Road King Villager from Eatons

Nice lookin' bike.  Was it built by CCM, or someone else?  I've seen Eatons stuff re-branded from several manufacturers.  I had a caprice f/f with the single cable positron and front freewheel.  Fun to ride once you got used to it, and it would freak out anyone who realized what was going on.

Erik

In not sure who it was made by. It has an Eatons sticker on it and a product of Canada sticker. The fenders have little rubber mouldings around the front and back edges. Never seen any like that before.

The OP's Targa is probably a 1976. Positron didn't even come out until the 1975 model year and CCM didn't use it on the Targa until 1976. The 1977 version used it too but by then it was called the Targa 10. CCM's decision to use the dual cable version is perplexing, given that Shimano replaced it with the single cable version in 1976. I can only assume that CCM got a good deal on leftover stock!

Regardless, the Road King appears to be outfitted with Positron II which came out in 1977, It lasted until at least 1980 and possibly to the demise of Positron in 1982. The serial number on the Road King may help to narrow down that range and determine the manufacturer.

Great information. I'll post some pics of the Targa later. I was guessing from comparison with other images online. The 2 cable derailleur has to be tweaked in some gears to keep it quiet. It gets lots of attention in the bike shops. Not all good;-)

The original, two cable Positron used ball indents to position the derailleur for each gear.  Generally, all you have to do is set the cable tension properly so that the ball indents are fully engaged. However, if they are properly engaged, I'm aware of at least three issues that can cause excess noise in certain gears.

1. If the freewheel has been replaced, the new freewheel may not have the same cog to cog spacing as the original freewheel.

2. Some riders tend to favour a certain gears and on the boom era 10 speeds it was not unusual to have riders leave the bicycle in one gear.  Consequently, the highly used gear(s) would wear with the chain to maintain proper meshing. Shifting  to the relatively unused gears would then result in noisy running, because the worn chain no longer meshed properly the far less worn cogs. If you replaced the chain but not the freewheel, things would be fine in the relatively unused cogs, but you'd run into problems in the heavily worn gears, sometimes to the point of skipping.

3. Like modern indexing derailleurs, alignment of the derailleur itself is critical. If the hanger has been  bent slightly, the cage will no longer be perfectly vertical and will not follow it's normal path when shifting across the cogs. It will follow a more upwards or downwards path, depending in the direction of the bend, and this results in slightly less travel per shift than required. In such circumstances, if you set the deralleur up for quiet running on an outside cog, the shifting issues get progressively worse as you shift across the freewheel, as the undertravel accumulates with each shift. While the best solution is to align the rear derailleur, sometimes you can minimize or even the solve the issue by setting up on the middle cog, as you will accumulatte less under travel. 

You may also be able to correct minor alignment issues by installing a modern Shimano Centeron jockey pulley in place of the original pulley. The Centeron pulley, which is used on modern Shimano indexing derailleurs, is engineered to have a small amount of lateral movement that permits it to self-centre with the freewheel cog in cases of minor misalignment. They are a common and inexpensive aftermarket item that can be found at most bicycle shops. You may even be able to rob one for next to nothing, from a broken derailleur. 

You're right T-Mar.. I repaired a lot of 10 speed and 5 speed and often,  lot of people use one gear and the cog become worn and they only want to change the chain or the sprocket.. ooooooookay !... hard to say something in another language  ouff...

For a Targa,they are so simple to repair..I have my tricks and it's a succes each time :D...I remember that a member here ( can't remember the name ) showed to me how to adjust them.

Denis, I think that may have been me, back in this thread|:

http://www.vintageccm.com/content/hello-montreal

I probably should have also linked to the set-up procedure in the earlier post. Thxs for reminding me about it. 

Yes Indeed T-Mar..it is you :D... you're welcome  ;).....at this day, my Targa runs very well. and I thank you for the trick.

I did a full service on the hubs, etc... and put a modern seatpost and saddle on the Villager. It gave my wife a little more cockpit room and she loves it now. I centered the Positron over the middle cog and it shifts beautifully. It's a really interesting bike. The wheels are French Rigidas. The hubs are from west Germany. The groupset is mostly made in Japan. Not sure where the brakes are from. Some parts are stamped made in Canada..

To the best of my knowledge, CCM was the only Canadian manufacturer of bicycle components during this era. Consequently, there is a good possibility that it was manufactured by CCM, though we also know that CCM did supply components to other manufacturers. CCM bicycles of this period have the serial number stamped on the lower, left side of the seat tube, two to three inches above the bottom bracket shell. Should it be a CCM, the serial number will also allow us to narrow down the year.