Yamaguchi Bicycles

[bumperjohn]

I am curious if any forum members have experience with Koichi Yamaguchi and his frames? http://www.yamaguchibike.com/content/Index
He has quite an impressive resume, not a long wait time, and his prices are more than reasonable. I am looking to have a fixed gear training bike built and he is one of the builders on my short list. Here are some pictures of his work: http://s207.photobucket.com/albums/bb298/YAMAGUCHI_Bicycles/

I am looking for any feedback please on Mr Yamaguchi, and even suggestions for other builders, to build my bike. Thanks for your time!

John

[gregclimbs]

I have a yamaguchi which used to belong to VdV for the onlypic pursuits...

nice bike, beautiful craftsmanship:

http://wattagetraining.com/yamaguchi

g

[mister]

my brother had one built.
just don't mention the words tight clearances or keirin type geometry...lol.
he can only run a 20c tire on the front because a 23c has about 1mm of clearance at the downtube.

very nice work though.

[ADD]

I had one built a couple months ago. Its gorgeous and rides really well.
I ended up choosing headtube mounted brazeons.....bad choice not nearly enough clearance with the front break. Unfortunitly communicating with him leaves something to be desired.

[Acotts]

I have a yamaguchi which used to belong to VdV for the onlypic pursuits...

nice bike, beautiful craftsmanship:

http://wattagetraining.com/yamaguchi

g


I am guessing that is not your 'round-the-town" coffee shop bike.

Really cool bike.

Back to the OP, my buddy in colorado got a fixed built from him. He asked for the road geometry, with the "aero" tubes as opposed to the track bike. He got it in the ugliest greyish mustard yellow that with the red logos look amazing.

Also, the custom stems are top-notch. If my Thompson wasn't so pretty and effective, I would put them on all my bikes.

I dont think it is surprising how "tight" his track bikes are given his resume. his track bikes are really just for the track.

The roadbike was also a real rocket of a bike. Very stiff, with a lot of jump to it. I think it is safe to say that his talent is in building Race Bikes, (I am sure he is talented enough to build anything you want as well. Just race bikes are his specialty.)

Take this with a grain of salt. I do not own one. I just have coveted them and made my freind get one when he was looking. We were both very happy with the decision.

-A

[William]

http://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?t=43168

Yamaguchi makes very nice frames. It was actually one of my first choices the first time I bought a custom frame. It was a toss up between that and Serotta. Serotta won out but I would still love to get a Guch one day

He’s made frames for the Olympic and National teams in the past so I think he has a pretty good idea how to build them. I’ve known a couple of guys who had them and they rave about them. Up close they were flawless. I’m a sucker for a good fillet brazed frame and his were amazingly well done. As I said, one of these days I’ll get one built up for me.


William

[Acotts]

Solid!

[Acotts]

huh, it looks like he worked with Ben to build the USA and USSR olympic cycling bikes. Was the USSR still the USSR in 1990?

1990
Work with Ben Serrotta (Serotta Storts)Designed & Built US National Team and USSR National Team frames -http://www.yamaguchibike.com/content/History/Work_Experience

[cadence90]

He definitely has a reputaion as a very good builder, but I found him a bit difficult to communicate with and I thought he had very strong opinions (which I think he has earned, though, and is not necessarily a bad thing).

I've seen some really beautiful Yamaguchis, and he's always on my short list when I think of a new frame. I get the impression he's an honest, direct, committed, experienced, talented builder.

Edit: to answer the Op's second question: after emailing 5 known builders re: a fixed-gear, I ended up going with (don't have it yet) Steve Rex.
Nothing against Yamaguchi at all; I just felt I "hit it off" with Steve.
Either builder is extremely capable at fillet-brazing.

[John H.]

You will love your Rex- when is he building it?

He definitely has a reputaion as a very good builder, but I found him a bit difficult to communicate with and I thought he had very strong opinions (which I think he has earned, though, and is not necessarily a bad thing).

