A Cicli Katsuo, sorry for the uncentered appearance, but I couldn’t find a flat driveside shot of this bike. Soon Cicli Katsuo will be buiding his frames here in Kyoto! Stop by Aoyama Cycle for more, soon! Photo from Cicli Katsuo’s flickr!

Even though I just posted a short video about Keirin, here’s another very promising looking documentary coming up soon. The imagery on this one is impressive already, whooo looking forward to those episodes! The 5 episodes of the documentary will be released daily at noon (AEST) from Monday May 27th – Friday May 31st on chasing glory’s YouTube.

Ryokou follows the journey of Aussie Cyclist Shane Perkins from his home in Adelaide post London Olympics to taking residence in Japan whilst competing in the 2012/13 Keirin competition.

The sports documentary explores Japanese Keirin cycling as a pivotal part of Shane’s personal and professional growth, in context of some of the major events in his professional and personal career.

Just a Surly Steamroller, but baskets on bikes can be really cool. I like this one. Seen on Velospace, here.

Enjoy.

I am falling behind on keeping the blog up to date, which tells a small story about my life: it is busy but going well. Last weeks Monday had been the final holiday of the Golden Week 2013 here in Japan. I joined the SKRK aka Shakariki Kyoto Crew for a long ride throughout the mountain ranges north of Kyoto! It’s been a hard and enduring ride, despite taking a lot of breaks in-between, because the SKRK riders pace on ascents is far beyond my abilities. All in all it’s been around 130 km long and about 4000 m up (even though as usual I am in doubt of the correctness of iPhone GPS and Strava). I had my camera with me, and fellow rider Akira-san, who took a break in the support car, as well as photographer Misako-san have taken some really, really sweet photos!

You can see the full set on Flickr, here.

Cherubim Hummingbird, NAHBS2012 Best of Show winner, and a collaboration with Simon Taylor of TOMATO. Small world…

(I like classically framed Cherubim better, but pssshht!)

Last week has been annual Golden Week in Japan, a week of several consecutive holidays, a very welcomed occasion for people in Japan to get some time off their work and travel. I had a solo bike-travel from Kyoto into Fukui prefecture planned for Friday. I visited a friend from university in her hometown; left at 6:30 am and arrived on location around 2 pm, all in all about 165 km by bike through the mountain ranges north of Kyoto, along the western shore of Lake Biwa, through Tsuruga City, for a short stretch along the coastline of the Japan Sea and finally into the mountain ranges of Fukui prefecture. It’s been a great ride, especially Fukui prefecture has been a beautiful sight, and the routes 203 and 207 with their ancient tunnels or absolutely absurd incline have remained a lasting memory. On my last decent I had a tube blowout, due to a healthy cut in my rear tires sidewall. I could fix it well enough to reach my goal and ride on the next day. My friend showed me around some of the local sight-seeing spots in her hometown Ikeda and we ended they day in the town’s only Izakaya. I stayed in a small pension and left Ikeda again early morning to cycle to nearby Sabae City and take a train back to Kyoto. Thanks a lot Yuko-san!!

Conclusions are, that this has been a very enjoyable and swift bike travel, with more free-time I probably could have attempted to return by bicycle as well. I had ordered an Arcteryx Aerios 7L before departure, which has proven very comfortable and useful. Due to its tiny size it doesn’t become a burden to carry even when fully packed.
Apart from the backpack I only used an Ortlieb Saddlebag and my jersey’s pockets, I guess I could have reduced the amount of carried food as there’s been plenty of Conbini along the route. I tried to travel as light as possible, yet also carrying around a Canon DSLR. I imagine for a 3 day plus trip might become a bit more difficult in terms of clothing.
Also, I know most people swear by the properties of the Continental GP 4000, however every single 4000 I used to date has died rather prematurely either by losing his rubber skin and exposing the Vectran Breaker or a cut in the sidewall. Funnily, when it comes to puncture protection they are outstanding. Maybe I am just a bit unlucky, when it comes to using the Continental GP 4000, because personally I swear by the everlasting properties of other Continental tires such as the Attack&Force combination and GranPrix Gatorskin. Next longer trip I am not only going to bring spare tubes, but use a tire with reinforced sidewalls and bring a spare!

