After a week of skiing we’ve found our way to Osaka. Tomity hooked us up with some Keirin action about 20 minutes out of town so we went down today to check it out, thanks heaps Tomity it was awesome! From the vibe of the locals at the velodrome we got the feeling that what we did today would be like a young Japanese couple coming to Australia and spending a day at Albion Park watching the greyhounds, just because they are dog lovers. The racing was awesome though, we saw a couple of crashes and there were some great photo finishes as well. I’ve thrown together some photos, but you just can’t capture the vibe, our favourite part of the day was the bad 70’s Martial Arts film anthem that played as the riders came through the “fighting gate”. I don’t have the bandwidth to upload a video of it yet but will do so when I get the chance.
Number 1!!!
Betting Pen
Starting line
NJS Kickstand (one of the bikes that the officials use to get out to the tower).
a friend has one that’s pretty much the same in her backyard. it has blue plastic wheels and a pink frame and is rusting away outside. i’m trying to convince her to fix it up and get on riding!
myself and my gf went to Nara keirin last year, apparently i was the first to ever ask at the tourist info about it, told not to go as it was seedy, we went, only westerners for sure but everyone loved us!
I believe the first of those hit the streets of melbourne just before xmas and i can speak from experience that although it looks pretty weird it rides super solid (unless you are ian_humanXX )
Wish I could lay down the 15 large they wanted for a De Rosa I saw today at one of the largest road bike stores I’ve ever set foot in. Just around the corner from or hotel here in Osaka. They even had a whole fixed gear section with the usual suspects (Soma, Velocity, etc.) represented. This place was full of the stuff that dreams are made of!
I am waiting to drop the coin when I hit Tokyo though.
So I’ve made a home movie of the whole trip. Skip to part 3 if you’re interested in some of the Keirin. I didn’t get much on film unfortunately as you really need a zoom lens to do it justice.
Big thanks to Tomity for coming out to meet us at the Kalavinka workshop, it was great to meet you and hear some stories as well as get an inside look at the masters at work!
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