I've seen some really beautiful Yamaguchis, and he's always on my short list when I think of a new frame. I get the impression he's an honest, direct, committed, experienced, talented builder.

Edit: to answer the Op's second question: after emailing 5 known builders re: a fixed-gear, I ended up going with (don't have it yet) Steve Rex.
Nothing against Yamaguchi at all; I just felt I "hit it off" with Steve.
Either builder is extremely capable at fillet-brazing.

[MIN]

the brown 'guch is stunning. :beer:

[bumperjohn]

I appreciate all of the feedback.

John

[cadence90]

You will love your Rex- when is he building it?
As soon as I send him the money. :D
2-3 months max. I'm excited about it. He seems like a super guy.

[ADD]

Here is mine.....the photo really does not do it justice

[cmg]

Here is mine.....the photo really does not do it justice

how does it ride?

[BigDaddySmooth]

Is the tubeset S3?

Seeing that straight blade steel fork has me re-thinking the carbon fork I have on mine. Yours looks great!

[William]

Here is mine.....the photo really does not do it justice



Very nice!!! :cool: Love the Guch!!!


Now, that droopy nosed saddle is gonna take a bit of getting used to for me... :)




William

[Smiley]

Bumperman , If I recall properly Yamagucci started building frames here when working at Proteus Cycles in College Park MD under Larry Dean who owned the store way and I mean way back when.

[Samster]

!

[ADD]

Nope, no S3, its his Bioconic-RCX tubing. I was thinking of going with Life tubing but he was recommending his tubing, so I went with it, figure he knows whats up;)
The ride is really nice. I was surprised how stiff it is, still smooth and it handles great.

[timto]

Very nicely done Bigdaddy you should post yours!!

[rosss]

heres a horrible pic of my yamaguchi. best fitting bike i have ever owned. very responsive. custom stem is awesome
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3176/2627483365_f1f5fe6bc6_b.jpg

[thugly]

droooool

[William]

heres a horrible pic of my yamaguchi. best fitting bike i have ever owned. very responsive. custom stem is awesome
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3176/2627483365_f1f5fe6bc6_b.jpg


Mmmmm......
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Ok, I must go change my shirt now. :cool:






William

[William]

Btw,

I’m happy to see Yamaguchi getting some love here. I’ve admired his work since the mid 90’s and he’s always been among the top builders on my list. Just one of those things where each time it came to pulling the trigger I edged to another builder….after much see-sawing back and forth. Seeing these Guch’s makes me lust again. :crap:

Someday. Someday.



William

[BigDaddySmooth]

Very nicely done Bigdaddy you should post yours!!

I'll post mine.

Timto,
Thanks to your graciousness, I have a great Yama...thanks again. Everytime I ride it, it amazes me. I'm giving serious thought to getting a straight blade steel fork. Got to do something with all that hazardous duty pay :D

[William]

Kilo pursuit frame
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/195/449022819_3df0ede052.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1003/570589214_a69386fa37.jpg?v=0

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1426/571061921_68e64e8a01.jpg?v=0

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1045/571061297_ace97b3476.jpg?v=0

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1116/571060109_3bbbbb0b3f.jpg?v=0

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1070/570587568_63060a83b0.jpg?v=0

http://velospace.org/files/built-guch.jpg

Marty Northstein on a re-badged Yamaguchi
http://www.grahamwatson.com/2000/other/images/track/image13.jpg

Concept track
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2365/2145173481_4d65a71429.jpg?v=0

[William]

Bumperman , If I recall properly Yamagucci started building frames here when working at Proteus Cycles in College Park MD under Larry Dean who owned the store way and I mean way back when.

Yup. Did a stint with Ben too....



