Centurion (bicycle)
Encyclopedia
Centurion was a brand
of bicycle
s created in 1969 by Mitchell (Mitch) M. Weiner and Junya (Cozy) Yamakoshi, who co-founded Western States Import Co. (WSI) in Canoga Park, California (initially Wil-Go Imports) to design, specify, distribute and market the bicycles. The bikes themselves were manufactured initially in Japan
by companies including H. Tano Company of Kobe
and later in Taiwan by companies including Merida
. The Centurion brand was consolidated with WSI's mountain bike brand Diamond Back in 1990. WSI ceased operations in 2000.
Centurion and WSI competed in the U.S. against domestic and European bicycle manufacturers including Schwinn, Raleigh
, Peugeot
, Gitane
and Motobecane
— as well as other nascent Japanese bicycle brands including Miyata
, Fuji, Bridgestone, Panasonic, Univega
, Lotus
and Nishiki
— itself a line of Japanese-manufactured bicycles that were specified, distributed and marketed by West Coast Cycles — a U.S. company similar to WSI. Japanese-manufactured bikes succeeded in the U.S. market until currency fluctuations in the late 1980s made them less competitive, leading companies to source bicycles from Taiwan.
WSI marketed the Centurion brand of road
and touring bicycle
s in the United States using the tag line "Where Centurion leads, others must follow" and "A Lifetime Bicycle", offering a warranty without time limit. For a brief period the bikes carried a "Centurion Bicycle Works" headbadge.
Raleigh's sales agent, Mitchell Weiner, who was reading The New Centurions
at the time, took receipt of the bikes, placed Centurion decals on the bikes and marketed them successfully, subsequently forming Western State Imports after merging with Rick Wilson's company, Wil-Go of Santa Clara, California. Because the bikes had all been intended as Raleigh Grand Prix models, as Centurions, they carried the colors of the Raleigh America Grand Prix model.
Cozy Yamakoshi served as the company's product development manager, designing the bike's frames, coordinating the manufacture of the bikes by Japanese manufacturers, and importing the bikes into the US. Subsequently, around 1986, Centurion introduced their first Taiwanese
built model, the Signet. The Cinelli Equipe Centurion of 1985 (only) was a joint-venture of WSI and Cinelli
of Italy.
Early bike sales were limited to the West Coast, with the brand receiving wider exposure by the late 1970s. WSI stopped using the Centurion brand name in 1990,
consolidating their road and touring bikes under the Diamond Back (later DiamondBack) brand. While the brand Centurion had become well known, under the new brand name the company's market for road and touring bicycles soon evaporated. Early Diamond Back models (ca. 1990) carried a top tube decal reading "Centurion Designed" and stickers near the bottom bracket reading "Designed in the USA" and "Exclusively built for WSI." Diamondback Bicycles
was eventually sold to Raleigh USA, and manufacture was moved to Taiwan.
WSI later opened an office in Van Nuys, California, and eventually maintained offices in Dallas, Texas
, Denver, Colorado
and Dayton, New Jersey
— in addition a headquarters in Newbury Park, California
. After Weiner died, the company continued its growth under the management of Mike Bobrick.
Cozy Yamakoshi, product and development manager, worked with Mike Bobrick (Executive President of WSI) and Sandy Finkelman (1947–2005)(Diamond Back team manager and product development) and left Diamond Back in 1986, to start Parkpre Mountain Bike in 1989. Parkpre USA was based in Moorpark, Southern California, USA., producing bikes from the early 1990s until 1998. Ken Yamakoshi, son of Cozy Yamakoshi, is in the process of re-launching Parkpre in the US.
Touring models:
Elite GT
Pro Tour
General Purpose models:
Lemans
Lemans RS
Super Lemans
Lemans 12
Semi Pro
Sport
Sport DLX
Elite
Commuter 5
Accordo
Signet
Omega
Cavaletto
Road and racing models:
Turbo
Compa TA
Cinelli Equipe
Prestige
Facet (aluminum)
Carbon
Ironman Dave Scott
Dave Scott Ironman Expert
Dave Scott Ironman Master
Dave Scott Ironman Carbon
Centurion models manufactured in Japan between 1980-1990 use a serial number format WXYZZZZ with:
W = a letter, purpose uncertain, possibly indicates a manufacturer or Centurion;
X = a number, indicating the calendar year of manufacture;
Y = a letter, indicating the fortnight of manufacture (A = wk 1 & 2, B = wk 3 & 4, etc.)
