Misuboshi made most of the tires for Specialized Bicycle in the 1970-1990's period. They were and are the worlds largest belt maker, for instance timing belts. They also made all the Tioga tires.
Jim Merz Big Sur CA USA
On Fri, May 28, 2010 at 9:06 AM, donald gillies <gillies@ece.ubc.ca> wrote:
> Of course, everyone is right and I am wrong, I put the /National with
> the wrong company name - SORRY !!!
>
> Panaracer = Panasonic Racer, oops.
> National = an early american name for Panasonic / Matsushita.
>
> SO the big wired-on tire makers in Japan are Panaracer/National and IRC.
>
> When Matsushita entered the american market, like japanese companies
> they were convinced their japanese name sounded "too japanese", so
> they at first chose "Panasonic", and later "National". The same thing
> happened with Nissan, which named themself Datsun (oh there's a really
> non-japanese sounding name ... NOT!) in the early 1970's, but they
> both ended up changing names.
>
> - Don Gillies
> San Diego, CA