1982 Lotus Touring Bike

There are Lotus bikes all over Ithaca, NY. There was a shop here called Black Star cycles "back in the day," so you see all these beautifully lugged steel Lotuses (Loti?) cruising the streets.

So I went to drop off some items at my local bike recycling shop here in Richmond Virginia today and the guy behind the counter who owns the spot i think took notice that I have been working on building up a touring set-up. I asked about the LHT frame they had which was a 56cm and too small for me....he went in the back and came out with this frame! He said I could have it since it had been sitting in the shop all bare for three years. Getting to work on building it up soon but it's a 59-60cm and the exact same color as yours. I recently had some Mavic A119 wheels built up so those will go on here and I am looking around for other parts....glad to see another one.

The crankset especially, with their crazy take on a TA crank. How do you like the zero-rise (or whatever they're called) pedals? The center of the bearing is at the ball of the foot, and they were supposedly more efficient.

Those Scott bars were also v. nice but if they are old and have seen a lot of use you might want to chuck them for something new. The aluminum is thin and tends to fail catastrophically. The Nashbar bags fit the bike too.

I was wondering when another Lotus like mine would surface on here. Is yours made from Tange Mangalloy, too?