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Tokyos Best-Stocked Bike Shop?

grant

Warming-Up
Jul 22, 2007
4
0
I want to buy a new bike, ideally a MTB. I am a little taller than most people in Japan (188cm), so its a little difficult to find a bike thats not uncomfortably small. I want to go to Tokyos biggest best bicycle shops. Where do you recommend...
 
Y's Road

How about Y's Road? I've personally been to both the "Maniac" shop and the larger shop in Shinjuku. The latter is huge and has an indoor place you can hang your bike while you shop! However, I've found much of the staff to be less than helpful and borderline incompetent. I went to the Ikebukuro shop also, and the staff there was very helpful and informative, and they have lots of gear in stock, but the store is as cramped as a Don Quixote. For as close to a relaxing experience where you can stroll around, the large Y's Road in Shinjuku is a good bet.

Y's Road: http://www.ysroad.net/shops/index.html#shops

Jason
 
shinjuku y vs Ikebukuro y

Yes, could not agree with your more. The staff in that shinjuku shop are really unfriendly and know NOTHING.

I always go to the Ikebukuro one, they are really good.

It is a bit crowded with stuff though...:eek:uch:
 
My 2 cents.

SEO cycle is a sponsor of my racing club and they have a lot of stock in the 2 shops at LaLaPort in Minami Funabashi, their head office shop in Funabashi, the Makuhari shop and the Shin Matsudo shop that I use. They sell bikes very quickly and the stock is rolling over all the time.... They can get big sizes in or thru their network of shops all over the place can find you something on the phone. They are mostly all in Chiba Prefecture though.

http://www.seocycle.co.jp/

I know that SEO reads this homepage as well... :cool:
 
sounds good

One wishes they would open a branch in shakujii!!:cool:

you should tell them to spread their wings to western Tokyo!
 
One wishes they would open a branch in shakujii!!:cool:

you should tell them to spread their wings to western Tokyo!

They may have one nearby but some of them cater to the mama chari market...

The shops are stocked with whatever the manager is likely to sell in the area or what he wants to sell. Some are handled by MTB experts, some road bike experts,...

All the shops are here and some have homepages with pics...

http://www.seocycle.co.jp/shopsearch.htm
 
Y's...

The only two shops I know of for Y's are on the Tamagawa-cycling-road near Tachikawa, and the other in Akasaka.

I've never been to the other shops in Shinjuku or Ikebukuro.

The one that seems to be the most popular though, is the the "Akasaka" shop.
A mistake I (and probably a few other readers/riders) have made a few times is to think that the shop is only on the "ground-floor".
In fact, it's almost the entire building - 6 floors - of bicycle equipment.
I only learnt that from AlanW, and few other guys on this site.

It is definitely the biggest (6 floors!) - no other shop can give you that much range!
T
 
friend's asagaya

Have not been to that one travis, but I have been many time to Friends at asagaya, it is 5 floors of everything you need:rolleyes:

Not cheap though... Prefer Y's at ikebukuro and the staff.
 
They may have one nearby but some of them cater to the mama chari market...

The shops are stocked with whatever the manager is likely to sell in the area or what he wants to sell. Some are handled by MTB experts, some road bike experts,...

All the shops are here and some have homepages with pics...

http://www.seocycle.co.jp/shopsearch.htm

I agree with Pete, I have always had great service with Seo Cycles in Shin Matsudo. They do a good job with the servicing.

Two other shops which sell MTB are both in Okachimachi. Try Ueno Classic Bikes (not sure of the address) but it's about 5 mins walk from Okachimachi station. The whole second flood is full of MTB's. I think they are part of the Ys group. Also try OD Box Annex. It's also close to the station. They are happy to order big size clothes and shoes, but I'm not to sure if they can get big bikes.
 
MTB

I can suggest you to go to:

Psychrithm for Trek (Yotsuya 3 Chome),

Bike It for Cannondale (Akebonobashi),

Zuki Bike for others (Akebonobashi). Not sure what they carry in the way of MTB. Marin?

Access their websites here. www.watergroup.co.jp

These are my wife's company's shops. Sorry, the websites are crappy. Like a lot of the Japanese shop blogs are. Waiting (patiently) for our web programmer to deliver. Here is the map.

http://www.factorywater.com/bicycleshop/map.html

Andrew
 
Yes, could not agree with your more. The staff in that shinjuku shop are really unfriendly and know NOTHING.
I always go to the Ikebukuro one, they are really good.
It is a bit crowded with stuff though...:eek:uch:

The other week I went to the small Shinjuku shop to get some valve extenders, didn`t have my size. The shop "assistant" was basically DON`T HAVE.... GO AWAY!
So I tried over the road in the big shop. They didn`t have either but the guy got on the computer to find them. He found a pair, offered to have them sent to Shinjuku or any other shop or I could reserve them to pick up at the Y`s shop in Ueno.
So If the 1st Y`s assistant doesn`t help try another!
 
Buy overseas as is up to 50% cheaper with no duties or sales tax paid as well.

Agreed although Sales taxes are hit and miss. My Dura Ace Wheels were about 55% off the RRP of Japan and I was hit for sales tax which was only 1,800 JPY.

The one of the only shop in Tokyo that I have been too and was impressed with is the Cyclingtime.com store at Odaiba. English, French and Japanese speaking staff and they seriously know their stuff and are freindly and polite as well.

They also have an online store if you can't get over to Odaiba.

Disclaimer:

I'm actually sponsored by cyclingtime.com but won't plug a shop unless I truely beleive that they deserve it..... Sagami Cycles is still so far my most trusted and recommended bike store in Yokohama as I have been frequenting the place for the past 10 years. (And the steak lunches they do are fantastic!)
 
188cm - so XL in most MTB setups.
What are you looking for exactly?
Trip Cycles in Yokosuka is a haul, but they are used to catering to Americans, so XL frames do pop in their store from time to time.
The Y's road near Sakuragicho also had MTBs way back. BUT - like the other references above, they are far from friendly and I stopped even trying 10 years ago with them.
I use https://www.facebook.com/sicobicycleservice/ for majority of my service, but he does carry Knolly, Salsa, Surly, All-City, etc.... For XL, he would have to order it no doubt. But he is a mountain biker, so he isn't just repeating sales garbage when you ask questions.
 
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