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Touring Bikes for Sale?

Wolfy

Warming-Up
Oct 28, 2012
2
0
My first post!

I am looking for a specialist touring bike shop in Tokyo.

Interested in steel frames, rohloff hubs. Tout terrain.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thank you in advance
 
What size are you? If you're in the 155cm - 165cm range , then give me a PM. might have something you'd be interested in.
 
I don't think there is much Rohloff support in Japan, and I was very lucky that the master at my LBS was willing to build the wheel and install all the Rohloff gubbins on the bike for me.

I am sure Tim will be able to sort things out for you, but if you do end up ordering a Rohloff I can tell you where I bought mine (in the UK). Be warned though - very expensive!
 
Yeah Rohloff's require special dropouts and cable routings. Generally best to have a bike pre-made with this already. Retrofits are possible, though , it will involve some pretty major surgery and a respray. Other option is the Alfine which is surprisingly happy in just about any dropout. But, YMMV a bit as owners experience somewhat varying tales of reliability and performance. For most touring situations with lighter riders and loads, it's probably a good choice. I love to love internal geared hubs, but reality is that derailer system is just as reliable, if not more, and far easier to deal with on the road. Where the internal gearing really shines, though, is it's ability to handle shifts up or down without any drivetrain issues. For sure, carrying loads and deliveries (like what Stu does) this is very important.
 
Well, if you really mean "tout terrain" then I suppose you need some exotic monster from the US. But if you just mean bad roads and can forgo the Rohloff hubs, and if GSAstuto's suggestion doesn't fit but you're nevertheless of more or less normal height for a Japanese male, try looking for an old bike at Yahoo Auction. I get the impression that quite a lot of people bought this kind of thing during a fashion for them decades ago but thereafter for one reason or another hardly rode it. (Ahem! Indeed, I perpetrated a milder version of this myself.)

I'm 184 cm (when last checked) but nevertheless recently got a lovely old bike from YA for 36 thou, including delivery. (True, it's not a touring bike. And I tremble to think what GSAstuto would say about its wheels.)

Toeisha -- or for your googling convenience 東叡社 -- is a frame/bike maker that specializes in tourers. Here is the place. It looks to me as if they're working on this old bike, or something closely related. I'd skip the rim-driven (ugh) dynamo; meanwhile, the derailer looks alarming but if it's anything like the 15-year-younger Suntour on my Yahoo Auction bike it's good indeed.

Here's Toei's price list for frames, which looks pretty good to me, given that the frames are made to your measurements.

(Me, no, I've never bought anything from, or made by, Toeisha.)
 
Where the internal gearing really shines, though, is it's ability to handle shifts up or down without any drivetrain issues. For sure, carrying loads and deliveries (like what Stu does) this is very important.

I don't thing the hub was actually designed to deal with what Stuart puts his through.
 
...
Here's Toei's price list for frames, which looks pretty good to me, given that the frames are made to your measurements.

(Me, no, I've never bought anything from, or made by, Toeisha.)

90,000 yen for a steel touring frame?!?! (mac users, use shift-jis to view) You could get a custom Bob Jackson or some such for that money.

Jeez, get an off-the-shelf surly LHT for far less than half that, or, better, talk to GSAstuto about a custom Ti design (for a little more?).

