I normally do not promote the purchase of Cycle Sports or any other publication except fencing (pardon - fanzines), but the new issue of Cycle Sports is simply too good and too thick to be ignored. For about 600 Yen you will get the magazine, the new Shimano catalog for 2010 plus the guide to the Cycle Mode exhibition in December.The Shimano catalog is a good reference for prices. Shimano for cycling is, I believe, a little bit like Toyota for cars. One wouldn't buy their road bike parts for good design necessarily, but the pricing is (relatively) reasonable, the reliability and quality is excellent and spare parts are readily available almost everywhere in Japan. And they have the innovative products as well. If I would like to have something good looking on my bike I would prefer Italian, French or American parts perhaps. The DuraAce (hollowtec) crank set is of such pronounced ugliness that it hurts my eyes.
In the main magazine there are also some good articles about a Japanese "Toge" (Mountain passes) today and 30 years ago, conquered by the same guy. Why we can see that roads and infrastructure has improved and cycling technology has come a long way as well, cycling clothing is much more functional today but still designed in a way that we can be sure to laugh about in less than 10 years to come.
In the main magazine there are also stories about Bryon's Computrainer, Tom's new obsession Cyclocross and some infos about long fingered gloves and shoecovers.
This is the right stuff for the (occasional) train rides.
3 comments:
Michael: Thanks for pointing out that this is a Cyclesports edition worth its weight. I think I damaged my shoulder trying to haul the phone-book sized "magazine" from Maruzen back to my office. I hope it does not crush me when I try to ride home with it in my pack.
Best, David L.
Thanks Michael...I bought it for the cyclocross section. It had some usefull information about the CX scene in Japan. My own X-Fire model 2010 appears in it too...the funny thing though is that the official Ridley importer for Japan has sold every one of them already and they are no longer available in this country.
I made the mistake of buying mine prior to a meeting, needless to say it hardly fit into my bag.
Anyway, it was good to see, principally because I now know that Moe will be at this year's Cycle Mode event.
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