What it feels like to destroy a new tubular tire, while out on a fresh and breezy Wednesday morning just to get in a few more kilometres before a weekend solo bike-travel. My tubular rear tire, formerly known as Continental GP 4000 now just “ARGHWDZZ, I just put you on merely a month ago“, lost his skin on an abrupt full stop, because I simply hadn’t seen some tiny japanese car coming from the right. Tomorrows long ride I’ll do on the Eastons, pfah! – The GIF is taken from here.

Kaneda’s infamous motorcycle from AKIRA reimagined as a track-bike. Why the nike-swoosh? Too old to find it out now, lets just enjoy yet another bike.

Another flash from the PAST, last decade fixed-gear fun in Japan !

“There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.” – Original here.

ワー・・懐かしいな！ビデオや音楽がめちゃ好きだよ。僕は2007年に再々このピストビデオを見て日本にピストに乗って夢見たよな！残念ながらこの頃でピストトリックナイトなどをしないらし。

Oh my… what a monster. Should have tried to at least center it within the image, though. >.> Seen here.

I don’t even really know what… as far as I am informed a guy named Ally has built up this “bigminivelo” here in Kyoto and took it out for a ride a few nights back. As you can see in the video it didn’t last throughout a single night. However, I welcome the spirit of having fun in this manner as it’s become rather quiet since the law-enforced no-brakes crackdown and fixed gear cycling not being “IN” worthy anymore.

Direct link to the flyer, here. – One of our local and ever-growing group of cyclists “Cycling Kyoto!” is taking part in the annual Cyclofemme event-day, this year on May 12th. There’s a short and a longer ride, so you can join the ride best fitting your personal fitness or equipment (the shorter route is also free for any type of bicycle, including Mama-chari). The Facebook event can be found here. Please feel free to share flyer and event information, if you know a female cyclist in the Kyoto area interested in riding with fellow female cyclists on May 12th!

I haven’t taken photos with my actual camera, yet. Decent photos will follow, but in short: new crankset, new chain, new jockey wheels, new saddle, new stem, new cables, new wrap, new skewers, new wheels. The frame is becoming uncomfortable and the hence elongated stem only a so-so solution! I know this looks funny, and shows I am simply to tall for the framesize… I guess I will have to let go of this frame in a few seasons for a custom size!

I am back in Japan, which is a very good thing! I am happy, even though I have been quite overwhelmed with the business of the new semester at university. I have been thinking about writing about studying Manga in Kyoto Seika University, maybe on a bi-weekly basis, but I am not sure people would be interested at all?
Apart from university I have more or less pimped my ride, and been doing a couple of rides in beautiful and increasingly warm spring weather. We, a group of fellow cyclists in Kyoto, have become quite fond users of Strava in the mean-while. It works well, but sometimes the GPS spasms out in ways that are good for nothing but post-ride amusement.

This is a screenshot off James’ Strava from a recent ascent of Hanase, the most ferocious mountain climb around Kyoto City I believe. Nothing new for an old user of Strava, but well… we laughed.

よしっー！こんにちは、
二週間前でドイツから帰りましたやけどこれからずっとめちゃ忙しいでした。今京都製菓大学で大学院一年生ってとても素晴らしい感じですね！多分僕はもうすぐマンガ大学院生についてのブロッギングするかもしれないです。リーダーのためマンガブロッギングが英語に買いてあるはずと思う。。ま、必ず僕もブログでだんだんもっともっとたくさん日本語を作りたい！実は日本語実技が二年間日本に住んでること後まだあんまりゆっくりの上達してません。昔英で語勉強中で一番良い手だてのは英語のブログを書くでした、それでこれからこちらのストレートチェーンでも日本語で書きたいです。もしかしたらまだ色々の間違えた文法ありますのでブロッギングすると勉強したいです！すみませんでした！
とうとうで最近ちょっとバタバタしましたですけど僕はもCHERUBIMロードバイクをNEWPARTSと纏めました。次はバイクの写真でーす！ヨロシクお願いします〜