Nishiki was created by West Coast Cycle, founded by Leo Cohen Sr. and RosaBelle Cohen who had previously been partners in Wheel Goods Corporation in Minneapolis. They later moved to Los Angeles in 1946 to purchase an existing retail bicycle store, Atlas Cycle, renaming it Playrite Bicycle Supply Co.. The Cohens subsequently founded a bicycle, parts and accessory distribution company in the late 1950s, naming it West Coast Cycle Supply Company. They operated the company — widely known as West Coast Cycle (or WCC) — with their daughter Louise and sons Leo Jr. and Howie (Howard Sherwin Cohen). Howie Cohen subsequently took over the business, followed by his brother.

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When Cohen Sr. died in 1963, Howie Cohen traveled to Japan to find new sources for bicycles, especially, a Japanese bicycle factory capable of producing high quality bikes that would be welcomed by U.S. independent bike dealers and the bicycling community. He wanted bicycles that would be able to compete with American and European-built bicycles.

• Japanese bicycles are often of very fine quality, but few are available in the U.S. Market today, due to unfavorable currency exchange rates. There are still many very fine Japanese bicycles available on the used market, and this article is intended as a guide to them.
• Owner, Alan Goldsmith, also worked for Western States Imports (Centurion). While I have no Niko serial numbers, 1980s Niko models do strongly resemble Centurion and owners are suggested to check the serial number formats of Centurion contractors. NISHIKI (USA): See Araya, Dodsun, Fairly, Giant, Katakura, Kawamura, S(4).

Howie Cohen Builds The Business

Choose from Road, Touring, Cross Country, Special Edition and Fixie Frames manafictured by De Rosa, Nishiki, Miele, Jamis, Con. 390318-nishiki-serial-number-database.html Blue frame with.

Howie purchased Premium brand Hi-Riser bikes using H. Tano Shokai in the early 1960`s. These bikes were produced by Sakai Bicycle Co (Mr. Katayama, president).

Cohen also created working relationships with many other Japanese bicycle parts manufacturers including, Asahi, Araya, Dia-Compe, Kashima, Kusuki, Kyokuto (KKT), Mikashima (MKS), Mitsuboshi, Taihei, Sanshin, Shimano, Sugino, Takagi, Suntour and others.^[1] Cohen travelled to Japan 8-10 times per year while developing his brands (American Eagle, Nishiki, Azuki and CyclePro).

Howie Cohen Moves To Japan

Howie worked closely with Rio Marui, Sammy Shigemura & Ed Yokohama. Marui was an exporter and exported one expensive model of an American Eagle bicycle along with many different Japanese components to WCC. When WCC found it necessary for Howie to move & live in Japan, Marui was extremely helpful in loaning Howie`s family some furniture for the rented house in Kobe. Marui developed and owns the Tioga line of components & parts. Marui opened a USA office under the name Oriental Boeki, located in Glendale, CA; Rio`s son, Shinji, worked in this office with Mark Pippin.

Kawamura Cycles (aka Kawamura Sangyo Co., Ltd.) was the initial (original) maker of American Eagle and Nishiki brand bicycles. Howie met Mr Yukio Kawamura (aka Higesan because of his long standing mustache) in 1964 at which time he visited the factory for the first time.

Howie thought this factory would be able to produce high quality bicycles. The spirit and passion of Higesan and his staff convinced Howie to work closely with this firm. Higesan was a wise gentleman and took Howie under his wing and taught him much about the production of bicycles. Howie stayed in the Kawamura residence for weeks at a time. There were many staff members with whom Howie worked with over the years, a few of which were: Atsu Sawada, Ikutaki-san, Katchan, and others. Katsu Okuno, Higesan`s nephew lived in the Cohen`s home for several months while studying the American bicycle market.

H.Tano to Kawamura

Cohen placed his initial order for 570 bikes with Kawamura, selling them under the American Eagle brand. WCC sold tens of thousands of American Eagle bikes before changing the name — when a customer suggested it was disingenuous to put such an American-sounding name on a Japanese product.

WCC wanted a new, Japanese name that was easy to pronounce, with an none-offensive translation and a name easily pronounced. Cohen held a contest with Kawamura factory workers for Japanese names, choosing Nishiki for WCC’s primary, nationwide line of bikes (after Saga Nishiki and the gold Nishiki thread often woven into wedding kimonos). The name Azuki was chosen for the secondary bicycle line (after the sweetened, red Azuki bean), using the chrysanthemum as the Azuki logo.

