1990 Nishiki Alien ACX on eBay in Germany

[incorrigible]

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Nishiki-Mountain ... tZJY%7EOkK

Not mine.

Looks to be all original, including skin-wall "Motivator" tires, and in REALLY NICE condition.

Remember to ask about cracks on the head tube or top of the seat tube, though, because it might be the reason it was parked and hardly used since new (I've seen a few that were almost NOS except for cracks).

I'm not saying it IS cracked, but seller might not realize whether or not it is unless you ask and tell them specifically where to look.

 

[raidan73]

Beauty!

 

[BoyBurning]

Re:

Crikey, that's strong money for an ACX!

 

[Tc]

Re: Re:

Crikey, that's strong money for an ACX!

What's the right sort of money for these?

 

[incorrigible]

Re: Re:

Crikey, that's strong money for an ACX!

What's the right sort of money for these?

If I knew it wasn't cracked, I'd offer 1100 EUR, but he doesn't ship to USA. Besides, I'm getting tired of either driving all day to get one only to find out it's cracked, or buying one online and finding out after it's arrived to see that it's cracked. IMHO, if it's not cracked, it's rare indeed.

Maybe someone here can go look at it in person?

 

[mrkawasaki]

Where would you look specifically? Do you know if the round-tubed Mantis versions of these built by the same people or elsewhere?

 

[incorrigible]

Where would you look specifically? Do you know if the round-tubed Mantis versions of these built by the same people or elsewhere?

When referring to the Nishiki's round-tubed aluminum frame brethren, the Mantis XCR & XCR-EC 2-pc frames, the Mantis ProFloater, and even the rare all-aluminum Mantis XCR (non-production prototypes), I've heard people say that "one has never broken". Truth be told, in 7 years of hopeless retrobike addiction, I've yet to see or even hear of a single Mantis aluminum frame being cracked or broken (not so for the steel Mantis Valkyries).

On the other hand, a SUBSTANTIAL MAJORITY of the Nishiki square-tubed aluminum frames (Alien ACX 2-pc, Alien all-aluminum, FS-2, FS-3) that I've seen either in person or on the internet (eBay, Cragislist, Kijiji, Gumtree, etc.) have cracked at the seat tube/top tube junction, or at the head tube. The reason for this (I have heard) is that whoever was outsourced to produce the frames either didn't have a "clean room" type of environment, or the annealing process (controlling the temperature and cool-down time of the freshly welded frames in a big oven) was faulty. Of course, this is only 'hear-say' I am passing along, so take it with a grain of salt (and a couple of shots of bourbon and/or whatever else you smoke/drink/rub into your belly).

And now some pics for you crack addicts. Feel free to stop me when you've had enough.

 

[incorrigible]

Re:

More pics:

 

[incorrigible]

Re:

Even more pics:

 

[incorrigible]

Re:

OK, that's probably enough visually offensive retro-gore for the time being.
Here's a little something to "cleanse your palate".
All better now?