What Year Shogun Prairie Breaker?

[danasince1979]

From the stickers I can tell that it s a Shogun Prairie Breaker 1, but I can't find another one like it on the web. I think it must be early 80's considering any others I can find seem to be mid 80's to early 90's but don't have the butted tubes. Also the bars are for a double clamped stem which I'm not seeing on any of the ones I've found. Anyone on here know for sure? Thanks....

[danasince1979]

anybody?

[sgltrak]

I can't see the components well, but my guess would be mid 80's (85-86ish). If the components are original and Shimano, you should be able to find a couple of small letters stamped on them that will let you know the date of manufacture. You can cross-reference with the date code info at the bottom of this page:
Shimano History
That should get you pretty close to the year of the bike.

[Rumpfy]

anybody?

Take this the right way....but you're the only one who cares.

[durianrider]

Pre 87 for sure.

[skoda]

Greetings danasince1979 Looks to be in excellent condition with a lugged steel frame. IMHO lugs always look good on a vintage frame. If there's a tubing decal on the seat tube designating chrome moly(Tange probably) then it's well worth rebuilding. Getting rid of the kickstand is the first step!!! Also try to ignore some of the negative comments you see here, I think you have a fine vintage bike and well worth some TLC.
Regards

[Howley]

I can find a double clamp stem if you still need one...PM me.

[danasince1979]

@skoda: thanks yeah i thin it'll look sweet when it's done it's actually a project my wife has been working on. The kickstand came off pretty quick. Found a crank that looks pretty close to original.

@Howley: I talked to someone who thought they knew were one was but I still haven't heard back from him. I may be interested in yours if it's close to the right specs. has a 21.1 mm quill and the places on the bars where the stems clamp are 110mm apart the reach doesn't really matter. let me know what you have though.

[Shogun700]

Cool bike.

As a point of reference, these two are probably '85s-significantly different than yours, and built quite a bit different from each other, at least the frames:






My parents bought them along with my Shogun road bike in the mid 80's, There is a chance they could be '84 but I'd have to look at the component codes to be sure. They are well made and still fun for cruising. Pretty basic tubing and component spec, but I like the cranksets. I Took these pics last summer after pulling the bikes out of storage, sort of surprised they were still in such good shape as I remember beating them around in the woods off and on in high school.

[surly357]

Old Shoguns don't get much respect, but the mid-80's japanese ones were very nicely made. The PB1 was the entry level MTB, so no, it's not the most interesting to VRC folks.

I have fond memories of these bikes, we sold them in the first shop I worked at.

Pretty sure the more maroonish red ones were indeed '85. The brighter red one in the OP must be an '86, but I don't really remember it. I do remember the extremely bright red PB2 with a unicrown fork at the next price point, which replaced the gray model. The lugged PB2s and the lugged road and touring bikes of those years were as well finished as any Japanese bike of the era. Seattle Bike Supply was pretty erratic with Shogun delivery though, and wildly optimistic with their ETAs...I thinked we filled in with Diamondbacks at the entry level in '86....

FWIW here's a couple shots of my wife on her '85 PB1, and a friend of ours on his '85 PB2....









Ha! Levis, a homemade sweater, and ski gloves. People rode the hell out of $350 bikes back then. We were too busy having fun to know any better

[danasince1979]

nice photos and yeah it s no ibis but i think it s a pretty sweet bike for $15

[Shogun700]

Those photos are great, thanks for posting. New England had/has lots of Shoguns floating around, all the Japanese brands of the 80's seem to be well represented in the northeast. I really don't see the old MTB's come up though, so it's great to see some others in action. I'm sure I could find a few pics around my parents house of those two bikes in action back in the day, they used them quite a bit.

Agreed about ignorance being bliss, especially when it comes to bicycles!

[ong]

What the hell does Prairie Breaker even mean? Like, will it literally shatter the prairie beneath your tires while you ride?

[danasince1979]

yeah I'm pretty sure that's exactly what they were implying with that name

[danasince1979]

Well it's all complete. I couldn't find the double clamp stem I was looking for but did come up w/a nos set of bull moose bars similar to the one on the photos above. Took it for a ride last night and it was super smooth. After riding the Turner 5 Spot all summer it definitely took a minute to get used to the rim brakes and non-indexed shifting though. I took some other photos on the digital camera that I'll upload later but for now here's one from my phone:

[Shogun700]

That's fantastic and I really like the Bullmoose bars with the chrome fork. Looks like you are 'breaking prairie' as intended.....

[ong]

Give that prairie what for!

I imagine that is a bit of a transition from your 5-Spot! Brakes are for slowing down, not stopping, anyway.

[skoda]

Finally complete and looking quite nice, congratulations. To be more comfortable on your cycle you may want to reverse the seatpost and reinstall the saddle. Take care
Cheers