See also: Bridgestone documents

Country: Japan

Founded in 1931 by Shojiro Ishibashi, Bridgestone are a vast multinational conglomerate, that claims, amongst other things, to be the second largest tyre manufacturer in the world. Kookily, the literal translation of ‘Ishibashi’ is supposedly ‘stone bridge’. The similarity between the words ‘Bridgestone’ and ‘Firestone’ (a tyre company formed in 1900 by Harvey Firestone) must then be coincidental. In a crowning act of weirdness, Bridgestone bought Firestone in 1988.

Bridgestone started manufacturing bicycles in 1949, and have used the Bridgestone, Anchor and Kabuki brands.

I believe that in the Japanese bicycle market Bridgestone are seen as a slightly bland middle market brand, strong on quality and engineering, but not really the stuff of dreams. I have a memory of  a trade show at which Bridgestone showed a film of a process by which they cast whole bicycle frames in a single step - they claimed these frames were as strong and light as more conventionally produced items - but it all sounded more suitable for mass-producing quality commuting bikes than for testing the limits of technical performance. I believe that Bridgestone are currently (and have long been?) the biggest selling brand in Japan, selling over a million units in 2004.

Outside of Japan, and particularly in the USA, Bridgestone has a completely different image. More...