Akisu F/F ?

[damonW]

Were Akisu F/F's from the 80's any good, or were they a budget buy ?

[CustardLips]

Akisu made generic framesets for lots of other companies back in the 80's. 

[rodriguez]

Basically Akisu was a manufacturer who made frame sets for a lot of the BMX brands, budget right through to premium, Akisu manufactured to the spec the brand wanted so some of the frame sets were mig welded, hi tensile steel so lower quality and some were cr-mo, tig welded so higher quality.  They did market a limited number of frame sets under their own name but mainly concentrated for manufacturing for other people.

http://bmxmuseum.com/bikes/akisu/?pg=1

[Mikku]

That's a good point (that they made bikes to a given spec), as some people look down on them for being a poorer quality, Taiwanese manufacturer. If they were good enough for Diamond Back, etc...

[deeman]

That's a good point (that they made bikes to a given spec), as some people look down on them for being a poorer quality, Taiwanese manufacturer. If they were good enough for Diamond Back, etc...

Sorta like a Taiwanese Tange?! 

[monkian]

All good points raised by the lads above but I've also seen some Akisu parts labeled 'Made in Japan'.
Speculation but it could be that they moved production to Taiwan from Japan (like most of the others including Tange) but maybe did it early.

[monkian]

[Mikku]

The plot thickens! What frame is that Paul?

[Retrodan72]

I had an Akisu BITD, it was the last frame I had before I gave BMX up in 1987.

It was a good frameset to be fair. I had a Piranha - broke it, a Fox 4 Styler - broke that, but my trusty Akisu took the all punishment that a 15 year old kid could give it. It was close to identical to my mates Aero Pro too, so much so, that I took the decals off and told people it was an AP.

[Taipan]

Akisu are masters of the replica frameset 

Akisu in Latin means 'to copy or be copied'   

[Mikku]

Well in Japanese it actually means burglar, which kind of fits if you view copying as stealing!!

I may be mixing this up with another brand but I seem to recall reading somewhere that the name was thought of because it sounded Japanese (which it does).