Originally Posted by mstateglfr

- Centurion wasnt Japanese, it was American and was just a brand owned by WSI. It was the sister company to Diamondback and dealt in paved bikes. It went away in 90/91 because WSI dropped it in favor of using Diamondback for all bikes.
- Taiwan was where lower end frames were built in the early and mid-80s. As the late-80s hit, higher level models moved from Japan to Taiwan due to straight cost as well as exchange rate challenges.
- Lugged frames for the US market were still built in Japan by major brands(mass production) into at least '93, but they were sometimes models that were aluminum, titanium, or CF. I have seen '93 Miyata and Fuji models that were made in Japan..
- During this general time, Panasonic left the US market in '89, Miyata left in '93, and Bridgestone left in '94. So when actual Japanese brands leave and the contract brands have mostly/completely moved to Taiwan, the result is not many mass produced lugged frames from Japan.
- The bulk of MTB production seems to have moved to Taiwan before the bulk of Road production. And with TIG gaining popularity in the early 90s, this also reduced the number of Japanese built lugged frames.
- Panasonic built some PDG Paramount road bikes for Schwinn in the early 90s that were lugged using OS Tange tubing. Those ended in '93, I believe.



So to actually answer you- '93-94 is the last I can think of for mass produced Japanese lugged bikes. '93 Schwinn Paramount PDG and '94 Bridgestone RB series.