LecterQ

I am looking for any and all info on a, what appears to be a Mizutani Seraph 20" bicycle. Any links with photos would be helpful for me to nail down this model and year produced.
THANKS!

randya

Y'all might get more responses if YOU posted a picture of what you've got...

Butch

It is strange that you ask. I was at a church garage sale and got really bored as my wife kept looking at things I was not interested in. I had passed the bicycle section and had seen a really different bike and passed it by. Since I was bored I went and looked again. All of the bikes were $15 except this one. It was $10. It looked different. So I bought it. Much to the chagrin of my wife. How many bikes do you need?

It turns out to be a Mizutani Seraph (Ringyo, Japan). It has mostly Suntour components and is a 10-speed bike, womens step thru frame. Everything was perfect except the tires were flat. And wouldn't you know they were not schrader stems. I bought adapters and inflated the tires and everything was good. One thing I did notice was that the large gear on the rear sprocket was 38 tooth, very large.

I attempted to find a website for this company but they seem to have gone a different direction, no more bikes. This bike seems to be a premium bike for the time it was produced.

Orin Clark

hey, I have a brown sereph mizutani 10 speed road bike. i love the thing to death its my college commuter bike. its great when I works. its getting a tune up right now. and my lower gear crank is bent from an unfortunate chain incedent but Its getting repaired. its a great bike. comfortable and fun to ride.

John E

What a blast from the past! Around 1973, when I was working at Bikecology in west Los Angeles, we stocked and sold a few Mizutani Seraph Sprees because Nishikis and Peugeots were in very short supply. The Seraph Spree was a low-end 10-speed, comparable to a Nishiki Olympic or perhaps a Peugeot UO-8, but the higher-end Seraph seemed comparable to the Nishiki Competition or its Azuki clone, with good alloy components and a double-butted CrMo main triangle. I don't know who made the bikes, and I have not seen one in decades.

Hippiecrit

I still have a Seraph Spree which I inherited from my mother. It has been in occasional use now for about 33-37 years. I know nothing about this bike, but it has been the only one I've owned in my life. Would it be very beneficial to consider a more expensive bike? It's my commuter, and I also live in an area of extremely unusual volume of bike theft. I hesitate to buy another bike that could get stolen, but also I don't know how this one rates performance-wise with more modern bikes. Anyone have any suggestions? Oh, and I think I'd like one with a smaller frame. My mom was 5'8" and I'm 8 inches shorter!

RepWI

I bought mine,the Super Seraph in oh, 1974ish from the proceeds of a bike accident settlement. I stopped riding from 76 to 88 but kept it and hauled it with me whenever I moved. I got back into biking in the early 90's and gave it away. I gave it to a riding buddy of mine. I went into the legislature and got too busy and forgot about it.

Upon regaining my life I called my old riding partner one day and asked if he still had it and if he was interested in selling it. After 14 years away we were reunited.

I spent last summer fixing it up, modernizing it a bit and tweaking the fit. I enjoy it today like I have never enjoyed it before.

cycle_maven

I had a Mizutani Seraph I bought from a guy who won it in a raffle, but it was too big for him- just right for me. It was a low-end heavy beast with steel rims, but I rode that bike for many thousands of happy miles, including a 1500-mile loaded tour down the Pacific coast in the late 70's. Loaned it out to a guy, and I moved away and lost touch. I hope his kid is riding it now. No desire to have it back- I've moved on...

Kirajohnson47

Do you by chance go to, or went to U of O?
Random, but just curious.

corrado33

That original post was posted in 2005. Even if the poster did go to U of O, I doubt they'd still be there...

cb400bill

Orin posted from Corvallis, so it is possible. However, he hasn't checked into the forum in 12 years, so I doubt that he'll see this.

JohnDThompson 

We just had a Super Seraph appear as a donation to our earn-a-bike program. I'll see if I can get some pictures of it tomorrow.

Bikeboystephen

I picked up a Mizutani Seraph from a guy who went to U of O, said he got it in '73. Funny enough, he ran with Steve Prefontaine on one of the championship winning track teams.

ollo_ollo

No pics yet, so here's this one: Posted as a "Seraph Super Mizutan Ringyo Riad" Currently for sale on Portland Oregon CL, Seller thinks it is 60cm but looks smaller to me. Don

Optimistically priced at $400

merziac

Pics or it didn't happen.

I have an aunt that hung out with Pre.

merziac

All Mizutani's have Seraph "Super" on the HB.

There were 3 models, Seraph, Spree and Super, this orange one appears to be a Spree.

I had 2 Mizutani's, a Seraph that was pretty nice for a base model that I let get stolen, I had gotten it with a Coke promotion that had up to half off with bottle caps that I got from the gas station, Dad covered the other half.

Later, Dad ponied up for a Super that we got at Mel Renfro's shop, it was very nice, heavy, but nice, my first "top of the line" bike.

A rough road and a floppy chain took out the RD hanger, never got it fixed or another bike for quite awhile, don't know what I was thinking.

I learned all about cup and cone bearings on that bike from riding in the pouring rain that was PDX.

Bikeboystephen

I've been trying to decide what to do with the beat up Seraph I got about a year ago. I've gotten several other bikes along the way and the carbon steel seraph is just too heavy to make it worth investing in. I'll likely take it to the local co-op to let some other people learn how to work on bikes and find peace knowing someone is enjoying riding it.

juvela

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enjoyed very much the motion picture about Steve; no idea how accurate it was

Donald Sutherland portrayed his coach at UO

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had exactly one Mizutani pass through me workshop; took it in about 1977-78, probably dated from 1973

had been sold by a small neighbourhood shop in Kensington, California

always remember the dog on the headplate

its been so long now can no recall which of the three models it was

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Chombi1 

Interesting sounding bike company name.....
Sounds like their marketing department really went downtown when putting together the model names for their bikes back then.....
A truly cool peek at Japanese bicycle culture from that time!

John E

I started working at Bikecology during my senior year at UCLA (1972), and continued summers, winter breaks, Friday nights, and Saturdays for the next couple of years, as a grad student. "Big Al" graciously gave me a Saturday off in June 1972 for the Los Angeles Wheelmen Double Century.

BJGazeley

My parents bought me a Mitzutani Seraph Spree (BOTH those words were in the name, not just one or the other) probably in the early 1970s. I took the bike to college and then to law school, where it was stolen when locked up outside the law dorm probably in 1975-76. I loved that bike! BTW, I grew up in Portland, OR and went to college and law school in Oregon. I bought a yellow Peugot after that but never liked it as much, though the name did have cachet back then. I'm still riding my "old lady bike," the second Trek hybrid I've owned. Starting in March 2020 when the gym closed, I began bundling up for a daily loop of about 9 to 10 miles through neighborhoods in SW Portland. Wish I could take a spin on that Mitzutani Seraph Spree, though.

Bikeboystephen

here’s the one I picked up

with the beautiful headbadge