I have a Bridgestone bicycle that I would like to find more information about. It is labeled as a '450 Racing Series' at the top of the seat tube. Nishiki is a brand of bicycles designed, specified, marketed and distributed by West Coast Cycle in the United States, initially manufactured by Kawamura Cycle Co. In Kobe, Japan, and subsequently by Giant of Taiwan. The bicycles were first marketed under the American Eagle brand beginning in 1965 and later under the Nishiki brand until 2001.
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| Founded | circa 1969 (ceased in 2000) |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Newbury Park, California(later location) |
| Key people | Mitchell M. Weiner, Co-founder Junya (Cozy) Yamakoshi, Co-founder, Product Development |
Centurion was a brand of bicycles created in 1969 by Mitchell (Mitch) M.Weiner and Junya (Cozy) Yamakoshi, [1]who co-founded Western States Import Co. (WSI) in Canoga Park, California (initially Wil-GoImports) to design, specify, distribute and market the bicycles.The bikes themselves were manufactured initially in Japan by companies including H.Tano Company of Kobe andlater in Taiwan by companies including Merida. The Centurion brand wasconsolidated with WSI's mountain bike brand Diamond Backin 1990. WSI went out of business in 2000.
Centurion and WSI competed in the U.S. against domestic andEuropean bicycle manufacturers including Schwinn, Raleigh, Peugeot, Gitane and Motobecane — as well asother nascent Japanese bicycle brandsincluding Miyata, Fuji, Bridgestone, Panasonic, Univega, Lotus and Nishiki —itself a line of Japanese-manufactured bicycles that werespecified, distributed and marketed by West Coast Cycles —a U.S. company similar to WSI. Japanese-manufactured bikessucceeded in the U.S. market until currency fluctuationsin the late 1980s made them less competitive, leading companies tosource bicycles from Taiwan.
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WSI marketed the Centurion brand of road and touringbicycles in the United States using the tag line 'WhereCenturion leads, others must follow' and 'A LifetimeBicycle', offering a warranty without time limit. For a briefperiod the bikes carried a 'Centurion Bicycle Works' headbadge.
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History
According to Frank J. Berto, author of The Dancing Chain:History and Development of the Derailleur Bicycle (3d Ed.2009), Raleigh Industries of America had been looking at aJapanese source for their Grand Prix model. RaleighAmerica ordered 2,000 bicycles from Tano and Company of Osaka buttheir parent company in England, TI-Raleigh, disapproved —concerned that the Tano-built bikes were too well made and wouldhave outsold their own British bikes.
Raleigh's sales agent, Mitchell Weiner, who was reading The New Centurions atthe time, took receipt of the bikes, placed Centuriondecals on the bikes and marketed them successfully, subsequentlyforming Western State Imports after merging with RickWilson's company, Wil-Go of Santa Clara, California. Because thebikes had all been intended as Raleigh Grand Prix models,as Centurions, they carried the colors of the Raleigh AmericaGrand Prix model.
Cozy Yamakoshi served as the company's product developmentmanager, designing the bike's frames, coordinating the manufactureof the bikes by Japanese manufacturers, and importing the bikesinto the US.[1]Subsequently, around 1986, Centurion introduced their firstTaiwanese built model, the Signet. The Cinelli Equipe Centurion of1985 (only) was a joint-venture of WSI and Cinelli of Italy.
Early bike sales were limited to the West Coast, with the brandreceiving wider exposure by the late 1970's. WSI stopped using theCenturion brand name in 1990, [2]consolidating their road and touring bikes under the DiamondBack (later DiamondBack) brand. While the brandCenturion had become well known, under the new brand name thecompany's market for road and touring bicycles soon evaporated.Early Diamond Back models (ca. 1990) carried a top tube decalreading 'Centurion Designed' and stickers near the bottom bracketreading 'Designed in the USA' and 'Exclusively built for WSI.'Diamondback was eventually sold to Raleigh USA, and manufacture wasmoved to Taiwan.
Bridgestone Bicycle Serial Numbers
WSI later opened an office in Van Nuys,California, and eventually maintained offices in Dallas, Texas, Denver, Coloradoand Dayton, New Jersey — in addition aheadquarters in Newbury Park, California.After Weiner passed away, the company continued it's growth underthe management of Mike Bobrick.
