Features

A few blocks north of Shibuya Station, W-BASE and Carnival occupy the first and second floors of the same building. These tiny shops can build the custom track bike of your dreams. W-BASE is especially densely packed with flashy frames and parts, including BMX gear. When I visited, a cluster of polo mallets leaned against a wall and a sphere of old inner tubers sat on the floor like a huge ball of yarn.

Manager Yohei Hanazawa helped organize the messenger championships here. Besides the usual checkpoint races simulating courier work, the champs featured track competitions on the Keiokaku Velodrome, home to the famous Keirin sprints and located near Keio-Tamagawa Station. “The messenger championships were awesome,” Hanazawa said. “I’ve gone to other cities for the championships and this time the world came to Tokyo. It was a great party – I didn’t sleep for a week.”

Other shops fixed-gear fans will want to check out include Blue Lug, Sexon Super Peace, Juice, Dreamworks and Beans. For relaxing times, sip a Suntory at Kinfolk Lounge, run by California expats who also build custom track bikes. The tiny, cozy bar features cocktails, like the Ginger Mint Mojito, and classic Keirin frames hanging from the rafters.

My most memorable Tokyo bike experience was joining the Half-Fast Cycling club on a cruise from the Roppongi district to Odaiba, a man-made island in Tokyo Harbor with a replica of the Statue of Liberty, an onsen (“hot spring”) in a phony Edo-era village, and a giant robot sculpture.

Ride leader Mike Sims-Williams, a Brit, insisted the raison d’être of the club is getting together to drink beer. “We’re not about efficiency, we’re about camaraderie,” he said “People ask why we cycle from one beer vending machine to another. It’s because it’s faster than walking.”

We spun for about 10 miles down broad boulevards, through narrow, old-timey lanes and over bridges to the island, where we stopped for drinks at an outdoor cafe with palm trees and reggae music. Sipping a Kirin, Kanako Maeda said she has enjoyed the moderate speeds and friendly vibes on Half-Fast rides – with one exception. “Once, a woman stopped suddenly in front of me and, when I hit my brakes, a 100-kilogram man flipped over me,” she said. “He ran over my back, but I wasn’t hurt too badly.”

On the way home, we stopped at a park and did spontaneous laps around a circular fountain – bikes on the outside riding clockwise, bikes on the inside riding counter-clockwise. It was a good metaphor for cycling in Tokyo: chaos, orchestrated.

Thanks to Chris Dilts and Andy Golding for tips on bike shops and bars.