triangle & ST is in original paint.
Tange 5 tubing PG "Champion"
Double cable guides on BB shell. Serial on BB 45196 (needs a clean up to get complete serial)
Could be an earlier Elite ?? Or someone knows a bit more about the bike???

[Crooty18]

Hi All, I've just procured a Ricardo Elite SX. It's running Exage full groupo and serial number is L8P2155. It's blue and white. Can someone please give some information on year and quality of this bike?

[deetee]

[Hi All, I've just procured a Ricardo Elite SX. It's running Exage full groupo and serial number is L8P2155. It's blue and white. Can someone please give some information on year and quality of this bike?]

Hi Crooty18, If you think the Shimano parts are original you can get an approximate age for the bike. I think the easiest to find are the code letters stamped on the brakes and cranks for the year and month the parts were made. My understanding is that for the first lettering A stood for 1976 down to O for 1990 and so on and the second lettering A is for January and so on. I have a White Lightning and an Elite SX and the codes indicate the White Lightning was not made before July 1989 and the Elite not before June 1988. Exactly when they were made is not known because who knows how long the parts were sitting in storage before being used. From previous posts on this thread Ricardo went in the early 90s.

Cheers, Deetee.

[swaggy1]

Hi all, I have just joined after finding this thread. It has been interesting reading all your comments re Ricardo bikes.

I have a Ricardo Bushbike that I purchased around 1985 to 1987 from Rolfe's Cycles in Carnegie, Victoria. I am interesting in selling it for a reasonable price, whatever that may be. It is all original, except for tyre tubes, brake cables, and brake pads. I also have the original seat and possibly the pads as well. It has not been ridden very much and it just sits in the garage covered in sheets to keep the dust off.

I will post some pics when I can work out how to do that.

Cheers.

[samkimages]

This is my wife's bike. Old Ricardo.. Mixte frame. Any ideas on the year/actual model name? Cheers!

[Lots of steel bikes]

The Giant Cadex I just bought has Ricardo bars.

[Crooty18]

So, does the fact that the letter 'P' is in my elites serial number mean that it's a pinnacle frame with the incorrect stickers? L 8 P 2155
Thanks
Kim

[deetee]

"So, does the fact that the letter 'P' is in my elites serial number mean that it's a pinnacle frame with the incorrect stickers? L 8 P 2155
Thanks
Kim"

No don't think so. The lettering in the frame numbers doesn't seem to bear any relationship to the model. I've read earlier posts on frame numbers and looked at my own too and there doesn't seem to be any pattern that I can work out. I'm pretty sure the Elites were either Tange 5 or Tange 900 and the Pinnacle was Reynolds tubing.

[Crooty18]

Thanks Deetee. Yeah it's tange 900. Have just bought it a few weeks ago and still yet to do the maiden voyage.
Thanks for your help.
Kim

[ShaneB]

Hi all.

Believe it or not I actually worked for Porsche/Ricardo during the late 70's and early 80's. Had to change names I believe. Used to sit on the corner of Pirie St and Frome Rd Adelaide I think.

I was a very young lad of around 17-18 and one of my first jobs from leaving school. I was a frame builder (Bronze welding). I built around 15-20 frames a day (so hundreds) and all by hand. 19inch to 25inch I think. There was nothing special about them just an affordable bike at the time. I don't recall the serial numbers being anything but random punched by hand although I think they later came already on them. Not really sure now!

This was before Aluminium and Carbon Fibre. There was a "Special" builder who only built 1 frame a day. I used to think he was a bludger LoL but cost a lot more. At the time Ricardo was owned by CarCycle (something or other) I think until the owner was killed in a car accident. Not sure when it was sold off after that. I went on to build for another company called Ramondo. (A few ex Ricardo workers started their own company in Kent Town) Yea I know...Very corny. BMX was starting to become popular and we imported frames so I did not build any of those.

The decals (Stickers as I called them) were put on after painting by a young lad! (how is that a job?) and before clear enamel coating. Although the line work detail was hand painted by Ray Greenslade if I remember correctly.

Please don't be too hard on me as this was a very long time ago.

I hated bikes for a long time afterward. FYI I now ride a Cannondale Lefty.

As best I can remember

Shane

[silvalis]

Hi All,
I've got what could be a Ricardo elite (looks like the white/blue one on pg25) (sn L7Txxxx, Tange 900, had a mixed bag of 1050/1056 parts on it) with a notchy tange levin cd headset. Does anyone know if these were JIS or ISO headsets?

[silentbutdeadly]

Hi All,
I've got what could be a Ricardo elite (looks like the white/blue one on pg25) (sn L7Txxxx, Tange 900, had a mixed bag of 1050/1056 parts on it) with a notchy tange levin cd headset. Does anyone know if these were JIS or ISO headsets?

Pretty sure they were ISO.

