Bridgestone Vs Gan Well Pro

both of the above are avaliable via the internet

Gan Well Pro's have more paint options I think

but does anyone know the merits of one of these brand frames over the other

gan well pro's are quite sort after, well made and an all round a better option

bridgestone are the lower end of Keirin bikes,

where are these available? :D

Gan Well Pro can be ordered through Business Cycles Miami
Yellow Jersey Madison also stock Gan Well Pro's
Bridgestones are avaliable from Keirin culture Berlin

i've seen them on business cycles before,

* Standard paint - $1469.50
* Fancy paint (as available) - $1539.00 

but for those prices it really isnt worth it,

check http://www.keirinculture.com that guy will ship here for $65, or make friends with someone who goes to japan, can pick a great frame up for $200 - 500.

=)

why do fakengers have to pay more than couriers to enter alleycats??

• Standard paint - $1469.50
  
• Fancy paint (as available) - $1539.00
  

who gives a shit?

its no crime to want to own a decent bike,

The fakenger thing is getting boring.. "Cant we all just get a long"

i wonder if some trendy kid in japan is wanting a mercian/whitcomb/bob jackson so he can be different from everyone else, but can't decide if it's worth paying loads of money for a frame he can't even go and look at, get fitted for or take back if it's faulty?

an NJS stamp doesn't really make much diference to my commute so If it were me i would buy 'local' or go over there yourself and buy one it's probably cheaper!

The Japanese are buying anything the can get their hands on. They are more than willing to spend that bit extra for anything that is foreign. There have been criticisms in the past regarding the Japanese buying all foreign collections for anything, vintage bikes included. I have heard that Italy is drying up in the pista and road bike markets, with it increasingly becoming difficult to score a nice italian vintage bike. Groups of japanese enthusiasts will visit Italy personally on spending sprees and buy anything they can get their hands on. Trendy isn't even a word in Japan, you basically fit in or don't. Japanese are one of the highest consumers of goods and their spending power supports it, they work to spend.

They have a lot of things we don't, but they want many things we have.

Best thing is to set up a trading place, that way we get the best of NJS and they get that exotic foreign product that they strive for so much.

My Japanese friend who has since return to the land of the rising sun, made sure he brought back anything that wasn't Japanese.

To be cool you got to be different.... but thats entirely up to you.

Well maybe I might just fly to Tokyo one weekend and pick one up, how much does it cost to fly to Tokyo...?

Anyway I thought a new Keirin frame bought in Tokyo was about $1200 minimum, I take it this is wrong

ride there.

my girl is japanese, from Sendai in the north... her brother rides bikes and that's where I got my Nitto bars/ stem etc from.... I traded him with some Brixton cycles water bottles/condor jersey and some jerseys I picked up in Rossignoli (Milan)... I should have a Streetlife dvd on its way to me as we speak...

they love all this stuff, anything you can't get in your lbs

get a 3rensho instead

Well actually what I want is a LEVEL or an EIMEI or a PELOTON (lugless) but even if I went to tokyo I ain't sure how to go about getting one - however if I can figure that out - I'll come back with two frames - one to ride one to sell

I don't give one little shit FTC....

but I do find it amusing that one day people on this forum are complaining about dropping an extra bluey to enter their category in a race, then the next chatting coolly about spending that kind of ridiculous dosh on a frame.

my personal opinion about new frames is that it's sad that people feel the need to spend money in the US or Japan instead of supporting some of the best craftsman here in the UK.

You could get a custom built steel frame, built to your spec and sprayed to your design in the UK for half that price, what could have more cachet than that (as well as being comfortable to ride and faster)? unless of course you're just another labelhead....like 97% of people in London......

crumbs your up early Winston..

A couple of years back I brought a Cinelli frame in the states, Lower East side bikes, it wasn’t the cheapest frame but it sure did look pretty, It fits me like a glove, a glove made out of bike.