ZZZZ = four digit number, probably indicating frame number during fortnight of manufacture.
N4E0283, as an example, would indicate this is the 283rd frame made during the period of weeks 9-10 in 1984. Barring a major components upgrade at some point in a bike's history, one can confirm a bike's age by the dates found on the majority of components in its groupset.
(Credit Note: Serial Number decoding by Tom Marshall, Canadian engineer, racer and runner)
Brand
The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."...
of bicycle
Bicycle
A bicycle, also known as a bike, pushbike or cycle, is a human-powered, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A person who rides a bicycle is called a cyclist, or bicyclist....
s created in 1969 by Mitchell (Mitch) M. Weiner and Junya (Cozy) Yamakoshi, who co-founded Western States Import Co. (WSI) in Canoga Park, California (initially Wil-Go Imports) to design, specify, distribute and market the bicycles. The bikes themselves were manufactured initially in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
by companies including H. Tano Company of Kobe
Kobe
, pronounced , is the fifth-largest city in Japan and is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture on the southern side of the main island of Honshū, approximately west of Osaka...
and later in Taiwan by companies including Merida
Merida Bikes
Merida Industry Co., Ltd is a Taiwan based bicycle design, manufacture, and sales company. It was started in 1972 as a small contract shop under a Japanese bicycle parts brand, by current chairman D.H. Ike, Tseng. Merida has expanded to the US and Europe and is now a global player in bicycle...
. The Centurion brand was consolidated with WSI's mountain bike brand Diamond Back in 1990. WSI ceased operations in 2000.
Centurion and WSI competed in the U.S. against domestic and European bicycle manufacturers including Schwinn, Raleigh
Raleigh Bicycle Company
The Raleigh Bicycle Company is a bicycle manufacturer originally based in Nottingham, UK. It is one of the oldest bicycle companies in the world. From 1921 to 1935 Raleigh also produced motorcycles and three-wheel cars, leading to the formation of the Reliant Company.-Early years:Raleigh's history...
, Peugeot
Cycles Peugeot
Peugeot was a manufacturer in the French bicycle industry through the 20th century.-History:Peugeot was a French manufacturer of bicycles founded by Jean Pequignot Peugeot who, in the 19th century, made water mills...
, Gitane
Gitane
Gitane is a French manufacturer of bicycles based in Machecoul, France; the name "Gitane" means gypsy woman. The brand was synonymous with French bicycle racing from the 1960s through the mid-1980s, sponsoring riders such as Jacques Anquetil , Lucien Van Impe , Bernard Hinault , Laurent Fignon ,...
and Motobecane
Motobécane
Motobécane was a French manufacturer of bicycles, mopeds, motorcycles, and other small vehicles, established in 1923. "Motobécane" is a compound of "moto", slang for motorcycle; "bécane" is slang for "bike."...
— as well as other nascent Japanese bicycle brands including Miyata
Miyata
Miyata is a Japanese bicycle and unicycle manufacturer that has been in operation since 1892.Miyata claims to have been the first Japanese manufacturer of flash-butt welded frame tubes and the first to use electrostatic painting ....
, Fuji, Bridgestone, Panasonic, Univega
Univega
Univega is a brand of bicycles, created during the bike boom of the 1970s by Ben Lawee , who founded Lawee Inc. to design, specify, and import bicycles initially manufactured in Italy by Italvega, and subsequently in Japan by Miyata....
, Lotus
Lotus (bicycles)
Lotus was a brand of bicycles designed, specified, marketed and distributed by Lotus International Corp. of Syosset, New York, which had been founded by Sid and Ernst Star...
and Nishiki
Nishiki (bicycle)
Nishiki was a brand of bicycles designed, specified, marketed and distributed by West Coast Cycle in the United States, initially manufactured by Kawamura Cyles in Kobe, Japan and subsequently by Giant of Taiwan. The bicycles were first marketed under the American Eagle brand beginning in 1965 and...
— itself a line of Japanese-manufactured bicycles that were specified, distributed and marketed by West Coast Cycles — a U.S. company similar to WSI. Japanese-manufactured bikes succeeded in the U.S. market until currency fluctuations in the late 1980s made them less competitive, leading companies to source bicycles from Taiwan.
