Originally Posted by
Don Buska
...All my web searches about Bridgestone bikes don't show much presence in the USA until around 1980 - were they even sold under their name here in the 60's?...
Bridgestone had a large US market presence in the mid-1970s, under the Kabuki and C. Itoh brands. C. Itoh was a Japanese trading company that imported bicycles and other products. During the early 1970s, most of the Japanese bicycle companies imported to the USA via their trading company partners, most of whom already had distribution networks in America. After the boom crashed, many of the Japanese bicycle manufacturers started setting up eponymous sales and distribution divisions in the USA. Bridgestone did this in the early 1980s, using the Bridgestone brand name for bicycles. C. Itoh retained the Kabuki brand and continued to market them in the USA under a Kabuki bicycle division. Occasionally, you see a 1960s Bridgestone.