Anyways up, it’s not the best tubing, it’s not speced with high end campy, stuff but it’s a sweet ride. I used it for courier work, embassy’s, nothing brutal, if the truth be told more hanging about than riding. (nothing new there) No one gave me any grief for having a nice bike. Even Tofu smiled benignly at it. (I shit you not)

Come the winter I swapped to riding my battered old Fondriest, If you didn’t know shit about bikes you’d think it cost a score from Brick lane. But a closer look would reveal Campy cranks and a decent set of wheels. Again a sweet ride, if a little understated.

Any ways up, it’s now spring again and as if by magik23 if has become ubber achingly hip/radical/underground overground wombbeling free whatever to ride a track bike on the streets. As I sit here typing from my penthouse throne, breathing in the rarefied air of Hackney I witness a log jam of assorted track bike types vying for space to jump the light.

My problem is I am no longer a courier, I have escaped and now is about the time I would be greasing up the Cinelli and riding round the outer circle trying to lose weigh. But I have a dilemma, I look like a courier wannabe on a track bike but I work in costume. Sometimes I wear Dickies™ and have 3. Yes three courier bags.

What should I do? I love to ride my bike but I don’t want to get spat at by the new bloods on singles with no breaks (how do they stop?)

Confused of Hackney..

And moving back away from the incessant bitching about ridiculous and irrelevant topics. The man making Gan Well's passed away within the last year. If you're going to score one, either make sure it was built over a year ago or get some dope on who's building for them now. Sadly, as someone who has wrecked a Keirin bike and has been lucky enough to get a custom number built up in the UK I would tell you your cash is wasted on the Japanese bike. They are great frames for sure, but nothing is greater than fit.

For reference:
Keirin bike

British bike:

That Witcomb is the bomb.

and one other point.. if most of yaz are anti-car.. what's with importing stuff from distant lands? CO2 emissions anyone?
That Witcomb looks wicked and if you want a kierin bike just buy the sticker kit - I'm sure most people here wouldn't even know.
Hmm.. might strip the Raleigh, kit it out with Naga stickers and put it on ebay.. :)

it's a fact that an NJS stamp will not stop you getting rained on, help you dodge potholes or get you laid.

they are lies started by the japanese government to help sell the larger sized fames the domestic market doesn't want

I love the debate. Just a question though, if you already have a really nice hand made English bike (I have Chas Roberts) are you 'allowed' to have a Keirin bike too...? I know about English bikes because I have been riding them for twenty five years, I don't now much about Japanese bikes, but i'd like to know more, they fascinate me.

ImOnCrank - what frame was that, where did you get, what was it like to ride, and how the hell did you do that to it...LOL

I do get up early

Frame was a RAP round breeze, Tange or Ishiwata tubing, not sure, built by Nemoto San outside of Tokyo. I got it a little small for me and it was a shit ton of fun to ride. Check out http://velospace.org/node/171 to see how she looked when she was alive.

Long and short of it was that it rode as nice as the parts on it. The bb was loose ball and faster than a 15yo in the bedroom. What happened to it was a mix of stuff. Not sure how it happened but it developed a crack on the bottom side of the downtube right at the lug that i didn't notice until I got doored going 15, went ass over teakettle and found my bike with all new geometry. That being said, nothing can compare to the first time I ever got on that custom fit Witcomb.

Imoncrack - I clocked the Whitcomb when you posted it on velospace last year - NICE- very nice indeed mate - I have a Roberts hybrid from 1986 - I rode it up until late last year - that included seven years of courier work - twenty years that bike lasted me - it is back at Roberts at the moment being resprayed - then the frame goes into storage - next on my list of things to do is a visit to Mercian - as much as I adore my bareknuckle - I want a sunshine bike and the Mercian is going to be it - I am going to try and build it up a British retro-'70s track - although it will in actual fact be a road track - so why a Keirin ....? - well imagine your whitcomb in sparkly purple - it doesn't really work - and I got all these NJS parts that I just keep picking up here & there - so I got to do something with them - I have a habit of building cars and all - bikes though are a hell of alot cheaper - even fancy smancy Japanese ones

So hey where did you get the RAP from...?