1. 1977 - 1981
* Chief Frame Builder 3 RENSHO. Built frames for Japanese Professional Keirin riders
* Built for Koichi Nakano (10 time Pro Sprint World Champion) and France Look Team Steve Bauer
* Japan AMA/PRO Federation National Mechanic
2. 1982 - 1987
* Nakamura Bicycles Research & Development Department.; Team Nakamura Director Sportif and Mechanic
3. 1987 - 1988
* Chief Frame Builder and Mechanic for Proteus Design (Maryland)
4. 1988 - 1991

* Full time Assistant to US National Team Manager (Bill Woodul) USCF at Colorado Springs, CO
5. 1988 - 1992
* US National Team Mechanic USCF; Cat 1
6. 1988 - 1989
* Founded Yamaguchi Bicycles, Inc
* Work with Huffy Corp. (Mike Milton) Olympic Bike Mechanic at Colorado Springs, CO
* Designed and Built Team Time Trial Frame for John Stenner (3rd in FinalStage of Tour de Trump).
* Baltic Sea Stage Race Mechanic at Finland-U.S.S.R.
* World Championship Mechanic at Lyon France . Jr. World Championship Mechanic at Moscow U.S.S.R.
7. 1990
* Work with Ben Serrotta (Serotta Storts)Designed & Built US National Team and USSR National Team frames
* US National Team Mechanic at Tour de Texas
* US National Team Mechanic at Tour de Trump
* World Championship Mechanic at Japan
* Designed & Built World Championship US National Team Tandem frame
* Designed & Built Finland National Team kilo frame
8. 1991
* Contract with Performance/USCF to build all US National Team frames
* Designed US National Team Tube sets at True Temper Research & Development
* World Championship Mechanic at Stuttgart Germany
9. 1992
* Contract with Performance/USCF and USOC to build all US Olympic Team frames
* Designed & Built Finland Olympic Team kilo frame
* Erin Hartwell Olympic Bronze 1k:1st medal ever for the US in Olympic 1k at Barcelona Spain
* Olympic Team Mechanic at Barcelona Spain
* Designed and Built Mike McCarthy pursuit frame Professional World Champion 1992 at Valencia Spain
* Designed & built US Women's Team Time Trial frames World Champions 92 (1st medal ever for the US}
* World Championship Mechanic at Valencia Spain
* US Team Maneger/Mechanic at Japan International Road Race
10. 1993
* Designed & built Rebecca Twigg's Aero Stem {World Record Pursuit}
* Designed & built Team EDS bikes
* Masters Nationals Track Mechanic at Colorado Springs
11. 1994
* Designed & built Steve Hegg's World Championship (Hammer, Norway) Point Race frame
* UCI World Cup Track Final Mechanic at Colorado Springs
12. 1995
* Pre Olympic Mechanic at Colorado Springs
13. 1994 - 1999
* Designed & built Electromagnetic training machines for USOC Sports Science and also for U.S. Sprint program
14. 1998
* Opened the Yamaguchi Bicycles Framebuilding School
15. 2000
* Designed, built & partially sponsored ParaOlympic Team of Al Whaley and Pam Fernandes tandem Gold and World Record 1 kilometer Time Trial. Silver in Sprint.




rosss - What bars are those on your Guch?


William

[rosss]

steel nittos

[texbike]

I've heard that Yamaguchi also built the GT National Team bikes used during the mid 90s. Is there any truth to that?

There has been a NOS GT National Team frame for sale locally for the past month. It sure is tempting..... :)

Texbike

[William]

steel nittos


Thanks. That's what I thought but wasn't 100%


I've heard that Yamaguchi also built the GT National Team bikes used during the mid 90s. Is there any truth to that?

There has been a NOS GT National Team frame for sale locally for the past month. It sure is tempting.....

Texbike

Since he built them for the team, I don't think that there would be a NOS laying around...but I could be wrong. You might want to e-mail Yamaguchi (through the website) and ask how to I.D. it to be sure. Even so, mid 90's GT's were fun bikes imho.



William

[Monthly Payment]

* Contract with Performance/USCF to build all US National Team frames

William

Hey - anyone else remember a 1991/1992 Performance branded, USCF logo'd Yamaguchi built complete bike? I think it was white. I remember seeing it on the inside of a Performance catalog and thinking it was so sweet. Just wish I wasn't 14 then, and had some money to have ordered it.

