Bridgestone is an enormous multinational company, one of the largest tire companies in the world...and a fairly small bicycle company, with its own factory in Japan. In the late 1980s and early'90s, its U.S. bicycle division was run by Grant Petersen, a brilliant, talented and idiosyncratic designer.
Petersen, a hard-core cyclist, marched to a "different drummer" than most of the industry. He introduced many innovations to the market, and also strongly resisted other trends and innovations that he didn't approve of.
The "XO" series were the most idiosyncratic of Petersen's designs. They were intended as fast, sporty urban street machines, primarily for pavement use, but more rugged than traditional "road" bikes. Most of them featured "moustache" handlebars and slick medium-width tires.
The top-of-the-line XO-1 and other upper-end models used 559 mm (26 inch) tires, and 23.8 mm (15/16") handlebars that used "road" type brake levers and bar-end shifters.
These bikes, especially the XO-1, are highly sought-after "cult" bikes today. Only 1000 XO-1 were made!
I really like vintage Bridgestone bikes but I don't think they sold them in Singapore back in those days. They do pop up for sale on Indonesia / Phillipines websites, so I guess they were available in those countries back in the day.
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