Bike Check: Patrick’s Pearl Samson
If you’re always hanging out on njs-export.com and you just need that “extra push” to pull the trigger on your dream Japanese-made frameset, well I’m afraid that article might just do it for you.
A few months ago my good friend Patrick (you can find his Parallax here) approached me with the wish to get an NJS frame for himself. After a few days of narrowing down his favorite builders, I started my research to find something good-looking and approximately the right size. Since Patrick is 187cm and most Japanese keirin racers are rarely more than 180, finding him something with a coherent sizing was gonna make things interesting. A week or so later we found a near-perfect condition Samson, pearl white with chrome lugs and NJS stamped. No questions asked, we imported it, straight from Tokyo, hoping for the best between customs, shipping, and all the related covid slowdowns. Eventually, we had a glance at a first build last summer but nothing near from the absolute street bandit it became today.
One broken wrist and half a year later it was time to build back the beast and give it all the spices Patrick was able to come with!
Let’s start with a little story on how Samsons are gonna get rarer as time goes on and why copping one now might be the right decision.
If you're not aware, even if Harada-San, builder of every Samson and absolute genius of frame building is still alive and doing well, but a few years ago he had a little incident with “Nihon Jitensha Shinkokai” or Japanese Bicycling Association in English. In 2017, Harada-San apparently lost the NJS certification due to the use of non-standard tubing for the chainstays of several of his NJS builds. Nothing we could see or notice as simple human beings, but Keirin inspectors are well above our mortal plane, and when it’s not ok, it can’t be a mistake, it’s a violation. On one hand, I was kinda baffled that one of the top builders would choose to ignore these regulations. On the other, I heard that he is also quite the daring type, and wanted to push things forward.
NJS or not wasn’t a problem for our master builder since he wanted to do more custom frame building anyway. So Samson itself is not going away anytime soon, but NJS stamped Samson frames are now limited in number and no more will ever be produced
Now that you know the full story, you’ll appreciate even more that simple yet deep pearl-white paint complimenting perfectly the custom Samson lugs all around the frame. I’m personally, a big fan of painted lugs alongside chromed ones. It’s all so well balanced, exactly like what’s coming next.
Detailed Parts List
Frameset
Samson NJS
Chainring and Cog AArn Camo 47T, Kronos 17T
Crank Sugino 75 165mm
Seatpost and Saddle
Thomson Elite, San Marco Aspide
Stem and Handlebar
Nitto 100mm, Funn Fatboy
Wheels Zipp 404 laced to Harmony hubs
Tires 25c Continental GP5000
When you think NJS, you think, Duraace, Suntour, Nitto and how you want that precious stamp everywhere. Even if I agree with that philosophy, something completely radical like this will always grab my attention and take the top spot in my heart.
Starting with this crazy pair of 404, laced on harmony hubs with some CX-Ray Sapim spokes. You can tell the man is ok living a risky life when you understand there are only 36 spokes shared between these two wheels. Yet, both of them are clincher and wrapped in some Continental GP5000, so it’s not like it was the ultimate skid machine anyway.
On a more personal note, building that pair wasn’t a challenge or anything, but I was just worried about the riding quality in the streets with such a small amount of spokes. Turns out Patrick is completely fine, and even the Parisians cobbles haven’t defeated the 404s yet. So I’m really happy how they ended up, especially the front one and that “all-internal” lacing pattern.
For the peripherals, we have a tasty mix of black and silver like with that Nitto stem and black wide bar, or with a monochrome Camo AArn ring and a black pair of sugino75 in the middle to tie everything together.
To be honest, I’m a huge fan of white bikes, but I rarely see myself putting a black seatpost when there isn’t a seat collar to “break” that line. Yet again, the clever association of a white saddle is making everything fall into place as it should be.
It’s a street bandit, it’s how you build a bike with the only purpose to make it rad and enjoy it. It’s the perfect Sunday flex tool, but that’s not how Patrick sees it. When we were shooting the bike, I asked him what was the plans for it. Sunday coffee getter, commuter or even maybe something to go to the velodrome with?
That was his answer:
“Nah man, I can see myself riding this every day!”
And thinking about it again, he could totally do that! Durable steel frame, reasonable ratio with a 47x17, SPD pedals, and clincher wheels. All of that could work! And to me just that’s just about the spirit of building crazy things because we can, but riding them every day because we want.
It’s a weird thing to say, but I’m always super proud of the young ones when they come out with something that wild.
If you’d like some idea for your next build, or maybe some suggestions, why not join our discord server?
Plenty of cool people there with a good sense of aesthetics. You might even see Patrick there…
