Afa's Golden Vivalo

So hot, like it's 2007 all over again!

迦 迦陵

"Frequent 迦 迦陵 (Kalavinka)

Karyou bottles / 1. (Transliteration of kalavinka bum. "Gaya frequent" and abbreviated. "Good voice" and translate), French. That birds in paradise. His face is like a beautiful, very beautiful voice from the place that used to describe the voice of the Buddha. Fairy birds. Karyou bottle. 2. A beautiful geisha, or courtesan (Oiran). Moreover, even rather sweet geisha.

Kokugo Dai Jiten Dictionary. Shinsou-ban (Revised edition) (C) Shogakukan 1988 / language unabridged (new edition) (C) 1988 Shogakukan"

Samson

Some real Keirin frame pr*n here. Incredibly nice looking Samson 54cm frame, Columbus tubing with neat details like the aero fastback seat stays and all. 

According to some sources Harada-san, who builds Samson frames, is currently considered as one of the top Japanese, if not the top, framebuilder by the Keirin pros in Japan. Gaijin hipsters might dig 3Renshos, Nagasawas, Makinos and Kalavinkas but it's a different game over there. Samson frames are apparently also the most expensive Keirin frames to get built. 

But hey, in case you didn't already notice, it's for sale NOW in here.

Jesse's Very Speedy Kinfolk Bicycle Project

Kinfolk Bicycle Project from Jesse Carmody on Vimeo.

Kinfolk Bicycles

I already posted about these but head over to their site, the bikes look mad nice.

"As many of you know, The Ways&Means team has been working on something very special for the past year. And after lots of teasing and sneak previews...It's ready for the public. Kinfolk bicycles are finally for sale. We are really stoked to be working with Kusaka, master frame builder from kansai, japan. It is a real honor that he would choose us to represent his 4 decades of crafting these awesome bicycles. Our goal was simply to produce the bike we would be excited to ride, and I think we knocked it out of the park. We hop you think so too. In addition to Kusaka's beautiful steel, we also offer paint by America's finest bicycle painters, Coat of Portland, Oregon,and ColorFactory, based on the beautiful Jersey Shore. The design is what you would expect from Ways&Means, and to top it all off, we have a classy headbadge designed by our main man, Marco Hernandez, of Lit Fuse tattoo in Beautiful Olympia, WA. Good times.

We have lots of new stuff coming over the summer. We're building a collaboration bike with the Bike shop Chari&Co. that is gonna be hot! So stay tuned.

Enough talk though... head over to www.kinfolkbicycles.com and see them for yourself. And even if you're not in the market for a custom track bike, spread the word. It's the support of our friends that has got us this far, and we appreciate all of the help, motivation, advice,and interest that you all have given us. That's why we called this project Kinfolk. It's all about family."

Kinfolk Bicycle Co // Kusaka-San

The Kinfolk Bicycle Co. boys in Tokyo have a new webpage open for ordering those nice custom track frames, hand-built with love by Kusaka-san in Kansai, Japan. "Keirin Inspired Track Frames". I like that. And I also had to post below two pics of the master building in his workshop. 

Two last pics are stolen from Akiya_M's excellent Vivalo Flicrk set. Arigato!

O.S.C.A. 57cm Keirin Frame

Rene's selling an O.S.C.A. 57cm Keirin frame on his blog. 

I don't know if it's any different from most NJS certified frames really except that the color looks absolutely beautiful to my eye and that it's apparently kinda rare. Hand made in in Ibaraki Ken, Japan.

Now Wait A Minute...

But what is that stuff under the pedal...?