Sakai was indeed a private label bicycle designed by, and sold by Bloor Cycle. I was the purchaser at Bloor Cycle and designed and spec’d. these bicycles with my staff. The pictured Sakai Express was built outside Osaka, in Sakai City at the Sakai Bicycle Company. I selected the name ‘Sakai’ with the gleeful approval of the factory owners. At that time they built many quality, buyer’s brands, including Specialized. No one had ever asked to use the factory name on a bicycle before that time.
We registered the name in Canada and subsequently had bicycles with that name, Sakai built wherever we saw fit, including Canada and Taiwan.
The best quality bikes were undoubtedly the Japanese built units.
I hope this puts the Sakai heritage to bed once and for all.
Note- our store, Bloor Cycle operated for over 50 years in Toronto until 1987, the last 27 years by my family, the Kents.
Respectfully,
Andrew Kent
Originally Posted by
T-Mar
Sekai was a USA brand that was bought out by Norco in late 1983, for the 1984 model year. Sakai was the Japanese house brand for Bloor Cycle of Toronto. There's no relation, other than the similairity of the brand name and, in some cases, the Japanese contract manufacturers they employed.