KK Yoshigai ( jap. , ''

Kabushiki kaisha A or ''kabushiki kaisha'', commonly abbreviated K.K. or KK, is a type of defined under the Companies Act of Japan. The term is often translated as "stock company", "joint-stock company" or "stock corporation". The term ''kabushiki gaisha'' i ...

Yoshigai''), known by its brand name Dia-Compe, is a Japanese manufacturer of bicycle components headquartered in Kadoma of the

Ōsaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2.7 ...

Prefecture. Dia-Compe have specialised in caliper and cantilever brakes, headsets, handlebar stems, suspension forks and other bicycle components.

History

The company manufactured its first bicycle brake in 1930. In 1949, the company was floated on the

Tokyo Stock Exchange The , abbreviated as Tosho () or TSE/TYO, is a stock exchange located in Tokyo, Japan. It is the third largest stock exchange in the world by aggregate market capitalization of its listed companies, and the largest in Asia. It had 2,292 listed ...

. Kiyokazu and Toshiharu Yoshigai, the sons of the company's founder, later succeeded their father at the company's helm. Kiyokazu Yoshigai's son, Kozo Yoshigai, is now president of the company.''Dia-Compe Yoshigai Kikai Kinzoku Co., Ltd - Osaka, Japan''
/ref> In the 1960s the Swiss manufacturer Weinmann supplied Dia-Compe with brake parts. Dia-Compe invented the brake-lever extension in roughly 1969. This was at once widely appreciated by manufacturers including Schwinn, which dropped the use of Weinmann brakesets and adopted Dia Compe brakesets on all models except the Schwinn Paramount. However, this invention was also nicknamed as "Suicide Levers" because they did not fully actuate the brake levers, producing a loss of stopping power. Their patents were so intimidating that Weinmann cross-licensed all Dia-Compe patents in return for access to the brake-lever extension patent a few years later. International subsidiaries of the Dia-Compe brand were established in the United States in 1975 and in the Republic of China (Taiwan) in 1987. In 1990 John Rader, the designer of the Aheadset system (US Patent 5095770 A ), gave exclusive licensing to Dia-Compe for the product. Dia-Compe USA financed fledgling company

RockShox RockShox Inc. is an American company founded by Paul Turner in 1989, that develops and manufactures bicycle suspensions. The company led in the development of mountain bikes. It is now part of SRAM Corporation. History Start RockShox was fou ...

in the development of the RS-1 suspension fork. The USA subsidiary of Dia-Compe was eventually purchased by RockShox in the 1990s. In 1992 Dia-Compe USA became Cane Creek Cycling Components and introduced the threadless headset (AheadSet®). Dia-Compe has begun selling a range of other wheel components. Other KK Yoshigai brand names for wheel components are Diatech and Gran Compe. A subsidiary of the Diatech brand was founded in 1996 in the United States. The company also produces complete bicycles. In 2005, the company moved its headquarters to Kadoma.

References

{{reflist Cycle parts manufacturers Cycle suspension manufacturers Manufacturing companies established in 1930 Japanese companies established in 1930 Cycle manufacturers of Japan Companies based in Osaka Prefecture