[William]

Hey - anyone else remember a 1991/1992 Performance branded, USCF logo'd Yamaguchi built complete bike? I think it was white. I remember seeing it on the inside of a Performance catalog and thinking it was so sweet. Just wish I wasn't 14 then, and had some money to have ordered it.


Found this posted elsewhere but it sounds correct:

Yeah, the funny thing is that GT totally blew a great deal. Yamaguchi was the last ever framebuilder that the USCF actually selected to build the frames for the US Teams. The frames were white colored branded with the Performance label, as in the PerformanceBike.com mail order company we all know, and they also had yellow Yamaguchi decals on them.

When the sponsorship w-hores that took over our sport and came in, GT basically ripped Yamaguchi's Triple Triangle seatstay design. I'm sure that was his design because there were some 3Rensho bikes (when Yama was the head builder there) way back before the 80s that had these. GT acted like the had it patented or something. :rolleyes: I believe there might be a pic on OldSkoolTrack.com or another one of those fixie sites.

Anyway, if I'm not mistaken I think it was a US rider (Jeff Evanshine, maybe?) that broke a GT Tig bike on the downtube and had to get it replaced. Rather than getting a replacement GT, he just had his old Yamaguchi frame repainted with the GT red/blue paint scheme. It was a frame that Yamaguchi made for him the year before when he was riding on the National B team. In fact, many of the riders just decided straight up to have their old Performance-Yama frame repainted the GT colors. So, if lucky you happen upon a mid 1990s red/white/blue US National Team GT that is fillet-brazed, chances are it may have been a Yamaguchi anyway depending on whose bike it was.



William

[paczki]

Found this posted elsewhere but it sounds correct:

Yeah, the funny thing is that GT totally blew a great deal. Yamaguchi was the last ever framebuilder that the USCF actually selected to build the frames for the US Teams. The frames were white colored branded with the Performance label, as in the PerformanceBike.com mail order company we all know, and they also had yellow Yamaguchi decals on them.

When the sponsorship w-hores that took over our sport and came in, GT basically ripped Yamaguchi's Triple Triangle seatstay design. I'm sure that was his design because there were some 3Rensho bikes (when Yama was the head builder there) way back before the 80s that had these. GT acted like the had it patented or something. :rolleyes: I believe there might be a pic on OldSkoolTrack.com or another one of those fixie sites.

Anyway, if I'm not mistaken I think it was a US rider (Jeff Evanshine, maybe?) that broke a GT Tig bike on the downtube and had to get it replaced. Rather than getting a replacement GT, he just had his old Yamaguchi frame repainted with the GT red/blue paint scheme. It was a frame that Yamaguchi made for him the year before when he was riding on the National B team. In fact, many of the riders just decided straight up to have their old Performance-Yama frame repainted the GT colors. So, if lucky you happen upon a mid 1990s red/white/blue US National Team GT that is fillet-brazed, chances are it may have been a Yamaguchi anyway depending on whose bike it was.



William

That is really adding insult to injury. Rosss's Yamaguchi is one of the finest looking bikes I've ever seen. It's like a Bauhaus bike -- purest efficiency and utility is for me the most beautiful.

[William]

That is really adding insult to injury. Rosss's Yamaguchi is one of the finest looking bikes I've ever seen. It's like a Bauhaus bike -- purest efficiency and utility is for me the most beautiful.



Agree with you on both counts there. I wasn’t aware that GT may have ripped off his design. I figured probably a collaborative effort, or at least permission of some sort.

Rosss’s Guchi is one beautiful ride. Functionality at its best.




William

[victoryfactory]

heres a horrible pic of my yamaguchi. best fitting bike i have ever owned. very responsive. custom stem is awesome
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3176/2627483365_f1f5fe6bc6_b.jpg

Rosss;

What a beauty!
Do you ride/race on the track with the speedplay pedals?
How does that work for you?

VF

[rosss]

speedplays work fine on the track, for me at least..
who told you otherwise?

[victoryfactory]

Thanks for the info, I've used Speedplays on the road for years.
I was thinking about trying some fixed gear riding, and I was wondering
if I could stay with the Speedplays.

