Got a new very odd bike. It is a Kent Rolling Thunder 10 speed kid’s bike. I have never before seen a kid’s 20 inch ten speed. What makes it even odder is the shift levers. They are mounted on the stem but they are in a box like the old Schwinns.
The only problem is that, according to the previous owner, it makes the bike very difficult to ride. Having to let go of the handlebar and pull on a heavy lever causes quite a bit on instability.
Aside from the clunky shift levers the bike has some of the best knock-off components available from Taiwan at the time. The Falcon derailleurs are supposed to be very good copies of a Shimano derailleur from a few years earlier.
Another odd thing is that the bike is labeled as a Kent. Kent bikes are almost always sold under some licensed name, but this one has the Kent name in a couple places.
I’ve started researching his bike online and have found almost nothing. It was sold through Sears and I was actually able to order an owners manual through the Sears parts website. Hopefully the manual will tell me more about the bike, though I fear it may turn out to be a generic manual included with all Kents.