bikemoner2k

I just got my hands on an Atami Gran Tour.
Ive been unable to find any reference to the company anywhere online beyond one Msg board reference to a fixed conversion using an atami frame. It looks like a mid 70's frame. Ornate lugs. I forget the tubeset as the frame is not with me right now, but it has the sticker for the tube material on it. A japanese flavor.

Does anyone know anything about Atami?

Atamirider

I have an Atami frame also. Just got it recently and am fixing it up. I also cant find any references to Atami anywhere, this forum is the only link i've found so far. Love the frame though, very light.

cudak888 

Thanks for bumping two, age-old threads.

-Kurt

wrk101

+1 You are better off either starting a new thread, or sending a private message to the original poster, if that poster is still active on the forum. Original posting is four years old.

If nothing shows up on google, then it is probably a department store/private label bike. Back during the bike boom of the 1960s and 1970s, pretty much every gas station, tire store, hardware store, or whatever had their own "line" of bikes. Of course, these stores never built a bike. They just paid someone to slap their label onto a generic bike.

I bought my first bike at a lawn mower repair shop in the 1960s. They had their own private label, the bike was probably a Huffy or a Murray. The find of funny part was the repair shop wasn't even big enough to carry new lawn mowers, but they had their own brand of bikes. Kind of wish I had kept it. It would have zero value, but had a somewhat interesting story.

Everything I have read on Atami bikes is that it was a private label (think store brand).

custermustache

And still no photos!

Zaphod Beeblebrox 

Actually If you google "Atami Bicycle", this thread and the other old Atami thread that just got bumped are the two top results, so I can see why these were resurrected, but its still a better idea to just start a new thread.

Atamirider

and thats why i replied to this thread. Even though its hella ancient

cudak888 

...so where are the photos?

-Kurt

JasonMarq

I too have an Atami Gran Tour. Bought the frame pretty much naked from a local bike store. Has a bunch of Sports Industries Seattle stickers and a Peugeot-esque racing decal on the seat tube. I have seen mention of it one other place online... A mechanic from south of Seattle said getting rid of the Atami was one of his biggest "bike regrets". Also mentioned that his was from 77'. Can't find any information about them anywhere else....

I'll try to post some of the pictures of mine. Not sure if you have the same paint job or not. Measures 62cm with ~33.5" standover.

This post is indeed ancient, but it's the first hit on the major search engines... hopefully someone will drop some knowledge on us.

Hummer

Hi JasonMarq,

sometimes the serial number can be used to identify the frame manufacturer. Can you find and post the serial number?

DIMcyclist

If I might chime in on this (threads on very old Japanese bikes seem to be turning up a lot lately), I have a gut feeling that Atami isn't going to turn out to be a dept. store brand, but rather a smaller Japanese domestic brand that didn't see much official distribution here.

Here's my reasoning on this...

First off, there seem to be very few of these bikes over here, a much smaller footprint than you'd expect for a brand sold through dept. stores.

Second, Atami is a little Japanese resort town famed for it's hot springs, sort of in the shadow of Mt. Fuji (which would explain the its presence in the headbadge design). It's a popular site for romantic weekend get-aways, being on the Izu coast and only about a half-day's train ride south of Tokyo. As such the name 'Atami' would evoke fun & vacations to anyone from Japan, but probably wouldn't mean anything in particular to anyone else.

That said, I'd also like to see some more images; more for the fun of it, really, than with any hope of identification. But who knows? - maybe more info & history will come of it. That frame looks contemporary with bikes like the Bridgestone Eurasia; very mid-to-late '70s, which would go hand-in-hand with the right-side brake cable routing.

Edit, 10 days later:

I've been poking my nose into this all week, and still haven't discovered anything further, except that most if not all of the Atami bikes I've found images of are either in or from the Seattle area, which would suggest extremely limited U.S. distribution, or a line that was imported by a single bike shop, a very small scale operation similar to Sekai.

PNWAtami

I think I got one of these in the backyard. I live in Mill Creek, Washington and have for 43 years. I'll try to get some pictures.

PNWAtami

Under a tree I found it where I grew up. I'm sure this bike belongs to one of my older brothers and sisters. I'll do some digging to see if I can come up with the background story but the pictures should answer some of our mystery questions.

1) It is an Atami Samurai size unknown (does anyone know how to determine frame size?)
2) Frame color is a pretty fuschia (purple and magenta)



3) Here is the Atami and Samurai up close





4) As a new development, I'll add that I believe this was produced by a group named Sports Industries Seattle. Here you will find a picture of their logo on a sticker at the top of the left front fork. Cool samurai sword through the wording.



Quite a development!

5) The serial number of this bike is 29265! Quite a low number. Can anyone figure anything from this? Here are the pics. It is shown on the left lower seat post right above where it connects to the axle.




6) This one was sold or serviced by Ken's Cycles when it was on Highway 99. Based on a sticker found on the frame on the seat post.

7) The brakes were Shimano Tourney.



8) Cranks, flat type. Any guesses?




9) The original pedals. Guesses?



10) The rear and front hubs:





11) The brakes, not pictured are Shimano Dura ace and the rims are in okay shape, the seat is PANEX.

I'm pretty sure this bike is all original and not updated in anyway as most of our bikes that I am finding are stock.

I hope this helps solve the mystery a bit.

noglider 

Somebody, please put this thread out of its misery.

Hummer

Old threads are never dead. They can help peolpe collect information in one thread.

PWNAtami's Atami is similar to, if not the same as, Fred Deeley Apollos of Vancouver, British Columbia.

There was an Apollo Gran Tour model, just like the OPs Atami Gran Tour.

Think there might be a connection between Atami and Apollo?

Saguaro

That is one grungy looking hubset.

The Golden Boy 

Why have a bunch of dead end threads? Not that I've done any research into it- but the two bumped threads include the entire wealth of knowledge of Atami bicycles on the interGoogles.
I'd suggest a mod combine the two threads so there's one "definitive" Atami resource thread. As Atami seems to be a niche brand, at best- searching the Googles or BF to find 8 dead end "tell me about my Atami" threads- put them all together- if someone starts a new Atami thread then people can complain that "you started a thread about THIS? Ugh."

Jonisey

Sorry to bump this old thread, but this is first time I have found anyone else with anything about this bike. I found an Atami Samurai in 2013 at a thrift shop. Really cool bike, glad I was able to find info about it...

Hummer

Hi Jonisey,

thanks for posting the pics. The bike is probably from the early 1970s.

Your bike is very similar or the same as a Deelite Five Speed from Fred Deeley Cycles of Vancouver BC.

Can you post the serial number? It is probably on the seat tube, lower down, or under the bottom bracket.

bikemig 

lol, + 1