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Bicycle Market Fest - 29th UN University

GSAstuto

Maximum Pace
Oct 11, 2009
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There will be a Bicycle Market fest at the same location as the Farmer's Market on Aoyama Dori on the 29th. I'll get more details and post. For sure we'll be there and have a booth with lots of goodies and I'll be doing P&K Lie Truing. Hopefully this will be an ongoing 'open market' actvity to let smaller shops and individuals put some more variety into cycling goods in Tokyo.
 
There will be a Bicycle Market fest at the same location as the Farmer's Market on Aoyama Dori on the 29th. I'll get more details and post. For sure we'll be there and have a booth with lots of goodies and I'll be doing P&K Lie Truing. Hopefully this will be an ongoing 'open market' actvity to let smaller shops and individuals put some more variety into cycling goods in Tokyo.

Just for the record this is set up by the same people that organise "pedal life" events in Tokyo.
 
Pretty good, actually, they are kind of the 'intellegentsia' of Japan and have enough reach and connections to leverage these prime locations (like the UNU). I think having a kind of Farmer's Market for bicycle stuff is cool. They apply a bit of moderation and credentials which act as a filter hopefully preventing it from becoming a 'fence' jumblesale.

Is that a good or a bad thing?
 
although I would strongly recommend the users of the TCC who have recently had bikes stolen to go check the market out and see if anything crops up.

Unfortunately it is impossible to moderation or check on credentials of these kind of events.
 
The individual organizing this is quite famous in the 2nd hand bike biz and also sports a JBCF Team. He's really cool guy and worth the check - not to mention he'll probably have nice NOS parts and other goodies there.
 
sorry, for the uninitiated (like myself :(), could we get the address/location please?
 
Soon as I get the exact location, I'll post it! I met with them today and they are finalizing the exact location relation to the Farmer's Market. But it will be very close, if not within the Market area. This is the first iteration of the bike market and so will be a bit of learning curve for everyone. Their goal, if it works out, is to hold this at least once a month.
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but bicycle themed editions of the farmers market have been held a couple of times before, the latest about a month ago.

Last time I went was last year, when it was not a terribly exciting affair. I bought some cheap bartape of Tomity who had one of about 5 booths total. This is not meant to be negative, as it's an achievement to organize this and it surely takes time to grow.

Sekidobashi flea market, which already had achieved a worldwide reputation after 10+ yrs, was effectively shut down by the authorities this year. It would have been held in October, so one can only hope that a similar format emerges. It's biggest benefit was the grassroots nature, with no explicit organization and no registration necessary for attendees. While that might be difficult to uphold, at least reserving some space for sellers, who can register flexibly (for free) on the day would be great.
 
Sekidobashi flea market, which already had achieved a worldwide reputation after 10+ yrs, was effectively shut down by the authorities this year.

Any idea why?
 
Yeah, they were fleecing stolen goods as well as not having a permit to have the flea market.
 
Yeah, they were fleecing stolen goods as well as not having a permit to have the flea market.

I think you need to put this into perspective. You make it sound as everybody was in on the fleecing. I attended Sekidobashi 5times and sold 3 times and having seen the goods and sellers, fleecing was never a problem. It was a great communal atmosphere with some people not selling anything but pikniking, the vintage guys just having a club meeting, etc.
What eventually led to its demise, was the fact that there Sekidobashi would have never been approved as an event through the proper channels at its location. Thus no official organizers and no registration of sellers. So when the police found out about the sale of some stolen goods there, there was just no way to legitimize it by taking an "official" response.

That's why I hope the pedal people make it easy enough for everybody to participate and not just a brand showcase. If you need a meeting with the organizers first, this will never become a swapmeet.
 
If anyone is interested in a table or booth at this event, please PM me for info. and I can put you in direct contact with the organizer. @Gunnar, I'll talk with him about the idea of a 'swap meet' area. I agree it would be cool if individuals can display some individual items. Similar to the swap meet tables at Tour de Kusatsu. Given the nature of the demographic attending these (mainly middle class, upscale) I think a functional vetting system would ferrett most of the potential 'fence' related vendors. Adhoc swapmeets and jumblesales are magnets for fencing goods.
 
Updated Info:

September 29th Cycle Market Details

open : 10:00
close : 18:00 ish..

Auction from 14:00 to 15:00.

Place :
United Nations University Centre
5–53–70 Jingumae,
Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-8925
* Held behind the Farmers market.

At the moment 9 booths, expecting over 50 new and used bicycles and tons of bike parts and bike related equipment available.
 
We're going to try an 'outlet' style of table featuring some of our frames, bikes, wear, rims and wheels at super discounts. I have collected quite alot of demo, prototype and one-off items and this is a good chance to clear some space in my shop and maybe fill yours!
 
I think you need to put this into perspective. You make it sound as everybody was in on the fleecing. I attended Sekidobashi 5times and sold 3 times and having seen the goods and sellers, fleecing was never a problem. It was a great communal atmosphere with some people not selling anything but pikniking, the vintage guys just having a club meeting, etc.
What eventually led to its demise, was the fact that there Sekidobashi would have never been approved as an event through the proper channels at its location. Thus no official organizers and no registration of sellers. So when the police found out about the sale of some stolen goods there, there was just no way to legitimize it by taking an "official" response.

That's why I hope the pedal people make it easy enough for everybody to participate and not just a brand showcase. If you need a meeting with the organizers first, this will never become a swapmeet.

You are spot on - I should really read, Unfortuantely a few were using it as a venue to sell stolen goods and as the event was not official and didn't have a permit it was shut down - with this as the main reason.

In regards to the the one at the UN as Tim already mentioned the guys are super cool and really open to ideas that make sense - they love bikes and they love the communal free thinking so no doubt unless there are any red tape as organisers they need to jump through Im sure they will jump on this idea.
 
We're going to try an 'outlet' style of table featuring some of our frames, bikes, wear, rims and wheels at super discounts. I have collected quite alot of demo, prototype and one-off items and this is a good chance to clear some space in my shop and maybe fill yours!

Tim, thanks for the additional info and helping to grow this nice event. You should bring titanium frames, that's what people were most interested in in yoyogi.
 
Thanks for confirmation on location, stalls, etc. Looks like it will be good.
I went down the the so-called RideTokyo Sunday event at the Uni farm market about 6 weeks ago and found one stall handing out programs and two other fairly bare stalls for bike stuff - one of which was selling t-shirts & bikes with English swear words all over them that they didn't really know what they meant. To say I was disappointed with the event was an understatement:thumb1:
 
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