I know there's a huge cycling culture in South Korea's offshore neighbor, Japan. There's a new subculture over there of young and middle-aged people buying boutique touring bikes and handmade bags for bike touring across the region. Touring isn't new there (Nitto, anyone?) but several familiar U.S. companies like Surly, Ocean Air Cycles, and Rivendell have a lot of draw in Japan, and bag companies like Swift Industries and Inside Line Equipment, too. There's also a new crop of framebuilders in Japan making touring bikes, a tradition that thankfully thrives over there in the modern age as it does here in the US.

You can see some examples of this cultural overflow on the website for the bike shop Blue Lug. The site is in japanese, but if you click around you can see that almost all their bikes are touring bikes with bags. Here's a link to their flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bluelug/

I don't think there is a lot of cultural exchange between South Korea and Japan, necessarily. My grossly underfilled understanding of world politics in that region tells me that South Korea is pretty resistant to Japan and japanese culture, especially movies and television. Leftover tension from the war, when Japan occupied the country.

But, if the fascination with bike touring in Japan birthed itself from our stronger touring culture in the United States (as evidenced by the huge crop of U.S. brands in demand in their cycling market), then it's very possible that bug has bitten South Korea, too.

All speculation and I'm sure I'm missing a few pieces, but it sounds fun!


Here's a feature on The Radavist for a bike touring event in Japan: Bicycle Camping on Izu Oshima and Riding Mount Mihara with Circles | The Radavist