PRETTY SICK KEIRIN AD

BADASS

q for steve shasta: is it true what they say about the popularity of keirin, or is that just some western revisionist bullshit "omg these guys are basically household names in japan, you wouldn't believe it!"

an analogy i can think of is that the keirin racers are not like treated as athletes per se but rather more like jockeys in a horserace... sort of like most american people know willie shoemaker, but not everyone knows laffit pincay jr.

most of my non-cycling friends took to my interest in keirin as like "oh go ask my uncle Toshi who's got a gambling problem and owes the family lots of money" types of stories. :-\ i don't think keirin is as glamorous as it is tacky (esp. tokyo view of parts of non-tokyo japan) and/or an indulgent vice... rather than pure sport.

nerd alert: keirin is pronounced "kay-leen" (flat/even syllable stress), i don't think i've ever heard a non-Japanese pronounce it correctly.

i had heard that being a keirin racer was not all that glamorous, but wasn't sure to what extent that was true.

also: i bought my keirin frame (sold before i got a chance to build it) to this guy: http://flickr.com/photos/spastica/

to? from

i don't even know how to mod edit my own posts :-/

rad, yohei used to live in SF and did the SMASH doc.

oh you know him!

he was a v v nice dude, and hooked me up with a bridgestone for basically nothing (sold it for nearly 100% profit.....for textbooks, boo). some of the dudes here in chicago keep up with him still, i think. apparently he'd never ridden fixed until this guy naz took him downtown into the loop. they then went up the LFP and yohei shot pictures no-handed like the whole time.

...has the raggett-esque tendency to photography all his food?

did thisd bord just born today ?

y

congrats

we are all very proud

Cigars all around.

...has the raggett-esque tendency to photography all his food?

:-\

(fwiw: i'm writing a book)

lol at "photography"

i might do the same if i
(a) had a camera
(b) ate food worth photographing

finding 570mm keirin frames - c/d

impossible

i found this killer picture page of Nagasawa in Osaka (builder to most (all?) Keirin champions)... lots of candids, pretty awesome:

http://www3.ocn.ne.jp/~nagasawa/b_photo/b_photo.htm