kc0yef 

Took these pictures for a friend
anyone know about this bike?

ScottRyder 

I don't know much about the brand but I think they have one of the coolest head badges. Woof! That one is in great shape, the frame and lugs looks like a dead ringer for an early Fuji Finest, especially around the seat tube lug. Here's a '76 I owned at one point:





Scott

kc0yef 

I noticed the lugs on the Forks look just like my stable of Nishiki's also...

T-Mar

serial number?

kc0yef 

783025

T-Mar

Thxs. That's interesting. It's rare for Asian manufacturers not to incorpoate at least one alpha character. The only exception I'm aware of is Kuwahara and this isn't their format.

ftwelder

In the early 80's and older Japanese distributor "Mizutani" came to visit the Yeti factory when I worked there. We had a huge barrel filled with beverages for the guests as well as condiments etc. The dud swaggered over the the barrel, grabbed a pint of coffee-mate and chugged it like a football star.

WNG

vannergy

When I was working in a bike shop back in the mid-70's, the word was, most of the Japanese bikes were made in one or two or maybe three factories. Nishiki, azuki, takara, mizutani (the lesser known of all), fuji, kobe, shogun, lotus, centurion/REI, volkscycle, campanayia?, and many, many, more. I'm not sure what all, or if all I've listed were from the same factory. I appreciate the fuji photos along side the mizutani and the nishiki coment. These comments varify what I thought might have urban-legend slants to them.

T-Mar

There were certainly more than two or three, try at least 2 or 3 dozen! I'm currently working on a chart to cross reference C&V brands to Asian manufacturers and their serial number formats. I'm just about to top 100 brands and companies!

Of the ones you've listed, Azuki and Nishiki were manufactured by primarily by Giant and Kawamura. Kuwahara manufactured most Takara. Centurion was manufactured by Fairly, Katakura, Matsu****a, Mikki, Tano and others. Lotus was manufactured by Tsunoda and Pacific, among others. Shogun came primarily from Mikki and Yamaguchi. Fuji was manufacturerd by Fuji and various subcontractors. I'm not sure about the others but we've already hit a dozen different manufacturers just covering a portion of your list. If you want an idea of the number of manufacturers used by brands, just check out my Centuion Serial Number Database, Fuji Serial Number Database and Nishiki Serial Number Database threads on this forum.

kiwigem

Wait- what? Are you serious?

vannergy

Thanks T-Mar for clearing up some of the fog that legends develope over time. Sounds pretty complicated. I currently own an "sr" semi-pro. Any guess which factory made it?

MizutaniRider

I know it's been a few years since your post...I purchased the same bike/same color 1974 from Cycle Smithy, LBS ~ 2424-1/2 Clark Street, Chicago, and own it still. It's been a great friend. When I bought it, it was similar to, but less $ than, Raleigh's Competition. Cycle Smithy changed out the wheels/tires for clinchers, as I was averse to tubeless on Chicago streets. Regret not buying the 2nd set of wheels, but simply didn't have it then. Still riding!

Lascauxcaveman 

^ Welcome to the forum. When you get a chance, post some pics of your bike. We don't see a lot of these around here.

Pars 

My brother had one of these (different color) back in the '70s in Iowa. It was stolen within a year, though I thought I saw a kid riding it. Never caught up with him (on foot).