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10-06-19 | 08:16 AM

#2255

T-Mar

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Quote:

Originally Posted by madpogue

...[MENTION=20650]T-Mar[/MENTION] , could it be that the "N" in the Japan-made Centurions with the N(1) format stands for Nippon?...

There's a 2011 Korn Ferry Institute article on Georgina Terry, where it is reported that her supplier, Tano, copied her frame design for use on Centurion models, which they manufactured for WSI. We know that Centurion introduced the Terry style Ironman Expert Women's model in 1987, followed by the LeMans Proportional in 1988. Samples of these bicycles in my database show them having S/N with N-codes. This would seem to be reliable information suggesting that the N-codes represent Tano. However, the sole 1987 Terry S/N I've found is an S-code. While it's possible that Tano used a different prefix for different customers, this does not appear to have been a common practice among manufacturers and is enough to leave some doubt as to the manufacturer of the N-codes. Still, Tano is currently my leading candidate for the N-codes. In addition to the article statement, Tano is generally cited as being the original Centurion source and is often reported as being WSI's major supplier in the 1980s.

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