Re: [CR] Mystery frame NAPP

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From: "Daniel Gonzalez" <dannyg1@mail.com>
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Date: Sat, 27 Jun 2009 06:10:30 +0800
Subject: Re: [CR] Mystery frame NAPP


>>

This frame looks very much like a custom built frame that was discussed recently and attributed as a Nishiki professional special projects bicycle (or something to that effect). NAPP possibly 'Nishiki America Professional Products'?

I looked this up on Google and though it isn't telltale, it's still interesting:
>> NISHIKI BICYCLES:

Nishiki is a brand name of bicycles originally produced at the Kawamura factory in Kobe, Japan. The upper line bicycles exported by this company to Europe, USA and Canada were called Nishiki while simpler bicycles for the home (Japanese) market were sold as Kawamura. What happened in the U.S. by the end of the 70s was that the Nishiki importers, West Coast Cycles, registered the brand name Nishiki in the United States before Kawamura had a sense to do so. Ironically, this didn't lead to any legal actions by Nishiki as the Japanese were afraid to anger an important customer. So for the rest of the 80s the Americans continued to sell Nishiki's produced by Kawamura. By 1989 the then owner of the brand in the United States, Derby Cycles (now Raleigh Cycles Ltd.), started to produce their own models outside Japan without any cooperation with Kawamura. Derby even used the same model names as on the Kawamura built bicycles. Nishiki Europe is a group of distributors / agents in Europe formed to develop Nishiki models in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Luxemburg and Estonia. Nishiki Europe models are produced in Taiwan or Holland, Finland and Sweden for local markets. These bicycles were exported to Europe, Canada and the United States, with bicycles produced for the Japanese market using the brand name 'Kawamura'. The brand name was retired by Derby in 2001 in North America. However, Nishiki Europe, a group of European distributors, still exists and sells models in Scandinavia, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Estonia. These bicycles are produced in Taiwan, the Netherlands, Finland and Sweden.<<

Just spent some time trying to find more, but came up empty.

Danny Gonzalez NY, NY USA

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