1988 Panasonic PICS Titanium Road Bike
1988 Panasonic PICS titanium
Yes, this bike does look quite a bit like the lavender Panasonic in the previous post.
It should. It’s the same bike.
We reconfigured the bike to be a better representative of the Panasonic custom program. Now, we at Classic Cycle feel that it’s just fine to mix the nationalities of your bike parts… Japanese parts on an Italian frame, Italian stuff on an English bike, American or Taiwanese components on a Chinese frame. So we wouldn’t normally have any problem with Campagnolo equipment on a Panasonic. It’s just that in this instance the bike is telling a story about the company and the buying experience.
Anyhow… Shimano Dura-Ace 7400 parts would have been a choice on the PICS order form (although we updated it a bit with the STI brake/shift levers from 1990). Araya rims would have come with the bike and Panaracer (that’s Panasonic’s tire label) tubular tires were the professional option with the PICS program, so that’s what we have here.
Panasonic badge
Panasonic titanium
Dura-Ace caliper
Avocet 20 computer
The first STI lever
Modolo bars and stem aren’t original but they were a common upgrade in ’88. The flattened “anatomical” drops were supposed to be more comfortable for your hands but most modern handlebars have returned to using curved sections for the drops. Other nearly correct selections include Look ski-binding style pedals (Shimano licensed the Look design back then and we could have found some for this bike but didn’t), there’s a San Marco Rolls saddle and an Avocet 20 computer.
San Marco Rolls saddle
Look pedals, 7400 crank
Dura-Ace 7400
Now the paint (or lack of it) isn’t very special considering that a huge selling point of the PICS program was all of the custom colors and styles. A fair criticism, however this bike is made out of titanium. If you were ordering yourself a $3200 road bike in the go-go ’80’s (a $6500 bike in today’s dollars), you would want everyone to know that you had paid for the best. So our museum bike now boasts a finish just like the bike in the magazine ads.