hujev

Hi - bought a set of these on ebay; they're marked 'nitto Grand Raundoneur' [exactly spelled as that] on the top clamp section, and '450 k-p' on the tip of one side. they're not particularly old; maybe 70s or 80s. they are marked as the model 135, which is the same as the currently produced (?) randonneur model (nitto website)... Anyway, I'm wondering if this is a curious early mis-spelling, or what - searching google for 'Raundoneur' gets only *three* hits; all descriptions of peoples' bikes, so i assume they're reading the same as i am...

anybody have ideas?

Eatadonut

taiwanese guy deciding how to spell a french word?

hujev

An addition; just bought an old Univega, 1983, it has Sake "Randnner' bars! Nice bars, Randonneur shape, but again the weird spelling! Another one!

cudak888 

Remember these?



Well, it happened to handlebars too.

-Kurt

auchencrow

omg

Road Fan

Just in case nobody said it, it should be "randonneur."

southpawboston

https://www.engrish.com/

Drakonchik

Saki S-Our -- Umph! -- excuse me, Sakae SR also mis-spelled the word on some of their bars.

The Japanese are known for their love of French culture. It was all part of a cunning provocation to get a French dominatrix to pay 'em a visit and "teach them French".

Chris_in_Miami

That certainly explains the Nitto Slippery Noodle bar I bought.

ColonelJLloyd 

Nitto is a Japanese company. All of their parts are still manufactured there so far as I know.

rhm

Hmm, so we have a Taiwanese guy working in Japan and trying to spell a French word? The plot thickens.

But while we're at it, does anyone know if Suntour 'Spirt' was a misspelling, and if so, for what? Spurt? Sprit? Spirit? Sprint? Spittoon? Sqirt? Squirt?

ColonelJLloyd 

Trips spelled backwards.

Rabid Koala

I have a pair of pliers stamped "steal".

hujev

In another post on another place I asked the same question just before posting here - I suggested maybe it was 'engrish', but got a highly emotional email from a guy who is apparently of japanese ancestry (yet still suffering the modern american desire to fit oneself into an oppressed group) who was 'highly offended' by the engrish site... which i thought rather dumb, since as i understand it much of the weird engrish in the asian countries has no relation to the 'words' written, but the 'design' of having some exotic information - sort of like the ever popular 'asian character' tattoos so popular in the us a few years ago (which also probably have a lot of funny errors, but I'd rather not look).

On the other hand, you'd think these very good japanese design and manufacturing houses would be able to spell such a critical word properly... so I'm guessing it's something different from simple misspelling or mistransliteration, maybe (maybe not).

bionnaki

tour of nitto factory: https://www.tokyofixedgear.com/ShopFe...ail.asp?Bno=12

cudak888 

On a motorcycle chain breaker:



-Kurt

mazdaspeed

I love Engrish.

rootboy 

I love this kind of stuff, but it's a slippery slope. (see slippery above). That Japanese fellow may have a right to be offended. But as long as you're not making fun of someone, what the heck. I spent some time in China and they had only recently embraced English so there were, and are, a lot of strange translations and spellings around town. Too many to list but one of my favorites was an outdoor sign by a hole in the wall tailor shop. "Pants pulling Y2.00". My uncle, in Beijing, collects these curiosities.