VF

[r_mutt]

i mostly see yamaguchi track frames, but rarely do i see road frames. how do the yamaguchi road frames compare to the track frames? i was planning on ordering a landshark, but this thread has me intrigued.



:cool:

[William]

Well, you can't go wrong with a Landshark. Some folks aren't so crazy about the paint jobs, but they are fine works worthy of being near the top of anybodies list. That being said, I feel like Yamaguchi edges them out...but that's just my opinion. The folks that I've known who have had them (road and track) loved them. Flawless work and a beautiful ride.


William

[sashae]

http://subtle.org/se/gallery/d/9582-2/IMGP4466.jpg

http://subtle.org/se/gallery/d/9579-2/IMGP4463.jpg

http://subtle.org/se/gallery/d/9573-2/IMGP4457.jpg

http://subtle.org/se/gallery/d/9570-2/IMGP4453.jpg

[William]

SWEET!! :cool:

And I love the color!!



William

[r_mutt]

sashea-

that is a really beautiful bike! when did you buy it? did you order it custom or did you buy it used?

what's the ride like? how's the fit? how did the whole ordering process go?



:beer:

[steveo]

Resurrecting the dead?

Here's a photo of my Yamaguchi built "GT." Ridden by a 1996 Olympian.

http://velospace.org/files/ygt1.jpg

My favorite bike 'til this day. Just sold it for a road bike though.

[Pete Serotta]

:banana: :banana:

Resurrecting the dead?

Here's a photo of my Yamaguchi built "GT." Ridden by a 1996 Olympian.

http://velospace.org/files/ygt1.jpg

My favorite bike 'til this day. Just sold it for a road bike though.

[William]

Man, nothing like being all hot and bothered first thing in the morning. :crap:


Yama's get me going. :cool: Nice!






William

[William]

Just because.... :D




William

[William]

2:cool:

[William]

3:cool:

[William]

Claimed Yamaguchi cross bike...


.

[William]

And of course...stem.

[Gsinill]

Just because.... :D


http://forums.thepaceline.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=1697925003&stc=1&d=1471469714

William

Easiest paint job ever!!!

[thirdgenbird]

I've been wanting to try that finish on a frame.

[gm1230126]

Found this posted elsewhere but it sounds correct:

Yeah, the funny thing is that GT totally blew a great deal. Yamaguchi was the last ever framebuilder that the USCF actually selected to build the frames for the US Teams. The frames were white colored branded with the Performance label, as in the PerformanceBike.com mail order company we all know, and they also had yellow Yamaguchi decals on them.

When the sponsorship w-hores that took over our sport and came in, GT basically ripped Yamaguchi's Triple Triangle seatstay design. I'm sure that was his design because there were some 3Rensho bikes (when Yama was the head builder there) way back before the 80s that had these. GT acted like the had it patented or something. :rolleyes: I believe there might be a pic on OldSkoolTrack.com or another one of those fixie sites.

Anyway, if I'm not mistaken I think it was a US rider (Jeff Evanshine, maybe?) that broke a GT Tig bike on the downtube and had to get it replaced. Rather than getting a replacement GT, he just had his old Yamaguchi frame repainted with the GT red/blue paint scheme. It was a frame that Yamaguchi made for him the year before when he was riding on the National B team. In fact, many of the riders just decided straight up to have their old Performance-Yama frame repainted the GT colors. So, if lucky you happen upon a mid 1990s red/white/blue US National Team GT that is fillet-brazed, chances are it may have been a Yamaguchi anyway depending on whose bike it was.



William


This is a story and nothing more....total fallacy. Internet rumor. GT had some of the best welders that ever held a torch working at their Tech Shop in Longmont. GT brought more research, wind tunnel testing, product and money into the USCF with their Project 96 than any other company in the prior USCF history.

-Dave Tiemeyer
-Mark Nobilette
-Nalby Varoqua
-Dave Norton
-Jason Hamburg

Recognize a few builders names here?