Monday 29 January 2018

THE KATANA PROJECT: Look Ma No Brakes II

So this might take some explaining. Last Friday night Sayaca messaged me to tell me about an event happening on Saturday at the Kashimax workshop in south Osaka. THE KATANA PROJECT: Look Ma No Brakes II is a collaboration between some very legendary people, basically Nagasawa-san builds the frames, Kashima-san makes the saddles and artists Stash, Rcade and Futura do their thing decorating them. Fixed In Nara and I headed south on Saturday afternoon...

Party time.

The bikes are stunning...

Stash

Rcade

Futura

Watching Futura live paint was possibly the coolest thing that's ever happened...

Master...

At...

Work.

Oh yeah, Mr Nagasawa was there too...

Local legends. F-i-N, Nagasawa-san and Principedal.

Seeing him check over F-i-N's bike was a very special moment...

Inspection by the master.

Having Koichi Nakano's bike there just added to the insanely cool day...

Nagasawa X Rcade

OK, so many people to thank. Firstly Nadir the man who put all of this together and made everyone feel welcome. Kashima-san one of the nicest guys in the business. Sayaca, Rene, Tsutsumi, Taira and all the Giracha crew and everyone else who made this such a special, cool day.

Nagasawa x Kashimax.
Obviously we have a fuckton more photos from the day that will be posted here and on Instagram in the coming days, weeks, moths etc.

Friday 26 January 2018

F-i-N Fixed Touring

Fixed In Nara is a very nice guy but he has way too many fucking bikes...


And when that happens you start doing crazy things like throwing a set of Nitto Randonneuring bars on a Nagasawa...







See what other mental shit he gets up to by trolling following his Instagram.

Tuesday 23 January 2018

Dispatch IV from Midwest Correspondent: First Snow and East River Road

Editor's note, Pete sent this late last year. We fucked up and forgot to post it. Sorry Pete. Better late than never.

Greetings from the Twin Cities. We finally got (a little bit of) snow here in the cities so I decided to take some shots of my favorite section of my work commute: East River Parkway. The road connects
Minneapolis and St. Paul along the east bank of the Mississippi River and has a shared bike/pedestrian trail that runs alongside. I take the trail for two miles from Oak Street to Marshall (or a bit further to Summit, depending on the day).


East River Parkway is a pretty relaxed roadway even during morning and evening rush hours, but the
ride is made all the more peaceful with the trail along its side. Up on the trail one only needs to worry
about other cyclists/pedestrians and the trail condition which appears to be maintained by City Park and Recreation staff. On my ride from the east bank of the UofM to St. Paul there is only one
stop/intersection (at Franklin) before Marshall or Summit Ave.


A fellow cyclist rides by on his evening commute:


In summer, 10mph would feel rather slow. But in winter when the roads/trails are often bumpy, slick
and icy, around 10mph doesn’t feel so bad:


Riding into work one morning I exited the trail at Marshall and snapped this picture of the river. In this section of the river, Minneapolis is to the left (west) and St. Paul is to the right. In the distance you can see downtown Mpls lit up by the rising sun behind us:


That night I took a couple of pictures while I cut through the UofM. Here we see Northrop Mall in the background:


On the reverse shot we see the Northrop Auditorium:


I will include a rundown of my winter setup and gear in a future post. Until then, have a happy New
Year and excellent holiday season!

Thursday 18 January 2018

Corner Bikes Dirt Tourer X Sim Works Fun3Bar

We've shot this bike before, that gorgeous Corner Bikes Dirt Tourer at 1Jyo Osaka has been through a few changes since then...


It's now rocking a pair of the rather nice Sim Works " Fun3 Bar"...


And that custom Cook Paintworks paintjob still looks stunning...




One of our favourite bikes in Osaka. Follow 1Jyo via their Instagram and Flickr accounts to see  custom more beauties like this.

Saturday 13 January 2018

Nuho's Custom Monk Dirtdrop MTB

A few shots of Nuho's very nice custom Monk Bicycle "Dirtdrop" MTB taken during the Bicycle Maru new year ride earlier this month...


Now doing the #RackLife thing with a Rawland rack upfront...



Nazi Punks Fuck Off...



Follow Nuho's Instagram to see more adventure bike and anti-fascist action.


Thursday 11 January 2018

Custom Salsa Beargrease @ 1Jyo Osaka

A very cool custom Salsa Cycles Beargrease fat bike shot at the mighty 1Jyo Ultimate Factory in Osaka last weekend...


A set of the Hunter Cycles Smooth Move bars up front...



Sram and DMR Bikes at the cranks...


And Sram at the rear...


And those massive tyres are from 45NRTH...


Follow 1Jyo on Instagram and Flickr to see more of their marvelous builds.

Monday 8 January 2018

Bicycle Maru New Year Ride

A few shots from last Tuesday's Bicycle Maru New Year Ride. Maru was riding his very nice Salsa Marrakesh...


Now with added Bruce Gordon Rock n'Road goodness...


Takao-san had brought his beastly Blackborrow, this was going to be an off road adventure...


The destination was Yadayama Park a short but fairly constant climb. The sound of a fleet of fatbikes rolling along the quiet Nara morning roads is something to be heard...


Stopping on the way to meet up with Nuho-san who was keen to try out Takao's monster Salsa...


And Maru's demo bike...


Nuho had brought along his very nice Monk...


 Up at the park we hooked up with Mike and Larry who had taken the sensible road way up...


There was more bike swapping action and then Maru and the crew took off further into the mountains. We took the easy descent down into Tomio with Mike and Larry for coffee, there's only so much cold, wet slippy off roading we can take these days!



A big thanks as always to Maru and the Nara crew for a fun and very tiring first ride of the year.