Univega CONQUEST

This Univega Conquest, was another shed discovery … not sure how it ended up in Australia, but there are a few of them around. Initially I suspected that they were mostly brought in individually but people who had owned them elsewhere, but the more I look, the more I find; enough to make me think that someone was importing them briefly.

Came in as a complete bike, not sure where those photos are. Stripped completely and rebuilt. Picture below is the last stage of stripping the bike, just the headset and bottom bracket to go.

Despite having sat in shed, or under someone’s house for at least a decade, this one was in pretty good condition. Dirty and a few crusty bits, but it looked like it would clean up alright.

Stripped. cleaned and fully rebuilt with all original parts, new headset and bottom bracket bearings and wheels rebuilt with new spokes and nipples. All of the groupset and hubs & rims are original.

It’s a nice looking bike and rides pretty well. Benefited from a new sealed bearing bottom bracket and it would be much improved by a different crankset. The original crankset that is on it now is surprisingly heavy. You probably wouldn’t notice just riding around town, but if you started going into the hills you might. I think you’d certainly notice the difference after you’d changed it! Apart from that it’s pretty smooth and the wheels roll really well.

A classic 2×6 speed racing bike from the days before mountain bikes took over the world!

Size: 56cm

Seat Tube C-C 56cm, Top Tube C-C 56cm.

This bike is available for sale from The Bicycle Emporium.

UNIVEGA History and Links

Born during the bicycle boom of the 1970’s, Univega was originally built in Italy by Italvega and later in Japan by Miyata, they were primarily a brand built for and sold in the USA. While Univega succumbed to the Raleigh behemoth in the mid 1990’s, the brand continues to sell in the USA today. 

Check out the Univega website. They also have a Facebook page and there is also a Wikipedia page here.

And while trying to find more information on this model I came across this little resource, the Univega Catalog Project, so if you have a Univega catalog laying around, perhaps scan it and send it in.