# Japanese Twins, 22 yrs old, Pics!



## deadmanschest (Apr 15, 2007)

Thought I'd post images of my 1985 Kuwahara 'Siera (sic) Grande (s)" and see what people might know about Kuwahara in the 1980s.

The Twins;








Couldn't get a clean background so messy..

The Original I bought in 1985, almost all stock, except for changers, saddle, freewheel (no more Suntour Winner Pro)...









The SS conversion of my townie, errands, shopping, bar bike;









Bad speeling, good frames out of Osaka;









Bullmoose;









Original high flange Shimano hubs;









BearPaw Suntour XC II;









Suntour Seat Clamp;









Kuwahara BB adjustable cup, not many of these left I guess;









Metallic Green paint;









Wide profile Cantis;









Vintage StagHead Changers;









All I know of Kuwahara is the long history of bikes and big in BMX in the 70s and 80s. Of course, Speilberg's ET bikes are famous. Seems that most were exported to Canada, Europe and Aus, and not much to the US?

I took a course at Capilano college ("North Shore") in the early 80s in Wilderness First Aid, and there was a bike courier taking the same course. I was looking at buying a MTB and there was Fisher, Ritchey, local Rocky Mountain, Stumpjumpers, and others. All were fairly steep in those days. My courier pal told me that of all the bikes they used, abused and trashed, that of all the frames and all the models, the Kuwies were the only frames that nobody could break...

That sort of stuck and when I found a good deal on the Original I bought it and had it since. The SS conversion (recent) was an almost complete carcass I found at a thrift store 3-4 years ago, and was my Winter/errand/bar beater and now my regular SS

Love the buttery ride, the relaxed headangle, long chrome fork floats over, and long wheelbase is comfy ...

The Original is in semi-slick town mode........

Sharp eyes may see the "Shimano Super Plate" on the RD. The SuperPlate was this weird cable driven pivot that rotates and gave really long travel...

After 1985 Kuwahara started getting into really ugly colour schemes (the 1986 Siera Grande was this nasty white rainbow jersey thing) and then it got really bad. I don't know what happened after that.

I was lucky I think that everything at that time was Japanese made, before the off-shore to off-shore moves that happened the following few years.

Oh yeah, the SS is a magic gear, 36t - 16t, I Dremmeled the spindle of the QR by one-third to give a little wiggle room, and chain tension is great....

Any Kuwahara stories to tell?

Cheers

dmc


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## Veloculture (Dec 18, 2005)

nicely built old machines but those aren't exactly the 22 year old Japanese twins i was hoping to find in this thread.


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## Welsh Dave (Jul 26, 2005)

Veloculture said:


> ...those aren't exactly the 22 year old Japanese twins i was hoping to find in this thread.


Same here.

Nice bikes, though. :thumbsup:


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## ScottyMTB (Oct 26, 2005)

Welsh Dave said:


> Same here.
> 
> Nice bikes, though. :thumbsup:


Me too! 

There is a guy out here in Denver that has been listing a pretty nice one on CL for a long time, in case you were looking for another.


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## rockyuphill (Nov 28, 2004)

My first ATB was a Kuwahara Apollo that I bought in 1984, it was a dark wine red colour and an amazing 15 speeds. Same bars and the frame looked pretty much the same as far as construction details. I can't remember if it had a clever misspelled model name as that has faded into the recesses of the mind. I do remember I bought it for about $375 and sold it 3 years later for about $350 because mountain bikes had taken off in popularity. 

That Kuwahara permanently changed me from roadie to a dirt rider. It was just so handy having the friction shifters on the bars instead of the downtube, that alone likely saved me from a few dozen crashes, even on city bike paths.


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## deadmanschest (Apr 15, 2007)

*Japanese Triplets ...hehehe*



ScottyMTB said:


> Me too!
> 
> There is a guy out here in Denver that has been listing a pretty nice one on CL for a long time, in case you were looking for another.


 Man's got to know his limitations....

cheers

dmc


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## deadmanschest (Apr 15, 2007)

*enlightenment....hehe..*



rockyuphill said:


> My first ATB was a Kuwahara Apollo that I bought in 1984...
> 
> That Kuwahara permanently changed me from roadie to a dirt rider. It was just so handy having the friction shifters on the bars instead of the downtube, that alone likely saved me from a few dozen crashes, even on city bike paths.


hi rockyuphill - I had the same epiphany in 1985. We all used to ride "10 speeds" as it seemed every road bike was called, skinny rock hard tires, vibration and sore elbows, and then I rode around on an ATB and never looked back.

Even today as I ride over icy patches, sewer grates, gravel, potholes and curbs or concrete ramps and dirveways with the little raised lip where it meets asphalt I think I'd be dead ten times over if riding drop bars and skinny tires.....hehe.....


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