Bike Hugger
mentions the popularity of small
mini velo bicycles in Japan. These are small wheeled bicycles that may or may not be folders. They include some of the folding bicycles we're familiar with in the U.S. and Europe, but there are many bicycles such as the Bianchi Novita shown here that are made exlusively for the Japanese market. You can see the whole catalog of mini velo Bianchi bicycles
at Bianchi's Japan distributor.
Gios also has a
mini velo collection in their Japanese lineup. Check out the
Louis Garneau branded mini velo bicycles. There are also Renault Cycles
Citadin 16 and
Citadin 18 lines.
There are probably hundreds more models of Nihon-no mini velo jitensha bicycles like these. I've seen a few of these bikes make it here to the United States, where I see them occasionally on Caltrain during my commute in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Bike lust attack! Bike lust attack!
ReplyDeleteI think this would be way cooler than any small bike on the U.S. market.
ReplyDeleteLike I said Fritz, don't be surprised if some random photographer snaps a pic' of a Masi mini-velo over there in Japan one day. I am looking into developing a series of them for our new Japanese distributor. I promise nothing... but it just might happen.
ReplyDeleteMaking me drool already, Tim! A Masi Mini Velo in the orange-and-blue scheme would look especially sharp.
ReplyDeleteI wonder why so popular in Japan? Might be got to do with a storage space shortage. Space is a premium there.
ReplyDeleteDRK
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