Cozy Yamakoshi, product and development manager, worked withMike Bobrick (Executive President of WSI) and Sandy Finkelman(1947-2005)(Diamond Back team manager and product development) andleft Diamond Back in 1986, to start Parkpre Mountain Bike in1989.[3]Parkpre USA was based in Moorpark, Southern California, USA.,producing bikes from the early 1990's until 1998. Ken Yamakoshi,son of Cozy Yamakoshi, is in the process of re-launching Parkpre inthe US.
Models
Centurion eventually marketed a full line of road and touringbikes, with steel construction ranging from full (all eight tubes)high-tensile 1020 steel at the lower end, to full (all eight tubes)cromolybikes at their high end — with top quality componentry. Notablemodels included:
- Centurion Cinelli Equipe: WSI/Centurion andCinelli offered the co-branded Centurion Cinelli Equipefor model year 1984/85, as a joint-venture, designed by CinoCinelli several years after he retired in 1979 and sold Cinelli tothe Columbo family, manufacturers of Columbus tubing. The CinelliEquipe's production was coordinated and supervised by his staff.The bike featured all Cinelli frame components: Columbus SL tubing;chrome chain stay, Cinelli chromed sloped crown, head lugs, bottombracket shell, handlebars and stem; new-style Cinelli logosembossed on bar and stem, fork crown, seat and seat stays, rearbrake bridge and under bottom bracket; Campagnolo dropouts,derraileurs and shifters; Universal 'AER' non-aero brakeset; OfmegaMistral headset, bottom bracket and crankset; Gipiemme seatpost;Regina chain and CX-S freewheel; Miche 'Competition' hubs andFiamme, Hard Silver tubular rims. Other markings include a 'CinelliEquipe' decal on down-tube just above shifters and on left chainstay; an 'Italia: Made in Italy' decal high on seat tube; Columbustubing decals on fork ('Forcella Originale') and frame ('AcciaioSpeciali'); Centurion decals on down-tube (left and right), and aCenturion 'C' decal badge on head tube.
- Centurion Pro Tour:RichardBallantine's 'Richard's Bicycle Book' included theCenturion Pro Tour (ultimately manufactured from 1976-1984) on hislist of 'Best Bikes' in both the 1978 and 1982 updates of his book— along with the Schwinn Paramount P-13, a bike that sold for twoto three times the price of the Pro-Tour. Like other full-fledgedtouringbikes, the Pro Tour models featured a longer wheelbase withlonger chainstays for smoother ride especially while loaded, full(all eight tubes) cromoly construction for ride compliance,cantilever brakes to allow room for fenders, internal wiring for abottom bracket generator and numerous braze-ons: two mounts on thefork for the cantilever brakes, two eyelets in back for a rack anda fender, two eyelets on the fork for a rack and a fender, low rackmounting points on the fork, mounts for two bottle cages, mountsfor downtube shifters/cable stops, and seat stay mounts for arack.
Touring models: | Road and racing models: |
SerialNumbers[1]
Centurions (except the CinelliCenturion) have serial numbers onthe underside of the bottom bracket shell. One way to date aCenturion is to try to find date codes on the bike'scomponents.
Centurion models manufactured in Japan between 1980-1990 use aserial number format WXYZZZZ with:
W = a letter, purpose uncertain, possibly indicates amanufacturer or Centurion; X = a number, indicating the calendaryear of manufacture; Y = a letter, indicating the fortnight ofmanufacture (A = wk 1 & 2, B = wk 3 & 4, etc) ZZZZ = fourdigit number, probably indicating frame number during fortnight ofmanufacture.
N4E0283, as an example, would indicate this is the 283rd framemade during the period of weeks 9-10 in 1984. Barring a majorcomponents upgrade at some point in a bike's history, one canconfirm a bike's age by the dates found on the majority ofcomponents in its groupset.
(Credit Note: Serial Number decoding by Tom Marshall,Canadian engineer, racer and runner)
See also
- December 1976, Bicycle Magazine, Centurion Pro Tour Review Page 1 of 2, Page 2 of 2
References
Firestone Bicycle Serial Numbers
- ^ abc'Centurion Bikes'.Sheldonbrown.com, Ashley Wright. http://sheldonbrown.com/centurion/index.html.
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