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CHAIR hubs

Old 06-05-08, 07:25 AM
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stevendavid75
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CHAIR hubs

Hi all,
just wondering if anyone can tell me anything about "Chair" branded hubs, I have a set of black high flange road hubs, they have interesting holes punched into the flanges, sorry no pics.

Cheers
Steve
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Old 06-05-08, 07:51 AM
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I'm pretty sure they were made in Japan. I had a chair hub on my Fuji Finest once upon a time. It worked acceptably. Not the greatest. Not the wost.
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Old 08-17-20, 02:10 AM
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CHAIR low flange

Digging around the parts bin and found this old Japanese CHAIR hub. My new paperweight ;-)

CHAIR / Arai Industrial Co. Ltd

Last edited by Londonsworld; 08-17-20 at 02:18 AM. Reason: add info
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Old 08-17-20, 06:18 AM
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Chair was a brand of the Arai Industrial Company of Japan. They date back to circa 1909 and manufactured hubs, handlebars, pedals and brakes.
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Old 08-17-20, 07:59 AM
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Kind of surprising they're not wheelchair specific hubs...
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Old 08-17-20, 09:51 AM
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I think these were used on BMX in the 80s, too. I have a pair of CHAIR rat trap pedals marked made in Japan.
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Old 08-22-20, 01:35 PM
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-----

this Chair badged stem came through on a Ficelle from the early 1970's:




obviously not OEM

-----
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Old 09-25-21, 05:26 AM
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Originally Posted by T-Mar
Chair was a brand of the Arai Industrial Company of Japan. They date back to circa 1909 and manufactured hubs, handlebars, pedals and brakes.
That makes perfect sense, T-Mar. I have a Chair hub I've been trying to find out more about for a couple of days now. It has a QR with Arai on the lever. Very little comes up with a Google search for "Chair bicycle hubs", this discussion, a couple in BMX forums followed by lots of things for wheelchairs.

The odd thing is Chair brand hubs are pretty much a mystery to most people here in Japan, too. Went to see a couple of people with shops today and all I got was 'Never heard of them.'
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Old 09-25-21, 09:47 AM
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Originally Posted by Dawes-man
That makes perfect sense, T-Mar. I have a Chair hub I've been trying to find out more about for a couple of days now. It has a QR with Arai on the lever. Very little comes up with a Google search for "Chair bicycle hubs", this discussion, a couple in BMX forums followed by lots of things for wheelchairs.

The odd thing is Chair brand hubs are pretty much a mystery to most people here in Japan, too. Went to see a couple of people with shops today and all I got was 'Never heard of them.'
I'm wondering if the lack of familiarity is due to a brand name change? I used to see Chair brand components into the early 1970s bicycle boom. After that, it seemed to be Arai, first with a stylized "A', then with full text. The bicycle boom is the era when the Japanese bicycle industry earned respectability in overseas markets. Consequently, many Japanese products, which had used Anglicized names prior to the boom, converted to Japanese names as consumer perception of Japanese quality shifted. Perhaps the best know example is West Coast Cycle initally marketing their Kawamura built bicycles as American Eagle in the USA, then changing the brand to Nishiki during the boom. Arai seems to have discontinued their Anglicized "Chair" brand around the same time, in favour of the company's Japanese name. It may have been an attempt to build a single, globally recognized brand, with emphasis on the now appreciated, Japanese heritage.

I believe that Arai is still in the bicycle industry, though the product line is restricted to caliper, band and drum brakes. They also have an automotive and industrial division. Recent company history dates the origin to 1915 but I've seen 1966 advertisements claiming "over 57 years experience" which would push it back to at least 1909.

The original product line appears to have been stirrup style bicycle brakes, with handlebar manufacturing being associated with the integral stirrup brake levers. Caliper, band and drum brakes followed, with hub manufacturing being complementary to the band and drum brakes. The only bicycle product I've seen that is not related to the primary brake business are pedals. Here's a pre-boom Arai/Chair advertisement...
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Old 09-26-21, 12:08 AM
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Originally Posted by T-Mar
I'm wondering if the lack of familiarity is due to a brand name change? I used to see Chair brand components into the early 1970s bicycle boom. After that, it seemed to be Arai, first with a stylized "A', then with full text. The bicycle boom is the era when the Japanese bicycle industry earned respectability in overseas markets. Consequently, many Japanese products, which had used Anglicized names prior to the boom, converted to Japanese names as consumer perception of Japanese quality shifted.
It looks as if you are right there T-Mar. I went back to one of the shops to tell the keeper about the Arai connection and a light went on. He suggested just what you have and got out a book of components. There's a photo of a rear derailleur with the caption "Arai rear speed changing mechanism" and sure enough, right underneath it says, "Exported as the 'Chair' brand" and under that, "A rare 1960s speed changing mechanism"



I've also found that Arai Industrial Co. Ltd is indeed still in business. This is their website:
https://www.arais.co.jp/english/prod/bicycle.html

They list 1915 as the founding date. It's possible that the 1909 date is when the founder, Mr Ryozo Arai actually started making stuff and the later date when he incorporated his company.

