On a day off from work, Sayaka and I took our bikes on the train, and headed to Kyoto for the day. One of our favorite shops, EIRIN, happened to have this old beast of a Panasonic just come into stock, and Sayaka was all over it. How could you resist that disk chainring cover, and color coded Dia Compe brakes!? It has changed a lot since we hauled it back to Osaka, and I will show photos of it in a later blog post. As it was found, the parts were 100% Japanese, which was nice to see. A mix of Suntour, Kashimax, Dia Compe, Nitto, and Bridgestone tyres! Pretty cool, half way between a randonneur and a mamachari....
That is Sambo on the right, a very good friend of ours, and a mean mechanic. His dad used to work at Katakura Silk back in the day, so maybe he was destined for a life in bikes...
If you ever get the chance to go to Kyoto, please go and check out this shop: one of the best and quirkiest in Japan. This is where I sourced my Nakagawa funny bike frame, too!
Sambo was a big fan of it, too. EIRIN specialises in these sorts of strange Japanese bikes from years past.
And out on the road. Sayaka had a big smile on her face......
Next we headed over to DARWIN, another famous bike shop in the Kansai area of Japan. Sadly, the guy behind DARWIN, is in love with everything American, and so has decided to finish up the shop, and go and live in the states! He has always focused his shop on American products, so I guess it made sense that one day he would head off....
The store has a nice atmosphere, and low lighting...only high quality gear available here, and it feels much more like a fashion store, than a bike store.
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