T-Mar

Welcome to the forums. Your frame was manufactured by Yamaguchi of Japan, during June of a year ending in zero. We know it's not 1970, as Sekai bicycles didn't exist at that time. It's most likely 1980 but 1990 is also a possibility. However, by 1990 all the Sekai models were ATBs, whereas Sekai ATBs did not exist in 1980. So, you should be able to determine the year via the frame/bicycle style. Or just upload a photo. I see there's one in your gallery album, but it's just a close-up of the serial number on a silver frame.

chune

Picked up a 61cm 4000 frame the other day in downtown madison. Score! I asked the guy if it was a Yellow Jersey bike and he said his dad in Iowa had it shipped to him new? He also said it's the original paint and the 4000s didn't ship with any decals. Not sure how true all of that is but it's the story I got. How rare (and fragile) are these things? Probably a bad idea to build it up for L'Eroica Gaiole this year? Not sure it would survive shipping without a few dents. Add it to the list: M7M13472

rancho66 

Serial # indicates it was built in December 1977 by Miki. The frame would be a 1978 Model I believe. I have a Black November 1976 built 4000, but it has Horizontal Rear dropouts.

ackent

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

Samuel M

Hello, I own a Sekai Sasquatch Bike and I would love to know more about it. I looked at the different serial codes and how to date the frame on this database, however my serial number doesn't seem to correspond with the serial numbers that you have listed. The serial number on my bike is Y4A3238. I would love to know any information you have on this bike such as the year of the bike as well as any other information that you have about maybe how many were made etc etc. thanks in advance!

T-Mar

Welcome to the forums. Your frame was contract manufactured in January 1984 by Yamaguchi of Japan. By this time the Sekai had been bought by Norco, with the Sasquatch also being marketed as a Norco model. It was also know as the Model 750 and had an MSRP of $399.00 US.

Samuel M

Thank you so much! It is really difficult to find information on this bike, I would post pictures, except the website wants me to post 10 posts before posting any pictures. Do you know if the Sasquatch is somewhat of a rare find? I'm not looking to make money off of it as it is my semi weekly rider and it's not in pristine condition anymore, just curious about the bike in general. also $399 dollars is not cheap, even in today's market you can get low end bikes for less than that! It must have been at least a mid range model I assume.

T-Mar

Your Sasquatch is an early ATB/MTB. It's fairly rare but not valuble, being a mass produced, not a highly prized brand and what I would consisder to be a mid-range model. The tubing is intersting in that Tange #5 is a plain gauge CrMo tubeset and not butted, as stated on the decal.

While $399 was not cheap, it also wasn't expensive for an ATB in 1984. That year, a Specialized Stumpjumper, which was arguably the most populat ATB at the time, had a retail price of $750 US. If you bought a high end model from one of the prestigious ATB pioneers, it could be much more expensive. For instance, in 1984 a Mantis Sherpa would set you back $1650 US, while a Moots Mountaineer 90M would drain $1250 US from your bank account, with.a Mountain Goat prying $1500 from your hands and a Ritchey/Fisher Mountainbikes Competition causing $1999 US to fly away.

I'll probably receive a razzing from forum members for posting a non-drive side photo, even if it an an assist to a new member. Regardless, here goes...

Samuel M

[QUOTE=T-Mar;22644417]Your Sasquatch is an early ATB/MTB. It's fairly rare but not valuble, being a mass produced, not a highly prized brand and what I would consisder to be a mid-range model. The tubing is intersting in that Tange #5 is a plain gauge CrMo tubeset and not butted, as stated on the decal.

While $399 was not cheap, it also wasn't expensive for an ATB in 1984. That year, a Specialized Stumpjumper, which was arguably the most populat ATB at the time, had a retail price of $750 US. If you bought a high end model from one of the prestigious ATB pioneers, it could be much more expensive. For instance, in 1984 a Mantis Sherpa would set you back $1650 US, while a Moots Mountaineer 90M would drain $1250 US from your bank account, with.a Mountain Goat prying $1500 from your hands and a Ritchey/Fisher Mountainbikes Competition causing $1999 US to fly away.

I'll probably receive a razzing from forum members for posting a non-drive side photo, even if it an an assist to a new member. Regardless, here goes...

Thanks for all the information on the bike, and thanks for posting the picture to showcase it. I think it is a very interesting bike with is why I wanted to know more about it. A little backstory if you are interested, It was given to me buy a friend about 10ish years ago, who told me it had been customized to fit a very tall person, and to allow them to sit up completely straight while riding. This is why it has the very tall handle bars along with the L shaped seat post. I honestly have never seen another bike with this geometry.
Side note, as far as I know it still has it's original cassette, which is pretty impressive considering it's age, at least in my opinion.

tmnguuyen 

Here is my 1977 GT 2500 Grand Touring, I'm taking it to Gaioli in Oct for L'Eroica - I hope our Italian friends won't look down on it too much. My plan is to leave it in Italy after the ride. I wonder if anybody would be interested in a fine Japanese bike sold in American market..

T-Mar

While the handlebars and stem may have been replaced, the seat post is original to the bicycle. Those extreme set back SR MTE posts were fairly popular during the early ATB years and Norco did spec one the 1984 Sasquatch.

RedwoodRunner

I have owned my Sekai 1500 for about 19yrs now and absolutely love it still to this day. But I have always been wondering when it was manufactured. Its serial number is YOL9246 and is located under the crank tube on the frame. The bike also has the made is Japan sticker on the frame below the Tange sticker. If anyone can help me figure this out that would be much appreciated. I dont know how to read/decode this serial number.

