Table of Contents

Sekai

The Sekai1) Bicycle Company was started in Seattle in 1971 by Glenn Tamura, who owned the local Velocipede Bike Shop 2)3) and imported their bicycles from Japan. Sekai was eventually purchaced by Norco of Canada in 1983, who discontinued the Sekai brand by 1990 4). All Sekai mountain bikes were designed by Norco and manufactured in Japan or Taiwan. Norco sold the exact same Sekai bicycles, with different stickers, throughout Canada, while Sekais were sold in the US.

Velocipede
Velocipede Bikes of Seattle velobikeshop

1983 Mountaineer

Serial number verified model year. The model name is just a guess.

1983 Mountaineer
1983 Mountaineer bikeforums

1984 Sasquatch

The fork is probably not original in this pic, as Sekai used biplanes through 1985.

1984 Sasquatch
1984 Sasquatch bikeforums

1985 Bigfoot

Sekai used the following mountain bike model names from 1983 → 1990.

Norco used a similar, but not identical list of mountain models.

1985 Bigfoot
1985 Bigfoot flickr

Production Notes

[1]. ?

1)
Sekai is Japanese for “the world.”
2)
The Tamura family continues to run the shop, now called the Velo Bike Shop.
3)
The Sekai brand name was co-owned by Shinwa trading company. It's uncertain whether Sekais were designed and branded in Japan, or whether the Tamuras owned and designed the bikes. In any case, Sekai mountain bikes were designed by Norco of Canada.
4)
Summary of info sources from: bikeforums