Living here in the U.S. I always wished Panasonic would have continued to be sold here after the 1989 model year. The primary desire for this was that I had become aware of the Panasonic PR-6000 model in the beautiful Team Colors and really wished I could buy one here. With Panasonic out of the picture for me in terms of buying options I moved on to another “P” bike… a Pinarello Paris with Campagnolo Record Carbon.
Now, just because my modern day wheels happen to be Italian doesn’t mean I stopped wanting that PR-6000 or something like it. Luckily for me, the creation of this web site led to some international friendships. One such friend is Melvin from the Netherlands.
While checking my email one afternoon I saw a message from Melvin. To my surprise he had sent me a link to what looked to be a nearly new-old-stock PR-6000 frame and fork being offered on a Dutch classified site. I did the math and found the asking price to be surprisingly affordable. I wanted it. 😉
I wouldn’t have this frame and fork today if not for Melvin’s assistance. He not only helped me out with language translation, but he even contacted the seller on my behalf. The seller didn’t want to mess with shipping to America so Melvin went above and beyond… he purchased the frame and had it shipped to his home then performed an incredible packing job before sending it to me. He didn’t even ask for payment from me until the frame was ready to ship. Yes, there truly are some great people left in this world. Thank you Melvin!
So I now own a frame I have wanted for many years thanks to a little help from the Panasonic enthusiast community. The odd thing about my particular frame is that it appears to be made from Tange 1 tubing rather than the Tange Prestige tubing usually found on PR-6000 models. This is in fact the first time I have seen one without Prestige tubing. Very peculiar but I still love it.
I intend to build it up as close to factory original as possible so it will likely be a long term build as I hunt around the internet for the proper components. I’ll post progress updates here on the site from time to time.
Finally, I know you’d all rather see pictures than read my babble… so here they are!
