Kashimax — The Osaka Saddle Company Behind BMX's Aero Seat (1936 to Today)

Legend Bike Co · BMX heritage series

Almost every bike in an early-80s BMX Action test came with a seat nobody thought twice about, because it was already there when the bike showed up from the factory. On a lot of those bikes, that seat said Kashimax — a molded plastic saddle from a family-run company in Osaka, Japan that had been building bicycle saddles since 1936, decades before BMX existed. This is the story of how a keirin-track saddle maker ended up on the spec sheet of some of the best-known race bikes of the era, and what's actually documented about the company behind the name people usually just call "Kashimax."

A saddle maker from Osaka, ninety years running

Kashima Kingo started the business in April 1936 as a sole proprietorship in Nishinari-ku, Osaka. It became a formal corporation — Kashima Saddle Manufacturing Co., Ltd. — in July 1947, based in Abeno-ku, Osaka, and earned JIS certification as a bicycle saddle factory in 1960, two decades before anyone in America had heard the name. The company has stayed in Osaka Prefecture its entire life, moving between addresses in the region — Matsubara City in 1993, Sakai City in 2004, back to Matsubara in 2009 — and it has stayed in the Kashima family the whole way through: the founder's son, Kashima Tetsuo, became representative director in 1986, and the founder's grandson, Kashima Eijiro, has run the company as president since 2005.

On the name. "Kashima Saddle" is the correct shorthand for the company — that's confirmed independently by the company's own site and by a 1980 magazine ad that lists the full name and Osaka address. "Kashima Sangyo," a name that comes up in some online discussion, is a different company entirely — it's a kanji mix-up. The saddle maker's name is written 加島 ("add island"), while Kashima Sangyo and the well-known Kashima Antlers soccer club use 鹿島 ("deer island") — different characters, same romanized spelling in English. We found nothing connecting the two. A third spelling, "Kajimax," turned up nowhere in the research for this page — treat it as an unverified guess, not a confirmed alternate name.

The company's stated line of business is "the manufacture and sale of bicycle saddles and related products" — bicycles only. We looked for evidence that Kashimax also built motorcycle seats, a claim that circulates informally, and found nothing to support it. Its longest-running and arguably most prestigious product isn't a BMX part at all: FIVE GOLD, launched in June 1979, is the officially certified saddle for professional keirin track cycling in Japan, and it's still in production today. A 1989/1992 manufacturing joint venture built a plant in Tianjin, China — that's a production partnership, not the brand's origin, which settles a debate collectors have had online about whether Kashimax started in Japan or China. It started in Osaka.

How Kashimax got into BMX

The BMX line was a product extension, not the company's original business — Kashimax had been building bicycle saddles for more than forty years before BMX became a category worth building for. The earliest documented BMX model is the Kashimax MX, pitched in a full-page ad reprinted in the March 1980 issue of BMX Action as a saddle "for national competition." That ad — found in the magazine's own archived pages, not a modern retailer's description — is also where the company's full name and Osaka address are confirmed in print, independently of Kashimax's own corporate website.

The Kashimax Aero

The saddle most people mean when they say "Kashimax" is the Aero — a molded saddle built from a special blend of Nylon 6 on a chromed steel subframe, with a patented safety seat clamp. A full-page ad reprinted in the October 1982 issue of BMX Plus! describes it as "aerodynamically designed" and lists it at 440 grams including the clamp, available in "four mystical colors: blue, red, yellow and black." That same ad credits the Aero as "another fine product from TIOGA Motocross" — by 1982 it was being distributed in the United States through Shimano Sales Corporation under the Tioga Motocross name, one Japanese component maker carrying another's product into the American market.

The weight spec moved around over the years — 470 grams in the 1980 Kashimax MX ad, 440 grams by the 1982 Aero ad, and roughly 320 grams on the modern reissue — which reads less like a contradiction and more like a saddle that kept getting lighter as the design matured. Collector dating threads on bmxmuseum.com put the Aero's earliest documented examples at July 1981, with dated units running through April 1988 and general BMX use fading out around 1990.

