The Takara group was formed around 1973-1974 by two distributors, Bob Moore of Oklahoma city and Lee Connor of Seattle, who decided to create a new line of bicycles strictly for the U.S. market.
They got together a group of 10 distributors and enlisted the help of the Mitsui Trade Company to contact a Japanese bicycle manufacturer. Not sure if it is the case today but, back then no foreign business was able to be done directly with any Japanese manufacturer and it was protocol to have a Trading Company as a intermediary.
Arangements were made with the Kawahara Company to build the new line of Takara bicycles. Once each year the group of Takara distributors would meet and set the specifications for the next year’s Takara bicycles.
The Mitsui Trading Company would take the distributor’s orders and in turn, placed orders with the Kawahara Company. Mitsui would also oversee the quality of the bicycles produced.
Takara Bicycles were completely assembled and tested, including prestretching of the cables, before they were shipped to the dealers.
Dealer setup was very minimal. The bikes would come in oversize cartons with everything assembled, including the front wheel and saddle. All that needed to be completed was to secure the handlebar stem into the head tube and for the pedals to be installed.
Takara offered a full range of models, from a three speed city bicycle to a Dura-Ace equipped professional racer. Their 1970s bicycles featured the high workmanship standards that allowed the Japanese to surpass the European brands at the entry and mid-range levels. Takara was perhaps most famous for their “I LOVE IT” ad campaign featuring attractive girls wearing t-shirts emblazoned with the campaign slogan.
Takara stopped distributing bicycles in the late 80’s due to the Yen to Dollar flunctuation.
See our “Serial Numbers” page for deciphering the SN for the Takara brand.