South Salem Cycleworks: Salem, Oregon
(503) 480-2001
email: sscycleworks@comcast.net
We have a huge stock of vintage and modern parts. Contact us!

Nishiki Bicycles and Frames

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Nishiki bicycles were produced in Japan by the Kawamura factory 1972 - 1987 for West Coast Cycle Supply (WCC). WCC was owned by the Cohen family, who had been in cycle trade for decades when they began importing their own brand of bikes. The first bikes of the Kawamura production that WCC brought in were branded "American Eagle". The name was quickly changed to "Nishiki".

Those Kawamura-produced bicycles were of very high quality and were hit from the day the first ones arrived in the U.S.

In the late 1980s, because of the poor Yen/Dollar exchange rate, production of Nishiki bikes was moved to Giant's Taiwan factory.

On this page: 26-inch wheel Nishiki Mixte bicycle | 52cm Prestige frame | 57cm Olympic Royale frameset


17 inch (26-inch wheel) Nishiki Mixte bicycle. Used, but completely rebuilt & highly upgraded, $500.00

17" seat tube x 19" effective top tube

This is one of our own family bikes that is no longer being ridden. With all the love we put into it, we really want someone to be enjoying it out on the road.

  • Made in Japan for Nishiki by the highly regarded Kawamura factory.
  • It came from the factory with 24-inch steel wheels, but we upgraded it to 26-inch lightweight wheels.
  • We realigned the rear triangle to 130mm, allowing us to mount a 7-speed freewheel.

Wheels:

  • SunTour Superbe rear 32-hole x Sachs New Success 28-hole hubs, both cartridge bearing, with their orginal skewers
  • DT Revolution spokes with purple allow nipples
  • Ambrosio alloy double-wall clincher rims with eyelets
  • Rox Rox SuperDutE rimstrips, presta-valve tubes
  • Ritchey Tom Slick folding 26 x 1 tires
  • Shimano Mega 7-speed 14-32 freewheel

Drivetrain and gears:

  • Sugino 150mm crankset converted by a metalsmith from a double to a triple 28/38/48
  • Bottom bracket is Shimano UN72
  • SRAM 3.0 twist grip shifters
  • SRAM 5.0 rear derailleur
  • Shimano RX 100 front derailleur

Other parts

  • Dia Compe Royal Gran Compe 500 brake calipers. Sweet!
  • North Road bend alloy handlebars.
  • Sakae SR stem
  • Kalloy micro-adjust seat post
  • Odyssey Svelte cartridge bearing pedals. Toe clips are modified to half-clips
  • Odyssey Pro cartridge bearing headset with pinch-bolt to secure setting
  • Bell is an Incredibell
  • Zefal fenders. They were designed for 700c wheels, so they aren't a perfect fit. But they do keep water off the rider.
  • Blackburn mountain rack
  • RavX multi-function tail light (uses AAA battery)

Nishiki mixte icycle

Note the various color-coordinated purple parts, including the pedals and headset.

Nichiki Mixte bike

From the front, showing the comfortable swept-back North Road light alloy handlebars.

Nishiki bicycle

Close-up of the head tube, showing the Odyssey headset and Royal Gran Compe brake calipers

Nishiki bicycle

The 28-hole front wheel with the Sachs New Success (their top-of-the-line) hub.

Rear wheel

The rear wheel, made with a SunTour Superbe 32-hole hub.

Nishiki bicycle

Here's our Lizzie about to go on a ride on the Nishiki.

Nishiki bicycle

Lizzie and the bike with Mew the Cat.

Lizzie on Nishiki bike

Off to school


52cm Nishiki Prestige frame. Used, $250.00

52cm seat tube x 54cm top tube

  • 95mm head tube
  • Forged dropouts with eyelets
  • Two sets of water-bottle bottle braze-ons
  • Tange 2 double-butted cro-moly tubing
  • Down-tube braze-on for SunTour Symmetric shifters. We have Symmetric shifters in stock. On other frames we have converted that braze-on to a cable stop, allowing the use of handlebar-mounted shifters, such as Ergo or fingertips. Please take a look at the second picture in this post for an example of this conversion.
  • We have a good stock of forks, both carbon and steel.
  • We date this frame to the mid-1980s

Nishiki Pretige

With a little work, this will make a very special bike. It is well-made from top-notch materials.

Sfiter braze-on

We can make a nice adapter for the top-of-the-downtube shifter boss so that the bike still looks good and functions the way you want it to. Here's one we did a while back.


57cm Nishiki Olympic Royale frameset. Used, $200.00

57cm seat tube x 57cm top tube

  • Made for 27-inch wheels
  • 150mm head tube
  • Serial number KH03391
  • Cromoly steel, lugged frame
  • Made by Kawamura in Japan in the 1970s
  • Comes with headset, seatpost and Dia-Compe centerpull brake calipers

Nishiki Olympic Royale

Eyelets on the dropouts make it easy to mount fenders or racks.