uncle uncle

I bought a pair of early to mid eighties "Made for Puch" Odyssey bicycles. These are entry level models, I know, I bought the same model for myself when they were new. I noticed that one frame had a Kuwahara Osaka Japan sticker above the bottom bracket. And the other frame had a Kuwahara headset. Has anyone every noticed any other Kuwahara made bikes, other than Apollo or Nishiki?

leecycle

I wasn't aware of the Puch connection, I did know of the Apollo/Kuwahara link. Apollo branded bicycles often had a "Fred Deely Cycles" decal as well.

AFAIK, Nishiki bicycles were made by Kawamura rather than Kuwahara.

unworthy1

Both: early on they were made by Kawamura, but later on there were some models made by Kuwahara, but few and briefly as this was the period that much was going to Taiwanese contractors.

Hummer

I have never seen a Nishiki bicycle with a Kuwahara format serial number. I would be interested to see such a bicycle.

I have seen an Azuki bicycle with a Kuwahara format serial number. But Azuki is not Nishiki, even though there were years when Kawamura made most of the frames for both brand names.

zukahn1 

During the early 80's Kuwahara made frames and bikes Road and BMX's for nearly every Brand sold in the US ranging from just OK to the very best. It always seemed of great quilty for the price even there cheapest frames where nearly flawless either dimened rolled welds or niceley lugged.

unworthy1

I'm going from memory, which is always dangerous for me!
I recall a post in which somebody asserted his frame was a Kuwahara-made Nishiki and of course I corrected him that they were Kawamura...and then he corrected ME by showing pictures.
I could have been duped, or recall it all wrong...or maybe he thought "Nishiki" but it was actually Azuki...in any case, nearly all the NoAm production was either Kawamura or later Giant in Taiwan, with a few of the weirdo outlyers like the Italian-made frames with Columbus tubing (Cinelli? Colnago?) and perhaps some oddballs from the Derby years....plus AFAIK it was never decided who made the ONPs with the "4-leaf/blade" cutouts in the BB shell...

uncle uncle

As far as what I remember from my inexpensive Puch.... it was very nicely finished. Nice simple lug work which was well brazed and very nicely finished paint. Parts wise, there may have been as good or better bikes, even the Schwinns we also carried, for the same range of money. Like I said, I never noticed the Kuwahara name, and it wouldn't have meant anything to me anyways. I bought the Puch because it sounded more exotic than Schwinn. I never regretted it, for the whole 2 months I owned the bike (it was stolen). I guess I just assumed that everything Kuwahara was involved with was top shelf and top dollar.

Hummer

I think that statement is greatly exaggerated.

Many USA brand names had bicycle frames made in Japan, but Kuwahara made frames for a few brand names sold in the USA. I can name far more brand names that did not have Kuwahara frames than did have.

The Kuwahara serial number format is unique, so it is easy to identify a Kuwahara built frame.

reroll

BUMP to the year 2022

I have two Puch Odyssey bikes, both having Kuwahara headsets and "made for Puch" headtube badges,
Dia-Compe, Sugino, SunTour components, Hi-Ten fork & frame, blue with gold trim.

Ser. No. 82 05 XXXXX Mixte frame
Ser. No. 83 07 XXXXX Diamond frame

unworthy1

From Wikipedia WRT the "Derby" years in which they owned and marketed Nishiki brand bikes:
"...These Nishiki models, though manufactured outside Japan (e.g., in Taiwan, by Giant Bicycles and possibly in Italy by Colnago, Olmo or Viner) often carried the name Nishiki and some of the same model names as had been used on the Kuwahara-built bicycles."

reroll

I was once interested in a Nishiki frame set, had heard of Nishiki but knew little about them, so I searched on Nishiki history. Nishiki bikes actually began as American Eagle bikes in the early 1960s, designed by West Coast Cycle in the USA but they were manufactured in Japan by Kuwahara. They sold well in the United States but there was some controversy about American Eagle bikes being made in Japan, so a contest was held by Kuwahara to give the bike a Japanese name and that is how American Eagle bikes became Nishiki bikes at some time in the early 1970s.

However, there were international concerns about currency values and in mid-1987 several of the world's nations agreed to adjust the exchange value of their currencies, and, long story short, a $200 Japanese bike instantly became a $400 Japanese bike, an event which had been anticipated by Japanese bicycle manufacturers who had already been making new bicycle manufacturing arrangements in Taiwan and elsewhere.

Puch bikes were also about to have their Kuwahara Japanese-made bikes instantly double in price, yet Puch also had other financial troubles too, and about a month or so before the prices of their bikes would have doubled, the Puch bicycle business got sold to Piaggio of Italy, the owner of the cult brand Bianchi, and then a decade later, the Swedish company Cycleurope took over Bianchi, including the rights to Puch.

T-Mar

With regards to Nishiki, you're confusing Kawamura and Kuwahara, which were two different bicycle manufacturers. Kawamura was the primary Japanese source for Nishiki, not Kuwahara. While West Coast Cycle owned the Nishiki brand in the USA, Kawamura owned it in Japan and it was the Kawamura employees who suggested the new Nishiki branding to replace American Eagle.

reroll

Yes, you are correct. I had the names confused. But it was the same story, that West Coast Cycle developed American Eagle bikes which were then manufactured in Japan and to then some years later be renamed Nishiki, same bikes with different names. It was American customers who questioned why bikes with the name American Eagle were made in Japan and it was the Japanese manufacturer who arranged for the replacement Nishiki name.

From Wikipedia: Cohen placed his initial order for 570 bikes with Kawamura, selling them under the American Eagle brand.[1] WCC sold tens of thousands of American Eagle bikes[1] before changing the name – when a customer suggested it was disingenuous to put such an American-sounding name on a Japanese product.[1]

WCC wanted a new, Japanese name that was easy to pronounce, with an inoffensive translation – and a name not easily mispronounced for comic or derisive effect. Cohen held a contest with Kawamura factory workers for Japanese names, choosing Nishiki for WCC's primary, nationwide line of bikes (after Saga Nishiki and the gold Nishiki thread often woven into wedding kimono) – and Azuki for the secondary bicycle line (after the sweetened, red Azuki bean), using the chrysanthemum as the Azuki logo.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nishiki_(bicycle_company)

Ah, but the story of the Cohen family then continues years later and this is where Kuwahara comes in to it.

Howie Cohen later founded the company Everything Bicycles, working with Kuwahara to build and import BMX bikes carrying the Kuwahara brand name, developing the first major BMX distributorship[4] – and ultimately supplying Kuwahara bicycles for the 1982 movie E.T. and securing the right to market the "ET Bicycle."[1] To make the Kuwahara brand name a household word, Cohen ran a promotion giving free stickers to children who called a toll-free phone number and could correctly pronounce the brand name.[1] In 1989, Cohen sold the Kuwahara name back to the Japanese parent company.[2] In 1992, Cohen returned to the bicycle industry to assist the Gary Fisher bike brand[4] – 18 months later brokering the acquisition of Gary Fisher Mountain Bikes by Trek Bicycle Corporation.[4]