WSI marketed the Centurion brand of road
Road bicycle
The term road bicycle is used to describe bicycles built for traveling at speed on paved roads. Some sources use the term to mean racing bicycle...
and touring bicycle
Touring bicycle
A touring bicycle is a bicycle designed or modified to handle bicycle touring. To make the bikes sufficiently robust, comfortable and capable of carrying heavy loads, special features may include a long wheelbase , frame materials that favor flexibility over rigidity , heavy duty wheels , and...
s in the United States using the tag line "Where Centurion leads, others must follow" and "A Lifetime Bicycle", offering a warranty without time limit. For a brief period the bikes carried a "Centurion Bicycle Works" headbadge.
History
According to Frank J. Berto, author of The Dancing Chain: History and Development of the Derailleur Bicycle (3d Ed. 2009), Raleigh Industries of America had been looking at a Japanese source for their Grand Prix model. Raleigh America ordered 2,000 bicycles from Tano and Company of Osaka but their parent company in England, TI-Raleigh, disapproved — concerned that the Tano-built bikes were too well made and would have outsold their own British bikes.Raleigh's sales agent, Mitchell Weiner, who was reading The New Centurions
The New Centurions (novel)
The New Centurions, written by Joseph Wambaugh, is a novel depicting the stresses of police work in Los Angeles, California in the early 1960s. The author wrote the novel, his first, while a working member of the Los Angeles Police Department. The novel became a film starring George C...
at the time, took receipt of the bikes, placed Centurion decals on the bikes and marketed them successfully, subsequently forming Western State Imports after merging with Rick Wilson's company, Wil-Go of Santa Clara, California. Because the bikes had all been intended as Raleigh Grand Prix models, as Centurions, they carried the colors of the Raleigh America Grand Prix model.
Cozy Yamakoshi served as the company's product development manager, designing the bike's frames, coordinating the manufacture of the bikes by Japanese manufacturers, and importing the bikes into the US. Subsequently, around 1986, Centurion introduced their first Taiwanese
built model, the Signet. The Cinelli Equipe Centurion of 1985 (only) was a joint-venture of WSI and Cinelli
Cinelli
Cinelli is an Italian bicycle manufacturing company based in Milan, Italy, producing mostly road bicycles and components; production is estimated at 80 percent components, 20 percent bicycles.- History :...
of Italy.
Early bike sales were limited to the West Coast, with the brand receiving wider exposure by the late 1970s. WSI stopped using the Centurion brand name in 1990,
consolidating their road and touring bikes under the Diamond Back (later DiamondBack) brand. While the brand Centurion had become well known, under the new brand name the company's market for road and touring bicycles soon evaporated. Early Diamond Back models (ca. 1990) carried a top tube decal reading "Centurion Designed" and stickers near the bottom bracket reading "Designed in the USA" and "Exclusively built for WSI." Diamondback Bicycles
Diamondback Bicycles
Diamondback Bicycles is a major bicycle brand that is based in Kent, Washington and has the same owners as the Raleigh Bicycle Company. Diamondbacks are sold in many countries, including the United States, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom...
was eventually sold to Raleigh USA, and manufacture was moved to Taiwan.
WSI later opened an office in Van Nuys, California, and eventually maintained offices in Dallas, Texas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
, Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
and Dayton, New Jersey
Dayton, New Jersey
Dayton is a census-designated place and unincorporated area located within South Brunswick Township, in Middlesex County, New Jersey. As of the United States 2000 Census, the CDP population was 6,235.Dayton is also a post office with its own ZIP code...
— in addition a headquarters in Newbury Park, California
Newbury Park, California
The community of Newbury Park, California is located in the western portion of the city of Thousand Oaks and Casa Conejo, an unincorporated area of southeastern Ventura County's Conejo Valley, which is also in the northwestern Greater Los Angeles Area...
. After Weiner died, the company continued its growth under the management of Mike Bobrick.
Cozy Yamakoshi, product and development manager, worked with Mike Bobrick (Executive President of WSI) and Sandy Finkelman (1947–2005)(Diamond Back team manager and product development) and left Diamond Back in 1986, to start Parkpre Mountain Bike in 1989. Parkpre USA was based in Moorpark, Southern California, USA., producing bikes from the early 1990s until 1998. Ken Yamakoshi, son of Cozy Yamakoshi, is in the process of re-launching Parkpre in the US.