The rest of the line — MX, RS, and the pads

The Kashimax MX was the original padded BMX model — still sold alongside the Aero as of the 1982 ad — and it came in at least three documented hole-pattern variants: the MXC-2H (2-hole), MXC-20 (20-hole), and MXC-36H (36-hole, holes running along the edges). The Kashimax RS was an early-80s race saddle built in 35-hole and 2-hole versions; the company's own 35-hole stamping press no longer exists, which is why only the 2-hole RS has ever been reissued. A separate Kashimax Motocross Pads / Crossbar Pad line — protective bar and stem pads, not seats — is confirmed by a February 1981 BMX Action mention. A "Kashimax Handler," described as a freestyle-oriented model by one retailer, shows up in commercial listings but isn't independently corroborated elsewhere, so we're noting it as reported rather than confirmed. Genuine period Kashimax parts carry "Pat.P" and "K.S.M." stampings on the seat bracket, which collectors use to authenticate original saddles today.

Diamond Back sold Kashimax-made saddles under its own name too — a "Diamond Back Five-star seat," and a black suede Kashimax with a distinctive diamond-shaped hole pattern that shipped on the Diamond Back Turbo, documented in a March 1983 road test run in the Australian magazine BMX Torque.

On the gate — which bikes ran Kashimax stock

Period bike tests and factory catalog spec sheets confirm Kashimax as OEM equipment on a real spread of the era's bikes: the 1981 Hutch X-Long Pro Racer ("SEAT: Kashimax," per the August 1981 BMX Action test); the 1984 Hutch Pro Star and Pro Racer (factory specs list "Kashimax Aero"); the 1984 Redline PL-20 Carrera II and RL-20 Prostyler (factory specs, same "Kashimax Aero"); the 1982 Torker Twenty Four, badged in its own test as "TORKER PLASTIC AERODYNAMIC BY KASHIMAX" — a private-label build; the 1981 Traker, from Wisconsin Cycle Supply ("SEAT: Kashimax Aero," December 1981 BMX Action); the 1981 Powerlite 24 cruiser ("SEAT: Kashimax," same test issue); the 1981 CYC Stormer Competition II ("Seating is courtesy of Kashimax," BMX Racer, January 1981); and Diamond Back's Turbo in the Australian market.

Coverage wasn't universal, and an honest page says so. Redline's own PL-24 cruiser shipped with a Taihei Elina seat that same 1984 model year, and the RL-20II Prostyler switched to Elina Flyte Tech by 1986 — the Kashimax tie is real, but it's concentrated in specific flagship models and years, not the whole Redline line. Hutch's 1983 Pro Star, per a contemporary road test, actually shipped with an ACS seat, with Kashimax appearing in the catalog the following model year. SE Hauler ran a Velo plastic saddle in a February 1985 BMX Plus! test, not a Kashimax. And Kuwahara's own 1987 and 1988 factory catalogs list "Viscount Kuwahara" as the seat brand on the Bravo Pro, Laserlite 3000, and Magician EX — the documented years point away from a Kashimax tie, though Kuwahara's earlier 1980-83 catalogs simply weren't part of this research pass, so that's an open question rather than a settled no.

SE Racing is a softer case worth stating carefully. Kashimax's own 1980 print ad reads: "Flash! Top Factory Teams ride Kashimax. Team Shimano and SE Racing pros choose the Kashimax MX for national competition!" That's Kashimax's own promotional copy, not an SE Racing factory catalog spec sheet, and no SE catalog confirming Kashimax as stock equipment turned up in this research. Present-day restoration write-ups of 1979-80 SE PK Rippers do list Kashimax seats as period-correct, but those are collector rebuilds, not manufacturer documentation. So: SE pros were credited by Kashimax's own ad copy, not confirmed as factory-stock equipment.

The riders — an honest gap

We looked for a specific pro rider who endorsed or was sponsored by Kashimax by name, and came up empty. The closest thing on record is the team-level claim in that same 1980 ad — Team Shimano and SE Racing, not individual names. If a period photo or interview credits a specific rider running Kashimax by choice, we haven't found it. Better to say that plainly than repeat the "everybody ran one" line as if it were a sourced fact.

