Olive green 10 speed. Please help!

[Grant]

When I was around 12 years old, I wanted this olive green 10 speed bike with a very shiny finish. The bike had no logos on it besides the downtube that said "tourer" or "tourist" and it had handlebars that were very similar to pista track drops and the brake levers (which did not have the lever extensions) were mounted at the very bottom of the drop bars, almost on the flat part. The bike was all olive green and had quite fat tires for a road bike (I am guessing 1.5-1.7 inch wide tires with black sidewalls). These are the only details I remember of this bike.

 

[Grant]

One more thing, It had black, plastic bar tape that was similar to the vintage Schwinn bar tape, but black.

 

[SSG]

Tourist was a pretty common model for bicycles. I'm going to guess it wasn't a Schwinn tourer or tourist since they put their name on every part. I don't think the Raleigh Tourist had drop bars. The panasonic tourist had upright bars as well. The Columbia Tourist or Mossberg Tourist are both possibilities. They both 10 speed versions with the bars and brakes you've described.

 

[Grant]

One of my first conclusions is that maybe it was a Fuji Special Tourer. If I could have remembered the cranks, that would help a lot.

 

[Grant]

Tourist was a pretty common model for bicycles. I'm going to guess it wasn't a Schwinn tourer or tourist since they put their name on every part. I don't think the Raleigh Tourist had drop bars. The panasonic tourist had upright bars as well. The Columbia Tourist or Mossberg Tourist are both possibilities. They both 10 speed versions with the bars and brakes you've described.

The Panasonic tourer does have drop bars, while the other 3 you mentioned do not. The Panasonic tourer is too modern and too nice to be it.

 

[Grant]

Found out a while ago but it ended up being an Iverson 10 speed.

 

[rickpaulos]

When I was a teen, the nearest big box store was GRANTS and they carried bikes. I had a Grants 3 speed bike in a plain dark green that got stolen in about 1985. I had it locked to the air conditioner unit at work so I always suspected some campus maintenance staffer cut it off the ac pipes.

The wiki page on Grants' downfall is interesting. What a botched ending for the company.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._T._Grant

 

[Grant]

I am really sure this was the same model of bike I saw. I do remember the wheel diameter being smaller than most other road bikes.

 

[rickpaulos]

26 x 1 3/8 was a common size on some of the department store 10 speed bikes in the early 1970s.