Table of Contents


KHS Bicycles

KHS Bicycles was started in 1974 as an offshoot of the KHS Group 1), to distribute KHS bicycles in the US. KHS stands for Kong-Hsue-Sheh which in Chinese means “Contribution to School and Society,” and has been adapted in English to stand for “Knowledge, Health, and Strength.” 2)

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Family Hsieh
KHS has been owned and operated by many generations of the Hsieh family of Taiwan.
khsbicycles.com.tw


1981 Sundancer

A pure cruiser with gears. Later 1982 Sundancers used a diamond frame with the same gearing and looked a lot like the 1982 Schwinn Sidewinder. Nonetheless, it was marketed as a mountain bike in ads placed in the Fat Tire Flyer magazine starting in 1981.3)

1982 Fat Tire Flyer Fat Tire Flyer, Vol. 2 No. 2, March/April 1982, page 11
A very early mountain bike magazine ad 4).

1981 Sundancer
1981 Sundancer bmxmuseum


1982 Sierra Sport

15 speeds. KHS, Schwinn and SR all sold their own Sierra Sport named mountain bikes in the 1980s.

1982 Sierra Sport
1982 Sierra Sport bmxmuseuma


1983 Expedition

1983 Expedition
1983 Expedition mtbr


1984 Montaña

Montaña is Spanish for mountain. R&E Cycles of Seattle also manufactured a Montaña at this time, briefly5).

1984 Montaña
1984 Montaña facebook


1985 Montaña

“KHS Sport”, Shimano RD-AL11 rear (1984-86), Aero crankset (?), biplane forks, cantilever brakes (1984 used side pull,) slingshot stem (1984 used bullmoose,) headtube frame gusset. Or, is the above 1984 really a 1985 and this is a 1986? Catalogs?

1985 Montaña
1985 Montaña photo by mtbtimeline,
property of Silicon Valley Bike Exchange


1987 Montana Team

Columbus tubing, SunTour XC 9000 (1987-8), RollerCams, Tange headset.

1987 Montana Team
1987 Montana Team mtbr


1988 Montana Pro

Tange triple butted & lugged, Deore (1987-8), Biopace.

1988 Montana Pro
1988 Montana Pro mtbr


1989 Montana XT

Tange lugged frame. Shimano XT M732 (1989 only).

1989 Montana XT
1989 Montana XT retrobike


1990 Montana Comp

TIG welded True Temper tubing. Shimano Deore DX (1989-91).

1990 Montana Comp
1990 Montana Comp
http://www.velocipedebikeproject.org/sold-bikes2

1)
Which was founded earlier in Taiwan in 1930. KHS, originally named “Wan-Wu”, Japanese for “everything available”, was a maker of musical instruments and motorcycles for Yamaha. Today KHS continues sells $300M in musical instruments annually.
3)
See FTF Issue #5, May/June 1981, page 18.
4)
The earliest is probably the MountainBikes ad in the February 1980 issue of BMX Plus!
5)
The R&E Montaña came out in 1984 and immediately got the attention of KHS. R&E switched brands to TerraTech, of which only a handful of mountain bikes were produced. Not in the timeline