A day at the races, Keirin style

Whilst out in Japan earlier this year I was able to see a Keirin event.
Tomity's thread was a great help in finding Tachikawa velodrome.
http://www.londonfgss.com/thread9736.html

Here are a few pics and a vid.
http://s128.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid128.photobucket.com/albums/p163/pipwish/keirinmovie2.flv

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3625/3320321326_e201cca3b5_o.jpg

We had to find a shuttle bus from the station.
I had my eye out for any gentlemen wearing flat caps and rustling news papers

• and here they are when I found them.
  
  

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3663/3319492925_3a154a571a_o.jpg
The velodrome itself was very impressive. An asphalt surface surrounded
by sturdy layers of chain link fencing.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3353/3320458784_7c1f87e7fe_o.jpg

The spectators were mostly men but there were one or two families.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3598/3319493409_1389a0894d_o.jpg

The races were occurring every 30 minutes. It may be obvious but not that many
people were looking at the bikes. Although despite this they did look great.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3544/3320321102_96ecc70f68_o.jpg

Here you can see the bikes in the starting blocks (or whatever the proper name is)
Lots of Dura-Ace equipment in evidence here.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3541/3319551975_92f80dab0f_o.jpg

…and they’re off! The pace maker is in purple and orange stripes. Check out the observation tower with all that padding at the bottom.
Herne Hill could do with one of those. The man in the blue tracksuit has a dust pan and brush for any small debris found on the track.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3628/3319493149_473b606ea0_o.jpg

You may like to know they were almost silent when passing.
No noisy drive trains here. It was great to hear the bell being rung and feel the
excitement. They were going extremely fast.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3611/3320321642_f0c19b35cc_o.jpg

This is what you are given to base your bets on. The column beginning with 31 is the
age of the rider. To the right of that is the riders home town. The gear ratio is also
listed along side their previous form. The gear ratio 3.64 is 51x14 for example.
I based my bets mostly on age and did very well!

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3557/3319494201_4b00188ed8_o.jpg

This is a betting slip for a race. Similar to a British National Lottery slip. You mark
you predictions with a bold vertical pen stroke. The main idea is to predict the first
two riders across the line.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3546/3319552247_e577de7f64_o.jpg

Of course, being a national obsession the whole thing is being beamed out in high
definition TV for the rest of the country.

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Coooooooooooooool! I want to go. Great pictorial thread.

Nice! Would love to go to Japan and see the Keirin races!

Nice! Very colourful outfits O_O

Nice post, looks like it was fun.

sick

Thanks. The light that day was worthy of a David Lachappel photo shoot.

such snaps

Awesome, I wonder if pro tracks like that one have open days.. Looks like an amazing surface

Nice pix and article Pipwish.
You did well to use the bus to get around - they aren't that easy for foreigners...
BTW: On the 8th photograph
The first column of kanji characters on the left is the colour the riders are wearing.
The bigger column with kanji is the name of the riders (surname first).

And you are joking about "national obsession" right?
Most of the population don't even watch sumo!

Here you can see the bikes in the starting blocks (or whatever the proper name is)
Lots of Dura-Ace equipment in evidence here.

Dura-Ace Leg Grease FTW!

Nice pix and article Pipwish.
You did well to use the bus to get around - they aren't that easy for foreigners...

Yes, even my native guide was very confused.

And you are joking about "national obsession" right?
Most of the population don't even watch sumo!

OK, that description was a bit too creative. I don't really know if Keirin is on par with the English obsession with cricket, dog racing or even pigeon fancying. I know there is a national spread of velodromes in Japan and that at New Year there was a Grand Prix worth £750,000 to the winner. These are the posters advertising the GP at the local train station.

nice one pipwish, thanks

Looks like a great day out.

I had sushi fir lunch.

Thanks for posting. Looks fucking excellent.

nice one :) im excited about going next week!

Thanks for the pics and descriptions. Interesting to read about.

Great pics! Is it wrong that one or two of them remind me of Wimbledon dogs?

it is dog racing with humans....exactly.

jealous though

on sunday morning transworld sport had a little section on keirin racing
i am sure they were showing a flouroscent nodders race
they looked wobbly slow and uncoordinated
but would still lap me over the course of two laps !

it is dog racing with humans....exactly.

jealous though

Perhaps you could reverse that and put mutts on treadmills at one of your events?

http://s128.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid128.photobucket.com/albums/p163/pipwish/keirinmovie2.flv

There is a video I made here - let's see if this link works

good work pipwish.

awesome.

it's pretty unglam isn't it?

it's pretty unglam isn't it?

It is as glamorous as any betting shop you have been into here. Lots of torn up slips on the ground! However, there was a ceremony for a retiring racer at one point. A few speeches and presentations. Then they few some t shirts thrown into the crowd. The ex rider was accompanied off by a slightly glamorous woman.