T-Mar

All the parts of the ST-M-070 and ST-M071 are exactly the same, except for the brake lever itself. If you want you can transplant the brake lever or shifter pod to make a matched pair.

Real1shepherd

Great to know......I wondered about that! So in theory the Poland sent 3spd shifter should transplant exactly onto my existing brake lever. That would be fantastic and require minimal effort.

Now that I know how to clean/lubricate the shifters, I shouldn't 'break' anymore of them.

Kevin

Real1shepherd

Well, the parts finally got here from Poland. I see now the difference between a two finger shifter set up and a four finger shifter.....lol.

The 3spd shifter however, is exactly the same as my broken unit and just took a few minutes to put in.

Many thanks to everyone who helped with this especially, T-Mar!

Kevin

Jharrington

I looked at the Yokota Cataloges 1990, 1991, 1992 and in 1990 there was only the Yosemite. Which had Shimano Deore LX. 1991 ande beyond there were Yosemite, Yosemite Comp and Yosemite Pro, which had Shimano Deore DX. These would have been seperate from the shift levers not to be confused with Rapid Fire units. So if you can find the finger shifting Deore DX controls you should be fine. Good Luck!

Real1shepherd

Thanks John....it's all good. The shifters themselves from the Poland seller were exactly the same as what I had. I didn't care about the brake handles, just the rapid fire shifters.

Not impossible to find on eBay, but was stressing about the good weather I'm missing on the bike and so made the Poland connection. Two extra brake mechanisms and an extra rear shifter....can't beat that!

More miles coming up on your prodigy........

Kevin

Unshore

My Legend, Many O' miles on this one...

albrt 

Thanks for all the great information on this thread. Here's a Yokota Ahwanee rebuilt as a commuter hybrid:



This is for the charity shop where I volunteer. Started with nothing but frame and fork, built it up with inexpensive parts from the bin over the course of a month.

It's way too small for me but it's a handsome bike and I love the way it rides.

albrt 

Serial number is D20282050, by the way.

TheOriginalJerk

Hey all, completely new here and haven’t ridden a bike for 20 yrs before today. Bought a black Yokota Yosemite Serial #B90011480 from a pawn shop for $30. Now the paint is actually real pretty, but the rest of the bike is like my 50 yr old behind.

The wheels wobble like my legs, the seat points upwards into my catchers mit, the Shimano Deore LX shifters don’t shift near as well as I belch and the brakes work about as well as my memory at this point.

But like I said the paint is real nice and while that seat hurts to ride on right now and that she’s stuck on the middle front sprocket and small back sprocket (is that 8th or 15th gear) she did ride nice home from the pawn shop. Wife got a good laugh follow in’ me.

I’ll be post in’ some pics soon enough, of the bike and maybe the wife, but none of me. You all ain’t ready for that.

curbtender

Ha, we'll just call you Yosemite Sam...Don't force those shifters too much until you get some lube in them. Last thing you want to do is distort the spring in there. Good luck.

T-Mar

Welcome to the forums. That should be a 1990 model, in which case it was 4th in a 9 model ATB line-up. Original MSRP was $499 US.

TheOriginalJerk

Well, tried to clean up the shifters this morning, no go. The casings were busted where the cables go in. So, off to the bike shop we go, hi ho, hi ho. Inspection shows she has 1 bent spoke, brakes totally suck and the tires are dry rotted. I’ll let ya all know the bill to put her back in better shape than I’m in.


Update: Bike shop took it easy on me. $190 to replace the shifters, brakes, cables, true the wheels, adjust everything on the bike, inspect and repack the bearings, new tires, and give it a bath. Should have it back next week and can start riding again.

Real1shepherd

You'll have trouble finding those shifters....I did. Unless you're near some big bike coop like they have in Boulder. T-mar helped me a lot on figuring out which Shimano shifters I had. They do pop up now and again on eBay. That's one heck of a bike shop if they replaced those rapid fire Shimano shifters with the same. Pretty steep plus your purchase price....probably something out there in better shape for less. But if you're happy, that's great!

There's a good tutorial on YouTube for cleaning and lubing those shifters. DO NOT attempt to take them apart and repair....unless you've had considerable experience with rapid fire shifters. There's also a well written tutorial on these shifters as well.

A lot of info on this thread, so scroll back and read my foibles.

Kevin

Krazyistkarl

I wonder if my mystery bike is a Yokota

T-Mar

Shimano Dura-Ace EX with Dyna-Drive crankarms and pedals would suggest 1980-1984. However, frame features such as the dual bottle bosses and pump peg would push it into the late 1980s. The Unicrown fork would push it a couple more years into the very late 1980s.

However, the brake bridge appears to be designed for recessed brakes, so the components may be replacements. Also, the fork does not appear to match the frame. The dropout end treatments of the stays and blades do not appear to match. Also, the rear dropouts have eyelets while the front do not. So, it may be a replacement fork, which suggests a repaint and some of the braze-ons may have been added. However, if the braze-ons were added, I would also have expected a front derailleur hanger.

