Tag Archives: touring bikes

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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Eddy Merckx Bicycles by Miyata

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In 1973, Miyata launched a new line of bicycles under a special branding & endorsement deal with cycling legend Eddy Merckx. Above is the cover of the first catalog, introducing Merckx to Japanese cyclists as “The world excellent bicyclist Eddy Merckx; Unprecedented 280 victories in competitions; Eddy Merckx who is the fastest man in the world.”

Released only in Japan for a few years between 1973 and 1980, the Miyata Merckx bikes remain a lesser-known but fascinating piece of cycling history. There’s a few scattered articles in English across the web, and I’ve pulled together everything I could find into one place, including hi-res catalog scans from three different years of production. Read on to learn more about the Eddy Merckx Miyatas!

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Eddie Merckx Corsa – original team 7-11 colors

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Here’s my latest two-wheeled acquisition, an Eddie Merckx Corsa, in the colors of the famous 7-11 cycling team.  It is an “original model” made of Columbus TSX tubing and features the distinctive flat-topped fork bridge, instead of the sloped fork found on the 2007 re-issue of the bike.  It is not the “Extra” model which had a chrome fork and internal routing for the brake cable, however.  It has a Shimano Ultegra group on it currently, although that is most likely not the original group, based on details in the 1990 Eddie Merckx catalog.

The previous owner has already set up a Velospace page for this bike, as well as a Flickr stream.  Check out Diablo Scott’s blog for a timeline of bikes used by the 7-11 team, including some cool scans of 1989-90 era magazine articles and ads for this bike.