[singlespeedscott]

Hi All,
I've got what could be a Ricardo elite (looks like the white/blue one on pg25) (sn L7Txxxx, Tange 900, had a mixed bag of 1050/1056 parts on it) with a notchy tange levin cd headset. Does anyone know if these were JIS or ISO headsets?

Pretty sure they were ISO.

No they're JIS

[silvalis]

What's the easiest way to check? Do I need to pop the headset/crown out?

[mitchj]

G'day all,
I am wondering if anyone can give me an approximate date on this frame & forks - A sparkly silver Ricardo Elite with chrome forks, frame no. L3L1572, in quite good condition.










I bought it as a bare frame & forks a while ago, & moved all the gear across from another bike I have that was just too big for me. It had no bearing cups on the frame , no lower race on the forks. The only hardware on it was the cable stop on the down tube. There is no boss or stopper for down tube shifters. The thin blue lines on the chain & seat stays, where the paint & chrome meet, appear to be hand painted .A curious thing was that when I went to install the fork race (not sure if that's what its called), I discovered the lip it was meant to sit over had been ground off. I had to shim it to get the race to stay on firm. Any ideas why this was done? The shim seems to have worked, & it is a really nice bike to ride - a good addition to my small collection of old racers.

Any info will be much appreciated (just to satisfy my curiosity!). Cheers!

[silentbutdeadly]

I am wondering if anyone can give me an approximate date on this frame & forks - A sparkly silver Ricardo Elite with chrome forks, frame no. L3L1572, in quite good condition.

1983. Probably. Based on info offered early in the thread by Ricardoman. L is for 'Leisure Cycles', 3 is year model (in this case 1983), L is the model code and 1572 is the frame number...

[mitchj]

Thanks SBD, I was guessing late 70's/early 80's. I've been wondering whether the lack of down tube shifters may have been a clue too.

[Huntsman%]

Best bike yet Ricardo Vivamelbourne. many of its roads , in the south east, have potholes. Many of its roads have been cut + repaired to fix under road services using three or four of the following repairs ; cold bitumen conpaction / rolled hot bitumen / seam sealed/ road plates . Many of its roads have road moguls, caused by poor compaction and heavy trucks.

Combine Tram tracks , potholes, moguls and road plates. then add speed.

so best bike by far is the Ricardo Viva. found in hard rubbish just needed some wheels (giant 700c S/r2) and some auto trans fluid on the chain. rear brake is seized open so gotta get that sorted at some stage. its white and blue colour scheme looks not bad with the black and red wheels and white seat.
the pedal straps are a pain in the arse when you wear steel cap boots (emergency foot brake ).
2 main gears
7 rear gears.
shimano light action rear rail
sahae SA crank arms
sahae SP-154 *pistons

[singlespeedscott]

What's the easiest way to check? Do I need to pop the headset/crown out?

Sorry slow response.

The best best way is to remove the headset. Odds are it is a JIS headset. The crown race will be 27mm ID, not the usual 26.4 English or 26.5 Italian. The headset cups will have an od of 30.0.

Replacement JIS headsets are easily sourced on ebay. The best quality are Tange and Shimano.

[lolmanic]

Hi all,

Spent some time reading this thread as I've just started on my journey to try out cycling and in the process inherited my gf's dad's old bike, which it turns out is a Ricardo Bushbike! Now being a complete noob, I've spent the better part of the last few days toiling away at cleaning up the surface rust off the handlebars and whatnot, and finally got to take it for a spin towards the local bike shop.

Seems like a fair bit of work but I'm happy to go with it and hoping to get some advice on things to do. The main problem at the moment is the right hand shifter is broken, seems to be a Shimano EM of some sort. Is this a big problem to replace? Is it worth replacing it with a newer system?

A few pics of the bike parts here: http://imgur.com/a/8acWZ and a serial of L7E0069 to add to the love in

[ironhanglider]

Hi all,

Spent some time reading this thread as I've just started on my journey to try out cycling and in the process inherited my gf's dad's old bike, which it turns out is a Ricardo Bushbike! Now being a complete noob, I've spent the better part of the last few days toiling away at cleaning up the surface rust off the handlebars and whatnot, and finally got to take it for a spin towards the local bike shop.

Seems like a fair bit of work but I'm happy to go with it and hoping to get some advice on things to do. The main problem at the moment is the right hand shifter is broken, seems to be a Shimano EM of some sort. Is this a big problem to replace? Is it worth replacing it with a newer system?

A few pics of the bike parts here: http://imgur.com/a/8acWZ and a serial of L7E0069 to add to the love in

What's broken about the shifter? It looks like a common friction shifter. Perhaps the default method will be sufficient.

1. Pull it apart
2. Give it a clean/lube
3. Put it back together
4. Test it

Cheers,

Cameron