Tag Archives: touring

State 4130 All-Road Gravel Bike – Custom Build

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Last year, I decided that I wanted to buy a modern gravel bike to see what all the hype was about: one-by drivetrains, tubeless tires, carbon wheels, disc brakes.   After extensive research, the State Bicycle Co.’s 4130 All-Road caught my eye.  I was attracted to the cool semi-raw phosphate finish, having experimented with different unpainted metal finishes in the past.  I was also impressed with the clearance it has for super-wide tires, bigger than any other stock gravel bike at the time.  That’s a feature that’s increasingly come into style over the past twelve months, and which proves that the folks at State know what they’re doing.  Originally, my plan was to buy just a frameset and build it entirely custom.  The price for a complete 4130 All-Road was so low, I decided to get one stock and customize it by replacing parts over time.  Read on for details on my custom build and more photos!

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Schwinn Paramount P13-9 & Sprint with curved seat tube

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Taking a time machine back to the year 2011, here’s a very rare frame set that passed through my hands.  It’s a 1975 Schwinn Paramount P13-9 with a curved seat tube.  This was referred to by Schwinn as a “sprint style” or “short-coupled” frame, and was an option when ordering a custom frame in 1975, 1976, 1977, and 1978.  The feature was available on the P14, P10 and the P13 models (and the T22 tandem).  The good folks at Bikeforums’ Classic & Vintage message board helped me identify it, especially member Scooper, who shared the original catalogs and order form.  This particular one was customized in several ways.  Read on to learn more! Continue reading →

The First Zunow Catalog: KYGM 1973

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Last year I scored an original printing of Zunow’s first catalog from Yahoo JP Auctions. The catalog is for master builder Takeru Kageyama’s line of full-custom bicycles branded “KYGM” (pronounced “Gee-mu”).

It offers a window into the early days of the Zunow brand, when Kageyama-san was producing French-inspired randonneur, road, and touring bicycles. The catalog is in Japanese, which is a challenge for a non-speaker like myself. With the help of some translation tools and my experience with bikes & bike parts filling in the gaps, there are some interesting learnings to be had. Click “Continue Reading” below to learn more and download a free copy of the catalog.

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Vivalo Touring, Sportif and Road Bikes

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I’ve always been fascinated by non-Keirin bikes built by Japanese frame builders who are famous for their track bikes. All of the most well-known builders of NJS track bikes began their careers in the late 1960s – early 1970s, when the bicycle touring craze was sweeping the world and Japan in particular. They apprenticed in shops that built road and touring bikes, and many of them built these kinds of bikes early in their careers. Touring and sportif bikes are often custom-made for clients, and are expected to include the kinds of beautiful details and high level of finish common with this kind of luxury item.

Shuichi Kusaka, the master builder behind the Vivalo brand, built a number of road, touring, and sportif customs. In the past 15 years, I have only seen a handful, and in this article I’ll be highlighting a few of these lovely bicycles. Read on to learn more!

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3Rensho Rarities from the Cyclone Days

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Have you ever seen a 3Rensho cyclocross bike? I had not, until I came across the bike pictured above, on auction at Yahoo JP auctions. I thought about throwing in a bid on it, but rather narrow-mindedly decided that a 3Rensho that doesn’t have the logo engraved into a seat stay cap or fork crown wasn’t a 3Rensho worth buying. Man, was I wrong! I regret it now, as I’ve come to learn that engraved logos do not a 3Rensho make.

I’ve been diving into the history of Cyclone LTD (the Yoshi Konno’s brand that later became 3Rensho) as I’ve been researching the provenance of the custom 3Rensho Super Record I recently restored. In the course of that research, I’ve dug up a few interesting rarities to share. Read on to learn more!

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Maruishi Emperor RE-C-A Touring Bike

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The Maruishi Emperor has been a popular line of touring bicycles in Japan since at least the 1970s. The Emperor line covers a number of different models, but like the Maruishi brand itself, there is little information on them available in English. After much research, I have identified it as an RE-C-A “Camper” model, released in 1976. It caught my eye as a frame set on Yahoo Japan auctions, as the triple-triangle style of frame design is uncommon, even in Japan. After it arrived in my shop and sat for a few months, I built it up using period-correct parts that came from a Zunow KYGM I am restoring. Read on to learn more about this bike, along with some history of Maruishi.

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Bridgestone Eurasia Sportif – Part One

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It seems as auspicious a start as any to kick off the revival of my bike blog with this recent restoration project that took me down the rabbit hole of Bridgestone’s Japan-only line of touring bikes of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Touted by Bridgestone as the “All-in-One Sports Bicycling System,” the Eurasia line consisted of touring, sportif, and road models supported by a cornucopia of racks, accessories, and apparel all designed specifically for the Eurasia. Click below to continue reading about the Bridgestone Eurasia and my experience restoring one!

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