This is a curious mix of features. In some aspects it looks high grade, while in others it appears mid-range. Have you found a serial number?

Real1shepherd

Scroll back and look at my bike. It is bone stock and I bought it new. No mismatched parts or Frankenbike.

The creator of these fine bikes, Harrington, even posted in here....which is kinda awesome.

Kevin

cirp 

I know this is a very old thread but hopefully you will see this.

looking for any information you might have in regards to the serial numbers. Specifically,
NE51403. Thank you.

Jharrington

from John Harrington. You’d have to give me a whole lot more information. I have no way of finding any serial numbers. I assume this is a bicycle. Can you post a picture of the Bike and let me know your specific questions?

cirp 

Hi John,

Someone contacted me through my website asking about any information on this Yokota Ranger.
I thought you might have some insight on the serial number NE51403. I’m interpreting it as: made by Mikki in May of 1985. Wanted to see what your interpretation is on this SN and any info you could provide about this bike.
Here are the pictures he sent:




Thank you,
Jim

T-Mar

^ This Yokota Ranger has been previously posted. The serial number format does not match Mikki. It can be reverse engineered several different ways, with most pointing towards 1985, which is certainly appropriate for an Asian manufactured ATB with lugs. One of those possibilities is Miyata, however a late 1980s Yokota road test stated that Yokota was a "manufacturer" and 2nd in size only to Bridgestone. Additonal info was requested from the poster in an attempt to confirm the age but they never responded.

cirp 

Thank you T-Mar

Smokinapankake

For a few years I had a Yokota Discovery, looked just like this except where the legend is blue, my bike was yellow. Had Exage Sport components, 6 speed I think. Rode it to work a few times, did some miles on it but never really hooked into it. It was a nice bike, I just don’t like drop bars I guess… sold it on. Wish I had a picture of it somewhere I could post just for thread continuance…

Jharrington

Hi T-Mar, I’m not really good at following these various links so I don’t think I’ve seen this before. I previously answered someone else that this Yokota Ranger was a high end (for Yokota Japan) model. After I started Yokota Cycle USA in California. Another American guy that was living in Japan and wanting a way into the Bicycle Industry was hired by Yokota Japan to do what I had done in the USA in Japan. Yokota was a manufacturer and a very old bicycle brand. However they made standard Japanese home market commuting bicycles. Nothing expensive or high end. They made somewhere around one million units each year. Yokota Cycles Ltd. wanted to go public and list on the Japanese exchange. At this time both Miyata and Bridgestone were selling high end bicycles in the USA. Yokota Japan wanted to follow this trend as they thought the image would help their initial public offer.

The only Yokota bicycles sold in the USA that used lugs were the road bikes. All mountain bikes were welded frames and all names came from Yosemite Nation Park.

I don’t know how to tell whose serial number that is on the frame. But if it is believed to be from Miki I would not argue. Miki was/is an excellent supplier of high end frames to the Japanese market.

T-Mar

Thank-you for posting. If I read correctly, Yokota was a manufacturer but that the USA market models could have been Yokota manufacture or contract manufactured by another company? Is this correct? My intent is to try to identify the serial number format on Yokota manufactured product.

Jharrington

Hi T-Mar, to be clear. When I was hired to start YCUSA I was given full rein to create and source a line of Bicycles under whatever name I wanted. I choose to use the Yokota name because why not? At least there was a story by keeping the name. At the time Mountain Bikes were the market. And in order to make the sizes and use the frame geometry that we really wanted the frames needed to be welded. Welded frames technology was happening in Taiwan at that time. Japanese frames continued to be lugged. So I sourced my various models from a number of Taiwanese bicycle manufacturers. A short list but not necessarily all inclusive would include A-Pro, Anlen, Southern Cross, Dodson, I contracted with Tom Teasdale for our Half Dome. Tom was living in Iowa. From 1991 season I sourced frames only mainly from A-Pro and imported the frames to the USA for final prep and assembly. I bought wheels from Wheelsmith, and used a lot of the after market versions of many components like saddles, pedals etc so the bikes had a level higher component selection. I bought the drive train and brakes and derailleurs from Shimano and we put every frame on an frame alignment table for a final Q/C check and we hand assembled the frames into the various models. The models were the Yosemite Comp and up. It was the majority of our line. Although YCUSA may have been an early adopter of assemble in the USA, it’s now something many other brands followed along with. Voodoo was one. Some of the larger brands also followed suit.

I hope this gives you clarity. Especially in Japan many manufacturers use “sub contractors” for various aspects of their production in order to meet their volume needs. The thing that made Yokota Bikes in the USA different was our USA assembly using After Market components and hand built wheels from Wheelsmith.