Vintage Roland Eloi Road Bike

Beautiful, rare, vintage Roland Eloi French road bike spotted whilst out on a ride in Koriyama yesterday...

Equipped with the curious and equally rare Spindel groupset...

The owner of the bike was a very friendly gent who had ridden this bike all the way from Osaka for the afternoon, chapeau!

Sunday Morning, Coming Down...

About time we had a little local flavour round here. An early start yesterday morning, joining up with F-i-N with the original idea being to head to Kyoto for the Achieve Ride. Shitty unreliable weather forecasts scuppered that plan so instead we headed south from Nara city on one of F-i-N's famous "shall we just do a loop?" discovery rides...

Say what you like about F-i-N (and many people do!) he knows the backroads of Nara very, very well...

Past the factory where all of the world's skaters are made...

A chance discovery of an American car garage/graveyard was worth a shot..

Or two...

Maybe three...

Further south and with the temperature and humidity becoming unbearable (it was still only 9am and 30C+) we took shelter and shade in a local shrine...

A bit of bike shooting...

And then back out into the heat...

Past the space station...

And the essential K-Coffee stop...

As always, thanks to the man, the legend F-i-N.

On A Saturday...

A late afternoon spin with F-i-N yesterday down to K Town...

A pit stop at the ever reliable Kita Cycle...

The stench of roadies was strong...

Naturally any trip to K Town means a stop at K-Coffee...

Waiting for the man...

A few shrine shots...

Then back up the river to the big N-City...

Cheers, as usual, to the recovering alcoholics Brad and Mikey.

38 Special Crew

Whilst down at Bicycle Maru a few weeks back we asked Kentaro-san if he could source any of the now discontinued tanwall Panaracer 38 Special tyres. After a bit of searching he came up with some. We shared this news with F-i-N and Mikey and somewhat unwittingly became the 38 Special Crew. Nerdy as fuck? Yes. But these tyres were kind of legendary and they look fucking sweet especially on Mikey's Fairdale Weekender...

Mikey's Fairdale.

And so last holiday Monday morning we met up for a coffee and a local cruise...

Ready to Roll.

A pit stop at Bicycle Maru was needed as designers make shit mechanics, meaning someone needed new pads...

Baaw at Maru.

Shooting people shooting bikes...

Gettin' that 'Gram.

And then we headed south...

Street life.

Through the quiet backstreets and farmland of Koriyama...

Backstreets.

To the wonderful K-Coffee...

K-Coffee

A quick  #BAAW opportunity...

Baaw at K-Coffee.

And then back up to Nara before the weather turned to shite...

Deserted.

Cheers to Brad, Mikey and Bicycle Maru.

Koriyama Cruising

A few shots from an afternoon spin down to Koriyama Castle with Matt and Mike last week...

Checking out the local wildlife on the way...

Spotted a rather nice vintage Specialized A1 Comp Ground Control MTB...

Spring is finally here! Cheers to Matt and Mike.

Sunday Cruise

Fields of green.

 A bunch of shots from last Sunday's cruise down to Koriyama with Brad and Pete...

Daian-ji Temple

Daruma at Daian-ji Temple.

Under the freeway.

Shrine/bike shot at Koriyama Castle.

Bikes/Castle shot.

K-Coffee.

Sundown at Heijo

F-i-N gettin' that 'Gram

Pete throwin' shapes.