I/81KMiERSxJL._SX355_.jpg' alt='Diamondback Mountain Bike Serial Numbers' title='Diamondback Mountain Bike Serial Numbers' />Centurion Bicycles From WSI Western States Industries. Centurion Bicycles. OVER THE LAST four years, Ive bought on e. Bay and elsewhere five Centurion branded bikes of different models and have become interested in their origins and relative quality. Im not an expert on the subject but since there seems to be no Centurion expert on the Web, I thought I would just throw out what I know. Most of what Ive learned has been gleaned from others, including a former regional sales manager for Western States Imports WSI, the Canoga Park, California company that designed, had manufactured in Japan and marketed in the US and elsewhere its Centurion road bikes and, later, its Diamondback mountain bikes. The story begins in 1. WSI was formed by Mitchel Weiner and the first Centurion road bikes were introduced into the US market, mostly on the US West Coast. While Weiner focused on running the business and on marketing, Cozy Yamakoshi served as WSIs product development manager, doing most of the frame design work and coordinating and supervising the manufacture of his creations in Japan and exporting them to the US. The earliest models of the Centurion line had high tensile steel frames but by the late 1. Centurions pricier models, such as the Professional and Semi Professional late 1. Pro Tour late 1. Turbo and Comp TA models early 1. Tanges high end Champion 1 or 2 tubing, a double butted, seamless chromium molybdenum Cr. Mo steel alloy. The difference in weight between Champion 1 and 2 tubing and the later high end tubing used for Centurions, simply labeled Tange 1 and Tange 2 by about 1. The thing to remember is that the high end Tange tubesets were high quality Cr. Mo steel which were on a par with high end Columbus SLSP Cr. Mo and Reynolds 5. COMPARISON OF CHAMPION No 1 No 2 TUBE SET WEIGHTS All eight tubes for 5. Champion 2. 2. 2. Champion 1. 2. Wt. Difference. 0. X 1. Source 1. 98. 3 Centurion catalog. For more on weight comparison, see Appendices. II III. Tanges seamed Infinity Cr. Mo tubing began replacing high tensile tubing on mid priced Centurion models, such as the popular Le. Mans RS, Super Le. Mans and Le. Mans Mixte models, by the early 1. Lower end models of this period featured Infinity tubing for the three main tubes and high tensile tubing for seat and chain stays and fork blades. In the highly competitive market of the late 1. MTIwMFgxNjAw/z/1nAAAOSw~CFY7Wcw/$_1.JPG' alt='Diamondback Mountain Bike Serial Numbers' title='Diamondback Mountain Bike Serial Numbers' />Centurions mid priced models boasted Tange 1 and 2 tubing for the three main tubes and use of high tensile steel became a thing of the past for even entry level machines as Infinity replaced it. The Centurion frames of the late 1. Sun. Tour components or a mix of Sun. Tour, Sugino and other components. Later, as their rival Japanese component maker Shimano came to dominate the market with innovative, quality components at highly competitive prices, WSI switched almost entirely to Shimano, with the lower and mid priced Centurions sporting the Shimanos OEM Light Action parts and higher priced models sporting Shimano 1. Subaru Baja Shop Manual. Shimano 6. 00. EX and later Shimano Ultegra and Shimano Dura Ace groupsets. There has been discussion of the relative quality of the many Centurion models. Generally speaking, relative quality among the various models was first determined by the quality of the tubeset and then, within variations of a model, by the relative quality of the groupsets from which one could choose. This included quality wheelsets, which reduced weight significantly. An example can be seen with the Le. Mans RS model, Centurions very popular, income generating, mid priced machine. It first appeared in the 1. Tange Infinity tubeset and a mix of Suntour and Sugino components. By 1. 98. 7 it boasted the somewhat lighter and seamless double butted Tange 2 tubeset and Shimanos Light Action, Light Touch group. Later still it appeared with the Tange 2 tubeset but fitted out with Shimano Sport LX components. I/81sPiEAiDlL._SY355_.jpg' alt='Diamondback Mountain Bike Serial Numbers' title='Diamondback Mountain Bike Serial Numbers' />My guess is that this transition reflected the demands of a highly competitive market environment which forced continuous upgrading of both frame materials and components within a single popular model to stay in the game. Centurions except the Cinelli Equipe model have serial numbers on the underside of the bottom bracket shell but as far as I know there are no official records linking serial numbers to years of manufacture. Thats the bad news. The good news is that Tom Marshalla. T Mar, a Canadian engineer, racer and runner, with the help of Centurion owners from around North America and information from his own archives, figured out the serial number date codes for many Centurions. Heres what Tom has to say on the subject. Japanese Centurions made between 1. Just one day after Hurricane Harvey made landfall in southeastern Texas, historic flooding continued to wrack the city of Houston and surrounding areas. WXYZZZZ where. W a letter, purpose uncertain, but probably indicates a manufacturer or Centurion X a number, indicating the calendar year of manufacture Y a letter, indicating the fortnight of manufacture A wk 1 2, B wk 3 4, etcZZZZ four digit number, probably indicating frame number during fortnight of manufacture. Example N4. E0. 28. To date, I have received 1. All but one use N as the manufacturer indicator. There is a minor variation of the above format, for which I have two samples, both from 1. This format does not use a letter for the first character and uses a five digit frame number ie XYZZZZZ format. The first number still appears to be the calendar year of manufacture. It is unclear if the following letter represents a month or fortnight of manufacture. However, given a five digit frame number, it is probably a month indicator. FOX redefines ride dynamics for ATVs, mountain bikes, motocross, offroad vehicles, snowmobiles, trucks, and UTVs. Sometime in the late 1. CenturionDiamondback started sourcing Taiwanese manufacturers for some of their lower level models. The format varies somewhat and I have a limited number of samples, but in all cases the first number appears to represent the year of manufacture. The serial numbers vary from six to nine characters in length and may, or may not, include a letter as the first character. Tom adds that he did not receive enough samples for 1. Centurions of the 1. If someone among you, dear readers, has the key to the 1. Another aid in dating Centurions is to look for date codes on the bikes components. Barring a major components upgrade at some point over the bikes history, one can safely assume that the frame was made within a year or so of the dates found on the majority of components in a group. While dating by serial number and component codes will tell you the manufacture year of your Centurion, these methods will not necessarily tell you the modelyear. This is because model changes were made within a manufacturing year so the next years model could be made and shipped in time to arrive for sale at retail outlets by the beginning of the calendar year or, in most cases, in time for the Christmas buying season. But all is not lost as model years can still be determined by comparing color schemes, usually varied from year to year, and components groups with those shown in Centurion catalogs, brochures and the advertising pages of period magazines, if you can gain access to such materials. Diamondback Mountain Bike Serial Numbers' title='Diamondback Mountain Bike Serial Numbers' />Centurion frame color schemes seemed to follow the fashions of the times and knowing where a particular color scheme fits on a timeline can aid not only in determining a frames year of manufacture but also its model year. I do not know for certain what color schemes were used in the early 1. I have seen are a single color throughout. In any case, many of the early to mid 1.