Matt S

I've been working on helping my girlfriend's parents sell some bikes that are taking up space in their garage. None of them are a grail bike, butI've tried to find out what I can on each bike, mostly for curiosity's sake. What has me stumped is where the serial number is on this Kuwahara Alley Cat II. I've looked on the seat tube by the front derailleur, along the chain stays, head tube, down tube, and a cursory glance at the seat stays and have seen no serial number on it. Maybe I have just missed it and it is in a really obvious location that will make me feel stupid?
I am fairly sure it is from 1986 going by the date code on the Suntour derailleurs, but that is about all I can glean from it. Kuwahara catalogs aren't the easiest to find online, especially for non-BMX frames. So, got any ideas?

Here's a not so great picture for at least looking:

Hummer

Hi Matt,

I believe that an Alley Cat II is a USA model. I am not that familiar with the USA models.

In Canada most of the Osaka Japan Kuwahara MTBs from the 1980s have the serial number vertically on the seat tube, non-drive side, where the FD is attached.

Sometimes it was put on the bottom of the BB shell.

The format is YY MM #####. The characters are smaller, not as large as those stamped for most other manufacturers serial numbers. The stamping on the BB shell, difficult to read all the characters sometimes.

You said 1986, and that looks about right compared to the bikes I've seen.

Some of the Taiwan made Kuwahara MTBs, starting about 1990, had the serial number vertically on the head tube.

Some other Kuwahara MTBs, had the serial number on the lower downtube, topside or bottomside.

I have seen one repainted Kuwahara MTB where I could not find the serial number.

zukahn1

Like 90% of Japanese bikes this one likely has the serial number on the bottom of the BB. Flip the bike over and it should be there right between the cranks on the bottom.