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Help Sterra Bicycle/Marzocchi Fork

fredstaple

Speeding Up
Nov 1, 2009
198
1
Today was recycle day and there was a bike in a pile of trash that looked interesting. It was a Sterra steel frame with a Marzocchi suspension fork. It was equiped with Shimano Deore groupo and a Richie post and saddle. It was not totally trashed. Some rust, but could be cleaned up with a little effort.

The frame looked a little better quality than the average bike found in the trash. It even has a pump peg brazed on. Google search did not provide much on the frame, but the fork maker appears pretty good.

Has anyone heard of this brand? Is it worth saving or should I just strip it of parts and return it to the trash heap? thanks
 
Get the whole lot.

Not heard of the frame, but someone might be able to shed some light on it.
 
You do realize the frame is going to be garbage, because it will be registered and if you try to register it again, it will come up registered to someone else, and the cops could come calling. The parts might be of use :)
 
THANK YOU!!!!

You do realize the frame is going to be garbage, because it will be registered and if you try to register it again, it will come up registered to someone else, and the cops could come calling. The parts might be of use :)

This would never have occurred to me. Wow, pull a junked bike out of the trash and end up getting deported for theft; wouldn't that beat all! I really do appreciate this insight, thank you for saving me a potentially big hasstle trying to sort this one all out.
 
This would never have occurred to me. Wow, pull a junked bike out of the trash and end up getting deported for theft; wouldn't that beat all! I really do appreciate this insight, thank you for saving me a potentially big hasstle trying to sort this one all out.

I don't know the "Law" but I did have this happen to me, a very long time ago, when I first lived here, I was a starving Aikido student, I was barely making ends meet, I saw a ton, like hundreds of junked bicycles in my area, so I grabbed one bit here, and one bit there and with my basic tool kit I had brought with my Cannondale from Canada, I put together a junker bike. I was VERY paranoid thta my Cannondale would get stolen at the train station, as back then, in the summer of 1990, that old Cannondale was rare exotic unobtainum here in Tokyo (or it seemed like it!) so I wanted a junker mamachari to take to and from the station, leave it there locked up and not worry about it. I got stopped on the way home one night, for RWBG (Riding While Being Gaijin) I had a light, I had a reflector and I had my Gaijin Card, the bike had no yellow sticker on it (I'd removed it) the cops were not happy, I did not speak any Japanese, I had a lock that attached to the bike, one of those ring lock things, and I had the key, but they still took my bike from me, as I did not have any yellow sticker on it. I had to head to the cop shop the next day. I went with a Japanese friend to translate. The cops heard my story about how I was poor and I saw junk in the area, and used it to make one serviceable bicycle, I actually cleaned up my neighbourhood! The cops basically told me that what I did was theft, and they could have charged me, but my Japanese buddy was livid, he was incredulous that they would treat me like this, I recycled the junk and made it useful, and now the plod were bothering me about it. What really bugged him was that there were so many junked bikes around town and they all had the stupid yellow stickers, why didn't the cops check these bike to see who owned them? That way a good bike that was stolen could be returned to the owner, before it sat for a year slowly rusting into a heap of junk, and they could use it, or a bike that was junked because the owner was too cheap to pay the Sodai gomi fee could be told to not be a jerk and clean up there mess, well the cops sniffed and said "That's not our job".... :mad: Hassling a foreigner on the way home from work who is doing everything right, I had a light, a reflector, I was not drunk, etc, that WAS their job. I eventually had to drag my buddy out of the cop shop as he was getting more and more irate and it would only come back on me as he was Japanese. :eek:uch:

So I don't really know if you would get deported, but why risk it?

It is really stupid, if I want to pick up bikes that have been junked, and fix it up for my own use, why not?

I guess if I don't like it I can always head home to Canada... :rolleyes: :D

YMMV :bike:
 
It is really stupid, if I want to pick up bikes that have been junked, and fix it up for my own use, why not?
I think the sticky point is that without contacting the owner you can't establish for sure whether the bike is really junked. They might be intending to come and pick it up sometime and fix it. (Very unlikely, I know, but it does happen.)

