Serial Number for T-Mar
 

T-Mar, I finally went and got the serial number off my '85 Norco Victory (YAK3603), something tells me it's not made by Kawamura, However, my "'84" international (according to your best guess) has the same colour scheme and although the tange grade has been ripped I can see a bit of an 0 or O at the end, it must be a 0 as in tange 900 like the victory?? also it seems odd that the top norco is straight gauge tubing while my 81 Nishiki Comp II says it is double butted cro-mo (if they were indeed built in the same factory). Could the Comp II be Ishiwata tubing rather than tange?

hope this helps 1981 nishiki international double butted chrome molly CJ 01375. Im pretty sure I purchased this bike from lbs in 81. Take care

Thanks skyrider, i assume your international has the small leaflet tubing decal (which looks like paint on my Comp II)... I wonder if they downgraded the international tubing, that wouldn't make sense for a touring bike... hopefully T-mar can tell us more tomorrow.

Yes it does.Also has welds for the downtube shifters, so they dont slide down.

Cyclotoine, the Tange 900 tubing on your Norco Victory is not straight gauge. It is a CrMo, double butted tubeset comparable to Tange #2 in wall thickness and weight. However, unlike Tange #2, it is a less expensive, seamed tubeset. I believe that I previously posted a response to this effect.

The tubeset on your International could also be Tange 1000. Like Tange 900, it was a CrMo, double butted, seamed tubeset, but had slightly thicker walls in the main tubes and was about 75g heavier. The seamless Tange tubeset that it was comparable to, was Tange #3.

Norco was the Canadian Nishiki distributor during 1985, so Kawamura would be the logical choice for framebuilder. However, the serial number format does not match those used on Nishiki. It is possible that Kawamura used different serial number formats depending on the intended customer/brand, but I have no evidence to substantiate this. I guess I'll be starting a Norco serial numer database! Thank-you for posting.

Skyrider, based on the serial number, I would say that you have either a 1980 or 1981 model. I have the 1981 catalog, so if you want to submit some pics and/or details, I should be able to verify the year.

Thanks T-mar, I went back and read the old post. For some reason I read "smeared" instead of seamed when I originally read it. Sorry about that, i did want to get the seriel nunber to you wanyway. One more note is that the lugs are definately different from the international to the victory, the norco has longer points... also the norco has tange dropouts while the Nishiki (both my nishikis) has suntour. it may be that they just changed dropouts from 84 to 85 buct who knows. I have another very low end damaged norco sport frame (avanti) I can get you the serial number off as well, I should be able to date the drivetrain but the cranks look to be none original.

Hello, so i just came into owning a Nishiki bike(has that littlie emblem on the front), i cant find an thing online thou about this bike, it looks like a cruiser, it says also on it American eagle, I don't know were i would locate the serial number on it if you can tell me i will find it(if it is on there) and let you know I will post a photo when i figure out how that is done.