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Where you can and cannot take your bike.

Folding Bike and GIANT Store Toritsudaigaku Tokyo

Hi,

Just to add my two cents worth regarding follding bikes:
I just purchased a GIANT folding bike and the bag to go with it:
http://www.giant.co.jp/giant08/bike_datail.php?p_id=L1642099&action=outline

So far so good, though I had to change the seatpost (needed a longer one).
I think this bike is very good concept wise and seems well thought through.

However, a word of WARNING:
You do NOT want to make the same mistake as me and buy it at the GIANT STORE at Toritsudaigaku.... I went there as the store was large and I wanted to actually have a look at the bike before buying. As they had it in stock, I ended up buying it.
However:
- had to haggle for them to include a longer seatpost
- pedals included are not folding, yet if you buy the bag you are meant to take off the pedals each time - well, i do not bother to be honest!
Well, I went to have a coffee near the station whilst they prepared the bike, then came back after 1 hour.
They then told me... uhuuu, different seatpost, warranty would be void if I use that.
Ok, well, I paid and left.
As I was jumping on the train first, I had the bike bagged up - unpacked it when I got to my home station and what did I find:
1) way to little air in tires, they had not bothered to fill them!
So I wanted to pump them up with the included GIANT pump, but it was broken already.
Sigh... so I pushed the bike home, pumped it up and then set out for a ride. But ups, what was that: Due to the suspension sag, the seatpost, even though at max was too low. And when I hit the brakes, the handlebars started moving... turns out the muppets at the GIANT store had forgotten to tighten the screws. Could have been a potentially dangerous situation.
The final straw: When I got to work the next day, I had a voicemail on my phone asking me to please come by and pay 500 yen which they had FORGOTTEN to charge me for the police registration - HAHA!

In the meantime, I just purchased a new seatpost and tightened all screws on my own!
So: a word of warning, do NOT buy at the GIANT store. Use them purely to look at the bikes, then buy elsewhere!
I find Azabu Cycle, Shirogane 3-2-4, Minato-ku, Tokyo pretty decent!
アザブサイクル 港区白金3-2-4
and maybe these smaller shops deserve our support?
Lesson learnt!

cheers
Kurt
 
Y's Road Should Read "Why at Road's!"

Well, as I expected, Y's Road in Shinjuku failed to come through with the goods at the eleventh hour, and it looks like I will be without a set of wheels until after Golden Week. This is quite literally the third let-down, and I have been waiting now for a wheel set for nearly 6 weeks...:mad:

I must call after Wednesday because they can't get in touch with the maker of the wheels (apparently they are hand-building them for me!).

Honestly, you'd think I'd ordered the most expensive custom-made wheels on the market instead of Shimano 105s!

Look, here's the problem. I ran a stock Trek 1500 until I ran it into an old guy on a mama-chari, that is. The front wheel (Bontrager Select - low end $100 wheel) cracked and warped. I thought I'd take the opportunity to upgrade the wheel set and several other parts. Since the bike is a triple crankset with a 9-speed cassette, I could not run any Shimano wheelsets above 105 because they say they are incompatible with a 9-speed system. I wanted Ultegra wheels, but 105s seemed to be the best upgrade available. And I thought that they would be readily available as Shimano is a giant Japanese company.

Question:
Is a 9-speed cassette really incompatible with a wheel made for a 10-speed cassette? Surely, the cassette grooves for Shimano cassettes are standard? And if not, how can a 105 rear wheel fit BOTH a 9-speed or a 10-speed cassette?

Have I been duped here?

Signed,
Frustrated and side-lined without a wheel to roll on!:(
 
Sorry to hear about the wheel problems! When I busted my wheels I had to wait a WHOLE WEEK for a replacement and it drove me mad... :mad: If I were you, I'd have cancelled my order already and gone shopping for an off-the-shelf set.

