Bike Check: Toma‘s Watanabe
A few months back, I was featuring Tomas' Peloton and its many quirks, as well as how he decided to build the whole bike around the front suspension fork. Today, I’d like to showcase another one of his incredibly unusual builds - His Watanabe NJS.
Watanabe is now considered an "old" NJS builder, and that frame, similar to the previous one, is also a rescue! He found it for barely nothing and decided to make it his next project, but again with a twist. Most people would asume that when you get a frame with scratches and rust, you’d strip it bare to repaint it. But Toma went a different route. Something almost impossible to capture on camera because it's meant to be invisible, is the frame being coated with a "flexible glass" treatment. This preserves the old paint job without worrying rust, or more fading in the harsh Okinawa sun.
The main focus here is obviously the front of the bike with this handle-stem-brake contraption that looks completely outer wordly. So let me explain! Toma first found this Nitto closed bar (or as we like to call it, the Nitto Metalico), and wanted to use it along something special. So he decided to pair this already peculiar bar with an even more quirky Major Taylor Slider Stem. And, if that wasn't enough, the bars are flipped upside down to make room for this Tempra bar-end lever installed on the “nose” of the stem. Finally, the tiny front light that is installed using a headset spacer is by BlueLug, and suspended in the middle of this metallic “sculpture”.
Detailed Parts List
Frameset
Watanabe NJS
Chainring and Cog Sugino 75 49T, Novacorona Cog 17T
Crank Sugino 75
Seatpost and Saddle
Nitto S84 lugged seatpost, Airbike saddle
Stem and Handlebar
Major Taylor Slider Stem Nitto “Closed Bar”
Wheels Custom Duraace to Araya gold rear, and Duraace to Araya Super Aero front
Tires Tubular Gatorskin 25c and Tufo 21c
Since Toma wanted people to focus on this front area, he preferred an nonobstructive and discreet front wheel. So, he opted for a classic Araya Super aero wheel with the least number of spokes possible, laced to this low-flange Dura-Ace hub. For the rear we have an Araya gold with a custom Duraace High flange track hub to match with the frame.
Once again, Toma has given us a captivating example of some “out of the box” thinking, weaving logic seamlessly into his design. It’s almost like building a bike that defies convention is an art form in itself, and Toma captures this brilliantly.
So… What is gonna be your crazy project?
🎞: kodak ColorPlus 200
📷: Nikon F100
📍: Okinawa
