Like many fixed gear fans out there, a trip to Japan always felt inevitable. The hype, the arts , the roads! A chance to soak in the culture, visit my friend So (you might’ve seen him featured here before), and finally pick up a frame I’d been looking forward to for months…

Let me start by introducing myself. I was born in Osaka, and I’m now in my third year of riding track bikes. At first, it was just about messing around with friends on bikes, Osaka has such a dense fixed-gear culture that it was hard not to get swept up in it…