What's new

Summer 1993

microcord

Maximum Pace
Aug 28, 2012
1,650
1,193
I've just come across this relic from summer 1993:

oikaze.jpeg

The first (of course) page of an eight-page newsletter, Oikaze (追風). On a couple of the other pages, the editor, Bryan Harrell, mentions the very recent publication of his anthology/reworking of earlier Oikaze material, Cycling Japan: A Personal Guide to Exploring Japan by Bicycle (Kodansha International). Back in those days, one went out for a ride either with a pile of info on paper, or a prodigious memory.

When I say "one", I don't include myself. My memory was (and is) abysmal, my sense of direction non-existent, and I was a timid, lazy fellow. So I'm very grateful for whatever electronic aids are now available.

Anyway, viewed in 2021, a copy of Oikaze (or of Cycling Japan) is a curio. The changes from seven (was it?) speed cassettes to twelve (is it?), to deep-section rims, to bladed spokes, to integrated stem+bars, etc etc etc all seem utterly trivial compared to that from a bimonthly eight-page newsletter and foldable maps that would go soggy in the rain to where we are now. I wouldn't want to go back.

I think I remember hearing somewhere that this Bryan Harrell is the same as the beer pundit Bryan Harrell. I don't know if he's still riding a bike.
 
What a great find! Thanks for sharing it. (The summer of 1993 in Japan was the worst summer I have experienced anywhere in my life. It was cold and bleak and made even northern English summers feel like the tropics!)
 
Back
Top Bottom