Echelon Odyssey - Japanese Mystery Bike

3 years later... To recap: I found this box of bike on CL, seller listed it as Echelon Odyssey with a interesting tale of its origins.

Box of junk

With no info on this I did a search which yielded this result:

History

It seems a small Japanese company by the name of Cherubim was marketing a new bike for US sales, several demo models were made and sent to the states for evaluation. The brand never took off and those demo models were all that were ever made. It also appears that the master Yoshi Konno (3Rensho) worked at Cherubim for a time. More can be learned of Yoshi Konno here. However this bike, the Odyssey, was built by Cherubim and they are still producing bikes today. The beauty of this bike is in its classic lugwork, very similar to 3Rensho's bikes. The above link to Bike Forums provides proof several models still floating around, and a note from Cherubim bikes itself:

"I've looked at your bike and I'm absolutely sure that it was built by us.
I'm not sure how many of these are built, but Cherubim's former chief builder Hitoshi Konno built the several models for Echelon for the couple of years.
Your bike have luge sets and fork crown of our own, so there is no doubt about it.
Keigo Hirota"

So the origin is known. I could never find any indication of the metal used so I will assume it is Ishiwata 022.

This box of bike sat around for at least another year or more. Bikes came and went and this sat around. Last year (2011)  I finally built it up. Once built I just didn't get in to it, it rode like a brick, I rear wheel dislodging issues and, well, it was just plain, well...plain Then fast forward another year and I am still looking around at Bike Forums and I open a thread by user Flog00 called Tempo Project. That thread can be found here. I was in love with the green apple green he had painted this bike. I visited  Rick at D+D in San Leandro, Ca. We went through his color book, put down a deposit and voila!

Plain no more

I made vector art of the labels and had buildasign.net make me vinyl labels. I did screw up the decals, they are too small, which I can live with. Main issue is the color really faded, it was supposed to be a dark blue, now it is a medium purple - oh well. Now with my investment rising, this bike needed a cool headbadge. So I contacted Jen Green and using my design, she knocked it out of the park.

WOW.

I have drank the fat tire kool-aid. 23mm no more. The frame has a somewhat race geometry, and I cannot get the 35mm tires on it. So for now, Conti Grand Pix 26.

From the parts bin:
Ultegra 6500 Triple crankset
Ultegra 7 speed Bar End shifter (from Fisher)
Ultegra 6600 Triple FD
Deore LX RD (wanted to use the Ultegra but it gave me problems - will revisit in the future.)
Tektro Brake levers
Tektro long reach brakes

purchased:
Velocity Synergy 700c w/LX Hubs - Built by Rich a Rivendell Bikes
Velo Orange 1" headset
Nitto Rando Bars
Jagwire Gold Cables

Quality Lugs

Did not like this look

Sweet.

 

UPDATE:

I puchased a pair of the new Soma tires, Shikoro. 700x28. I doubt 33 would fit. I found the cockpit too narrow, and just a bit long. So I also picked up a shorter stem. Just need to adjust the shifting as it sucks.