Paul, may I add your Sanshin commentary to http://sheldonbrown.com/
All the best,
Sheldon
At 8:08 PM -0500 11/17/03, Paul C. Brodek wrote:
>Hey Dennis,
>
>Sanshin made Sunshine hubs. My understanding is they picked
>"Sunshine" as a brand name since it sounded close to Sanshin,
>non-Japanese had trouble pronouncing Sanshin, and Sunshine has nice
>English-language connotations. Later on they seemed to have dropped
>Sunshine and labelled their product Sanshin.
>
>In addition to producing product under their own label, Sanshin also
>acted as a subcontractor for SunTour; all SunTour-labelled hubs came
>from Sanshin. I don't know if there was any corporate
>cross-ownership, but Sanshin's president (Mamoru Kawai) was the
>younger son of Junzo Kawai, Maeda/SunTour's chairman. Mamoru always
>struck me as a thoughtful, intelligent and reasonable young man, much
>more detail-oriented and less impetuous than his father.
>
>Sanshin's factory was in Shiga-ken, maybe an hour and change from
>Maeda's offices in Sakai-shi. In the mid-'80s they were diversifying
>a bit into forging auto parts. I don't know what happened to them
>when Maeda was purchased then went under. I always wanted to visit
>the plant, but never did.
>
>Sanshin made a beautiful ProAm model high-flange hub in the late '70s.
>The flanges only had 5 cut-outs, leaving a distinctive star-shaped
>center section. Very nice bearing quality, lots of polish and pretty
>anodizing. Those track Professional hubs look pretty nice, too!
>
>Cheers,
>
>Paul Brodek
>Hillsdale, NJ
>
>
>On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 06:32:53 +0900, Dennis Young
><mail@woodworkingboy.com> wrote:
>
>>Thanks Hugh,
>>
>>Did you take a look at the auction page? Can you please verify that the
>>Sanshin company is the same as the SunShine one (it's not a misspelling by
>>me). I see Sanshin goods as well. In other words, you are saying that
>>Sanshin produced SunShine?
>>
>>http://page7.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/g10343291
>>
>>Dennis Young
>>Hotaka, Japan
>>
>>>
>>> Subject: [CR]unfamiliar parts
>>>
>>> Dennis wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>> " Pardon me if these might be off topic, but is anyone familiar with
>>> SunShine
>>>> bicycle components? I see these on occasion at the Japanese auctions, and
>>>> they don't look wihout some merit. Probably it is a former Japanese
>>>> company?"
>>>
>>> You are referring to Sanshin or Sanshin Matsumoto, a very well respected
>>> Japanese firm that unfortunately is no longer in business. Their
>>>quality was
>>> better than Suzue or Sakae Ringyo, and they were the producers of Suntour
>>> hubs for many years (also the Specialized hubs). The quality level on their
>>> best hubs was like the quality level of the best Nitto handlebars
>>>and stems.
>>>
>>> Sanshin developed a unique technology ( for the time) that allowed them to
>>> produce short runs of high flange, low flange, or combinations of high and
>>> low flanges with a variety of spoke hole drillings. I don't know how they
>>> did this, and have always wondered if it may have been by a very early
>>> implementation of CNC programmed lathes.
>>>
>>> Unfortunately I never got to visit the factory but I did meet the company
>>> officials on several occasions. I'm sure I've got some of their catalogs
>>> kicking around here somewhere and I wish they were still in business.
>>>
>>> Hugh Enox
>>> La Honda
>
>
>
>Paul C. Brodek
>Hillsdale, N.J. U.S.A.
>E-mail: pcb@skyweb.net
>_______________________________________________
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