papaj

Hey there.
You r testing my memory . Sekine ended 25 years ago but let me see what hasn't been clouded by a miss directed youth. QC was excelent it was performed exclusivly by the 6 senior management all of which were from the head office in Japan. Only 2 frames were actually assembled in canada 1 mens and 1 ladies all the rest came prepainted and assembled from Japan ( cranks derailers,levers all mounted.) these bikes fron Japan came large crates 1 containing assembled frames the other containing assembled hubs rims seats and handlebars. the Japanese bikes came less decals and emblems. The bikes assembled in canada came primed ready to paint. When these bikes were assembled parts were taken from bins and it was quit common to run out of a part and the assembler would grab another bin but of a different model of derailer or brake lever for example. There may well be a lot of Johny Cash type bikes out there(assembled from a bunch of missmatched parts). You also have to remember this was a training center and a good number of the people working there could not read or write and some had no formal schooling at all.Launguage was also an obstacle as the management spoke broken english and many of the native employees only spoke cree or ojibway. When acklands took over they quickly found they were in a business that was doomed most of the staff had left and of those remaining most didn't care about anything other than the weekend.
As for what parts went were if it fit it went on nobody really cared unless they were stealing it for themselves. I started working there at the beginning my first job was unloading the assembly equipment in the empty hanger my last job was loading it on a truck after the auction.

papaj

The Sekine plant was turned over to Acklands in Jan 1979 and by august of that year it had been closed and the equipment sold.The Aircadets took over the hanger in 1980 and in 1988 the former sekine plant became home to about 100,000 hogs. To elaborate on the QC i had stated it was done by the Japanese management, these guys had no life , they were at work long before anyone else and stayed until late at night. If sekine bikes were as good as you guys say it was because of them!

mastershake916

Columbia, America's first bike?

jimmibudd

hey folks....
i have some pics of some Sekines that me and my bro own... i will post them as 3 separate posts to keep them separate...
first i'll post some pix of my bro's sekine that i saved from a recykle bin and we fixed it up.... he put some cruiser style handlebars and a comfy seat.... it is definately unique!!
here they are:






i like it!

jB

jimmibudd

and next are some phtos of my off white Sekine that i made into a single speed rain bike.....
i love it.... i may switch the drops to a mtb style bars.... the thing is that the drops are a good alt. on windy days.....
i plan on replacing the white brake cables with black and then painting the frame a nice dark green... i'll post additional pics if/when i do this....
here is my rain bike.... i've also included a shot of the serial number in case it gives clues as to it's year or model... enjoy!!

jimmibudd

3 of 3 Sekine treats for the sekine fans!!! ENJOY!!

and finally, my nice silver, chrome fixed gear Sekine....
i can;t rermber the compnents that werre on it when i orignally picked it up from the Police auction...
i think it is a higher end sekine because it has welded on shimano dropouts compared to the cheap stamped ones on the other sekines.... it also had the small chainrings removed so it made it easier to make as a fixie...
the back wheel i had made by naturalcycle.ca and i'm waiting for a used front wheel i got from ebay.... i also added a chrome seatpost and silver pedals to keep the chrome look.... i might add some black grips on the handlebars.... we'll see though as i like the bare chrome look.... i'd like to get a nice set of nitto bars ans some other campy parts... its a work in progeress....
i've also included a pic of the serial# in case someone can date it....
i love to ride this one... its so quiet and smooth and fast! i have the gearing at 52x19 and will likely get a 17 tooth cog for the back..... i may eventually replace the cranks... i plan on replacing the BB soon...
enjoy!!

Carbon Based

Turns out a frame I posted in another thread is a Sekine. I'm planning to convert it into a fixed gear. From reading this thread, it appears to be a SHT. I'm interested to know if T-Mar is still working on a Sekine website project.

smurfy

A friend of mine just got an olive green pre-'73 Sekine. It has "World Finest Bicycle by Sekine" on the downtube and has a diamond headbadge. It also had sew-up wheels with Shimano 333 high-flange hubs but everything else is Suntour. Curiously it has a "quick release" stem. I've never seen anything like that but it was so rusty it just had to go. I have a Cinelli 64 h/bar and 1A stem combo waiting to go on it. The bike originally weighed 23lbs which is amazingly light. Going to try to make into an 18lb single speed!

All the paint is now stripped off and will be repainted in polyurathane (I thought the frame was going to be all chrome underneath but that was not the case but it does have a chrome fork). Pics coming soon.

edit: Got some beautiful wheels for it. Mavic red label rims, tapered spokes and Dura-Ace freewheel hubs. Excellent condition!

T-Mar

The frame in question is an SHS, one step below the SHT. As for the Sekine website, I was beaten by another forum member with whom I had been corresponding on Sekine. He consolidated much of the info that I gave him, so there didn't seem to much sense in just regurgitating things again. See post #95 of this thread for the address.

notnerb

i have blue sekine it says world finest bicycle made by sekine on it. it has a decal on the seat tube that says rome molybdenum tubing distributed by beacon bicycle. the front derailleur says shimano serial # fd-ty20. the rear derailleur says suntour arx and on the back has the letters AE. the crank says super maxy with # 170 and A-2 the handle bars say sakae customs. the bottom bracket has the # w 95931 and 1 54 20 4453. it has the diamond shaped emblem and half the forks are crome . i bought this bike for $5.00 at a yard sale every thing seems to work on it exept for a flat tire. i can't wait to ride it and would love to know what model and year it is. thanks

Bushman

Mountain equipment Co-op carries 27" tires.

moki

The owner of a bike shop in Winnipeg has a Sekine built up with a 2nd gen. Dura Ace group (AX scalloped headset, and those weird AX pedals / cranks with the pedal bearing located at the crank). It's also got Dura Ace titanium wheels.