Thanks for all the info and pointers T-Mar!
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Old 09-26-21, 10:35 AM
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Originally Posted by Dawes-man
It looks as if you are right there T-Mar....
Thank-you for posting the derailleur image. I had forgotten that they produced derailleurs. One piece of literature that I have for a pull-chain model (it looks like it might be the same model as the cut off image of your post) states that it came with a three speed freewheel. I wonder if they also made the freewheel or had it sub-contracted? In addition to Shimano and SunTour, there were multiple cog freewheels from DNB and Sanko at the time, so neither approach would surprise me.

There's another Japanese company named Arai that manufactures motorcycle helmets. Given that bicycle companies were often involved in the motorcycle industry and that the helmet company also traced their origins back to the very early 20th century, I used to think there may have been some ties between the two but that does not appear to have been the case. It's not surprising that there are multiple Arai companies, when you consider that it is a fairly common Japanese surname.
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Old 09-26-21, 04:10 PM
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Originally Posted by T-Mar
One piece of literature that I have for a pull-chain model (it looks like it might be the same model as the cut off image of your post) states that it came with a three speed freewheel.
<snip>
There's another Japanese company named Arai that manufactures motorcycle helmets.
<snip>
It's not surprising that there are multiple Arai companies, when you consider that it is a fairly common Japanese surname.
The derailleur you can see a bit of is a Shimano, a 333 if I remember correctly.

I know the Arai helmet company very well. My head is peanut-shaped so Japanese-market helmets don't fit me. I've been to their factory in Saitama, just north-west of Tokyo (and home of Toei cycles), a couple of times to have exports linings put into domestic helmets. As 'Chair' Arai are in Aichi (like Toyota and Suzuki), around 200 miles away in the West of Japan, I'd be very surprised if they were connected.

And as you rightly point out, Arai is a pretty common surname here. The present owner of Silk (ex-Katakura Silk) is called Arai, as is a guy in Tokyo who makes chainwheels to order.
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Old 09-27-21, 06:23 AM
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Originally Posted by Dawes-man
The derailleur you can see a bit of is a Shimano, a 333 if I remember correctly...
333 is the old brand symbol for Shimano and appeared on all their products. It goes back to the establishment of the company in 1921 and reportedly first appeared on the 1922 frreewheels. It was designed to be similar to the British Small Arms trademark symbol, a rifle manufacturer who had gone into bicycle production in the 1880s and was held in high esteem in Japan. I suspect the numeral 3 was chosen for its status as a lucky number in Japan.

BSA was so highly regrded that several other Japenese companies designed similar trademarks, including SunTour (8.8.8) and Takagi (3 Arrrows).

Shimano introduced their current elliptical symbol around the time that Dura-Ace was introduced. Still, the old 333 symbol remained on some of the older products, through the boom, until they were re-tooled or discontinued.




I have an Arai motrocycle helmet too, though I only used it for about a handful of years, before I stopped riding motorcycles circa 1986. When I bought it , around 1980, Arai wasn't very well known in North America. They had only been importing for maybe a year or two. If I recall correctly, it's the original version of their Astro, full face helmet.
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Old 09-27-21, 08:36 AM
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I know this a deviation from Chair. T-mar mentions D&B, they also made or had derailleurs made. I have a couple of those in paper weight mode.




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Old 09-27-21, 12:08 PM
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Originally Posted by Mr. 66
I know this a deviation from Chair. T-mar mentions D&B, they also made or had derailleurs made. I have a couple of those in paper weight mode.
Thxs for the photos. However, that's actually a stylized DNB, which was the brand of Dainihon Kikai Kogyo. Shimano and Maeda got to the lucky numbers first, but other Japanese manufacturers often created brands employing three letters. In addition to DNB, some that should be familar to forum members include;

KKT, Kyokuto Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (pedals)
HKK, Hokoku Chain Mannufacturing Co. Ltd. (chains)
WHW, Wadakichi Iron Works Co. Ltd. (headsets)
KSM, Kashima Saddle Mfg. Co. LTd. (saddles)
DID, Daido Kogyo Co. Ltd. (chains)
MKS, Mikashima Works Ltd. (pedals)
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