I bought this one a year ago, Reynolds 725, an improvement on 531 specs: http://www.ridgeback.co.uk/bike/panorama#details (frame/fork only)

~~~~~~

You're looking for custom touring, are you truly going round-the-world, or just dreaming? (i.e., do you really need custom?) Are your measurements actually unique (think gollum, or an orc), or do you fall in with the majority of the world? An off-the-shelf frame, with the money instead spent on fitting (and maybe some changes to the fit) and components, would be very well spent, vs. gambling that you can spec everything out on the first try...

If you have a touring bike that fits, or almost does, and you know exactly what you want, go custom (if something almost the same off-the-shelf is not available). Otherwise, stumble around with a cheaper touring frame or two first, until you really know what you want (or need).

Or, if you've got money to burn, order a frame, and if it works out, fine. If it doesn't, just order another.
 
Really, there are lots of off-the-shelf touring frames out there. If you know the geometry you're looking for (rather than wanting someone to tell you what fits you), there are a bewildering number of choices.

Size-wise, unless you're the total oddball measurement-wise, there's something out there that will fit you perfectly. Discover that yourself, or pay someone to design a frame for you (which is effectively paying someone to do that discovery for you).
 
Haha! perhaps, 'not quite' - but it seems to hang in there, though. Especially the newer version with the oilbath works. Kinda reminds me of the old Sturmey's that you had to drip in some oil every couple days... <remember that?>


I don't thing the hub was actually designed to deal with what Stuart puts his through.
 
...
I bought this one a year ago, Reynolds 725, an improvement on 531 specs: http://www.ridgeback.co.uk/bike/panorama#details (frame/fork only)
...

Just to elaborate and offer background on my personal experience, I had that frame/fork built up, but, after a season riding it, while it's okay, I don't think I hit the sweet spot that I was looking for.

I'll definitely be changing the cockpit around by spring. That will be the second iteration, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if there were further changes.

The overall specs of the frame and fork are fine, it's the tweaks that I'm toying with--what kind of bars, brakes, shifters, what kind of stem and how much reach? Do I want to run 25mm tires, or 28, or even 32?

It's nice to be able to play with that kind of thing in an ongoing way, rather than thinking it's all going to be 'right' from the get-go, based on my measurements.

Sure, there are those that'd say that if I really knew what I was doing, I could get it right, right off. Kind of a perfect world scenario.

Maybe I'm out there in la-la land, but I think it's hard to get everything right, right off. Count on it being an ongoing process, at the very least.
 
90,000 yen for a steel touring frame?!?! (mac users, use shift-jis to view) You could get a custom Bob Jackson or some such for that money.

Jeez, get an off-the-shelf surly LHT for far less than half that, or, better, talk to GSAstuto about a custom Ti design (for a little more?).

I bought this one a year ago, Reynolds 725, an improvement on 531 specs: http://www.ridgeback.co.uk/bike/panorama#details (frame/fork only)

Well, are Bob Jackson frames better? And how about the respective shipping costs?

The Ridgeback frame/fork does seem a good deal, but I wonder about the shipping for that, too.

Aside from the stem, cranks, and other odds and sods that aren't actually the fault of the frame/fork, are you happy with the bike?

(From my own miserably underinformed experience: I bought a frame with the expectation that I could use it for light touring, but when I built it up I quickly realized that my heels would hit any decently sized, non-freakish rear panniers. The notion of rear foot clearance hadn't occurred to me. Duh. In partial self-defence: Back then I don't think people much talked about longer wheelbase for touring -- or anyway it didn't appear in the reviews I read of the far more expensive bikes from Jack Taylor, etc -- and I didn't have the interwebs for serendipitous discovery of such notions.)
 
Are there any specialist touring bike shops in Tokyo?

Hi folks,

I have been following my thread with great interest...

But, the question remains.."are there any specialist touring bike shops in Tokyo?"

I'm guessing.... not.

I am looking for a touring bike that i can either buy from above mentioned bike shop or build up myself using touring frame, rohloff, SON, nitto racks 26" rims. I would like to tour next year (S24O and building to more) and the project will be fun over winter.

Thanks again.
 
Hi folks,

I have been following my thread with great interest...

But, the question remains.."are there any specialist touring bike shops in Tokyo?"

I'm guessing.... not.

I am looking for a touring bike that i can either buy from above mentioned bike shop or build up myself using touring frame, rohloff, SON, nitto racks 26" rims. I would like to tour next year (S24O and building to more) and the project will be fun over winter.

Thanks again.

Wolfy, I've had my say about off-the-shelf stuff, so...

Please contact Tim/GSAsuto--I'm pretty sure he will design exactly what you want, and he knows bikes backwards and forwards, left and right, and so on.

You can't get any more custom nor any more attention to your design than what Tim will give you.

John D.
 
Hi folks,

I have been following my thread with great interest...

But, the question remains.."are there any specialist touring bike shops in Tokyo?"

I'm guessing.... not.

I am looking for a touring bike that i can either buy from above mentioned bike shop or build up myself using touring frame, rohloff, SON, nitto racks 26" rims. I would like to tour next year (S24O and building to more) and the project will be fun over winter.

Thanks again.

You're thinking of touring...

It would help to know your touring goals--Japan only, round-the-world, or what????

You're asking about a custom touring frame...

...but you give less than zero info about the kind of touring you might do
 
But jdd, even if Trek is a global company, Evans and Dawes are British brands (even if made in China, Vietnam or somewhere). Isn't packing and sending to Japan problematic or expensive or both?

When I was in the Shinjuku Y's a month or two back, I noticed a modestly priced tourer from either Trek or Giant (I mix them up). But it looked small. I didn't see if there were larger sizes.

(However reasonable-sounding, an assumption that there would be larger sizes could well be wrong. Here's Norton's very traditional looking tourer. It comes in a total of one (1) size: 52cm.)

Here are some inexpensive touring bikes.
 
Besides building these rigs now and then, I've actually done it. Personally I really like the versatility of Ti (when you can get tubes that don't fatigue) and weight and ride thereof. And the S&S couplers are really a boon to the caravanserai sorta guy. Smaller is always better. Put yourself on the smallest frame you can fit gracefully. If you are doing global riding - then ride global standards - which sometimes might mean bartering for tires for sunglasses , etc. And the only thing available is a 26"er. If you plan to tour the paved roads of the 1st world, then who cares? All you need is a credit card and nice looking kit.

A dynamo hub wheel is your best friend. When all other power sources are failed or non-existant - the glow of your lamps by this wheel will keep you going (mentally and otherwise).

The more you ride, the more you ride upright. Bizarre, but true. One of my old friends, Angel Rodriguez got nothing but S&%$# for making bikes that had taller head tubes and upright positions similar to 'mamacharis' but on high end road bikes. Angel had the last laugh, his bikes are famous for being comfortable, fast and durable over long distance rides. Oh,. yeah, and he was making proportional framesets long before TREK became somewhat 'famous' , ahem, for their sloped top tube, 'womens' bikes.

If your spirit takes you on a bike - then its the road that is calling, not the bike. Does it really matter what you are on? Who or what is your competition? When you can finally drop that nonsense, then you can actually ride a bike and become the trip that you intended.
 
But jdd, even if Trek is a global company, Evans and Dawes are British brands (even if made in China, Vietnam or somewhere). Isn't packing and sending to Japan problematic or expensive or both?

You can get the standard/complete LHT in the states for $1100. Here in Japan, the same bike will be about 150-160,000 yen. There's some wiggle room in there for shipping costs or an extra baggage charge.
 
Surly doesn't allow their complete bikes to be shipped to Japan. The only options would be to carry one over yourself or have a friend send it to you. You can order just the frame, though. I bought one (not an LHT) off wiggle and had it delivered here a few years ago.

F.I.G. Bike has some kind of concept shop near Nakameguro which seems to have more steel-frame focused stuff, Brooks saddles and tons of racks and some flash looking bikes that look to my amateur eyes to be slanted toward touring and utility riding. They are overpriced but the staff is incredibly helpful.

Here's their website. It's one of those (annoying and not user-friendly, IMHO) blog-type sites that bike shops in Japan use.

http://potavelfigo.blogspot.jp/?m=1
 
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