Blueskies68pdx

I bought this Sekai 4000 several years ago to rekindle memories of my first racing bike in 1976. I bought the frame from Velociped (sp?) in Seattle and built it up with Campy Record. During those days several well known racers; Twig and Pringle were using this frame. I plan to do the same thing with this bike after stripping the bike of all the Shimano components. This frame is in very good condition, so I don’t plan to do anything with the frame. I’ll post pics once it’s done and I get >10 posts.

Blueskies68pdx

I bought a 4000 frame in 1976-77 in black/dark blue over a chromed frame. It had all the decals and found it to be a great starter racing bike.

Blueskies68pdx

Did all these have dropout eyelets front/back? Thanks in advance

Maxey

I bought a Sekai 1000 brand new in 1981, it was silver with the light blue graphics like this one someone posted earlier, though I seem to recall mine having the stem shifters:

That bike is long gone, but after I sold it I did have a 2500 that had factory bar-end shifters and seemed to be a touring setup. After that some years later I purchased a nice, used beige metallic 2400 that turned out to be too big for me and I sold it to a 6'2" redheaded woman from Montana (!). As an aside, during high school I worked at Scheels Hardware and Sporting Goods in Minot, N. Dakota, which sold Sekai and I believe Fuji bikes. A couple of high school friends of mine also worked there and had Sekai 4000s that they had built up. I remember the 4000s being glossy black and to say I was jealous is an understatement.

I'm kind of on the lookout for a Sekai now that I've discovered vintage bikes (I own two 1970s Manufrances -- long story I won't get into here), but am not really interested in a 1000, I figure I might as well shoot for one of the bikes I couldn't afford as a teenager, like a 4000. I read through this whole thread and have found it quite educational and informative.

Mr. 66

Just thinking back in time as a home town company, probably most do. I would say all before, heck I don't know, 1982. Seattle company, people wanted the option of putting fenders on. Sekai was really popular there in the '70s. I think the Pine Street Cycle was their biggest distributor.

I think I've had all the # models except the 4000, lol the 500, the 1000, the 1500, I gave my gal a 2500. I built up a 2700 GT deluxe a couple of years ago.

Hummer

This was posted 2020 April 23, so a little late.

As you are in the UK this bike looks like an Elswick Stag.

UK forums, cycle chat and retrobike have posts about this brand and model.

https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/ve...ebuild.166380/

Deal4Fuji

oops

Sactown_Albert 

Built up an Eroica bike for the Mrs. For Valentines Day. Thought I would share it with the group. Bike came to me in good condition but I did make a few component upgrades to make it more compliant for Eroica and user friendly for regular use in the foothills.

It is a Georgena Terry style bike but I have been unable to find much on whether Sekai had a formal agreement with GT or if they just bought additional frames from Yamaguchi or one of the other Japanese manufacturers after GT was supplied with her orders.

Any insights would be welcome.

Hummer

This Sekai is from the time when Norco managed the brand name. This Sekai has the same frame as the Norco Lady Sport.

I doubt that there was any licensing agreement with Georgena Terry or Terry Precision Bicycles. Some Terry frames were made at the New Nomura Industry Co. factory in Sakai City, Osaka, Japan.

It would be interesting to know what manufacturer made the Sekai/Norco Lady Sport frames. Do you know the serial number?

Hummer

Hello RedwoodRunner,

welcome to the forum and thank-you for posting the information about your Sekai. I am sorry that no one has responded sooner.

Serial number:
Y = manufactured by Yamaguchi in Japan
0 = 1980, year of frame manufacture
L = November.

Sactown_Albert 

I had an email exchange with Georgena Terry about the bike. Very gracious of her to respond to my questions. Her response regarding its provenance:Serial number is K7D5665 which I believe corresponds to April 1987. My suspicion is that this frame was made during the window that H. Tano was still making frames for GT but it was not made FOR her, it was made to be brought to market through other avenues. She did not have control over the design and it wound up being widely copied.

Hummer

Yes. The 1976 version had these eyelets.
Here is a link to some good images of a Sekai 4000 by Joe Bunik.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/joe_bu...7625729982233/


Sekai 4000 of Joe Bunik

Hummer

Thank-you for posting the Sekai serial number and the very interesting comments from Georgena Terry.

Here are my comments on the serial number. Norco and the Fiori brands had several models of bicycles with serial numbers that began with the letter "K", so I am not suprised to see a Sekai model with the same format of serial number. I think that you have determined the correct date of frame manufacture as 1987.


The comments that you have so graciously provided from Georgena Terry have prompted me to do some research.

If your Sekai was manufactured to be a Terry Presision bicycle in 1987/1988, then which Terry model would it be?

For those years and manufactured in Japan I am thinking the Despatch or Symmetry models.


The "K" serial number is not consistent with any Terry models that I have seen, including Despatch and Symmetry models.

The Sekai Lady Sport frame is Tange Infinity, while Terry models from Japan tended to be Tange 1 or Tange 2. Later frames of the Symmetry model were Tange Infinity.

The Sekai Lady Sport fork crown and dropouts are different from the Terry models.

The Sekai Lady Sport seat stay does not have brazeons for rear rack mounting which Terry models have.

In short, I think the Sekai Lady Sport was a Norco designed frame made in Japan by the Japanese manufacturer that Norco had contracted.

Although the Sekai Lady Sport frame and features are similar to Terry models, there are too many things that point to this frame not being for Terry Precision.

I am skeptical that this frame was originally intended to be a Terry branded bicycle.

The Sekai Lady Sport is still a very nice piece of work.