Please help me ID my vintage road bike (looks American) Lots of pics!

[lyoooha]

Thank you for looking in, dear fellow forum members.

I have owned this bike for quite a while now, originally I got it from a friend, he bought it at a garage sale by Ontario and rode it all the way to New York City, before handing the bike over to me, and hopping on a plane to Moscow. Ever since that day, it has given me countless pleasure. Ive added things like lights, pump, bottle holder, mirrow and iphone pouch, but other than that everything remains unchanged. I do not know what mods (if any) were done to this bike by the previous owners, but everything looks original. The chain drive system components are shimano, the speed levers are made in france, the steering column handle mount states ACS - made in USA, brakes say Polygon, Suntour cassette and de-railers. (Oh, one thing I've added are brake pads, the bike had old school square rubber/metal housing, rectangular-style pads - so I've upgraded for more contact area with the rim)

The most interesting thing about this bike, it has no left-over of any Brand labels, more importantly - No serial numbers that I could find. Also, it looks like the previous owner has painted the front fork black.


Any thoughts or input about this bike would be much appreciated. I really love this old-school classic. I do not plan to get rid of it any time soon - but it certainly would be very interesting to know of its origin and manufacturer, so I could further continue my research and determine its approximate age. So far, all of my online searches and extensive browsing through the website and looking at pictures had no result. A local bike shop owner speculated it "may" be a Panasonic or Fujio or something like that... but I could not find any similar models online by those Manufacturers.


Thank you very very much !


Kind Regards,

Aleksey


PS. Im adding the rest of the pictures below VVVVVVVVVV

[nfmisso]

I think that it is early '70s C Itoh. Either the front or rear derailleur is not original - though both are early '70s.

[RobAR]

I'm with Nigel. The cable stops on old bikes kind of clue you in to the time frame and this looks very 1970's.
Your bike shop guy was probably very close guessing Panasonic or Fuji. My vote goes to Fuji by looking at the lugs where the frame tubes are joined.
Back then, Schwinn dominated the North American bicycle market and refused to follow "trends" which, eventually, led to thier demise. Japanese companies were producing and exporting bikes like crazy during the Bike Boom of the early 70's and there was little in the way of standardization. The factories would use whatever stock part that they had in order to complete the build and get that bike in a box!
It is difficult to date an older bicycle by the parts that hang on it. Who knows what has been replaced?

The most important thing is that it is still loved and being ridden! Just because the New is good doesn't mean that the Old is bad.