mfront8

Originally uploaded by guuwatanabe

Tokyo bagmaster GUU Watanabe has an interesting Flickr photostream. There are many pictures of beautiful bags. There are also many pictures from day-to-day urban Japanese life.

Tags: bags, GUU_Watanabe, tokyo

Brooks Imperial

UPS just dropped off our first shipment of the new Brooks Imperial.

B.17 Standard Imperial, $145.

S and N models coming in January

Tags: imperial

Gilles Berthoud reports that he is having some trouble with equipment needed to produce his new, innovative, leather saddle. His idea was to do some of the leather work with CNC equipment. He searched for a long time and finally found one little company that promised to supply the machine he needed. The machine, adequate for prototyping and sample work, proved to be not up to the job for production. Now Gilles is developing his own CNC machine to meet his requirements. This unexpected difficulty has caused some delay. Stay tuned.

1/26/09 UPDATE: Berthoud reports that his new CNC machine has passed his tests and he is near production on the new leather saddle. A firm ETA was not given but we hope to see the new saddles in March.

3/18/09 UPDATE: I hear today that production of Berthoud saddles has begun and mid-April is a possible delivery time.

5/4/09 UPDATE: The US distributor for Berthoud products reports that the first batch of saddles is about ready and will leave France soon. He expects delivery in 2-3 weeks. (then another week to us).

6/4/09 UPDATE: The US shipment of saddles has left France. UK dealers have them available now. Expect our price to be lower than the UK price.

Our order of B.17 Imperials is leaving an Ohio warehouse today. We usually get these shipments in 3 UPS days. Not sure with the holiday but they are finally coming.

Tags: imperial

We pleased to learn that author Stephen Lord recommended Wallingford Bicycle Parts as a source for Brooks saddles in his Adventure Cycle-Touring Handbook. We ordered a copy of Mr. Lord’s book from Amazon and found it to be a very good read.

This 288 pg book addresses its subject matter in a comprehensive way. Skimming the table of contents we find:

• Planning
• Choosing a bike and equipment (by cagegory and by brand)
• Transport
• Route outlines around the world
• Touring stories
• Bike maintenance

There are numerous black and white pictures and a few beautiful full color photos of exotic touring locales.

We looked at this book because our name is in it (thanks, Stephen) but we recommend it because it is a rich source of information for the bicycle tourist at all experience levels.

With this book we are going to try the Amazon Associate program. If you click this link to buy the book from amazon.com then Wallingford Bicycle Parts will get a little piece of the deal. The alternative is stocking the book ourselves and charge you 50% more than they do. We are curious how this will play out and we would be glad to hear your opinion about wallbike ‘partnering’ with the e-commerce giant.

Tags: amazon, book, touring

We just received a shipment of CARRADICE Barleys and Zip Rolls.