Table of Contents

Lotus Bicycles

Sid and Ernst Star founded Lotus Bicycles in Syosset, New York in 1980, importing bikes made by Tsunoda Bicycle Corporation of Nagoya, Japan and later from Pacific Cycle of Taiwan. 1). In 1990, Sid passed away and Ernst then sold the brand to International Design & License, which then sold the brand in 2000 to Group Lotus at which point Lotus stopped branding and selling bicycles.

Ernst Star with daughter
Ernst Star with daughter
https://classicjapanesebicycles.com/lotus/

1983 Pegasus

The steel shoulder strap welded into the frame is unique amongst mountain bikes. See further discussion in: shoulder. The quick release sliding seatpost is almost unique, but was also found on the 1983 Trek 850.

The 1983 Pegasus had a lugged frame, Suntour Mountech derailleurs front and rear, and a 5 speed Suntour freewheel paired with a Sugino triple. 29.75 pounds. 2)

Lotus also sold an Explorer model in 1983 with SunTour AG Tech derailleurs and dodgy build quality, according to Nov 1983 Bicycling magazine..

1983 Pegasus
1983 Pegasus thepaceline

1984 Pegasus

Components nicely upgraded to Shimano Deore XT.

1984 Pegasus
1984 Pegasus bikeforums

1985 Pegasus

Identical to the 1984 in every way. Later Lotus mountain bikes dropped the built in shoulder strap.

1985 Pegasus
1985 Pegasus electricbikereview

Steel Shoulder Straps

Modern cyclocross bikes have oval top tubes, which works well for most shoulders, but mountain bikes borrowed from older cyclocross and embraced nylon shoulder straps starting around 1980. Modifying the frame was rarely done - but is not unique to the Lotus Pegasus.

ALAN Cyclocross
1980's ALAN Cyclocross classicsteelbikes
Strapless works better when the bike is very light.

1983 Kobe Cascade 1983 Kobe Cascade reddit

The 1983 Kobe Cascade, which looks exactly like a Lotus Pegasus (components are all new) has the same frame “quirk.”

Many early frames had holes drilled for bolt on shoulder straps. This was true of at least the following collected in this timeline:

And many more. Even Ritchey used them on later models.

1974 Gitane 1974 Gitane Country tontonvelo

Gitane welded these onto frames as far back as 1974 on their Country cyclocross bike. 3)

1984 Raleigh Elkhorn 1984 Raleigh Elkhorn classiccyclesus

1987 Cherokee

SunTour alpha-5000 (1987-8)

1987 Cherokee
1987 Cherokee bikeforums

1989 3000M

“Pro Series”, SunTour XCE (1989+)

1989 3000M
1989 3000M offerup

1990 4000M

1990 4000M

Deore LX. Likely the last model year for Lotus ATBs.4)

1990 4000M
1990 4000M vintagelotusbicycles

1)
History from wikipedia and Nov 1983 Bicycling magazine
2)
Thanks to the Internet Wayback Machine for caching dead sites, as Lotus fans are a dying breed. See Pegasus specs at: vintagelotusbicycles
3)
Gitane maintains complete catalogs at: gitaneusa
4)
The vintagelotusbicycles serial # project only lists a single road bike post 1990, https://web.archive.org/web/20190502202128/http://www.vintagelotusbicycles.com/serial_number_chart.php.