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Moved to the correct thread. Makes me nauseous just looking at it.

Hot Snakes - Automatic Midnight - If Credit's What Matters I'll Take Credit. - YouTube

Hot Snakes while commuting.

Bloody hell. That was painful to watch. "Hello, I'm having a mid-life crisis. I'm no longer down with the kids, so I need to fix that. Why don't I begin by stripping down and rattle canning a beautiful road bike!"

The cycling laws in Japan are incredibly lax - in fact, they're 99% of the time ignored by both cyclists and the police themselves.

However, there is one (debatably) good side to the overall road laws in Japan -
In an accident involving vehicles, cyclists, pedestrians and any combination thereof, the guilt is immediately allocated to the larger object. So if a cyclist hits a pedestrian, the cyclist has the burden of proof to show they were not at fault. No proof means the cyclist is going to pay out big time. Likewise, a car hitting a cyclist is forced to show they were driving safely.

In and of itself, it's a horrible way to allocate blame. However, as most drivers know they're going to be financially fucked if they clip and down a cyclist, they generally (generally) give cyclists a wide berth. Taxi drivers are different as their companies have special insurance deals in place, but for the general road-using community it all works out pretty well.

I'm absolutely sure the system would fail back in Blighty, but the element of fear for drivers does work.

The problem is that also for the dutch market 58 cm is the most popular frame size.

1. Many frames or bikes offered in that size.
   
2. A lot of people are looking for the same frame size as you so.
   
   

You beter be size 52/53/54, then it's easier to find a good deal.

If you have a gourgeous Japanese frame to trade, it would be a piece of cake to find a nice Gazelle.
Gazelle frames can be found here on every street corner, but nice Japanese frames are rare as hens' teeth.

Ha ha, so I have the same problem as I have in Japan! Here I'm too tall to find any bikes in my size, and there I'm too similar to everyone else.
Actually 60cm frames technically fit me better (I'm 6'00") but I'm hoping for a 56cm top tube, as that is the perfect size for my torso.

The bad thing about buying frames in Japan is that the site everyone uses, Yahoo Auctions, is full of sellers who price things with incredible starting prices. Occasionally you'll find something priced normally, but often you'll see things which have been listed over a year at double their value.

Another issue is that of the "mama-chari". Sorry I'm dragging this thread off topic. Anyway, mama-charis are the ubiquitous shopping bicycles of Japan. Their introduction led to the situation where 99.99% of cyclists in Japan use the pavement instead of riding on the road, and road bikes became almost obsolete. Most of the mass-production frame makers in the mid 80s (Bridgestone, Panasonic, Miyata, Nishiki to some extent) exported far, far more than they sold domestically. Things picked up in Japan when aluminium frames became popular, but steel most often went overseas.

The end result is that it's often easier and cheaper to find Japanese frames in the USA than in Japan. Of course there are many exceptions (Bridgestone Radac frames are ten a penny over here) but for the most part, it's fairly tricky.

That said, if you want a new frame, there are some incredible, incredible builders. This one is quite under-the-radar but one of the best. Also, one of the worst websites ever http://496elan.com/

markplaats is a cross between an auction and ebay
sometimes the sellers put a price they are aiming for.
sometimes they just put the item out there to be bid on
there is no real time span for the auctions usually things go through in a few days or when no new bids have been submitted for a certain period of time
my advise is join and auction set a target and keep bidding till you reach your target

most sellers i have e-mailed have been more than perfectly happy to mail to london and with exception to the cost there isn't really any extra effort putting a bike in a box and posting to tokyo
as long as you meet their demand for postage costs and price of the bike i'm sure they'll be happy to ship

Oh right, they list a price they're kind of hoping for, then others throw in their bids until the seller feels one is good enough. I saw that on a few auctions, there were random lowball bids listed. It all makes sense now! Thanks for explaining - really appreciate it.

It's a ballache being so tall in Japan. 10cm shorter and I'd have a world of options.

Well, I emailed one of the sellers. Fingers crossed I get a positive response!

This is near Chichibu, about 70km west of Tokyo. Did just under 150km riding out and back.

If you ever get the chance to come out here, definitely figure out a way to get a bike. There are some really wonderful (and horrendously challenging) routes. If you're lucky, you'll get to see some grizzled 70 year old ex-keirin racer pounding up insanely steep gradients.

try maarktplaasts.nl
http://www.marktplaats.nl/

you'll find lots, search champion mondial and you'll find all sorts

Do you think they'd ship to Japan?
I've seen some amazing ones on there but can't figure out the system at all.

These ones are beautiful...
http://www.marktplaats.nl/a/fietsen-en-brommers/fietsen-oldtimers/m668075820-gazelle-champion-mondial.html?c=8c285449651fa109c354bbabe740c1b&previousPage=lr

http://www.marktplaats.nl/a/fietsen-en-brommers/fietsen-racefietsen/m668600902-gazelle-champion-mondial-ab-frame-reynolds-531c-58cm-ct.html?c=8c285449651fa109c354bbabe740c1b&previousPage=lr

Any advice would be gratefully received.

Hello all, new here!

I found this thread when I searched for Gazelle bikes - I saw one last month on Yahoo Auction (the Japanese equivalent of eBay) which was way too small for me (thanks Japan) and fell in love with how they looked. "Classy" is the best word I can use, I guess.

Now I'm obsessively scouring eBay in the hopes of finding a 58 frame / bike which the seller won't mind posting over here. I had a look at Marktplaats.nl but have no idea where to begin with that.

Anyway, thanks for this resource. I've learned more about the bikes in this thread than anywhere else on the web.