More kids bikes

I did a post about kids bikes a while ago. There was a Miffy bike in that post and recently, I saw another Miffy bike, so I thought I 'd do another post with that and some other kids bikes I've seen since.



This one is even smaller than the previous one and it looks like it's been ridden much longer.



In the same parking space, there was a bike with a basket with some acorns. I think I remember collecting acorns when I was little too.



We spotted this Panasonic bike outside our building.



It's got very detailed graphics as you can see.



This one was parked in front of the local supermarket.



Its name is "Hard Candy". Design is coordinated throughout even with the original basket that says "Hard Candy".

Alive and well

Hi all. It's been a while since the last post. We were down with the dreaded flu for a while, but also we haven't had so much to write about. I was thinking about this. In Japan, riding the bike is very popular. In front of every train station or super market, you would see a sea of bikes parked there. Yet most biking remains very local and almost too casual. It's just a way to get to the supermarket a little faster. People don't think about enjoying the activity and riding to further places. One reason for this I think is that especially in the Tokyo metropolitan area, using public transportation like the train and the bus is so easy and convenient. It may be the most well run in the world. You can get to almost anywhere within the metropolitan area with the train or the bus or combination of both. It's so easy and effortless compared to other options (driving in Tokyo requires huge amounts of patience), so that most people don't think about riding a bike further than the nearest train station. We're also a bit guilty of this as we've been taking the train a lot to get places out our neighborhood.

Anyway, so we don't have too much to report, but we have taken pictures here and there, so I will post some of them here.


Kao trying her acrobatic moves riding home from Kawasaki.


rental bikes we spotted at the Misaki port. If these were available at the station, we would've rented them, but they were at our destination rather than the starting point, so we didn't rent them. They look pretty nice for rental bikes though.


Kao riding along the Tama river.


Little boy riding by himself along the Tama river.

Today, we're going to an event called Cycle Mode which I think is kind of like Interbike but one for the general public. If it's just booths of bike stuff, I might skip it, but you can actually test ride the bikes there, so I'll have an opportunity to ride a lot of bikes I'd never ridden before. We'll be sure to take a lot of pictures, so that will be something to report afterwards. I think Mr. Gary Fisher is there. Maybe if we're lucky, we'll run into him.

I'm sticking with you again

I previously did a post called "I'm sticking with you..." Since then I have taken many more "sticking" pictures, so here are some of them below♪ :)


Tamagawa


Tamagawa


Kamata


Kamata


Kamata


Kamata


Tamagawa


Tamagawa


Tamagawa


Chigasaki


Chigasaki

Child Bikes

After I wrote about child seats, I also started noticing all the children bikes wherever I went. There's quite a variety of them. This one above is adorned with Dick Bruna's world famous Miffy character.





This is an even smaller bike and can be pushed and turned by an adult with the handle from behind. I think real little kids in the US mostly ride tricycles or big wheels, but these bikes have the support wheels in the back which can be removed and make it into a two wheeled bicycle.





This is a Winnie the Pooh bike. It has no support wheels. I assume it probably had them in the beginning, but were removed as the child grew enough to try riding without them.





This is a slighly larger bike and it's obviously a boy's bike with its sporty hi-tech look. It's a pretty basic bike, but the "cockpit" looks very hi-tech. As far as I can tell the right indicator in the "Shimano CI-DECK" tells what gear you're in, but I'm not sure what the left one is for. It would be cool to have something like this on adult bikes with mechanical indicators instead of digital cycle computers.





The look of bikes for bigger kids seem much more subtle and seem to become more like the mamachari. No more characters or flashy graphics, just more colorful than the adult mamachari. What drew me to these two bikes though is their very unique frame design. The bottom bike with its wavy top tubes is very cool. I think it's a very playful design which I think could be applied to adult mixte bikes as well.

These are only bikes I ran into within a time frame of about 2 days while walking around the neighborhood, so I'm not sure if it represents the full variety of child bikes in Japan, but I thought they are very fun looking and more ride-able than than their counterparts in the US.

Child seats

I'd never paid too much attention to child seats since we don't have children ourselves, but JJ's comment yesterday prompted me to take a closer look.

In the parking lot behind our building, there seemed to be mostly 2 types of seats.
One is the metal caged seat that sits on the rear rack.



This one is in its basic state.



This one has cushions and a head rest.



This brown one has a slightly different cage design.



This has patterned fabric and a Hello Kitty bell for the child.

The other popular one is the handlebar integrated basket/seat.



This one has a handle bar lockout dial on the back.



This one even has a wind shield!



This bike has both seats. Until recently, it was actually illegal to carry more than 1 child on a bike, but the law changed so that specifically designed bikes are permitted to carry 2 children. I don't think this is one of them, but I don't think the law is enforced too much, at least not in this part of Kawasaki.

They really seem to change the look of the bike. If I was designing a bike with these seats, I think I would want to paint them to match the bike. Maybe painting it all blue like the Pereira Oregon Manifest bike would be cool.

The seat in the top picture was one in its intended use. That's yet another design as well.

It's cool to see that so many people use the bicycle for all kinds of everyday transportation needs.

Casual riding in Kawasaki

So, I made it to Japan safely, to the city of Kawasaki to be specific. Kawasaki is the city directly West of the capitol of Tokyo. Last night, I was quite jet lagged and tired, so that I didn't even open my computer before I fell asleep. Today I managed to open the computer and partially catch up on stuff though I'm still jet lagged and quite sleepy as I write this. What follows might be a bit incoherent, but I am going to try and write a post before sleepiness gets the better of me.



The place where Kao is currently living is sort of a dense apartment high rise. Kind of like those public housing buildings in NYC, but is private. Bicycle parking for residents is limited and requires a minimal fee which has to be paid annually and bikes without proper registration stickers will be rounded up like the bikes in the picture above and will be disposed of if they are not claimed by the owner.



This is part of the parking space for Kao's building.



and this is Kao's mamachari bike in its designated parking spot. Not very secure by American standards, but just the O-lock on the rear wheel is security enough.

The fee for a single bike per household is very cheap, but a second spot is much more expensive. Luckily I have a folding bike which can be stored indoor without taking much space while I'm gone.


(my Dahon folded up)


(Dahon unfolded)

It's not a bike with the best riding characteristics, but it's just fine for riding slowly weaving through pedestrian and car traffic. Riding around in small city strrets here can be quite chaotic where you are fighting space with cars and also sometimes you ride on sidewalks to avoid obstacles (like parked motorcycles) on the street.



Today was a super nice day, so we decided to go ride to Tamagawa (Tama River) which is the river that runs between Tokyo and Kawasaki.



This is a very popular cycling route that runs along river and there were lots of people out riding bikes, walking or running. It is a lovely path that runs on the top of the riverbank overlooking the river. My only complaint is that the path is rather narrow, so that you kind of have to slow down when you pass someone.



It is a fun place to ride though if you're not in a hurry which we weren't. It's nice to take a break on the river bed and watch people go by. It's a good spot for people watching as people there seem quite different than people in crowded city streets.



This was a very short outing today, but I'm sure we'll go on longer rides while I'm here.