Yokota Yosemite frame details

My early 90's Yokota Yosemite frame, welded up by Toyo in Japan, I believe. (either that or Teesdale here in the states, which I find unlikely...even though he did up some high end Yokotas in the past.) Frame tubing on this little sucker is Columbus OR, and the structure is very sound, so...

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Time to get the map-bike project underway, so I picked up my supplies and got to it this weekend. First, some good pics of the frame details... I think all I've posted up to now is the auction pictures from when I got the thing last spring.

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Here she sits after a quick flash with citrus paint strip, to remove the clear coat and the decals and get down into the paint. The map bike will follow the proportions of this fade pain job, but with three lighter pastel colors more in line with the USGS standards for 1:24,000 topo sheets.

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Stripping process underway, note the stripper is doing it's job and eating the clear coat. The indicator that enough time has elapsed to burn off the clear but not hose the base colors is when the decals begin to lose their colors...indicating that they are no longer protected by clear. I do not want to strip the frame to bare steel, as the original paint is still structurally intact, and the factory prep is better than I could do with rattle cans, so just a quick strip and then some sanding prep and I'll get busy with the spray-work.

Fork, on the other hand... This is not the original fork, although it is a non-suspension corrected model, in Tange Prestige steel...and the finish here is powder coat. I expect the stripper to release the powder coat and then I can roll the coating of the fork with my fingers, much like you can roll rubber cement off a solid surface.

Dropout details. I'm torn as to whether or not I need to grind off the rack tabs. I'll never use a rack. These little dropout ears would be easy to remove, but the seatstay braze-ons would be a little trickier...and I don't want to have one without the other.

Headtube mounted cable stops on both sides of the headtube. No cable housing rub here!

Rear derailleur cable guide

Twin noodle cable guides for the front derailleur and the rear cantilever brake. Pretty neat details like these are what makes these old Yokotas cool.

One more of the noodles, and on the right side of the pic, the stay mounted rack mounts. Note also the stepped seat tube, a nice way to save weight on a steel frame.

Next up...some spray!