Classic & Vintage - The Tokyo Bi-annual Hand Made Classic Lightweight Frame Builders Exhibition

These are some pics I took at the the Bi-annual Hand Made Classic Lightweight Frame Builders Exhibition held at the Science & Technology museum in Tokyo last weekend. Makers include Cherubim, Watanabe, Nishiki, Makino, Nagasawa, Toei, Quark and Silk. Some very nice stuff.

Track bike by Cherubim.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3312/3208078657_ba6bd0af28_o.jpg

Cherubim road bike, yours for around ¥190,000 for the frame or ¥360,000 with Ultegra groupset.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3329/3208926868_0683555d05_o.jpg

A Makino
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3424/3208080291_4c9999f3e7_o.jpg

A Toei
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3400/3208928534_d8fd025183.jpg

Toei detail - until seeing this I had no idea Mafac hood covers came in anything other than Black, red, white and cream. That blue is lovely!
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3461/3208929652_6aa631c761_o.jpg

There were some very nice bikes outside in the parking area, too, belonging to visitors, as you might expect.

This is an alluminium frame which has been zinc-plated and the finish distressed. It was one of 3 bikes that a finisher was unofficially exhibiting in the car park.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3467/3208924944_9617bd965e.jpg

Copper plated and distressed:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3120/3208077217_978c29f867.jpg

Stem copper plated and finished with a ball-peen hammer
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3523/3208925274_9dcf148145.jpg

And on a seat rail...
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3354/3208077753_2563120937.jpg

A Futaba - some might remember the photos I posted a while back of a Mini-Velo Futaba...
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3532/3208075101_25157f1dec.jpg

There's an album with many other photos I took at the exhibition at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22983673@N02/sets/72157612689122367/

Hugo

Toei segoy desu yo!

The Toei is gorgeous - absolutely gorgeous.

Can't say the same for those two unofficial entries, especially the zinc-plated machine. Ultra-Drew - looks like a Raleigh Technium with a bent fork no less.

-Kurt

So Toei takes your vintage components and builds a frame your size around them. Awesome.

Nagasawa makes really beautiful bikes.

I like the Silk and the Quark. The Quark goes overboard with the powdercoated spokes though. It would have looked much better with polished alloy.

Thanks for sharing those pics.

This is very madmax
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3089/3208928098_5bbaf65024.jpg

Dawes-man that is one great set of pics. Thanks so much for sharing what you saw at the show. I will be in Tokyo several times over the next year, I'll have to see if you can point me towards some vintage cycling stuff.

I'd love to own that wooden bike. Also, I like the copper bike parked outside. Who makes those two?

I'd love to own that wooden bike. Also, I like the copper bike parked outside. Who makes those two?

Second one looks like something that was shaped with heaps of Bondo.

-Kurt

Great photos! Thanks so much for sharing them...I have one question regarding the Makino: Reynolds 953 AND Columbus decals? and a most-unfortunate stem selection...but personally I find the hand-hammered copper very appealing, it's very "Craftsman"...big in Pasadena, anyway.

More toei eye candy from the 2005 show:

http://www.popdan.com/hmbs05/images/54.jpg

http://www.popdan.com/hmbs05/images/55.jpg

http://www.popdan.com/hmbs05/images/56.jpg

http://www.popdan.com/hmbs05/images/57.jpg

http://www.popdan.com/hmbs05/images/58.jpg

http://www.popdan.com/hmbs05/images/59.jpg

I'd love to own that wooden bike. Also, I like the copper bike parked outside. Who makes those two?

The wooden bike is made by Sano Magic, email:
sanomagic 'at' u01 'dot' gate01 'dot' com.
I think Mr Sano can probably read English well enough to communicate.

The copper bike outside is made by a company called Ri Saikuru (recycle)、in Japanese, and 'Tanuki-cycle' in English - a play on a variant pronunciation of 'tanuki', meaning 'badger'. It can also be pronounced 'Ri'. They specialise in assembling bikes from 2nd hand parts.

I've just come back from Second House, a shop just round the corner that deals in 2nd hand stuff for the fix-wheel crowd, and asked Mr Nishimura, the owner, about those bikes. It was he who told me about the exhibition. Apparently, Tanuki-cycle' tried to exhibit at the show but was told that only makers who made frames from the tube up could do so, so they staged their 'guerrilla show' in the car park outside instead. The organisers were royally peeved, it seems.

