January 16, 2011
 
An initiation of new year means an opening of winter bargain season among retailers in
Japan.  Bicycle shops are not the exception of and many shops have new year sale.  And this kind of bargain sometimes triggers their liquidation of old inventories.  In fact, I could find
something old and interesting at discounted price in the bargain in the past and that’s why I
love to visit there.
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On the fourth of January, I visited an old established bicycle proshop in Ryogoku,
downtown Tokyo, at first.  I could not find something very interesting among its
merchandise for bargain.  I thought that shop started its bargain from the third of January
and the customers already visited bought out the most of interesting items.  However,
thanks God, I could find the one at another ship on my way home.  It was a bike stand
manufactured by Nitto Handle Mfg. in 1970’s, I guess.  The box of stand carries the
nostalgic logos of Nitto that I saw in Cyclesport Magazine at that time. 
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Of course, the stand itself is fine, even though it accepts bikes with standard steel tubing
only.  Surely, there was no oversize tubing at that time; it was the golden age of steel bikes.  Because the stand reminds me of this golden age in the past, I strongly felt the urge to take
it.  In a way, it is a perfect accessory of old bike for exhibition.