Great bikes in Hiroshima

For the New Year break we went down to Kobe, Hiroshima (pictured below), Miyajima and Kyoto (all in four days!).





Hiroshima remined me of student towns in Europe - like Lund in Sweden or Oxford in England (OK, maybe a few more tall buildings). It has lots of good restaurants, cafes and shops. And a few good bikes. Here's a couple I spotted.




I've never seen a "Lighting" before. This is made by a local builder who no longer sells frames via shops. Unfortunately, this bike shows all the hallmarks of a non-rider. Seat pointing down, bars at a silly angle and cut down.



A bit too much axle, not sure why (old keirin-style 110mm hub on 120mm-spaced frame?) Very tight wheel clearance though, nice.



The super cool Nitto blue anodised handlebars, cut down way too much.



Now, you won't see many mountainbikes on this blog - but this one's pretty special. Spotted through a closed bike shop window. A carbon Colnago with no seattube. I'm no expert but, judging from the componentry, this frame is pretty old - one of Colnago's first efforts at making a mountainbike. Please let me know if I'm wrong.



OH, I did an hour today - but I feel quite proud of it because the rain was bucketting down and the temperature was about 9 degrees. My hands froze, my feet got drenched, and I had to swim a few bits.