Here is the catalog of Sakae Ringyo in 1980.
Back in those days, Sakae put an advertisement in a page of New cycling magazine every month. Sakae produced many kinds of product with a focus on chain-wheel and handlebar.
I was wondering because though Sakae had produced unique parts such as ESL series, those were not used by eager cyclist. ESL series was super light-weight product which had many titanic parts luxuriously. I had used Royal 5 chain-wheel and platform type pedal and handlebar. I still have pedal, ESL seat post, and ESL stem.
Later there was an incident of aconite poisoning which caused flutter in Japan.
Sakae had gotten a support of Mori industry, became SR-Suntour along with Suntour, and was sold to the Taiwan capital in 1995.

Here is the front cover and the back cover.
The logo of SR was renewed. There was the chart of group-set in the back cover. It seemed to be classified by the price rather than the function.

Here is large image of left side.
Here is large image of rifht side.

Several kinds of chain-wheel were introduced in this page.
PCD of Royal was same as Campagnolo perfectly, and its finishing work was beautiful. It was one of my favorite parts. ESL can be classified into light-weight product even now.
As for 5TG type of Super Apex and Custom, PCD were same as Stronglight 99.
Apex and Silstar were used for mass-production sports bicycle.

Here is large image of left side.
Here is large image of rifht side.

Several kinds of basic tool were prepared. I use the crank extractor and the seat-post wrench even now.
The BB set of ESL was composed of a titanium shaft, fixing bolts, and aluminum cups. The weight was 175 grams. It was a masterpiece of Sakae which focused on the ultra-lightweight.

Here is large image of left side.
Here is large image of rifht side.

Though handlebar of Sakae was never a bad product, those who had used them were not so many. However, it was often used for mass-production sports bicycle. I had used Royal 978 of the left page.

As for the stem, ESL was known well as an ultra lightweight product. The weight of 100 mm model was 203 grams because of a daring hollow tube, titanium bolt, and aluminum wedge. It was often used for a lightweight bicycle of veteran cyclist. Even now, you can see it on the online auction.

Here is large image of left side.
Here is large image of rifht side.

The regular class stem and pedals which Sakae put an effort in those days were introduced in this page.
Pearl was made by melt-forging which was a special technique of Sakae. It has been sold for reasonable price.
I had used platform type SP-11 and quill type SP-100AL. I keep them at hand even now.

Here is large image of left side.
Here is large image of rifht side.

As for the seat post, I really recommend ESL. The weight was 210 grams; it was the lightest model as a Campagnolo type. However, the catalog showed that the weight of Four-sir was 200 grams; it was surprisingly light!

The specification table was on the right page.

Here is large image of left side.
Here is large image of rifht side.


The products of Sakae were never bad. Or we can say that those were rather ambitious. However, those were classified into the second or the third class model at the market. Even if we dare to ignore Simano and Suntour, there were still several exclusive makers such as Sugino (chain-wheel), Nitto (handlebar and stem), Mikashima and Kyokuto (pedal). Sakae tried to compete with them directly.

Sakae was doing well for dealing with mass-production bicycle makers and foreign country. However, Sakae's approach to end-user was not enough. Sakae must have had interest in so-called "business to business" instead of "business to customer".