Dear all,

Few weeks ago i bought a frame and fork Skyway on UK e-bay.
I was surprised to see details very differents from my original
Skyway TA N° 0008009. 1-84.

Here comes differents photos of my original Skyway and the Fake or late
frame production in Taiwan ? from e-bay.

The folks from Skyway don't really know.

No serial number stamped on the frame.

Thank you for your help.


Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

Never heard of any fakes out there, especailly ones the look so close the original like that...

those arent fake...i forget witch year had curved vs straight brake bridge..I belive early curved late straight....You might ask ed at colored tuffs....He well know....

The curved bridges were from 83.

The straight bridges are from 84, not sure exactly when the switch happened.

I have 8-84 #15680 it is a straight bridge.

I think that is an original, and not a fake TA. The numbers on the bottom could just be lightly stamped, and then partially rubbed off.

the first one is the earlier japanese-made frame, the other is a later (more common) USA-made frame.

I think the earliest frames made in Japan have serial numbers that start with "K"

Thank you all for your reply.
I never receved an answer from Colored tuffs and
the folks from Skyway was in doubt.

Ok for the straight bridge, but the invisible number is my
main question.

I don't find the serial number on the bottom even
under the powder coating but i don't remove it totally.
I will try.

It's true, the size, the quality of the shape are good.

I dont know anything about your Skyway, but Ed's wife just had a baby so he's probably going to be a little slow answering your question. Just to let you know.

HOORAY for ED!!!!Go Man Go...

i recently saw a NOS chrome TA with a serial #/baseball symbol inside the left rear dropoout

It looks like the real deal to me. There were a few VERY slight variations of the T/A over the years. No serial number on the bottom bracket.... that could be explained pretty easily. It could of just missed getting stamped, as those bottom bracket shells were stamped prior to welding. The fork in picture #2 in the "fake" column looks like every other T/A fork that I have in here to be honest.

I have seen some very early frames were the serial number is on the rear dropout....

In my opinion.... it's a Skyway T/A.

Waza beat me to it as I was typing! LOL....

To further Mr coasterbrake's reply... A couple of years ago, this same subject came up and someone posted a article that talked about or even introduced the T/A and the origins of the tubing, which was special made or hard to make, from a company in Japan. End result to that discussion was what Mr C. said.

No that thing is a Fake! Fake Frame Fake Forks it's worthless! Just box it up and send it to me and I will get rid of it for you! But really it's just as Ed and MR CB said bitd they did not have the QC like they do today so missing a serial # or a difference in welds are all to common. It being the first year also could add to some of the irregularity. As we all know you could have a f&f and two or three different company's making them for the main company. Such as the Hutch's. From the photo's it looks like the real thing.

Ed, Congrat's on the new addition to the Family!

here's that article i posted before...

In my opinion - what you have there is actually better than the later one!

Thank you very much to all for your reply.
I know well now about Skyway TA frame set.

There is no doubt i prefer my original Skyway.....


For the baseball symbol i think it's only for GT
made in Japan.
The baseball symbol was the logo of the factory.
Not NOS products.

Right ?

Ed, What about your project for the 24" frame.
What is your method to make the "odd-shaped tubing" ?
It'll be 100% made in USA ?

Baseball is for MANY Frames made in Japan including DB, Hutch and others.

the baseball symbol was the trademark of Koizumi, who was a manufacturer in japan that built stuff for many, many "brand names".

We're still working on getting it figure out, but we'll be using "Aero" shaped tubing for the front tri.
Made in Pompano Beach, Florida, USA!

Here's some pics I took recently of a couple of Skyway T/A prototypes with the "Baseball" stamp and serial number on the dropout. These frames are from the early 80's.....

Holy Cow Ed nice pair of twinns you have there!!!

Thank you Ed for the news of the 24"
Certainly same problems for the 20" projects ?

And really nice pics of Koizumi TA prototypes !