In article ,
Dane Buson writes:

Back in the '70s Bike Boom, we Canadians got these imported
Japanese Sekines, the finer editions of which had escrutcheons
sporting a brilliant-cut rhinestone. With it, and in the
right angle of the sun, you could reflectively direct an
annoying solar beam into the rv mirror of the car ahead
of you that hesitates too much when they can get across
the darn intersection. That was before the advent of
laser pointers. My beloved 27"-wheeled mixte has one
of those headbadges.

Oooeeer, shiny. I don't suppose you've obtained a camera with which to
take pictures of said shiny things?

I'm afraid I haven't yet had such an opportunity,
but if you Google on "Sekine bicycle" and throw in
the secondary keyword: "rhinestone," I'm sure you'll
get some worthwhile hits & pix.

IIRC Sekine was so popular in western Canada,
they set-up shop somewhere in Manitoba.

Sekine was a very progressive mfg, sending-out
all kinds of experimental stuff into the market.
E.g: my mixte originally came with Shimano's
'70s Front Freewheel System (FFS) which allows
a rider to shift gears while stationarily leaning
against a pole or something, and back-pedalling.
It also comes with allen-wrench-removable (One
Key Release[tm]) cranks. The fancily knurled &
chromed, round headset nuts require a 3 pinwrench.
The frame is beautifully lugged, and painted in
luscious raven black.

I can only describe the beauty of Sekines to
people who've never seen nor experienced them.
It kinda makes me feel alone.

Of course, later models were decadent.
As with any human creativeness, there's
a formative age, a classic/golden age,
and a decadent age.

I suspect Sekine kept old SunTour in business
for quite a while after SunTour might have
been faded out. Some of that SunTour crap
was actually pretty good crap. And still is.


cheers,
Tom

--
Nothing is safe from me.
I'm really at:
tkeats curlicue vcn dot bc dot ca