Models
Centurion eventually marketed a full line of road and touring bikes, with steel construction ranging from full (all eight tubes) high-tensile 1020 steel at the lower end, to full (all eight tubes) cromoly bikes at their high end — with top quality componentry. Notable models included:- Centurion Cinelli Equipe: WSI/Centurion and Cinelli offered the co-branded Centurion Cinelli Equipe for model year 1984/85, as a joint-venture, designed by Cino Cinelli several years after he retired in 1979 and sold Cinelli to the Columbo family, manufacturers of Columbus tubing. The Cinelli Equipe's production was coordinated and supervised by his staff. The bike featured all Cinelli frame components: Columbus SL tubing; chrome chain stay, Cinelli chromed sloped crown, head lugs, bottom bracket shell, handlebars and stem; new-style Cinelli logos embossed on bar and stem, fork crown, seat and seat stays, rear brake bridge and under bottom bracket; Campagnolo dropouts, derraileurs and shifters; Universal 'AER' non-aero brakeset; Ofmega Mistral headset, bottom bracket and crankset; Gipiemme seatpost; Regina chain and CX-S freewheel; Miche "Competition" hubs and Fiamme, Hard Silver tubular rims. Other markings include a "Cinelli Equipe" decal on down-tube just above shifters and on left chain stay; an "Italia: Made in Italy" decal high on seat tube; Columbus tubing decals on fork ("Forcella Originale") and frame ("Acciaio Speciali"); Centurion decals on down-tube (left and right), and a Centurion "C" decal badge on head tube.
- Centurion Pro Tour: Richard BallantineRichard BallantineRichard Ballantine is a cycling writer, journalist and cycling advocate. Born in America the son of Ian and Betty Ballantine of Ballantine Books fame, he now principally resides in London, England. He is most famous for his 1972 book titled Richard's Bicycle Book and its subsequent editions...
's "Richard's Bicycle Book" included the Centurion Pro Tour (ultimately manufactured from 1976–1984) on his list of "Best Bikes" in both the 1978 and 1982 updates of his book — along with the Schwinn Paramount P-13, a bike that sold for two to three times the price of the Pro-Tour. Like other full-fledged touring bikesTouring bicycleA touring bicycle is a bicycle designed or modified to handle bicycle touring. To make the bikes sufficiently robust, comfortable and capable of carrying heavy loads, special features may include a long wheelbase , frame materials that favor flexibility over rigidity , heavy duty wheels , and...
, the Pro Tour models featured a longer wheelbase with longer chainstays for smoother ride especially while loaded, full (all eight tubes) cromoly construction for ride compliance, cantilever brakes to allow room for fenders, internal wiring for a bottom bracket generator and numerous braze-ons: two mounts on the fork for the cantilever brakes, two eyelets in back for a rack and a fender, two eyelets on the fork for a rack and a fender, low rack mounting points on the fork, mounts for two bottle cages, mounts for downtube shifters/cable stops, and seat stay mounts for a rack.
Touring models:
Elite GT
Pro Tour
General Purpose models:
Lemans
Lemans RS
Super Lemans
Lemans 12
Semi Pro
Sport
Sport DLX
Elite
Commuter 5
Accordo
Signet
Omega
Cavaletto
Road and racing models:
Turbo
Compa TA
Cinelli Equipe
Prestige
Facet (aluminum)
Carbon
Ironman Dave Scott
Dave Scott Ironman Expert
Dave Scott Ironman Master
Dave Scott Ironman Carbon
Serial Numbers
Centurions (except the Cinelli\Centurion) have serial numbers on the underside of the bottom bracket shell. One way to date a Centurion is to try to find date codes on the bike's components.Centurion models manufactured in Japan between 1980-1990 use a serial number format WXYZZZZ with:
W = a letter, purpose uncertain, possibly indicates a manufacturer or Centurion;
X = a number, indicating the calendar year of manufacture;
Y = a letter, indicating the fortnight of manufacture (A = wk 1 & 2, B = wk 3 & 4, etc.)
ZZZZ = four digit number, probably indicating frame number during fortnight of manufacture.
N4E0283, as an example, would indicate this is the 283rd frame made during the period of weeks 9-10 in 1984. Barring a major components upgrade at some point in a bike's history, one can confirm a bike's age by the dates found on the majority of components in its groupset.
(Credit Note: Serial Number decoding by Tom Marshall, Canadian engineer, racer and runner)
External links
- 1984 Centurion Catalog
- "Centurion Pro Tour Review", BicyclingBicycling (magazine)Bicycling is a cycling magazine published by Rodale, Inc. in Emmaus, Pennsylvania. It features bikes, bike gear, equipment reviews, training plans, bike maintenance how-tos, and more for cyclists of all levels.-Origin:...
, December 1976, Page 1, Page 2
