Early this year the wife and I had a chance to visit my Son, Navy pilot on
the Kitty Hawk and stationed at Atsugi Navy Base near Tokyo, The first thing I
noticed was the amount of zeros 0000s after the first digits on prices of
EVRYTHING, My son a cycling nut, said Dad I want to take to ShangriLa bike
heaven, near Yokohama, we went by train, this bike store had just about every
thing you could want, they even had a Bob Jasckson track frame with the curved
seat tube, short wheelbase etc, One glass, locked case, had vintage equpment,
My son speaks a little of the Japanese, SO once again in awe at the zeros000
on the price tab, I inquired the price(WRONG MOVE!!) of a Simplex Juy51 rear
gear, this was NOS in Box!! along with Many other choice pieces of eye candy,
The owner of the store told my son,"Oh, that is prime NOS, VERY rare I have
it priced at $500.00 FIRM" the same for all the other vintage and new stock
for sale, the owner also told my son Paul "Have NO problem selling bike gear"
SO they do pay top $$$ but then they are use to this, AFTER ALL THEIR BUCK IS
JUST AS GOOD AS ANYONE ELSE. I DID buy some shoe cleats for vintage shoes for
six bucks!!! what a buy. Lucky my wife is flight attendant and the trip over
cost ZERO$$$$ or those cleats would have been VERY expensive, Ah Soooo,
OldBrit John Crump, Parker,Co.USA PS The bike shop in question does have a Web
site,