Originally Posted by
Trakhak
At a New York City bike trade show back in the early '80's, I had a conversation at the little Ishiwata booth. The English spoken by the Japanese rep was painfully limited, and I spoke no Japanese, so it was a short talk. But he did use the word "surroundness" several times, while miming a circle.
It wasn't until I read some Bike Forums threads decades later that I learned that Ishiwata tubing was highly respected by some frame builders for its consistency in quality control. I guess the surroundness would have been one aspect of that.
OK, another trip in the wayback machine.
First saw custom frames with Ishiwata 022 and 019 in 1972 during the Grand Prix of the United States held at Encino Velodrome in California. Built by Schroeder (Schroder) in Denmark for Niels Fredborg and Reno Olsen, both Danish Olympic gold medalists.
At the encouragement of Tim Zasadny, 1971 US National 1000m champ, George Garvey, owner of Marina Del Rey Bike ordered some road and track Schroder framesets. All were built with Ishiwata tubes. When asked about Ishiwata tubing, Vilhelm Christian the owner/framebuilder said he preferred it because of its quality.
MDR Bike brought in Schroder frames for a few years. Most if not all were painted red and white.