Kuwahara (bicycle manufacturer)
Kuwahara ( Japanese 桑 原 商会 , Kuwahara Shōkai ) is a Japanese bicycle manufacturer that produces both bicycle parts and complete bicycles. Today the company mainly builds high quality BMX and trial bikes .
The company was founded as a small family business in Osaka in 1918 by Sentarō Kuwahara ( 桑 原 仙 太郎 Kuwahara Sentarō ). In 1925 Kuwahara began exporting wheels and wheel parts to Russia, China and Southeast Asia.
The brand became internationally known through the film ET - The Extra Terrestrial . In the film a Kuwahara BMX is ridden. In the film produced in 1982, Eliot drives a KZ-2.5. The model was later renamed ET-1 and offered in a two-tone color, like the movie BMX. Kuwahara produced a high quality model and a model for the mass market in the USA.
Takuo Kuwahara ( 桑 原 拓 男 , Kuwahara Takuo ) founded KK Kuwahara International ( 株式会社 桑 原 イ ン タ ー ナ シ ョ ナ ル , Kabushiki kaisha Kuwahara Intānashonaru ) in 1988 . In 1989, the family company in Japan bought back the naming rights to the brand. In 1992 the Japanese plant was closed and production was outsourced.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c History. In: Kuwahara Bikeworks Japan. Retrieved April 29, 2014 (Japanese).
- ↑ Kuwahara ET model ET-1 or KZ-2.5 on dreamgate.ne.jp (English).
- ^ The Selling of ET In: New York . August 9, 1982, p. 15–16 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ History on the company homepage (English)