Monday 29 December 2014

Twenty Six Inch Sunday

The best ever bike shop sign.
An early afternoon ride around town with Pete. Representing the 26" movement because #26aintdead. We headed up past the juvenile prison...

Prison shot.


To the Uemura Ranch, a historic local dairy farm...

Farm shot.
You can read more about the farm over on Fixed in Nara who paid a visit there back in September.

A pony!
With the coming new year being the Year of the Sheep, we figure this little guy is going to be getting a lot of attention...

Baaaa!
Back down into town and onto Mt. Wakakusa for a bit of off road action...

Roads. Like. These.
Pete. Chillin'.
Then back out on the streets where some welcome new driver advice signs have appeared...

Keep your f*ckin' distance.
Cheers to Pete and we leave you not with the traditional shika shot but something a little bit different..

It's your year baby!

2014 REAL RIDE

Friday 26 December 2014

Bikes @ Kansai Cyclocross

There were a lot of bikes at the rain soaked Kansai Cyclocross race in Ikoma last weekend. Here are a selection of the ones we managed to photograph whilst also holding the umbrella...

Titanium Panasonic.
Not just cross bikes, there were a fair few MTB's doing the rounds too...


Anchor MTB
Giant 29'er.
26" ain't dead yet!
Author.
Unknown but a veteran...
...Of previous cross races.
PINK SBC.
Another Giant with a very nice Boma wheelset.
Custom Boardman.
Ridley. Ridden.
Testach.
And our personal, unbiased favorite bike of the day was our good friend Toshio's Award Winning Fuji Feather...

Merry Flourish X'mas

Tuesday 23 December 2014

20141220 残念系ライド5

FiN @ KNSCX

Great shots from the Kansai Cyclocross over on Fixed in Nara...


Afternoon Track Action


A few shots taken at the track last Friday. Maybe it was the sunshine making things look better but there seemed to be some damn nice bikes out there that day...











Movement @ KNSCX

The Bicycle Studio Movement team have a stack of pictures from Sunday's action at the Kansai Cyclocross up on their Flickr. Looks like they had much better weather on the Sunday than we did on the Saturday...



More pictures and story over on their shop blog.

Monday 22 December 2014

Kansai Cyclocross, Ikoma

The load out.
We spent last Saturday up in the Ikoma mountains supporting our very good friend Toshio-san as he took part in his first cyclocross race, part of the Kansai Cyclocross season. It was cold. It was wet. It was muddy. It was also a ton of fun...

Test runs.
The day started with a cyclocross school and a test ride of the course...

Toshio-san testing the course.
Technical.
Very technical.
Right on cue, around midday, the rains arrived...

No sign of pre-race nerves.
Bikes. Many bikes.
Some good omens for Toshio with his allocated race number...

Toshio-san, officially ichiban!
By the 2pm time of Toshio's race, everything and everyone was soaked through...

Lining up.
Waiting, waiting...
And they're off!
A flying start.
Technical.
Cornering technique.
Easy does it.
Game face.
Concentration.
Go! Go! Go!
We moved around the course to try to get as many good action shots as we could. By this time it was pouring down with rain making photography a little bit difficult to say the least..

Toshio across the water.
Christmas is coming.
Go Toshio, go!
Mud.
Did we mention it was muddy?
Toshio in the distance.
Rain on the lens.
More mud action.
Push...
Push.
Blurred.
Still pushing.
Mr Christmas.
Yay! A shot in focus, well, almost.
Monochrome mud.
The loneliness of the long distance crosser.
This little hill was a real killer.
Keep pushing dude.
Toshio-san, game face.
Nice bike, very nice bike.
Smile!
Getting foggy now.
Into the fog.
Final action shot.
The man...
...The bike...
...The hose down.
A very big thank you to Toshio-san and well done on your first, very difficult cross race. We have a stack more shots from the day that we will post here over the next week.