I had no idea Sekine ever produced a bike at that end of the spectrum. Perhaps it was a ltd edition, or a team bike. Pretty cool bike, if you're at all into arcane semi-vintage technology.

T-Mar

There's lots of conflicting info here. A down tube with the World's Finest Bicycle decal indicates pre-1973. But an ARX with AE codes makes it 1984. Super Maxy cranks were not availbale until the late 1970s. The 1/2 chrome forks and down tube tdecal would indicate an SHB, but those frames did not use CrMo tubing. Very perplexing. I'd like to see some pics of this one.

Sekine made a full range of models. I have the top of the line SHX with 1st generation Dura Ace. This was replaced by the PR-10 with 2nd generation Dura Ace. Dura Ace AX was actually 3rd generation. I've never seen a Sekine with these components though there was a RM12 AX with 600AX. I had a Dura Ace AX equipped bicycle and they were great components, very under rated and ahead of their time. I'd lover to see some pics of the Dura Ace AX model.

notnerb

i don't know how to post the pictures someone please help

notnerb

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i figure out how to post pictures!!! yes!! do you know how to get the plastic cap off of the crank that is shone in the last picture?

GCRyder

It should just unscrew, lefty loosey. If it's stuck, you might give it a squirt of WD-40, insert the edge of a coin and turn the coin with pliers or a Crescent wrench.

notnerb

Thanks the coin worked. I just didn't want to break it, it seems to bend easy.

notnerb

Also I just noticed the hubs say campagnolo and the bolts on the brakes say cherry. I don't know if this helps. I rode it today and it rides great. I am really excited about finding out about it!!

T-Mar

You've got a real mutt there in terms of components. However, the frame is definitely an early one, prior to establishment of Canadian Sekine factory. My educated guess is 1972. Very little, if any, of the parts appear to be original. The wheels, derailleurs and crankset definitely are not. The Cherry brakes may be. Later models did use Cherry brakes, but generally only on the entry level SHA. Based on the CrMo tubing and chromed stays and fork ends, this is a mid-range model and appears to be an earlier version of an SHS. Thank-you for posting

notnerb

thank you very much. I really wish i knew who the owner was because it probably has quite a story. It really seems like a great bike and I will have a lot of fun on it!!!! thank you again for your time and i love this thread!!

accozzaglia

As I meant to almost a year ago, I'm including photos taken of my Sekine SHC from June. It was dirty (which happens when you use it as a daily rider and for part-time courier work), but it gives you all an idea of another era of Sekine road bikes that haven't shown up too often in this thread. This is the bike I found on Freecycle in July 2006, which at the time was all original, including the tires! Aside from changing the rims to aluminum (the steel spokes on the original rims were too brittle), buying new tires, adding mud fenders, upgrading the seat, flipping around the handlebars, removing the rear brake, and upgrading the pedals, the frame, fork, and drivetrain (except freewheel) remain original.

Gosh, by the sounds of it, it doesn't sound terribly original at all, but it's largely the same as it was originally:

Sekine SHC side profile.jpg
Medialle tube.jpg
Shimano shifters + drop tube.jpg
Shimano shifters + drop tube 2.jpg
rear dropout.jpg

[all photos generously shot by BIG BAD BENNY on flickr.com]


Until last week, I also had a royal blue SHS/SHT model in our basement (a co-operative house), but it was stolen by an unscrupulous ex-member who didn't care at all for me. That boy's gonna be in a world of hurt should I ever track down that frame (which was registered, but alas). Before I digress further, it shares the same lettering style as above, but the frame is a 23" (not 25") and has forged, chromed dropouts (making it either an SHS or SHT, from what I can gather). I'm still miffed! >:(

accozzaglia

Long live Sekine!

Carbon Based

Soon I'll have some pictures of my "resurrected" SHS in full fixed gear spec to show you guys and the Sekine thread will keep going! Just finished ordering parts today and I'm taking it down to the LBS tommorrow to have the headset replaced. Also, was 26.0 mm a common standard seatpost size for 70s Sekines? I measured mine with a caliper and that's what it read. Seems a little unusual, but I guess that was in an era before the semi-standards we have today.

BanffBikeGirl

Here's the Sekine ladie's utility bike I found recently. It's seen a lot of use and abuse, judging by the paint, the seat post has rusted into the tube, and the rear brake cable is missing. Other than that, it is a very smooth operating bike, with many Shimano parts. I'm guessing that it is from the late 70's. The number from the frame is EV11799, and there is a faded 'Made in Canada' sticker on the seat tube. Could anyone help me to get a more accurate year?

ricohman

I can't believe I forgot to include my Sekine in the ultimate Sekine thread!
Anyway, here is my 1975 Sekine. It is completely original.
I've been riding it when my youngest son wants to go for a ride.
That way we are in no hurry, and the old Sekine prefers it that way. I've always wanted one since I was a kid.