I guess in a culture where everyone has a bike it's not worth caring about whether a frame is intended for women or not. I have seen regular men's frames. I've seen some higher end road bikes and a few mountain bikes. I've been keeping my eye out for fixed gears or Keirin bikes as they're called here, but I only saw one on my first day here (and yes it had deep Vs). There are some hills here, but I really expected to see more of them. I even scanned the bike racks at the University, expecting that they would be more popular with younger kids as they tend to be in Philadelphia.
I can't say I'm disappointed by what I've found, but I do have some thoughts.
Why in a culture where everyone rides bikes are all the bikes so nondescript? (Ignore the fact that I'm in Japan and everyone here is almost required to be modest). You would think that in a sea of hundreds of parked bikes, you would try to make yours look a little different. You would maybe want it to stand out so it could be more easily found. I haven't noticed anything of the sort. You can walk down a row of bikes and see 10 of basically the same bike.
I'll also add that bike theft does not appear to be prevalent here. Most bikes have only integrated rear wheel locks. I haven't seen one U-lock. So given this added aspect, why not make your bike a little flashy. It's unlikely that your bike will be stolen for looking a little different.
Appearance is very important here. Until recently, facial hair was usually only seen on Yakuza. Tattoos are still fairly taboo. Almost everyone dresses well. There are hoards of young girls who can be seen with fake tans and bleached blond hair (I haven't seen many, but I hear they're out there). To these girls, the western image is important it would seem. There are all sorts of youth trends in lifestyle and fashion. So I would expect that these groups would be more likely to customize their bikes to mirror their own styles. Still, I haven't seen this type of behavior. I will keep an eye out for it, but I have a suspicion I won't find it.
I would bet that the only people in Tokyo who customize their bikes for appearance in addition to function are the fixed gear riders. This assumption comes from what I know of young fixed riders in the States and from some video I have seen of Japanese fixed riders.
I'll leave you with this weird belt driven bike I saw.
2 comments:
Wow dude, this is by far my favorite post so far. Über anthropological.
I think it's a false assumption that just because something is super prevalent, there should be a ton of variation in it. I think, actually, that something which is prevalent gets ignored.
In trying to come up with an analogue, I'm failing at the moment, but it's late. I'll probably revisit this post sometime tomorrow, as well as share with some friends for their opinions on the matter.
For now let's take iPods or cell phones as an example. Yes, customization accessories do exist, like condom-cases and jangly-dangly things (respectively), but I think the people who use these things are definitely in the minority, don't you?
Or take this example: Practically everyone in the U.S. has a car, but that doesn't mean they're all tricking them out with racing stripes and spoilers. In fact, most people are quite happy just buying a bland car and leaving it with the factory defaults. Snazzing things up is a rare occurrence.
Right now in my tired mindset, I think the likelihood to see something "snazzed up" or somehow customized is mostly determined by personality. That means that there are arty kids who draw on their sneakers, or laptop lids, or whatever, but the statistical representation of these kids in the population will still be slim to none.
I see what you're saying that 1% of a million should be more than 1% of a hundred, but in some ways it's not: you'd still notice it only 1% of the time.
I think your car analogy was pretty weak to say the least. Tons of people do things as simple as putting bumper stickers on their cars. I won't even touch the entire new "Support Our Troops" market. Vanity license plates, fuzzy dice and any other myriad of objects hanging from rear view mirrors are all examples of this.
I will agree though, that the lack of customization makes some sense, but I would think that certain touches would just make it easier to find your bike. I happen to have a pink bell on my bike and just something that small makes it super easy to find my bike.
I may have just contradicted my original point, but I'm OK with that.
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