T-Mar

Welcome to the forums. Your frame was manufactured by Yamaguchi of Japan, during June of a year ending in zero. We know it's not 1970, as Sekai bicycles didn't exist at that time. It's most likely 1980 but 1990 is also a possibility. However, by 1990 all the Sekai models were ATBs, whereas Sekai ATBs did not exist in 1980. So, you should be able to determine the year via the frame/bicycle style. Or just upload a photo. I see there's one in your gallery album, but it's just a close-up of the serial number on a silver frame.

chune

Picked up a 61cm 4000 frame the other day in downtown madison. Score! I asked the guy if it was a Yellow Jersey bike and he said his dad in Iowa had it shipped to him new? He also said it's the original paint and the 4000s didn't ship with any decals. Not sure how true all of that is but it's the story I got. How rare (and fragile) are these things? Probably a bad idea to build it up for L'Eroica Gaiole this year? Not sure it would survive shipping without a few dents. Add it to the list: M7M13472

rancho66

Serial # indicates it was built in December 1977 by Miki. The frame would be a 1978 Model I believe. I have a Black November 1976 built 4000, but it has Horizontal Rear dropouts.

ackent

Sakai was indeed a private label bicycle designed by, and sold by Bloor Cycle. I was the purchaser at Bloor Cycle and designed and spec’d. these bicycles with my staff. The pictured Sakai Express was built outside Osaka, in Sakai City at the Sakai Bicycle Company. I selected the name ‘Sakai’ with the gleeful approval of the factory owners. At that time they built many quality, buyer’s brands, including Specialized. No one had ever asked to use the factory name on a bicycle before that time.
We registered the name in Canada and subsequently had bicycles with that name, Sakai built wherever we saw fit, including Canada and Taiwan.
The best quality bikes were undoubtedly the Japanese built units.
I hope this puts the Sakai heritage to bed once and for all.
Note- our store, Bloor Cycle operated for over 50 years in Toronto until 1987, the last 27 years by my family, the Kents.

Respectfully,

Andrew Kent

Samuel M

Hello, I own a Sekai Sasquatch Bike and I would love to know more about it. I looked at the different serial codes and how to date the frame on this database, however my serial number doesn't seem to correspond with the serial numbers that you have listed. The serial number on my bike is Y4A3238. I would love to know any information you have on this bike such as the year of the bike as well as any other information that you have about maybe how many were made etc etc. thanks in advance!

T-Mar

Welcome to the forums. Your frame was contract manufactured in January 1984 by Yamaguchi of Japan. By this time the Sekai had been bought by Norco, with the Sasquatch also being marketed as a Norco model. It was also know as the Model 750 and had an MSRP of $399.00 US.

Samuel M

Thank you so much! It is really difficult to find information on this bike, I would post pictures, except the website wants me to post 10 posts before posting any pictures. Do you know if the Sasquatch is somewhat of a rare find? I'm not looking to make money off of it as it is my semi weekly rider and it's not in pristine condition anymore, just curious about the bike in general. also $399 dollars is not cheap, even in today's market you can get low end bikes for less than that! It must have been at least a mid range model I assume.

T-Mar

Your Sasquatch is an early ATB/MTB. It's fairly rare but not valuble, being a mass produced, not a highly prized brand and what I would consisder to be a mid-range model. The tubing is intersting in that Tange #5 is a plain gauge CrMo tubeset and not butted, as stated on the decal.

While $399 was not cheap, it also wasn't expensive for an ATB in 1984. That year, a Specialized Stumpjumper, which was arguably the most populat ATB at the time, had a retail price of $750 US. If you bought a high end model from one of the prestigious ATB pioneers, it could be much more expensive. For instance, in 1984 a Mantis Sherpa would set you back $1650 US, while a Moots Mountaineer 90M would drain $1250 US from your bank account, with.a Mountain Goat prying $1500 from your hands and a Ritchey/Fisher Mountainbikes Competition causing $1999 US to fly away.

I'll probably receive a razzing from forum members for posting a non-drive side photo, even if it an an assist to a new member. Regardless, here goes...

Samuel M

[QUOTE=T-Mar;22644417]Your Sasquatch is an early ATB/MTB. It's fairly rare but not valuble, being a mass produced, not a highly prized brand and what I would consisder to be a mid-range model. The tubing is intersting in that Tange #5 is a plain gauge CrMo tubeset and not butted, as stated on the decal.

While $399 was not cheap, it also wasn't expensive for an ATB in 1984. That year, a Specialized Stumpjumper, which was arguably the most populat ATB at the time, had a retail price of $750 US. If you bought a high end model from one of the prestigious ATB pioneers, it could be much more expensive. For instance, in 1984 a Mantis Sherpa would set you back $1650 US, while a Moots Mountaineer 90M would drain $1250 US from your bank account, with.a Mountain Goat prying $1500 from your hands and a Ritchey/Fisher Mountainbikes Competition causing $1999 US to fly away.

I'll probably receive a razzing from forum members for posting a non-drive side photo, even if it an an assist to a new member. Regardless, here goes...

Thanks for all the information on the bike, and thanks for posting the picture to showcase it. I think it is a very interesting bike with is why I wanted to know more about it. A little backstory if you are interested, It was given to me buy a friend about 10ish years ago, who told me it had been customized to fit a very tall person, and to allow them to sit up completely straight while riding. This is why it has the very tall handle bars along with the L shaped seat post. I honestly have never seen another bike with this geometry.
Side note, as far as I know it still has it's original cassette, which is pretty impressive considering it's age, at least in my opinion.

tmnguuyen 

Here is my 1977 GT 2500 Grand Touring, I'm taking it to Gaioli in Oct for L'Eroica - I hope our Italian friends won't look down on it too much. My plan is to leave it in Italy after the ride. I wonder if anybody would be interested in a fine Japanese bike sold in American market..

T-Mar

While the handlebars and stem may have been replaced, the seat post is original to the bicycle. Those extreme set back SR MTE posts were fairly popular during the early ATB years and Norco did spec one the 1984 Sasquatch.