The Frames Mr Sugiyama Built
 

Mr Sugiyama runs my local bike shop. He was a member of the Japanese Olympic cycling team in 1968 and has ridden for Japan in several international events. He is now coach to the Japanese Olympic mountain bike team and is a judge at several national cycling events. He knows just about everyone in the Japanese cycling world - just today he was talking about his friend, the president of Mikashima Industrial, known to us in the bicycle world as MKS, the pedal maker. He has worked with bicycles all his life and has made a few frames.

Three of them are below. For lots of photos of these bikes with descriptions and comments, see:
http://flickr.com/photos/22983673@N0...7603923490742/

This is awesome! Thanks for sharing.

It's great to see someone dedicated to bikes for so many decades, and looking so happy doing it.

Thanks for posting this! Those are some beautiful frames and it looks like he really knew what he was doing and was good at it. Did he make very many frames?

Forgive my ignorance, but what kind of cable housing was on Mr. Sugiyama's Silk?

East Hill

Very nice workmanship. What a treasure to have him as your LBS, you are lucky. BTW, that's not a lightened Shimano shift lever (on the Silk), it's a Simplex Retrofriction, and one of the C&V all-time favorites. One of the very few bikes I've seen with the shifter mounted on the Top Tube, I reckon that would be a bit more common except for the "safety" concerns.

Ignorance is simply not knowing... there's nothing to forgive... :)

It's called Nokon and is very expensive.
http://www.nokon.de/html/english/intro.html
Just found this source in the US:
http://store.airbomb.com/Items.asp?Cc=442-T-270

Mr S said it was expensive but I had no idea. It really does firm up the feel of the brake, though.

Don't know why I thought it was a Shimano... thanks.

Yes, I am lucky to have him near - anything I want to know, I ask him. I'm lucky to have found this forum, too.

It is a tad bit more expensive than the normal brake cable!

I've never seen any of it...

East Hill

That fork is stunning!

Katakura Silk was a NJS brand of Keirin cycles in the 70s. So I imagine he made a few frames. Apparently they're very rare these days.

Wow!!! It really is!!!

Yes, indeed, and in fact Mr S told me that he/they (not sure which as personal pronouns aren't used in Japanese) made about 90 Keirin frames while he was there. Also, that there was an 8 month waiting list for them. I don't know if you saw my 2 Shops in Tokyo post but among all the photos I took there was a Silk frame with track ends hanging up (the racing Silk with worn off paint on the crossbar is in the same shop).
http://www.flickr.com/photos/2298367...7603923860868/
The Silk is the 2nd from the left.

Thanks for the great photo essays! Mr. S. is quite the artisan. His frames are meticulous.
His fork is amazing.

I also thoroughly enjoyed the detailed views of his daily ride. What a cool bike.