# corsaro aegis?



## old_fuji (Mar 16, 2009)

i picked one up for the low, low price of $5 at a garage sale...needs some work, but that's kinda the idea of buying it. it's got knobby kenda tires, 27" rims, and toptube shifters...it's bright red two tone, with a cr-mo steel lugged frame. also, it kinda looks like it's set up for a bike rack on the front and rear...almost like an old tourer or c-xer.

does anybody know more info about this bike?


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## old_fuji (Mar 16, 2009)

b to the u to the m to the p


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## Peanya (Jun 12, 2008)

Google didn't turn up anything solid. Doubt you'll get much luck on this one.


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## old_fuji (Mar 16, 2009)

Peanya said:


> Google didn't turn up anything solid. Doubt you'll get much luck on this one.


the most i've found is that corsaro manufactured a number of frames for raleigh. but hell, it's got great components...the bike itself rides a helluba lot smoother than my ol' fuji that i sold. the cosaro has a suntour AR (AIR maybe) gruppo, "custom 1" cranksets, kenda krosscyclo tires (albeit old), and even though it's steel, it's quite light. also, it's got the proper holes for a waterbottle cage, and like i said in hte OP, rack mounts.

edit:
oops, picture is big...here's a link instead of an embed:
https://www.axcessmypics.com/photos/photo03/2e/ab/d46b7e8f7bae.jpg


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## old_fuji (Mar 16, 2009)

well, here's what i found out from the guy at the bike shop
-it's "course-are-oh", not "course-air-oh"
-it was just a little upstart company that contracted frames from Giant's manufacturing facility
-actually, the guy at the bike shop compared corsaro to blue bikes
-steel frame, aluminum hubs and rims, steel spokes
-the aegis was their sport/touring frame, which explains the mounts for racks and fenders

what i didn't find out was how old the bike is...the suntour drivetrain and headtube shifters tell me it's old, it's got square cranks (as opposed to cottered, or whatever) and 27" tires, and a quill stem, and it lacks a lot of the chrome i've seen on 70's bikes...if i had to make a guess (based on my limited knowledge) i'd say mid 80's or so. think that would be an accurate estimate?


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## old_fuji (Mar 16, 2009)

bump, anybody good at dating bikes?


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## old_fuji (Mar 16, 2009)

*http://velospace.org/node/596*
^^i found another aegis like mine...turns out that one's a fixie.


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## Squidward (Dec 18, 2005)

$%^&* Internet Exploder - this is the third time I'm typing this ish.

From your descriptions and the picture it would appear that you have an '80's era bike boom era bike. It's very similar to the Univega Nuovo Sport that I recently picked up. It's certainly no collector's piece, unless someone is specifically looking to collect Corsaros. I would just ride it and enjoy it for what it is: a decent old bike. You can try to ascertain its approximate date of manufacture by finding the manufacture date code on the Suntour components and cross referencing them to this chart.

Finding replacement 27" tires may not be easy these days. They are still being made but they're not as prevalent as 700c tires are. You also have the option of changing the wheels and tires to 700c wheels and tires but this would require either a drop bolt or long reach sidepull brakes. The 700c rims are a little more than half an inch smaller in diameter than the 27" wheels. On the Univega I made my own drop bolts because I already had the short reach brakes that weren't being used and that project has turned out to be a zero budget build since my wife is giving me hell for doing it even though that bike is going to her sister's husband.

If I were you I would either get bar-end shifters for that bike or downtube shifters as the stem-mounted shifters are rather dangerous in a crash, especially if you go over the bars.


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## old_fuji (Mar 16, 2009)

Squidward said:


> $%^&* Internet Exploder - this is the third time I'm typing this ish.
> 
> From your descriptions and the picture it would appear that you have an '80's era bike boom era bike. It's very similar to the Univega Nuovo Sport that I recently picked up. It's certainly no collector's piece, unless someone is specifically looking to collect Corsaros. I would just ride it and enjoy it for what it is: a decent old bike. You can try to ascertain its approximate date of manufacture by finding the manufacture date code on the Suntour components and cross referencing them to this chart.
> 
> ...


yeah, the headtube looks very similar to your uinvega. from what i've gathered, mine's basically the only one with gears; the 4 other corsaros i've found on google are fixies.

i'm scrounging around for money to get some 700c wheels and tires, as well as some brakes. and, of course, some fenders .

as i said earlier, it appears to be a mid-range boom bike...not the little clunky POS's that everybody and their duck had, but definitely not a priceless gem.

do you have any pictures of the drop bolt you made for your brakes?


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## Squidward (Dec 18, 2005)

It's in that post towards the bottom. The front is a round slug of aluminum that sits inside the bottom of the fork steerer and the rear is that plate. I called it a drop bolt but technically that is not correct. That's what Sheldon Brown called it when he made something similar. http://www.sheldonbrown.com/home-drop.html


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