MAJs gay bikes [she’s in her fitness era]

yet more things to chalk up to being on the cutting edge of early adoption R+D @Belagerent

in regards to the bikes @amey i don't think you're wrong, i think the difference is best explained by two theoretical heavyweights,

the pomp falls best when put against the work of yohji yamamoto:

“The pomp is modest and arrogant at the same time. The pomp is lazy and easy but mysterious. But above all The pomp says this: "I don't bother you - don't bother me".” “For me, a bike which is absorbed in its own work, which does not care about gaining one's favour, strong yet subtle at the same time, is essentially more seductive.

the homer on the other hand is more in line with Rei Kawakubo

“The more people that are afraid when they see new creation, the happier I am. I think the media has some responsibility to bear for people becoming more conservative. Many parts of the media have created the situation where uninteresting bikes can thrive.”

there ofc is room in a bike shed for both approaches

That said i think the homer is rough around the edges, it needs some work, both fiscally and natural wear and tear, in time it maybe becomes something a bit more natural,

maybe less pure shock factor of Rei and more reliant on esoteric and obscure refrencing seen in Jun Takahashi's builds:

“In my work I want to express not something merely pretty or cute, but to find something behind it,” ... “I think it’s very human. I take that cute steel tourer and I give it a bit of a shock — that bit of violence. The combination is something that gives it real beauty. I am not denying beauty, but presenting it in a different light.”

Possibly also drawing in the meticulous, if somewhat civilian work of Tetsu Nishiyama:

[It] really is from my intuition. To me, “placing things where they should be” is the basis and the foundation of design. That’s why I use it as a slogan. As I did bike design, I got a bit exhausted with the repetition every season. Things could be the same, the same and the same… I needed quite some motivation to keep going. And … whenever I think of the motivation I return back to the origin, to the foundation … “placing things where they should be." This is my starting point when it concerns bike building."

currently the bike is shocking and unconventional to the media, deliberately so, but it does not seem to have that little violence to shake up a conventional tourer into something a bit more aggressive and reinstate the beauty differently from a twee, whimsical and understated blue lug inspired build, or even the practical and economical build which adorns the frame. to steal a phrases however, things are not currently where they should be, and i think in time they will begin to be, much like the pompino.