Originally Posted by
Lenton58
A brief comment for those thinking Bridgestone only ever made tires and gold balls: I have lived in Japan since 1993. Quite early on I learned that Bridgestone had a solid racing heritage, as well as building some very nice consumer sports machines. On another note, one of our shopping bikes that has sat in the weather for 27 years is a Bridgestone that gets ridden almost daily.
I would wager that nearly everyone on the Bike Forums knows the illustrious history of Bridgestone bicycles. Grant Petersen, founder of Rivendell, designed some of their most interesting models in the 1980s and `90s. I have always admired their MB-X series of mountain bikes, especially the MB-Zip and MB-1 versions. Those are on my Grail list at the moment, but they remain just beyond reach, financially.
The one Bridgestone I have owned was built up into a city bike from one of their old, lower-end road bikes.
I built it up in the French tradition, with fenders, ornate chainguard, and internal gearing (Nexus 7). It rode beautifully in this configuration, even though it was quite heavy.
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It was built of high-tensile steel tubing joined by cast-on lugs, another Bridgestone innovation. Here is the last shot I took of it, after I highlighted those cast lugs in black, with gold lug-lining:
Recently, I traded it away for a couple of 1st generation mtbs. The new owner was thrilled with it.
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