Here's a quick postcard from my recent return to Japan. After being away from planet nippon for more than 3 years, it seems as though all the Suntour Superbe Pro stuff has vanished along with all of the native female's natural silky black hair. Yes, Superbe Pro has been usurped with dura ace or campy while the black hair has all become status-quo Chapatsu(ed)--chemical-induced gaijin wannabe faded dirty redish brown. If you've never seen chapatsu hair, just think of an old over-used and abused Brooks or Ideale saddle with way too many proofhide or peroxide treatments. Forgive the off-topic stray, but I can't believe the demise of Suntour and the rise of chapatsu are disconnected.
Anyway, a couple weeks ago, John B. and I stormed the fall vintage Flea (Free) mkt in Tokyo. Each of us packing two 70-lb roller suitcases full of vintage parts, John arrived Thursday and I arrived Fri nite to hit the mkt on Sat morning, so it's all a bit of a jet-lagged melatonin blur. I do remember amid brisk French equipt sales, missing a fine blue 3Rensho pista frameset.I guess there were about 40 to 50 vendors total.
I did manage to find a nice used 3Rensho and some 3Rensho memorabilia from the owner of a now defunct 3Rensho shop. I guess there were about 40 to 50 vendors total.
We left the market at about 1 just in time to miss the rains. Ueno-san drove us to Nagano and poly-japon. Unfortunately, he mounted his mint Simplex Juy Record equipped Rene Herse on his roof rack. To spare the bike and the nearly 5K derailleur from the elements, John and I hitched a ride w/ another another van.
Poly Japon began at 6 pm. About 40 Japanese participated and Dennis Young crashed (literally) the party showing up with skinned knees and scuffed brake levers on his Masi Prestige. After a western dinner and some Japanese beer and sake, the competition for best bikes in category and rarest parts began. Rarest part winner was a 1st Gen Campy NR derl from '67. It's the same model that brought 2,500.00 on ebay, recently. But, this one had the original pulley wheels with less teeth than later NR models. Also for honorable mention were NOS 1950s Simplex Skewers w/ Frankenstein bolts.
This year's theme was sport/racing bikes. Somebody brought a collection of about 7aero TT & pursuit Cinelli bikes--from the 1980s or so. Most interesting was the bike w/ no seat tube.
Probably the best category winner was a nicely equipped mid 60s Legnano Roma Olympic model. The frame seemed to be NOS, while the rest of the bike was period-correctly equipped with new or nearly new parts. Also displayed was a not-quite completed Gloria c. 1930s.
There were only about 20 to 30 bikes on display including a few Rene Herse models, a couple of Toeii bikes and a later Cinelli dressed up with the '64 Tokyo Olympic colors and decals.
I won the award for longest distance travelled, edging out my compatriot by 10 kilometers.
About 11 pm the poly-japon free mkt began. I guess there were only about 6 of us selling. The next morning we had one last look at the bikes and headed out of Nagano. Scott back for the great ice storm of November St. Paul not Japan.
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