Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - WOW!! That Yamaguchi only went for $275!!

I thought it would go for a lot more...well congratulations to who ever bought it!


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7114734299&ssPageName=ADME:X:ON:US:2

Wow it did sell but I don'tknow if it's comp legal.

Who cares if its comp legal, its a sweet frame.

stupid TT bikes... they're right up there with pursuit frames

Come on, you can't appreciate how sweet that frame is.. I can, and I don't ride TT or pursuit. Just look at that design, and the asthetics(sp?). I would never buy one of those bikes, but man does it look cool! :D

Take a look at the concave seat tube.

those aint track ends!

A smoking deal for sure. The drops can be changed or simply run an Eno hub.

just looking at that bike gives me a hernia.

Come on, you can't appreciate how sweet that frame is.. I can, and I don't ride TT or pursuit. Just look at that design, and the asthetics(sp?). I would never buy one of those bikes, but man does it look cool! :D


Bah humbug.

Are you f-ing ****ting me?! That Yamaguchi went for $275?! Dammit! Where was I? That bike is a freaking collector's item. That's sick! I would've gladly have paid twice as much for that ride. SIGH! I guess there's only a small cult of Yamaguchi fans that really appreciate those Olympic bikes!

I mean, come on! That particular bike in the EBay ad was ridden by the US National Track Team. So, what if the UCI have now outlawed downtube fairings under the bottom bracket. That bike is retired. It shouldn't even touch the pavement. It should be hanging up somewhere in a museum!

http://www.yamaguchibike.com/

the black pursuit frame is what the models look like now. It is a collectable but I would ride it .

S/F,
CEYA!

How much business dose yamaguchi do they seem pretty old school.

Yamaguchi is old school! He's on the Old Skool Track website along with many other notable builders. He's very well respected amongst other builders. And he has quite a loyal following. In the 90s, he built for the entire US National Team and he was also selected the last ever official framebuilder for the US Olympic Team before they sold out and went to the sponsorship dollar business that screwed the Olympics in the 1st place.

One other guy on this site has a smoking blue Yamaguchi and he's posted a pic on there. There is one track guy that I know of that has a custom Yamaguchi, built of S3 I think. Based on his decades of framebuilding experience listed on their website, I think he's a really old guy and it doesn't appear that he's really a bigtime company just based on the fact that all you see nowadays are Treks, Litespeeds, etc. and all the steel builders are going extinct.

I've the blue Yamaguchi, the pursuit model. I posted a couple of pics that the previous owner had taken. I just finished building it up and I'll take and post new pics tomorrow if my coworker remembers to bring her camera.

Has anyone ever emailed Yamaguchi-san? I inquired about getting replacement decals about a month ago -- no answer.

Has anyone ever emailed Yamaguchi-san? I inquired about getting replacement decals about a month ago -- no answer.


I'm not sure. I heard from a friend in Colorado that Yamaguchi had some serious health problems and things didn't look good. It's a family owned business and seeing how he's the only one holding the biz together you can see how that might affect things. Have you tried calling?

I have emailed him alot of times. I saw his skills years ago and Mike McCarthy's bike. That was when I used to ride in Central Park.


I want to go to his frame building school.

S/F,
CEYA!

I have emailed him alot of times. I saw his skills years ago and Mike McCarthy's bike. That was when I used to ride in Central Park.


I want to go to his frame building school.

S/F,
CEYA!



Ahhhh! Central Park. Man, how I miss NYC. I remember me and a couple messenger dudes used to meet near Penn and head over to Spinelli's for a nice dose of abuse and New York style pizzas, and then ride over to the park. That was heaven. what great memories.

Speaking of Yamaguchi again. I hope he is ok. Whatever health probs he had hopefully that didn't put him out of the game to the point of retirement or worse. That's cool that he wants to teach his art now.

Yeah, I miss it too. Meeting at the Boathouse or Tavern on Green for the loops around the park.. Cat paws hill, 110 hill.

yeah I will see it again soon.

I will try and call him tonight and hopefully he is alright.

S/F,
CEYA!



Ahhhh! Central Park. Man, how I miss NYC. I remember me and a couple messenger dudes used to meet near Penn and head over to Spinelli's for a nice dose of abuse and New York style pizzas, and then ride over to the park. That was heaven. what great memories.

Speaking of Yamaguchi again. I hope he is ok. Whatever health probs he had hopefully that didn't put him out of the game to the point of retirement or worse. That's cool that he wants to teach his art now.

I have not tried calling....Ceya, did you get in touch with him?

And I posted pics of my Yama in the photos thread.

No Not yet but in the next 12 hrs I will. keep trying , I will.


S/F,
CEYA!

I've been calling and emailing for months (in that time their answering machine message has changed 5-6 times) trying to get on the list for a road frame, and I've only been answered once. About a month ago one of the Yamaguchi kids picked up (so it was probably an accident) and I talked to Mrs. Yamaguchi. She seemed knowledgeable enough and is probably heavily involved in the business. Likely she's the only one that talks to customers. She didn't mention that Koichi was sick or not building bikes anymore - she talked at length about the various models and how great a deal they were, etc. There was no indication that they were getting out of the business! Unfortunately, I didn't have my measurements done at the time, so I wasn't able to get in line for a frame. Now I fear I'll never make contact again! Since his biggest customers are doubtless serious racers and teams he might not be too concerned with the random guys that call him up asking for a frame.

I emailed the guy auctioning the pursuit bike, and he echoed these sentiments. He said he thought Yamaguchi was more interested in building bikes than talking to potential customers. It took him a while to make contact with Yamaguchi, but he did eventually. He sent me some pictures of his aero road in candy apple red. Beautiful bike! When I get home I may post them if people are interested.

People are always interested.

Even optimized the files are too large to be attached here, so I put them on my website.

http://www.utdallas.edu/~grantr/images/yamaguchi/

A bit blurry, but you get the idea. This is not my bike! The owner said the candy apple red metallic finish was a $350 option, but looks incredible in person (Yamaguchi paint is by Cycle Fantasy)

Wonder of wonders, I got an email yesterday from Yamaguchi himself explaining the differences between the two road frames, AND a phone message saying that he didn't receive my faxed measurements. Cause for celebration.

so this yamaguchi is sweet. right now its sitting in my livingroom. its not comp legal, but im not worried about that. its being built as a fixed gear (slowly) but you will see it in the spring on fixedgeargallery.com

Got in contact by email with Yamaguchi and will be seeing him soon . Taking classes there.

S/F,
CEYA!

cool! are you taking the framebuilding course?

Got in contact by email with Yamaguchi and will be seeing him soon . Taking classes there.

S/F,
CEYA!

A full report and/or daily journal is expected.

cool! are you taking the framebuilding course?

YEP! taking those classes and stem building also.

S/F,
CEYA!

I've got a Yamaguchi Olympics TT frameset that will go on ebay soon unless one you here tells me different.

I was going to make it fixed gear java hopper - but then, that would sacrilegious.