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Thuekr
I was wandering around Japan for a few weeks in the spring. One day in Tokyo I decided to stop by at the Cherubim store in Shibuya "just for a look". Within a few minutes, things escalated bloody quickly and by half an hour I had put down a deposit and was being fitted out for a brand-spanking-new Pista track frame.
The thing is, I knew I just needed half a reason to pull the trigger. For years I'd lusted after a Japanese keirin frame... but what kind, and from whom? Well, for a start, ideally a frame from a master builder. And to maximise my personal over-the-top bike ownership goal (a "Sunday-best bike for every day of the week"), ideally a new and custom-fit frame.
So it was fortunate or unfortunate that Nagasawa-san was down in Osaka (and generally inaccessible to the public), that I was nowhere near the Kalavinka workshop in Meguro, that Cherubim was relatively accessible and the manager spoke English. The thing is, once you walk into the store and see a dozen beautifully finished frames... it's really really hard to walk away.
I also visited the Cherubim workshop in Yokohama where Shin-Ichi Konno makes the frames. It was located in a totally anonymous Japanese suburb and I was having a bit of trouble finding the place till a guy cycled passed me on a obscenely delicious red track frame and stopped outside a storefront that had a Cherubim-branded vending machine out front. Anyway it turned out that the dude was Konno-san riding his daily "beater" and that I had indeed reached my destination.
But anyway, I digress. The initial specifics we agreed upon:
I managed to convince myself to visit Tokyo again over Christmas so my plan is to drop by and up-specc the build to Kaisei 8630R tubing. I then have 4-5 months to figure out colour schemes and components (no desire for a pure NJS or even pure Japanese build)