Originally Posted by
unterhausen
Looking back on those days, I was so prejudiced against everything about Japanese bicycle manufacturing and parts that I couldn't be fair to Ishiwata. I wouldn't mind having some some 019 to make a frame with just to see what I was missing. Considering a full set of Columbus SL or 531 including fork blades cost me less than $20, and Ishiwata couldn't have been much less, it didn't make sense for me to buy any.
Frame tubing now is much nicer than it was back then. I suppose they had to get more serious with surface finish when they went to thinner tubes. Ishiwata wasn't markedly different than Reynolds or Columbus in that sense. And as I said, whatever the cheap Ishiwata was that we used, it was really unimpressive. Fit for purpose, I guess, because it was heavy. In the greater scheme of things, the 300 series bikes was probably a mistake at that time, and I don't think they sold that many in the '70s. The stuff we made 500 series with was very similar to the European brands, and I imagine I would like a frame made out of it. Trek only had sizes that didn't fit me in those days, I'm somewhere between their vintage 21 and 23.
I remember being mildly shocked when the 330 (or whatever it was) first appeared in the Trek lineup. It felt wrong, somehow.
Can't remember why, exactly: was it their first road bike built in Asia rather than the U.S.?
The 300 series bikes were manifestations of John Burke's grand vision for Trek, I guess. At a trade show back then, a Trek rep, in response to some remark of mine about an unexpected change - maybe when they started importing Gitane bikes - said (a bit smugly), "We have one-year plans and five-year plans and ten-year plans." Result: first the 300 series bikes, then the Jazz bikes, then . . .
" . . . prejudiced against everything about Japanese bicycle manufacturing . . ." Sometime in the early or mid-1970's, one of the strongest racers in the New Haven area showed up at a race with a "high-end" Japanese bike. Now that was a shock! Couldn't get my head around it. You
deliberately bought a Japanese bike? To
race on?
A large proportion of the C&V people here got into high-performance bikes in the late '70's or thereafter, by which time the better Japanese bikes and components had won great respect, so that description must seem incomprehensible to them. All I can say is that, from 1964 (when I started racing) until the day that guy hit the starting line with his Japanese bike (probably a Fuji, but I'm not sure), I'd never seen anything other than English, French, Italian, and American (Paramount) bikes at races.