In a message dated 10/1/2002 1:26:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time, breese@rof.net writes:
<< I am looking for information on the Azuki "Pro". I purchased this bike used in 1986 ....... (snip)..... I never did. This is a Cro-Mo 0.8-0.5-0.8 double butted frame with chrome Suntour drop-outs and Shimano 600 groupo. I have done some searching on the web and have only been able to come up with the same information that is present in the Classic Rendezvous archives; Azuki was a second line of Nishiki, house brand of some shops either in Kentucky or California etc.. Information, insight, opinions? >>
Chris: I sold those bikes back in the early-to-mid 1970s and do not remember such an apparent deluxe model.. You are correct, the Azuki was a second line in Nishiki family but it also was a lower tier line, in that they didn't have much in the way of fancier models. It was not a "house brand" for any particular shops, but instead was a "made-up" brand by West Coast Cycle Supply meaning that an Azuki bike, as such, did not exist as a brand in Japan. Now about that time there was the Nishiki "ONP" frame all the rest of the Nishiki line was a bit... shall we say, mundane, relative to team bikes..
Just out of curiosity, how do you know the gauges of the tubing?
<< At the time, Jasjit Grewal ( who had sold the bike to the guy I bought it from), after first accusing me of stealing it, told me that it had once belonged to one of the Stetina brothers, that these frames had also been produced for the Japanese national team,>>
Wow, that sounds a bit as if they were maybe pulling your leg as the Stetina boys never rode Azukis in my memory! (Could be wrong though!) Maybe I will ask Wayne about that at the Interbike show this coming weekend..
Dale Brown
Greensboro, NC