Originally Posted by
The Golden Boy
I guess you'd have to assume there was a time when Japanese manufacturing of bicycles and components was at a zenith.
I believe that period was from say 1984-1989. Maybe a little earlier either way.
The Japanese economy tanked in the late 80s, so things got expensive there, and inexpensive here- that made it difficult to compete on all volume levels with Taiwan.
The tanked Japanese economy gave Schwinn the opportunity to source some of their best-ever bikes from Japan from the mid 1980s thru 1992, because the leading Japanese suppliers - most notably Panasonic, had excess capacity.
Centurion also took advantage of this and got some excellent bikes from Japan in this timeframe.