Panasonic PR-6000
The Panasonic PR-6000 is a highly refined professional roadbike manufactured by Panasonic of Japan. It has full Tange Prestige tubing, a lugged constuction, brazed with silver, 28.6mm diameter tubing for full front triangle for added stability in sprinting, cornering and descending and Own investment cast frameparts.
In a recent Tour de France aftertalk on Dutch television ex Panasonic team pro Henk Lubberding explained about the beginning of the PR-6000 team bicycle. For 1990 Japan were give the honour of organizing the Worlds and this made the Panasonic company -possibly the largest conglomerate ever involved in bicycle manufacturing- decide to finally get an own thoroughbred ready for the team. The bike had to be used not only for the Worlds event, but also in all European pro races the upcoming years. Lubberding and head mechanic Jan Legrand were flown into Japan and extensive testing was done. Varying tubing, diameters and angles all with the aim to create the best ride for the European courses. The result was the PR-6000 that made its appearance in 1990. In the last year before its appearance the Colnagos used were often actually PR-6000s prototypes in disguise.
The production PR-6000 was sold as complete bike only, equipped with full Dura Ace. The US market never had the oppertunity to welcome the PR-6000 as by '89 Panasonic had withdrawn from the US market due to skyrocketed Yen.
