Though the Sekine MR300 was a pretty nice bicycle, it showed up at the wrong time.  I had recently had a pretty good run of finding vintage road bicycles, allowing dozens to fine their way into The Old Shed.  With this in mind, and several promising potential projects looming, already, the Sekine was set aside, with intentions to offer it for auction on Ebay, when the opportunity to do so presented itself.

As I was preparing the bicycle for auction, the first thing done was to check to ensure that everything was working as it should.  Once tested, and found to be safe and reliable to use, I took the bike out for a test ride.

The purpose of the test ride, in the Sekine's case, is to determine if the bike's frame or fork set has been compromised.  In other words, I wanted to be sure the frame was not bent.  And the test ride supported my expectation.  The frame was not bent and the bike rode just fine.

The Shimano 105 grouppo worked all but flawlessly, as one might expect it to.  The 105 indexed transmission is a nice enough unit to use, jumping the chain from one cog, or ring, to the next without issue.  The brakes, again 105 stuff, are all but perfect, in my mind.  The levers are comfortable, easy to reach and require minimal effort to pull.  And the callipers work when the brakes are applied.  Safe, confident stopping power, every time.

And that was about my total riding evaluation for the Sekine MR300.  As mentioned, I had no intention of keeping the bicycle.  True, I do seek a high end Asian bicycle to add to my collection, but the MR300 just wasn't it.  I do, however, have a pretty nice, seventies something Nishiki Continental just begging me to get at it.  And I should, after all, it has been hanging in The Old Shed for several years now.

But the Sekine MR300 did not spend much time stored away, once it came into my possession.  The bicycle, "as found", was incredibly clean, little used and needing little more than a good cleaning off, a bit of tuning and an offer to purchase from someone else.  It took little time for that offer to surface.

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