Hi all -- Sheldon Brown's site lists Azuki as the house brand of Louisville Cycle & Hobby. Certainly I've seen tons of Azukis throughout the years here in Louisville -- my Dad owned one with the largest rear cog I've ever seen. It only had one tooth for every three or four space. I remember hearing years ago that Azuki and Nishiki were the same but for the label, and Azuki was for shops in towns where another shop already carried Nishiki. I recall some nice examples, but most were of the quality that formed Dale's opinion of the marques. Dennis Ryan
Louisville, KY ------------------------------------------
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----Original Message Follows----
From: ABikie@aol.com
To: richardsachs@juno.com, OROBOYZ@aol.com
CC: CYCLETRUCK@aol.com, Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: Re: [CR]Nishiki
Date: Thu, 5 Jul 2001 00:20:23 EDT
In a message dated 7/5/2001 12:11:49 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
richardsachs@juno.com writes:
<<
nishiki was a concocted brand name of
Western States Imports.
there was no 'nishiki' factory...
similar to takara, shogun, maruishi (i think), centurion,
and currently torelli, quatro assi, specialized, etc.
that is: these are brands made up by importers,
marketers, and the like.
e-RICHIE
>>
Almost, Rich, but you are forgiven, as it;s late here in the East.
Nishiki was one of 4 brands marketed by West Coast Cycle (later Derby/Darby
and before that BPDI - Bicycle Products Development Inc)
The other brands were windsor (mexico), Azuki, and Cycle Pro (parts)
Jim Hansing was a principle (brother to Bob of euro Asia)
Leo and Howie Cohen were a part, Howie later to go to Kuwahara (ET movies
fame) not to bve confused with Kawamura, the rather exclusive builder of
Nishiki/Azuki.
Later models were sourced by Merida, of Taiwan.
Not much comparison, the Japanese bikes were better.
Larry Black
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