Bicycle Custom
So it has been one of those slow winter days at the shop. The weather is about as bad as it can be short of a blizzard. It has been raining/snowing all day, which is a very unpleasant combination and I am guessing that is why there have been few people making it in to the shop. I can tell the people that have been in are the die hard cyclists that enjoy a challenge and look forward to days like today to prove that cycling year round isn’t really as bad as most people make it out to be. Well this slow day has given me some spare time and luckily I had just the thing to occupy myself with. If you have been following us on Twitter you already know that my good friend Kaiko of Pedal Strike and Cassette. brought me back an amazing book from her winter trip to Japan and I finally had the time to sit down and really dig through it. Even though I can’t read Japanese, I had a ton of fun looking through it and trying to figure it out. One of my favorite sections was the celebrities caught riding bikes spread. Personally I don’t really like tabloids or celebrity gossip, but looking at celebrities on bikes is hilarious.
Here you can see Madonna wearing an Ed Hardy Hat on a Cannondale Mountain bike, I thought she had better fashion sense than that, I mean really. And then there is Beyonce on a Hybrid Giant Bike that probably cost less than the boots she is wearing. Which is a pet peeve of mine, you should definitely invest more in your bicycle than your outfit.
Russel Crow however has spent his money wisely on a $6000+ Carbon Scott Full Suspension Mountain Bike, he is ready for any pothole in his path, and amazingly he is the only celebrity featured wearing a helmet. Kevin Bacon is just confusing the crap out of me. He is riding some internally geared Cruiser bike with what appear to be vintage mountain bike tires circa 1994 (maybe just throwbacks). But what is especially weird is even though his white pocket T, weird hat and baggy shorts don’t look too race inspired, he appears to have shaved legs.
The street snap section of the book is also pretty fun to look through, it’s basically just a collection of riders caught on the street with their bikes in many cities all over Japan. Its great to see all the different styles of bikes on the streets of Japan.
I found this ad a bit confusing and out of place. Since I can’t read the text I’m not sure why Trek is using a Bike from the mid 90′s to advertise their brand but I was stoked to see it because it features the Trek Y Bike, which I think was discontinued about 10 years ago. This was my first real Mountain Bike. I purchased it new in 1996 and raced on it for many years before retiring it, it still resides in my apartment though, as a reminder of where it all started.
If you want to look through the book yourself stop by the shop, it has been added to our ever growing cycling book collection.
