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I see the Japan crew are running the risk of fines for not having their rear brakes attached.

Right now, especially. It's the start of university and school years and as usual the cops come out in force for a week or two to stand on street corners all across the country and set upon errant cyclists. Kyoto isn't so bad but I believe they're pretty hot on fixed gear violations in Tokyo.

A friend of mine lives in Tokyo and he was fined 50,000 yen (about £400) for not running a rear brake. Insane.

Thought I'd find him/them on here. Brilliant!

Tibbs is the bloke delivering muffins around London, yeah? Very cool.

Met a Londoner in front of Kinkakuji temple in Kyoto, Japan yesterday. Told me he was starting a 7 day ride from Kyoto to Tokyo with a bunch of other fellas, some on fixed. Riding this bike (nice!):

If this was you, good luck!

Also saw these two sweet bikes in the same parking area - I guessed they were your friends?

I slipped a rudimentary note in your rear spokes about rear brake law in Japan. Hope you spotted it. Wouldn't want your trip to be fouled by stupid cops...

Best of luck!

Loose chain ring bolt?

Nope, they're all toight like a toiger.

Spin the chain ring round two mounting bolts, and see if the deadspot is in the same point, or if it moves...

I'll give this a shot when I get some time to sit and play with it, cheers.

Could you ride this around daily?! I would most likely have brakes and not fixed. After doing some research online i was looking at Langsters and nearly bought one on eBay but outbid at the last second! I would love to build my own with a bit of help. Any suggestions on parts etc to buy would be appreciated!

I'd throw some brakes on there (a front and maybe a rear until you get used to it) but yeah, totally. I ride my fixed gear as a city commuter every day and it's a heap of fun. Makes me want to go places, just so I can actually GO there by bike, even if those places are work-related...

You can do longer rides too. I met a guy yesterday who is planning to ride from Kyoto to Tokyo over 7 days with some friends (starting today). That's been done before, too. Touring isn't just for roadies!

The rattle occurs at the same point of rotation of the cranks, so I guess the problem lies with them or the chainring.

I can take some tomorrow.

They're not brilliant cranks anyway - Lasco I think - so I figure I might as well just replace the whole thing if I have the cash.

The wheels seem true but I'll drop into my LBS this week and have them checked properly. Brakes are fine. It's not really a vibration, more like a rattle. I hammered the bike all day today and it was really very noticeable.

What's this all about? Were they against Iraq? What were they refusing to do exactly?

They'd just hold onto knives being warrantied, take waaaay longer than they should and keep providing wooly excuses as to why they weren't sending it back. Non-soldiers had no such issues.

The owner of Leatherman was strongly anti-war and that's how he decided to push it, apparently...

+1 on Gerber.

I've always stayed away from Leatherman due to the dubious way they peddle their political views. They were well-known for screwing over soldiers involved in the recent wars who, whether you agree with the wars or not, really needed their tools. I had a friend who experienced firsthand having his tool break and them almost flat-out refusing to return it to him when he sent it in for repair.

Politics aside, that's shitty business and if they selectively choose whose stuff to warranty properly based on arbitrary factors, I have little faith in their warranty as a whole.

They do make excellent tools, though... but so do Gerber...

With the new bars, wrapped.

Today I set about seeing if I could slam the rear wheel further into the cutout (I can't without a half-link chain, which I don't really want) and when I came to retension the chain I realised how WAY off round the crankset is. It's terrible! I can have a totally tight chain at one part of the rotation, and on the other side I'll have an inch of play or something.

I'd been getting vibration as the wheel spins which I put down to a tight chain link. I rode it for a week to see if it went away - it hasn't. I think it's because of this, actually.

Next month I'm definitely going to switch out the crankset for something better and then consider this done, I think.

All of the following for sale. Prices are a rough guide and if you think something is worth less, let's negotiate!

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Opus FX 2011 frame - £80

http://i.imgur.com/LvdRI.jpg
(This was the build prior to the frame swap, only because I fancied something with track geometry)

A few small marks, no major ones. Pre-drilled for rear brake through top tube, complete with plastic cable guide thingies. Really beefy CrMo steel frame, slightly relaxed geometry. Rides really nicely. These are made in Canada as far as I know. Currently has bar tape around the top tube and a couple of mildly-offensive (custom!) stickers - can all be easily removed if you like.

Nitto RB-021 Pursuit Bars, Silver - £35

Classic pursuit bars. 26mm clamp. Really gorgeous, just a little long for me and I didn't get on with cross levers on these. Great with bar-end levers! They're even wrapped with some rather lovely velvety tape (almost new job, not sure on the brand) with silver plastic bar end plugs.

ORA Flat Handlebar, Black - £15

Simple black flat bar, 31.8mm clamp. Nice and clean. A few minor marks, again nothing big. I'd guess this is about 38cm long (don't think it's far off my current bullhorns) but I can measure exactly if you want.

Dia Comp old-school cross levers, Black - £5

I forgot the model number - I think they might be 130s. Proper retro looking. No return springs. Just didn't work well with my brakes. Nice levers, literally unused.

ORA Stem, 31.8mm clamp, Black, short-medium length - £10

Not sure on the exact length, but 'short-medium'. Something like 70mm maybe. Matt black. 31.8mm clamp. Some minor marks, nothing major.

