Neon Orange

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NJS Araya/NJS Ukai

SunTour Sunday

All That Glitters...

...is not gold.









/m/

Interracial: Maylan's 2011 Cinelli MASH Histogram

Here is Maylan's other bike, "Interracial", one of the earliest MASH Histograms here in Manila. I like how he mixed several "component nationalities" on this one. The best parts on hand for the best personal ride experience.

Check out more after the break.

Italian NJS

SunTour Sunday

Don's NJS Shimazaki

Here's a rare NJS beauty from our "fixer" bro in New York. Some of you might have met or seen Don at the last Tour of the Firefly ride riding a neon orange Bridgestone track bike. That bike was a loaner and this here, is his real steed. 

Check out a little story he wrote about his bike and the specs after the jump.

Meccanico Giro

This Keirin beauty belongs to Victor, one of the earliest members of Manila Fixed Gear. The photos here are really nice but they don't do justice on how awesome this beast looks like in person.

"The Manila Fixed Gear mentality back then was to buy available parts even if you don't need them because someone you know might," he recalls, "This was so, because at the time, fixed gear parts were really hard to come by here in Manila." I remember this clearly as I was able to acquire from him the Aerospokes from this build that he replaced with the current HED3.

Check out the specs, more images and some trivia after the jump.

Rekta Lagalag na Hindi pa Tapos

This is one of my earlier experiments with Ave. We extended the seat stays up until just beneath the saddle for a stiffer upward pedal stroke. Covered a decent amount of kilometers with this frame prior to it going into "rehab" as I had the head tube changed from oversized to standard sized diameter as well as the down tube from ø38 to it's current 31.8mm diameter. The paint job also went thru a make-over from it's previous powder coated matte black to the present DIY colourway. All for a cleaner look.

As the title suggests, this build is still a work in progress. Pretty as it is, the current fork on this bike is just a temporary replacement. Ave is still working on the real fork, which hopefully, he can finish soon.

Check more images and the component list after the jump.

Pangk's Levant

This is one of the best NJS builds i have seen here in Manila -not that there are many of them running around here- and on the internet. Lawrence has once again shown his unforgiving attention to detail and impeccable taste in bicycles. I used to dream of owning a second hand NJS frame before i got obsessed with bespoke/custom frames. Now, this build is making me consider that dream again, but in full custom construction and not anytime soon. Beautiful build, beautiful photography.

Check the nasty component list and more images of this bike after the jump.

Lagarista Re-edit

Due to a reader's request, I'm inserting a very short story of how this frame came to be.

"Lagarista" is a term used to describe movie house couriers whose only job is to pick up and deliver rolls of films all over the metro's countless cinema houses in strict adherence to each cinema's showing schedule. They have to deliver rain or shine thru traffic and sludge just so the show can go on.

Now, I've no aspirations of being a "lagarista" even if i think it's a cool job, but I was inspired by the practicality of their process. Weaving thru bad traffic and leaving everybody behind sounds like very good idea to me. Hence the REKTA Lagarista. With an aggressive geometry and twitchy enough handling, it gets you to your destination thru what little space our congested streets will allow. And it gets you there fast. This is the inspiration behind the Lagarista.

This particular build have some rare and nasty NJS components on it but you can tell from the images that this bike was built to be ridden and lovingly abused. It is one of my favorite framesets. One of my best collaborations with Ave.

More pics and the specs after the jump.

Along The Banks Of The Pasig River

Tim's Custom Maldea Track Build

This is one of the cleanest builds I see around here. Tim can be very meticulous with his bikes and we can clearly see that character in this build.

Bike Check: Maple's Custom Ave Maldea Track

Finally, here's Maple's labor of love, an impeccably built up Ave Maldea custom frameset. We can't expect anything less from the husband and wife team of Lawrence and Maple, can we? Enjoy after the break.

Built To Last: Sarao (NJS)

100% NJS

The recently released Gan Compe PRO track hubs are definitely a big step-up from the standard Gran Compe tarck hubs. With fully replaceable bearing races, it is the first of it's kind since the SunTour SUPERBE Pros.

These hubs are 100% made in Japan and are the first NJS certified hubs since the Dura Ace 7710. They come equipped with cup and cone "open" bearings which make them run super smooth, which is probably why Nagasawa Racing recommends these hubs to all their pro Keirin racers.

Very limited production quantity.

SunTour Sunday

Parking