Nishiki bikes will always have a special place in my heart. I’ve owned lots of bikes and the one that I have the fondest memories of was a Nishiki Continental that I bought in the spring of 1980. It was black with gold pin stripping around the lugs. I was amazed by the quality of the parts – right down to the alloy pivot bolt nuts on the beautiful Dia-Compe side pull brakes. I sold the bike after riding it for a few years to pay for an airplane ticket to Mexico and always regretted it.
When I was in high school I was really into cycling. My friends and I rode our bikes everywhere. They were big, heavy department store bikes. I vividly remember walking into a high end bike store called Southpaw Cycles in Ottawa, Ontario in the late 70’s and seeing bikes that cost hundreds, not dozens of dollars for the very first time and I was amazed that you could spend $500 on a bike. After I graduated from high school I got a job, had some money in the bank, and watched Breaking Away for the first of dozens of times. That was in the days when cycling shorts and jerseys were still made out of wool and it was hard to find a decent road bike in smaller towns. In 1980, there was a bike store in Kelowna, BC called TJ’s Bikes and Hobbies.
Rebuilt an old Nishiki International. Its my new favorite bike now. My commuter is a 1980 Nishiki Landau. Serial number format XYZZZZZ where.
They were a small store that sold bikes, r/c airplanes, and models. TJ’s was a true mom and pop operation. Terry ran the hobby side, and Jean sold the bikes. They had a couple of sons who worked in the shop. TJ’s was very supportive of the very small local racing scene and sponsored a club called Kelowna Velo Sport. They also happened to sell Nishiki bikes.
The origins of Nishiki bikes go back to the late 1950’s when Leo Cohen Sr. And his wife Rosabelle started a bicycle parts and accessory distributor called West Coast Cycle Supply Company in Los Angeles.
Nishiki Model and Value? I'm attempting to fancy up an old Nishiki Landau road bike I purchased earlier this year. Nishiki Serial Number Database. Nishiki is one of the Japanese bicycle makers that failed to gain the recognition of other top tier makers. Serial Number: NP7720016; Stem: Gran Compe Ene Ciclo.
Died in 1963, the business was taken over by his son Howie who went to Japan to look for new sources of bikes that WCC could sell in the US. After visiting 60 Japanese bike factories, he settled on Kawamura to supply high quality bikes that could compete with American and European made bikes. Kawamura was already producing low quality bikes that were sold in the US under names like Royce Union. Cohen also developed relationships with Japanese component manufacturers such as Shimano, Suntour, Dia-Compe, Sugino, and Araya – all names that would become standard on Japanese bikes sold in North America during the 70’s and 80’s. The first order of 570 Kawamura bike supplied to WCC were sold under the American Eagle brand name. Several thousand American Eagle bikes were sold before someone pointed out that it seemed incongruous for a Japanese bike to be sold under such a patriotic sounding name.
Cohen organized a contest in the Kawamura factory and invited employees to submit suggestions for a new brand name for the bikes sold by WCC in the US. The main criteria was the name had to be easy to pronounce, wasn’t offensive when translated, and it couldn’t be mispronounced to make it sound funny or derogatory.
The winning entry – Nishiki – the name of the gold thread woven into kimono fabric. Early Nishikis retained a headtube badge based on a stylized eagle, an homage to their American Eagle predecessors. Assimil Francese Perfezionamento Pdf Free.
Nishiki sold a complete range of bikes including kids’ bikes and high end racing bikes such as the Superbe, Competition, Professional, and Ultima as well as high quality touring bikes like the International and Continental. A friend of mine had an Ultima that he wanted to sell to me because it was too big for him. I had pretty much decided to buy it until he crashed it during a criterium and put a huge dent in the top tube.
Nishiki also got onto the Triathlon bandwagon quite early and sold a few triathlon bikes (and produced some pretty hilarious advertisements to promote them). Nishiki also sold some of the earliest mountain bikes including the Bushwacker, the first mountain bike I ever rode, and the then radical and innovative Alien. In Canada, Nishiki bikes were originally distributed by Shields starting in around 1974. Early Nishiki bikes in Canada have a sticker that says Shields Nishiki. Norco took over distribution in around 1980 and were Nishiki bikes were extremely common everywhere during the 80’s. The Landau was probably one of the most popular mid-price bikes on Canadian streets throughout the entire decade. Some Nishiki bikes sold in Canada have a Norco pantograph at the top of the seat stays.