mtb-timeline

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Norco

Bert Lewis founded Northern Cycle Industries in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, in 1964, in a chicken coop. ¹⁾ ²⁾ Norco designed and distributed bicycles built via Nishiki of Los Angeles to be sold in Canada, which were initially branded as Nishiki with a “designed by Norco” label. Nishiki themselves sent out the manufacturing to number of mostly Japanese suppliers. Norco didn't brand their own mountain bikes exclusively until 1984.

Bert Lewis on race day norco.com

1982 Nishiki Caribou

A dual branded mountain bike by Nishiki of Los Angeles and Norco of Canada. As the Nishiki brand is more prominent, it should really be listed solely on the Nishiki page - but Norco used this bike as a foundation for many decades of successful mountain bike designs.

Nishikis in Canada were designed by Norco

Mangalloy Tange tubing is cool.

1982 Nishiki Caribou mtbr

1984 Sasquatch

Norco branded mountain bikes didn't hit the Canadian market until 1984, although Sekai branded bikes sold in the US and supplied by Norco were introduced in 1983. This Norco Sasquatch is identical to the 1984 Sekai Sasquatch. It also appears to be identical to the 1984 Nishiki Bushwacker. Which itself is probably identical to the Kuwahara/Apollo Aries, as Kuwahara supplied Nishiki, who then supplied Norco, who then supplied Sekai. A flow chart is needed for this.

1984 Sasquatch pinkbike

1985 Bigfoot

The 1985 Norco Bigfoot bike is identical to the 1985 Sekai Bigfoot. It also appears to be identical to the 1985 Nishiki Cascade.

1985 Bigfoot flickr

Norco vs. Nishiki vs. Sekai vs. Apollo

Were these all identical bicycles? Norco bought Sekai in 1983 at the point where Sekai first started to introduce mountain bikes. Norco also sourced almost all of its early mountain bikes from Nishiki, who then sourced their mountain bikes from Kuwahara, Giant, Miki, and Yamaguchi, according to recorded serial numbers. Apollo sourced the same bikes directly from Kuwahara. ³⁾ Catalogs would help untangle this but are seemingly non-existent. A model comparison chart would be handy.

Norco had the exclusive Canadian license for Nishiki. It then resold the same Nishikis back into the US using the Sekai brand, thereby competing with its own supplier. Which makes no sense. The overall industry web of who built and sold which bike starts to get a bit byzantine starting in 1983 with the mass importation of mountain bikes. Dual branding in the early 80's was common. Some examples:

Rocky Mountain/Ritchey - Ritchey decals on the head tube, Rocky Mountain on the seat tube. Fisher rebadged the bikes for the US.
S&G/Muddy Fox/Araya - these bikes were triple branded for two years. Araya sold the same bikes in Asia w/o S&G or with bigger Araya decals.
Apollo/Kuwahara - Apollo head badges, Kuwahara downtubes. Kuwahara resold the same bikes elsewhere w/o Apollo.

All brands outsourced manufacturing eventually, but at least they kept their branding intact, usually. It's no wonder that only two Asian makers of bicycles sold in the US under their brand: Fuji and Maruishi. Asian sounding names, such as Sekai or Nishiki were Canadian and Californian, respectively. ⁴⁾ Giant, of Taiwan, the world's largest bike manufacturer, didn't brand their own bikes until 1986.