Back in October I had the good experience to travel to Kyoto in Japan. First thing on arriving in Japan, you realize that Japan is even more obsessed with bicycles than China. Moreover the obsession is with extremely high quality bikes. And if you look at the past fifty years there probably were no higher quality bikes than those of the famous French Randonneur (touring bike) builders Alex Singer and Huret. Of course, there is a segment of the Japanese market which is also into bike touring, so you can see where this discussion is leading...
Grand Bois, also known as I's Bicycle, carries on the French tradition using the best handcrafting to manufacture bikes which meet or exceed the bikes of the past. Of course they can restore an old tourer, and a multitude of French and Italian frames hang from the ceiling. They also make their own frames, and use top quality antique components from Campy, Huret, and Simplex...or the best new components if your choose. Honjo fenders of course.
But they go beyond what other shops do... they have their own proprietary line of tires. I've never heard of that before, but the quality...like most things in Japan seemed super-high.
I think you'll agree the end result of course is dramatic. Now Randonneurs are not the typical topic of this blog, but I beginning to think there may be room next to the Pigeon for one of these fine bikes.
Jeff, I'm a bike fan, too, and spend much of my time in Asia studying them. I do a lot of rubbernecking from taxis just to look at the bikes. I even stopped someone in an alley in Beijing last summer to admire their Flying Pigeon! Excellent blog.
Posted by: tomwilber | January 11, 2010 at 10:28 PM