AFIK an individual can't re-register a bike (frame) without providing proof-of-purchase and/or the previous registration document and/or an ownership transfer document.

The ward/city office has access to the anti-crime registration details, so they can nullify and re-register the bikes that they pick up to recycle. Some municipalities are more active about reCycling than others.

Taking any garbage or (so you think) abandoned bikes or whatever off the street without permission is theft. Until it's collected by the local council it's the property of the owner, and afterwards the property of the council. Theoretically it's a potential asset and a source of income.

If they catch you, the Law will come down on you like a ton of mamachari frames.

I'm quite sure 95% or more of people don't know that you can and should cancel your registration (at the local koban) before selling or otherwise disposing of a bike.
 
. It was a Sterra steel frame with a Marzocchi suspension fork.

sterra were built for royal norton. The Marzoks weren't the crappiest out there, what model are they? Part the bike out for parts and return the frame if you're worried about getting stopped for RWBG. If it were me I'd rattle spray can the frame and ride it.
 
Only in Japan

I love this country, but only here can it be so hard to try to get a piece of garbage out of the trash and fix it up.
 
sterra were built for royal norton. The Marzoks weren't the crappiest out there, what model are they? Part the bike out for parts and return the frame if you're worried about getting stopped for RWBG. If it were me I'd rattle spray can the frame and ride it.

LOL Marzochii are one of the best fork makers out there.... Why, well thats all they make!

Spray can????? Nope.... get down the local DIY store get some numerical and alpha punches and add a couple of digits to the frame number. :D
 
LOL Marzochii are one of the best fork makers out there.... Why, well thats all they make!

Spray can????? Nope.... get down the local DIY store get some numerical and alpha punches and add a couple of digits to the frame number. :D

Yeah Marzocchi made some good forks and some lower end ones. Love the idea of stamping in a new number:bike::bike:
 
LOL Marzochii are one of the best fork makers out there.... Why, well thats all they make!

I wasn't trying to hold it in, and thankfully you have done it for me. Steam valve released, pressure reducing...

In all seriousness; I will NOT have any slagging of Marzocchi, in any way shape or form.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marzocchi

If you had seen the look on my face when I went from a shitty Rock Shox XC fork to a Marzocchi Bomber Z2 in 1997, you would understand. Forks from the GODS.
 
Back among the Garbage

This has been an absolutely fasinating discussion, delving into the finer points of Japanese Refuge Law and even sparking a blood feud over the honour of the Marzocchi fork.

But alas, the potential of spending 20 to 40 years behind bars eating a healthy diet of rice and fish heads has turned me to the straight and narrow path. This fine bike with either rust away in a land fill, be dumped at sea to rust away even quicker somewhere in the Pacific, or be melted down and find its way into reinforcement bar at some construction project.

RIP Sterra frame and hope that you and your trusty sidekick, Marzocchi Fork, meet up again in the great single track in the sky.
 
In all seriousness; I will NOT have any slagging of Marzocchi, in any way shape or form.

You really want to defend the RockShox licensed, SR Suntour made in Taiwan zokes? The bomber (1997?) was when they finally went back to their motorcycle shock roots and oil bath valved suspension that didn't blow seals became a reality. The OEM stuff was unremarkable and probably Fred has correctly thrown them away. Fred I hope you stripped off the components. I would take the Ritchey seat post at least.
 
Don't mean to take this thread off track, but...

Is it possible (or mandatory) to register a bike that was bought overseas and imported? Does anyone know the process and where to do it?
 
Don't mean to take this thread off track, but...

Is it possible (or mandatory) to register a bike that was bought overseas and imported? Does anyone know the process and where to do it?

Yes it is, you go to your LBS and they take your name address etc, they take the make and model of the bike and the serial number, you pay a small fee (500 yen??) and they stick a small yellow numbered sticker on the bike, usually on the down tube near the head tube, so the cops can read the number without having to get off their bicycles.

Cheers!
 
... and they stick a small yellow numbered sticker on the bike, usually on the down tube near the head tube, so the cops can read the number without having to get off their bicycles.

Cheers!

If you are 'lucky' enough to be stopped by one who can actually read ... :confused:
 
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