Bi-Ci-Classica, Osaka

An afternoon out in Osaka today to visit the amazing Bi-Ci-Classica store in Matsuyamatchi. The shop specialize in vintage road bikes but that description does not quite do justice to the simply stunning collection of beautiful bikes inside... 

Situated in an old converted town house the store is full of jaw dropping bicycles, all lovingly restored by the store owner Mr Velati...

Some of the more modern frames and bikes in store.

A beautiful 1990's Lemond.

A gold 1980's Cellini.

They even have their own in-house brand, designed by Velati and hand built in Japan...

It seemed that everywhere you looked there was a piece of cycling history on display...

A vintage Bartali.

A Spinergy equipped Sappin just tucked away in a corner!

A limited edition Colnago.

A super cute kid's Pinarello.

An awesome shop stocking some stunning bicycles and parts, an essential must visit for any cyclist who finds themselves in Osaka or even Japan. When Kinki Cycle wins big at the next keirin meeting we will be back to buy that Lemond!

3Rensho Custom

We have seen this bike in Osaka quite a lot but only really noticed it properly yesterday. 3Rensho are usually known for their track frames, this is a rare example of one of their road bikes with a very custom bar/brake lever set up...

Another view of those "interesting" bars....

Colourful Cycroc

Spotted out in Horie, Osaka yesterday, this very, very colourful Cycroc Flat-1. From the accessories and the location we would guess it is a Gira Cha creation.

Casualties Volume 7

Rusted, dusted and busted, Nara.

Just starting to biodegrade, Nara.

Straighten the mech hanger and all will be well again, Horie, Osaka.

Not much can be done for this one, Namba, Osaka.

Loro World Recumbents Kyoto

A trip to Kyoto today to pay a visit to the Loro World Recumbents store. Located in Chudoji LWR is part of the Loro Group, their Kyoto store is where they house the recumbent side of the business.

An Ultegra equipped Metabikes recumbent

Super cool  custom HP Speedmachine with Aerospokes f+r.

Rans Force 5 700c

As well as stocking recumbents the store also holds a good range of folders including Airnimals, Birdy (BD-1), Brompton and many others...

Disc equipped Airnimal

The shop is chock full of folders, custom mini-velos and many hard to find parts and accessories...

Some nice custom colour options on the Birdy bikes like this sparkly gold number on the left...

And many options for the Bromptons too...

Optima Cougar

A really great specialist shop, one of the few in Japan that hold stock of recumbent bikes. Great range of bikes and parts, friendly and knowledgable staff, well worth seeking out when you visit Kyoto.

Mie Trip

Mie Trip from Ryo8111 on Vimeo.

Weekly Pictures

More random shots taken over the past week...

An afternoon ride around Nara koen

Todai-ji Temple

The mighty Nara Club in action last monday.

We took a ride out to Osaka over the weekend to visit the wonderful Bicycle Studio Movement in Tennoji.

Shitenno-ji, Osaka

Backstreet, Osaka.

Tsutenkaku (Hitachi tower) Osaka.

A local ride around Heijo palace

Baramon

Spotted out in Nara today, this beautiful Baramon fixie...

Not much information available online about Baramon, all we could ascertain is that they are made somewhere in Fukuoka prefecture. And that they have possibly the best head badges ever...

Easy Riders

A couple of rather funky chopper style bikes we passed yesterday out on the hot Osaka streets. Firstly a cool KHE Highriser parked up in Shinsaibashi. Got to dig the bungee seat back on the sissy bar...

The bike had two drinks holders, one of them holding a bunch of flowers, peace and love man, peace and love!

Secondly an unidentified little 20" BMX style bike, with banana seat, front suspension and a very cool Suicidal Tendencies sticker on the rear mudgaurd...

   

2013 SOYng TA98

2013 SOYng TA98 Part from 清原綾介 on Vimeo.

Panasonic Track Bike

Spotted out in Osaka yesterday this classic looking Panasonic Track bike. We felt it deserved a post of its own as we have recently learnt that the Panasonic Track bikes are made in Nara. This one looks like the work of Gira Gira. We are currently researching a few other Nara based frame makers and will hopefully be posting about them soon.

Weekly Pictures

A little bit too random to make a full post out of so we grouped together a few shots taken on our travels over the past week...

An afternoon ride around Nara, Todai-ji temple in the background.

The stairs leading up to Nigatsu-do.

The view over Nara from Nigastu-do.

One of the better shadow shots we took this week!

Then we braved the heat and took a trip out to Osaka midweek with Mr Toepfer and made a tour of the bike shops, including the new 8to8 store and the wonderful Gira Gira...

Hiding in the shade waiting for the lights to change!

A very cool biker we spotted in Namba.

Big Toepfer speeding through town.

A couple more examples of bicycle parking we passed in Umeda yesterday, firstly the ordered, racked and stacked...

Then the usual chaotic scenes...

Something very odd happened to our camera as we tried to get a shot of this stylish Bianchi track bike..

 And finally, we couldn't leave you without the now compulsory deer photo...

The guys at Guell are made of sterner stuff than us and did the 100+Km ride from Nara to the Guell Shiga store yesterday, braving 37C heat and heavy thunderstorms! Big respect guys!!