Sueshiro Sano, scion of a 200 year old Japanese company that builds ocean going sailing ships, was in Denver over the weekend to show off his wooden bicycles. Among them was this mahogany minivelo road bike with 20 inch wooden wheels.
Doraemon (roughly pronounced “Doe Rye Moan”) is a popular Japanese cartoon series about a robotic time traveling talking cat. He began life as a manga character in the late 1960s, and his immense popularity as an animated TV series means Doraemon is widely merchandised to all kinds of consumer products, including folding bicycles.
Among the throngs visiting the North American Handmade Bicycle Show in Sacramento last weekend, there were large numbers of Japanese media, fans and reps.
Among the people in this photo:
Some of these folks want to have an bike show in Japan featuring both American and Japanese bespoke bike and accessory manufacturers in a kind of reverse-Orientalist fascination for all things Western.
I told them about Byron Kidd’s Tokyo By Bike, and English language Australian expat’s look at transportational cycling around Tokyo. If there’s a Tokyo-American handmade bike show, Byron, I expect you to cover it!