Maruishi Excellence STE

[Jay81]

Hello all, road bikes are not my thing, and I was wondering if anyone could please help me determine the year it was built, and the value of this bike.
My dad picked it up for me at a garage sale, too good of a deal to pass up. It was dusty, flat tires, and the pic he sent didn't really do it justice. But, it cleaned up extremely well and looks almost like new.
I have searched the internet and cannot find much at all on this model. Someone on another forum commented that they were told only 6 of the Excellence model were ever produced, but that's probably a bunch of bologna. Or maybe not? There's certainly not much info on them.

Here's what I know about it:
Maruishi Excellence STE
12 speed
Ser. EA33210
According to the sticker: "Original Sports Frame CR. MO. Double Butted Tubes"
Vetta saddle
Suntour Cyclone derailleurs
Suntour shifters
Sugino GS crankset
KKT PVII pedals
Diacompe 500 brakes
Suzue Hubs
Tange Falcon headset
Sakae Custom Road Champion bars
Araya 700c rims
IRC Roadlite 700x25c 100psi tires

As found:

After clean up & tune up:

 

[GTs58]

What a beauty! From the foam handlebar wrap and the Cyclone rear derailleur, I would "guess" somewhere from 1980 thru 1984. Foam hit town around 1980 and that Cyclone 6000 was before a slight cosmetic change in 1985.

 

[Jay81]

What a beauty! From the foam handlebar wrap and the Cyclone rear derailleur, I would "guess" somewhere from 1980 thru 1984. Foam hit town around 1980 and that Cyclone 6000 was before a slight cosmetic change in 1985.

Thank you. Wow, I never would've guessed that old based off the condition, but I'm mostly into balloon tire stuff. It could almost pass as NOS.

 

[COB]

Beautiful bike!

 

[Andrew Gorman]

Suntour parts have easy to find date codes- there are several keys on the web. Here's the first one google turned up:

Suntour Date Codes – VELOCIPEDE

velocipede.co.uk

 

[Jesper]

Maruishi produced bikes in a wide variety of models/levels for many decades. The previous comment regarding Sun Tour date codes will help in dating the bike's year of manufacture (if original parts). Looks like their entry to mid level racing model. I have been looking for an original model with early electronic shifting which is rare.

Depending on the tubing, the value is more in the components than the bike (even in great condition) itself except in certain markets catering to Japanese bikes of that era. The bike certainly looks to be in great condition, but value depends more on the demand of the market in your area.

 

[Jay81]

Suntour parts have easy to find date codes- there are several keys on the web. Here's the first one google turned up:

Suntour Date Codes – VELOCIPEDE

velocipede.co.uk

I do believe the bike is all original. It looks like it was ridden once or twice, and put away in a dry environment. According to that chart, the front derailleur would be June 1984, and the rest derailleur would be November 1984. So I'd assume the bike to be a late '84 to early '85 build.
Additionally, that link shows Sugino and other manufacturers adopted the same date code system, and the chainrings appear to be October 1984.
This is very helpful, thank you.