A second line allowed WCC to market essentially identical bikes through more than just one dealership in a sales territory. Louisville Cycle & Supply (Louisville, KY) were sub-distributors for both brands in the Southeast, and Pettee Cycle (Denver, CO) were sub-distributors of both brands in Colorado and surrounding states. Kawamura trademarked both names for the Japanese Domestic Market and Europe, WCC trademarked the brands for the USA. Early promotional material for American Eagle and Nishiki lines often carried the tagline ‘KB Bicycles’ or simply ‘KB’ — signifying ‘Kawamura-Built.’ WCC continued also to market the bicycle brands of Mundo, Caloi, Windsor, Zeus, and Mondia.

Howie Cohen served as President of WCC from 1965 until his retirement in 1976. His brother, Leo Jr. along with some outside investors, subsequently took over operations of the business.

(L to R) WCC's Leo Cohen Jr, Bob Hansing, Mr. Ikutaki (chief engineer at Kawamura) and Howie Cohen standing in the Kawamura Bicycle Co display booth at the Japan Cycle Show, c.1972

Through the 1980s WCC continued to sell Nishiki bikes produced by Kawamura. International currency fluctuations in the late 1980s made Japanese-manufactured bicycles far more expensive and less competitive in the United States, leading WCC to move Nishiki production to Giant of Taiwan. Leo Cohen and his associates later sold West Coast Cycle to Medalist. Derby International eventually acquired the rights from West Coast Cycle to market bikes under the Nishiki brand in the United States.

After manufacture of Nishiki bikes shifted to Giant, Kawamura continued manufacturing bicycles for the Japanese and European markets (including private label bikes for Takara, Schwinn, and others), to be subsequently acquired by the sporting goods company Mizuno.

Howie Cohen later founded the company Everything Bicycles, working with Kuwahara to build and import BMX bikes carrying the Kuwahara brand name. He developed the first major BMX distributorship and ultimately supplied Kuwahara bicycles for the 1982 movie E.T. while securing the right to market the “ET Bicycle.” To make the Kuwahara brand name a household word, Cohen ran a promotion giving free stickers to children who called a toll-free phone number, then correctly pronounce the brand name. In 1989, Cohen sold the Kuwahara name back to the Japanese parent company. In 1992, Cohen returned to the bicycle industry to work with and assist the Gary Fisher bike brand. Eighteen months later Howie brokered the acquisition of Gary Fisher Mountain Bikes by Trek Bicycle Corporation.

Cohen later worked as a consultant in the bicycle industry for several companies, including Rotor Componentes of Spain, and subsequently retired from Lomita, California to Colorado where he and his wife, Kay (Kay Piercy Guithues Cohen) catalogued his collection of bicycling memorabilia and maintained his website, HowieBikeMan.com.

Nishiki Serial Number Location 1941 Packard 110 Coupe

When Howie Cohen died on July 11, 2013, Bicycle Retailer said he was “a hugely influential figure in developing the U.S. BMX market and arguably the first person to bring high-quality Asian-made bikes to America.”

Nishiki Serial Number Location 1

Derby

From 1989 through 2001, Derby International marketed bikes in the United States under the Nishiki name, as well as Univega and Raleigh brand names. Some of the all terrain bikes and mountain bike models were designed in partnership with famed mountain bike designer and Mountain Bike Hall of Fame member R. Cunningham. These Nishiki models, though manufactured outside Japan (e.g., in Taiwan, by Giant Bicycles and possibly in Italy by Colnago, Olmo or Viner) often carried the name Nashiki and some of the same model names as had been used on the Kuwahara-built bicycles.

In order to sell “American” Nishikis outside USA Derby Cycles were forced to use the brand name Cyclpro, formerly used for mail order and department store bicycles in the home market. Sometimes Cyclpro bicycles had “Nishiki” engraved in the frame which caused some confusion. After a period as a department store brand, Derby ceased selling Nishiki in the USA in 2001.

Nishiki Serial Number Location 2001 Honda Foreman Rubicon

Nishiki Beyond 2010

As of 2010, Nishiki-branded bicycles, manufactured by Accell Group were available for sale again in the U.S. at Dick’s Sporting Goods. Dick’s had obtained licensing rights to the Nishiki Bike brand in the U.S.

Nishiki Bike Serial Number Location

Currently (2013), Nishiki Europe, an unrelated group of European distributors markets bicycle models in Denmark, Finland, and Sweden. Nishiki bikes had previously been also marketed in Norway, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Estonia.