Question:
Is a 9-speed cassette really incompatible with a wheel made for a 10-speed cassette? Surely, the cassette grooves for Shimano cassettes are standard? And if not, how can a 105 rear wheel fit BOTH a 9-speed or a 10-speed cassette?

Someone much more knowledgeable than me will probably chime in with a better answer, but 10-speed cassettes are slightly narrower than 9-speed cassettes. A hub therefore might be too narrow for a 9-speed but okay for a 10-speed. Going the other direction, you'd just need a narrow shim to fit the 10-speed cassette onto the 9-speed hub (this is what I needed when I bought my Eastons to make the 10-speed Ultegra cassette fit).

(EDIT)
I think most non-Shimano-brand wheels are 9- or 10-speed compatible. Don't know if you have your heart set on Shimano wheels, but Mavic Aksiums are a cheap alternative that are often kept in stock.
 
Thanks for the Advice!

Phil,

Food for thought. I'll check into it.:)

Andrew
 
Asazo

Hi Andrew

Sorry to hear about your wheel problems.

I have just come back from Ys Asazo branch in Okachimachi and they have both Mavic Aksiums and Shimano RS20 in stock.

The RS20 wheels are 9 speed and 10 speed compatible. I believe that the Mavic wheels are fine too with 9 speed. Maybe a spacer is required. Both sets of wheels have good reviews on the net and are both at about the same price.

The Ultegra SL wheels will not fit a 9 speed, they are only for 10 speed.

Cheers
 
Just a thought...

After reading all these things about "guys who have to wait weeks for stuff" vs "guys who just happen to walk into the right shop, and pick up the stuff they want straight off the shelf"...

Can "we" at TCC put a list of shops together, that we can all go to without fear of:
a) Being ripped off.
b) Having communication problems (mostly for the guys just off the plane).
c) Having to wait for more than a week for our products.
Also..
Shops that are/have:
a) Good prices - compared to the competition.
b) A large range of products.
c) Great service.

I would hereby like to start off this list by stating my Local-Bike-Shop (LBS);
1. "My-Road", in Soto-Kanda (Will post a map soon) - for great personal service.
2. "Asazo", in Okachimachi - for great range in "high-end" bike supplies.
3. "Nalsima (frend)", between Yoyogi & Harajuku - for all-round low-prices, supplying a huge range & customer support.

....... This is just the start of the list, and I'll do my best to put together a full compilation of "Shops & Suppliers" that you all at TCC can write down.

TWO THINGS: Please:

1. DON'T make a list of ALL the shops you know! - Anyone can do that, but that doesn't mean the shop is "reputable".
2. IF you name some "shops", please list only your favorite TWO! I won't have time in the same day to check out 3 shops (,,,if I have to ride all over town to find them!).

We should all work together on the "shop" situation.

Travis
 
SEO cycle Shin Matsudo. (across the road from DAIEI a few shops back behind the Mitsubishi Bank.---great Nepalese Curry restaurant next door to have lunch while you wait for repairs etc...). SEO buy in bulk for all their shops in Japan and I've found them to be cheaper than other shops I've visited. Great selection of bikes in stock jam packed into the shop and big bargains on older models/last year's etc. There was a new shop near my home and I walked in saw the prices and quickly snuck out again... then straight back to SEO.

http://www.seo-smd.com/index.htm
 
More for the Chiba folk:

Taki Cycle
http://www.takicycle.com/
Really small place, but complete focus on "sports cycles", so no mama-chari baskets or mudguards taking up valuble shelf space :) Can be a bit snobby, but really helpful with choosing gear, super knowledgeable. Often very busy with the numerous regulars who hang out there all the time. Would be my first choice for buying a bike if purchasing one of the brands they carry...

SEO Cycle Soga Shop
http://www.seocycle.co.jp/ario-soga.htm
In that giant Soga mall down near the docks. An average to good Seo shop, but recommending them just because their manager speaks good English (although he's not a cycle fan himself, he's in the business because of his dad, apparently.)
 
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