Originally Posted by
Trakhak
At a New York City bike trade show back in the early '80's, I had a conversation at the little Ishiwata booth. The English spoken by the Japanese rep was painfully limited, and I spoke no Japanese, so it was a short talk. But he did use the word "surroundness" several times, while miming a circle.
It wasn't until I read some Bike Forums threads decades later that I learned that Ishiwata tubing was highly respected by some frame builders for its consistency in quality control. I guess the surroundness would have been one aspect of that.
there is a quote, but I don’t recall who said it, but the builder said “it looked like the insides of the tubing had been polished by little men”
I can say my ‘79 Trek 514, in full Ishiwata 022 tubing is my best riding bike.
That’s wholly subjective, I’m an over 200lb rider on a 24” frame, and I find it’s the frame that will plane for me when I get the right cadence going.
I’d love to find another, lots (comparatively speaking) of the 400 series floating around with 022 trebi tubing and hi tension fork and stays, (which could ride just as nicely, who knows!) but harder to find the full 022 tubed 510 models.