Tanuki-cycle's web site is at:
http://tanukicycle.blog75.fc2.com/blog-date-200901.html
This takes you to their blog entry for January. The writing will probably be all garbled on your screen, and it'll be in Japanese if it isn't, but if you scroll down the left hand side of the page there are lots of clickable links to other pages with lots of pics of bikes they have produced.

Have fun!

Hugo

This is very madmax
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3089/3208928098_5bbaf65024.jpg

Found out it was made by a company called Dobbat's. This is their web site:
http://www.dobbats.com/

On this page there are photos of them building bikes. There are 2 clickable links below the text - the upper one will take you through the pics.
http://www.dobbats.com/works_00.htm

Hugo

That was quite a treat! Do you know the person who owns "Amanda"? Is that a brand, or just a "personal" logotype?
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3519/3208922772_be11e1888a.jpg

</snip>

Have fun!

Hugo

Thanks very much for the pictures, links and background info. After I posted my question, I began to wonder how favorable/unfavorable the exchange rate is and how expensive it would be to ship a bike from Japan to the U.S. Either one of those could make an otherwise affordable bike prohibitively expensive.

That was quite a treat! Do you know the person who owns "Amanda"? Is that a brand, or just a "personal" logotype?

It's a brand but I don't have any info about it or the owner of the one in my Flickr album. I have seen another one but I can't for the life of me remember where. I shall try to find out.

Hugo

Thanks very much for the pictures, links and background info. After I posted my question, I began to wonder how favorable/unfavorable the exchange rate is and how expensive it would be to ship a bike from Japan to the U.S. Either one of those could make an otherwise affordable bike prohibitively expensive.

I'm afraid the US$ is rather low against the Yen at the moment. If you're seriously interested in shipping costs I could find out quite easily. Let me know.

Hugo

I'm afraid the US$ is rather low against the Yen at the moment. If you're seriously interested in shipping costs I could find out quite easily. Let me know.

Hugo

Thank you, but no need right now. I'd like to hear back about the price first. I just Googled the exchange rate. It looked pretty awful at around 89 yen to the dollar.

Edit: I'd better hold off for now. No wonder I like that mahogany bike (which, by the way, already sold to someone in Holland). Price for one with Dura Ace: $14,500; $16,000 with Campy SR. :eek:

Thank you, but no need right now. I'd like to hear back about the price first. I just Googled the exchange rate. It looked pretty awful at around 89 yen to the dollar.

Edit: I'd better hold off for now. No wonder I like that mahogany bike (which, by the way, already sold to someone in Holland). Price for one with Dura Ace: $14,500; $16,000 with Campy SR. :eek:

Eek is right! Not surprising tho' if you consider the craftsmanship that goes into shaping the wood.

I got in touch with Cherubim and asked them about shipping - they reckon around ¥20,000 to ¥30,000 for a frame or for a complete bike.

Eek is right! Not surprising tho' if you consider the craftsmanship that goes into shaping the wood.

I got in touch with Cherubim and asked them about shipping - they reckon around ¥20,000 to ¥30,000 for a frame or for a complete bike.

Yeah, it has a very beautiful, fluid form. I'm sure it was not at all easy to make. Well, thanks for investigating the shipping cost. That's not as much as I thought it would be.

Shipping a frame to the US (shipping only, not packing) usually runs under/around 10,000 yen. So at the going rates it is just over $100.

Amanda is a small frame-builder in the Kita ward of Tokyo. Here is a intro page (tho not maintained by them)(and in Japanese, but it has a fax number).
http://www.sports-buddy.jp/21/amanda-map.htm

Dawes---thanks for the great pics!!

Eek is right! Not surprising tho' if you consider the craftsmanship that goes into shaping the wood.

I got in touch with Cherubim and asked them about shipping - they reckon around ¥20,000 to ¥30,000 for a frame or for a complete bike.

Cherubim is slated to exhibit at NAHBS in Indy in another month or so - might be an opportunity to communicate with them about obtaining a bike. In fact, I might be doing just that.

Great pics, thanks for posting!

Thank you, but no need right now. I'd like to hear back about the price first. I just Googled the exchange rate. It looked pretty awful at around 89 yen to the dollar.

Edit: I'd better hold off for now. No wonder I like that mahogany bike (which, by the way, already sold to someone in Holland). Price for one with Dura Ace: $14,500; $16,000 with Campy SR. :eek:

Best way to get a bike from the builders at the Tokyo show or similar would probably be to go through Hiroshi Iimura at Jitensha Studio:

http://www.jitensha.com/eng/e_index.html