One company, several sports

Kashimax existed for 44 years before it ever touched a BMX bike, and the company's most enduring product — FIVE GOLD, the certified keirin track saddle — has nothing to do with BMX at all. For a stretch in the early-to-mid 1980s, though, the BMX line became one of the most widely specced saddle brands in the category, showing up stock on Hutch, Redline, Torker, Traker, Powerlite, CYC, and Diamond Back bikes. That's the fair way to frame it: Kashimax was never a BMX company first, but for BMX history specifically, the Aero and MX saddles earned a real place on the spec sheet.

Timeline

• 1936 Kashima Kingo starts the saddle business as a sole proprietorship in Nishinari-ku, Osaka.
• 1947 Incorporated as Kashima Saddle Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Abeno-ku, Osaka.
• 1960 JIS-certified as a bicycle saddle factory.
• 1979 FIVE GOLD, the keirin track racing saddle, launches — still the company's flagship product today.
• 1980 Kashimax MX appears in period BMX magazine ads, pitched for "national competition."
• 1981 Kashimax-equipped bikes (Hutch X-Long Pro Racer, Traker, Powerlite 24, CYC Stormer) appear in BMX Action and BMX Racer test spec sheets. Collector dating places the Aero's earliest examples here.
• 1982 Kashimax Aero ad runs in BMX Plus!, distributed in the US via Shimano Sales Corporation under the Tioga Motocross name. Torker Twenty Four specs a private-label Kashimax seat.
• 1983-84 Diamond Back, Hutch, and Redline flagship models spec Kashimax and Kashimax Aero seats.
• 1986 Kashima Tetsuo, the founder's son, becomes representative director.
• ~1990 Collector consensus marks the point Kashimax use fades from mainstream BMX.
• 2005 Kashima Eijiro, the founder's grandson, becomes company president.
• 2008 The Aero is reissued using the original vintage tooling.
• Today Kashima Saddle Manufacturing Co., Ltd. still operates in Matsubara City, Osaka, building bicycle saddles including the keirin-certified FIVE GOLD and the reissued Aero.

Sources

kashimax.co.jp/company.html — the company's own corporate history and family leadership timeline. oldschoolmags.com, period magazine PDF archive: BMX Action, March 1980 (Panda Pro-Am test issue, carrying the full-page Kashimax MX ad with company name and Osaka address); BMX Plus!, October 1982 (Murray X20C/X24C test issue, carrying the Kashimax Aero ad); BMX Action, August 1981 (Hutch X-Long Pro Racer test); BMX Action, December 1981 (Traker and Powerlite 24 tests); BMX Racer, January 1981 (CYC Stormer Competition II test); BMX Plus!, November 1982 (Torker Twenty Four test); BMX Torque (Australia), March 1983 (Diamond Back Turbo test); BMX Action, February 1981 (Kashimax Motocross Pads mention); BMX Plus!, February 1985 (SE Hauler test, Velo seat); BMX Plus!, January 1987 (retail price list showing the Kashimax Aero still for sale). bmx-catalogue.com — 1984 Hutch and Redline factory catalog spec sheets; 1987 Kuwahara Bravo Pro and Laserlite 3000 catalog specs; 1988 Kuwahara Magician EX spec. bmxmuseum.com — reference entries for the Kashimax MX (hole-pattern variants) and Kashimax RS, forum threads dating the Aero's production window, and a 2011 post from a Tokyo-based collector describing direct contact with the Kashima family around the 2008 reissue. tracksupermarket.com and retro-gression.com — current retail listings for the reissued Aero. Alan's BMX — retailer listing referencing the Kashimax Handler. Wikipedia, "Keirin" — a single supporting-tier mention of Kashimax among Japanese keirin component makers; not used as BMX evidence. bmxsociety.com — relevant thread titles located by search (Kashimax MX dating, Kashimax-vs-Taihei Elina seat comparison), but the forum's login wall blocked direct access; named here as an open follow-up, not a cited source.

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