ORA Kompressor Saddle, Leather, Red/Black - £20

Really nice saddle. Used but not too much - looks a little worn (slight blue hue from jeans) but no damage, rips, tears, etc. Minor paint flaking on the rails where the clamp was. Just cushy enough but not overly so. Quite long and flat. Medium width. Red and black leather.

Wellgo Platform Pedals - £10

Silvery colour. Loads of life in them - only been used a few months. Reflectors still in place but can easily be removed (they rattle a little). Simple but surprisingly grippy. Pretty generic but decent enough.

Soma Dual-Strap Toe Clips, Black - £10

Some scuffing on the front and top outside where they've dragged on the ground. Will accept split straps. Nice metal clips. Includes screws and other mounting hardware. Gloss black colour with small silver Soma logo on front.

Tektro RX4.1 Bar-End Levers - £10

Nice bar-end levers. One rubber end cap missing, can probably be easily replaced. Black ends, silver levers. Return spring. Will fit most bars (had them on Nitto RB-021s and my flats). Some scuffing on the end of one where it's been rested against a wall.

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Note that I am located IN JAPAN and shipping will be according to this. However, shipping from Japan to the UK is generally surprisingly reasonable, both in terms of price and speed. It shouldn't be much of an issue.

Photos of each item on request (I need to dig out my camera!).

Alternatively persuade me to spend money turning the frame into a trick bike that I don't have room for!

Cheers!

The crankset needs replacing at some point (well, it's fine for now, but I'd like a Sugino Messenger set) so perhaps I'll go all-black. I personally like the splashes of colour and think it makes it a little different from the many other stealth bikes, but hey ho.

I'll see if I can get a photo of it with taped RB-001s today (I'll be riding it nearly all day...).

I never understood this till I fitted come bullhorns this week. I angle them down now too.

Interesting. And you hold them by the horns too? What benefit do you find it gives you? I might reangle mine this weekend, just to try it, but I reckon my stem is probably too long.

Sadly I need the bike to get around every day! Saying that, I made an effort not to ride the horns - further 'onto' the grips was onto the shoulders, and yet even that was enough to push them forward off the bars.

Bullhorns. Angled downwards. Why?

I love my 'horns but I'm still experimenting to find the best angle for me. Seems to either be parallel to the ground or sloping VERY SLIGHTLY upwards. Anyone use theirs angled downwards? Why? Seems like you'd just slip off the front end...

Wait, what you doing on kerbs anyways? Tsk tsk.

Japan's bike laws are... strange, to say the least. No-one really knows what they are. Including the police!

I've been told by cops to get off the road and ride on the pavement. Then two blocks down I've been told to get off the pavement and ride on the road by a different cop. A lot of the pavements have dedicated cycle lanes (that people inevitably walk in), some have signs stating that you can ride on them, and some are officially pedestrian-only but no-one gives a shit. It's really confusing.

Basically the first part of my university commute is on a pavement cycle lane (dodging onto the pavement itself or the road when neccessary - carefully! - to avoid the morons who walk in the lane) and the second part is on a road, between which are kerbs. You often find it's neccessary to transition from one to the other outside of that commute, too, and often there are decent sized drops down.

In short: Japan is a mess and you just end up learning to use common sense and ride wherever is safest.

The black velvety one without the Fizik logos all down the side (I hate the shiny stuff).

Is it bad that secretly (or not so secretly), somewhere in my head, I have a niggling desire to buy an Arrospok for the front? sigh

I do genuinely find myself dropping off quite high curbs sometimes and I've had to true the front rim once in the past few months. I wouldn't mind something stronger and, well, they're something of a guilty pleasure...

What self-respecting Englishman wouldn't take a photo?!

Spotted this outside my LBS here in Kyoto today...

Oh come ON!

Thanks. This morning the grips were still moving so I removed them, scrubbed everything with alcohol and then tried soaking the grips in hot water before sliding them on with hairspray. Went out for a ride this afternoon and although they seemed set when I started, they were soon halfway off the front of the bars...

They now have good ol' Fizik Microtex. Much better!

This is the new bar setup. I might just tape them - I'm not sure yet.

With a name like that, is that the cafe that sells coffee and tea with breast milk?

Funnily enough it has nothing to do with breasts at all. Just Japanese weirdness, I guess.

It specializes in tea (available in a variety of cup sizes) but doesn't even have a bike rack...

Here's my first fixed gear build - started off as an Opus FX 2011 but I swapped out the frame recently (preferred track geometry to relaxed) so it's literally a whole new bike...

Rear brake because, sadly, a fixed rear wheel does not constitute a brake in Japan and people can be (and have been!) fined about £400 for only having a front lever).

Headset (FSA Orbit DL) and cranks (Lasco) will get switched out when I have the money, but they're fine for now.

The bars are Nitto RB-021 pursuit bars. They're really, really cool but today I picked up a set of Nitto RB-001s (and shims sigh) because I found riding on the 'flats' to be a pain - there's a lot of drop. In heavily congested areas I found it was messing my wrists up a lot. The new bars are almost zero drop (and a little shorter) and so far I like them. I have black keirin rubber grips on the new bars and they should be good as soon as the soap dries and they stop sliding around!

Anyway, any constructive comments or suggestions would be awesome.

(Click all images to enlarge)

Bonus on-location shot!

SIDE NOTE: I have a bunch of extra parts now. The old frame, pursuit bars, a pair of unsprung cross brake levers, a flat bar, a top tube pad (!)... any idea where I might be able to sell them in Japan? Anyone in the UK likely to be interested?!