Deathhare and I rode out to Makino today.

Prior to the story, I should tell you that yesterday I rode about 30 miles. Before today that was the farthest I had ever ridden and my legs made sure I knew that this morning.

Anyway, I rode the 8 miles or so to meet him (since the Makino shop is closer to his place than mine (lucky bastad)). I was late.

The ride sucked. Well, my ride sucked. I was definitely feeling yesterday in my legs, deathhare runs a higher gear than me, and...let's just say that I am definitely going to invest in some cycling shorts, ASAP. We only missed one turn the whole ride and stopped by the Kiyo shop (boring) on the way out there. Not sure how long it took to ride the 20 or so miles.... Counting the stops at Kiyo, for food, to pee, and missing our turn it was maybe 2 1/2 hours.

When we finally got to Makino it looked empty and we were pretty damn bummed. Deathhare decided to take charge though and opened the door and yelled (politely) inside anyway and, lo-and-behold, a guy came out of the back.

Not sure who he was, but he wasn't Makino-san. The shop was pretty nice (they had a whole crapload of track stuff) and there were some pretty sweet bikes. When we asked about the 2 3renshos and 1 makino hanging from the ceiling we were told that they weren't for sale to people who ride them on the street. Especially people who ride them brakeless on the street. Like us.



After we got over that shock (the guy was unfriendly to begin with), I asked him about drilling my fork since I was thinking of getting it done at Kalavinka anyway. Apparently Makino-san won't do anything to bikes that he hasn't made himself, so despite my wanting to make my bike more 'Makino-approved' with brakes I was shot down.

The shop wasn't a total bust though. I was able to find a 27.0 Nitto Jaguar stem, some tensioners, champ grips, and a chain-holder-thingy for when I ship my bike. The guy working there was a dick though, and we were worried he was going to try to revoke Deathhare's Makino-riding-privileges for being a brakeless, street-riding, gaijin.

Needless to say we were kinda pissed. I had been hoping that we'd get there, after a long ass ride, and end up shooting the sh*t with Makino-san, checking out cool 'secret' bikes and maybe getting awesome stuff for little to no money. Didn't happen. But we did decide that while we were there we might as well check out the bike shop right next door that we had originally thought was Makino.

It made the trip worthwhile. The place looked like a 3Rensho museum. Jerseys, signed posters, vintage saddles and framed collections of decals. Ever seen an Eddy Merckx track frame with fully Campy set-up and a Campy rear disc wheel? We did. He had posters, and what looked like shop signs, and REALLLLLLLY beautiful 3Rensho frames. In other words, he was almost as bad as all of you guys.

Deathhare got some (read: a lot) of secret 3Rensho goodies (I only got two) while I picked up a new set of NJS Suzue Pro Max hubs (110 spacing) for about $120 and a couple super-awesome 3Rensho track multi-tools:


It seemed like every time we bought something we'd find something else we wanted, and the owner kept giving us discounts (probably because we were so ridiculous and spent so much chedda).

There were only 2 parts of the shop that sucked:
1. They didn't have cycling shorts in my size (and my taint is pissed at them for that)
and 2. Those damned MASH dudes had visited! We saw a sticker and business cards stuck up on the wall, and he said two really tall really big guys had stopped by. Even in the middle of nowhere Japan you can't get away from them.

As we were leaving the shop the owner stopped us to take our picture. He then ran back inside and when he came back out he handed each of us a 3Rensho decal. Not sure what I'll do with it, but I'm not complaining.

The ride back sucked hardcore. Well, actually, it started out not too bad (despite deathhare riding way too damn fast up hills) since now we knew exactly where we were going. In fact, I would even say I didn't mind it.

Until the rain set in. With 10 more miles to go until we got to deathhare's place. Riding a bike when you're tired isn't the most fun. Riding a bike when you're tired, wet, cold, slipping and sliding, and getting hit in the face by stinging rain sucks. Riding a bike when you're tired, wet, cold, slipping and sliding, getting hit in the face by stinging rain AND you almost get creamed by a bus and wipe out (deathhare) or take a turn too fast and wipe out (me) ****ing sucks.

We were pissed and I decided to leave my bike at his place, borrow a shirt and money for the train (since I was soaked and spent ALL the money I had on bike stuff) and spent another hour and a half going home.



Morals of the story: Get cycling shorts. Makino isn't worth visiting. Don't ride in the rain. Watch out for crazy buses. AND REMEMBER TO BRING YOUR CAMERA WHEN YOU'RE GOING TO VISIT NJS BUILDERS!