So, I know very little of road bikes aside from my own brand (Centurion)
I'd like to know more about Japanese steel bikes and which you thought to be the pinnacle of Japanese bikes. Totally subjective, up to you.
Preference for steel (because this is the C&V forum) but open to any materials

Since I started it, I'll post my favorite Japanese C&V bike:
The 1988 Centurion Ironman Expert (in "Miami Vice" colors)

Panasonic made some great bikes. I have several that are Schwinn branded: 1970s: World Voyageur, 1980s: Prologue and Peloton; 1990s: Paramount Series 7, Paramount Series 70 mtb and Paramount Series 5.

Some I do not own: Schwinn Volare (late 1970s) and Paramount Series 90 mtb.

And of course, Panasonic had many great bikes with their own brand name on them.

Toei (KOF):



Disclaimer! This is not my bike I copied it from the interwebs, using the Google.

Certainly among the best is 3Rensho


P2212388 by CV6Enterprises, on Flickr

Oh, interesting. I didn't know Schwinn was branding Panasonics

Super cool Chapel..

Since you are an exclusive member of the Ironman Club, just want to hit you with this..

A matching yellow/black seat would kickazz.

That bike is cool, cool, and more cool!!

Best I got: Koga-Miyata GentsLuxe-S:

Speechless...WOW.

Do you want to know more about Japanese bikes or American (and European) brand bikes built in Japan? While the bikes mentioned above and countless others including some very nice Bianchis are all great bikes you need to remember they are designed by US marketing companies to be sold in the US. The Japanese companies just built them a bit better and much cheaper than an American company could have done. SO the credit for ride quality and looks go to guys like Ben Lawee of Univega, Bill Graves and his team at Bianchi USA, the designers at Western States Importers (Centurion, Diamond Back) ect.

I think Japanese market steel bikes are more akin to something like this infamous Flying Pegion of China

I wish that it was mine

A Toei is high on the list, but they don't come around often or at bargain prices. I'd have to sell a few bikes to make it happen....

That's a bike worth selling a few for!

Bar the great custom builders like Nagasawa, Toei and 3Rensho, you could do much worse than a (Koga)Miyata FullPro with Dura Ace. Saw one recently and it was the nicest production bike I ever saw. Clean, crips lugs, nice panto, great parts and a lustrous green/blue paintjob with an interesting fishscale effect. Great chrome too.

3 Rensho is tops on the list for me when it comes to Japanese bikes. One of my friends in college raced one as a Cat. 2 amateur, and I drooled every time I saw the bike. To me it was pure, serious racing bike.....
the 3 Rensho is still a grail bike for me that I would want to own and ride within my lifetime,.......but I'm a bit concerned that some had mentioned the handling on them are too skittish for the road and dangerous in decents and supposedly their geometry is more like that of a track bikes. My friend never mentioned this to me back then, but then he did do a lot of criteriums and a very quick handling bike might be the best for that purpose......

That's why they fell way down my grail list. As nice looking as some of them are, I tend to want bikes that are more relaxed and not as stiff. In general, the Japanese bikes tended to be stiffer than Italian or French bikes...

Panasonic PR-6000 and Koga-Miyata FullPro are very competent roadbikes. Used in the European pro scene and raced to many victories. Renshos, Nagasawas, Zunows, Toeis etc. weren't available in Europe.

I've never ridden a 3Rensho, but the one consistent comment you hear is that the road bikes ride like track bikes.

My main interest in the Japanese bikes is their tourers; I absolutely adore my Koga Miyata (if you want to call it Japanese) Traveler.

Not mine. Just the first example I found. I have a bottom of the barrel Sport DLX

Sure. Anything 'Made in Japan'

I don't think Fuji's get enough love. I regret selling this one.

Lesser known brand, but CHROME is always nice! 1986 Katakura Silk, built up with Suntour Superbe Pro (bought as a rusty frameset).

My generalizations about Japanese pro-level road bike ride qualities (not build quality) are based off of the few that I've ridden (including a brief ride on a friend's 3Rensho), but also on this 1982 Bicycling article:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/assembl...7621835568475/

So, far from scientific, but probably not the worst generalization that one could make.....

IMHO, Fuji bikes receive plenty of love on this forum and in the market place in general. A lot of buyers seem ready and willing to pay $200 or more for any vintage Fuji road bike, even the lower end models. I had an early brown Fuji Team and was unimpressed, perhaps it was the 23c tires.

I'm not posting photos, because 13 are too many, but the Japanese made bikes in my fleet include the following:

2 Centurion - 1987 Ironman Expert, 1985 Comp TA
4 Schwinn - 1981 Super Sport, 1987 Super Sport, 1987 Tempo, Paramount PDG Series 40 MTB
3 Miyata - Team Miyata, 1989 Miyata Terra Runner (drop bar MTB), Miyata Ridge Runner (MTB)
1 Bridgestone - XO-5 (hybrid)
1 Shogun - Mixte
1 Koga Miyata - Gents Racer frame (tbb)
1 Fuji - Sagres (beater project rebuild in progress)

Eight of the baker's dozen bikes I paid $100 or less for, and only the last two were mostly just frames (the Sagres is a curbside trash day find).

I'd like to get my hands on a Bridgestone RB-1, but my checkbook can't handle it.

The Miyata's are particularly well built with excellent paint. Echoing Thrifty Bill, I think if you can find a mid 80's Panasonic Schwinn, they can and often represent excellent value. I enjoy the Iron Man, just not a fan of GPX group, but I enjoy the Comp TA more.

Japan has a long history of bicycle manufacturing and while many makers are relatively unknown outside of Japan or had their bicycles branded with other names, the quality of the bicycles they exported through the 1980's stands as some of the greatest eras in bicycle production.

Sheldon Brown said that Miyata never manufactured a bad bicycle and has been in business since 1892... besides producing their own bicycles they also built bicycles for a large number of other companies including (but not limited to) Centurion, Bridgestone, Nishiki, Raleigh, Fuji, Peugeot, and Univega. This might explain why some of these brands are held in such high regard as they were built very well.

Nishiki is an example of a brand that was produced by a number of manufacturers, Kawamura was the original manufacturer and then Giant Bicycle took over production when the yen crashed and most production was moved to Taiwan... as noted Miyata did some work for Nishiki but was not the primary manufacturer.

One of my favourite manufacturers is Kuwahara, they were established in 1918 and like Miyata contracted production to other brands, most notable would have been Schwinn but they had a deep customer base. Their first Kuwahara branded bicycle was their BMX, a field they were held in high regard for and Elliot's BMX in E.T. was a Kuwahara. Kuwahara exported Apollo road and mountain bikes to North America through the 70's bike boom and through the middle of the 1980's their bicycles slowly lost the Apollo name as the Kuwahara name became well recognized. Like Miyata Kuwahara made a wide range of bicycles and quality of their production was very high, they too outsourced production in the late 1980's because of the Yen. Their hand built models from the mid eighties are rather exceptional bicycles.

Bianchi had a large number of bicycles produced in Japan in the 1980's and the Japanese models are often nicer than their Italian counterparts (frame wise)... I am not sure who they had building but their is a good chance it was one of the upper tier companies as the workmanship was very high.

Although they are not seen south of the border as much, Steve Bauer started a bicycle company in the 1980's and when he could not get his bicycles built in Taiwan he went to Japan and the Japanese built frames and forks are very very nice... the finish quality is also very high. Later production quality dropped considerably when production shifted to Taiwan.

They might all be Miyatas.

I have serious Opus fever as well. Along with the Design Series, Fuji's last hand-built model.



Scott