Fixed gear from the Japanese Keirin league
The simplest bike is often the most beautiful. NJS frames are custom ordered and brazed to perfection from thin tubing with fine lugs for optimal stiffness.
Most Keirin frames you find on the internet are used and crashed by the original owner. When this happens, they are no longer allowed to race with them, so they are sold to us enthusiasts. This example had no dents or structural problems, just some paint damage. A good candidate for a high-end fixed gear bike for street use.
It was hardly possible to find a better color background for the photo shoot, fun when it happens! A bike like this consists only of the absolutely necessary components for cycling, making it both efficient and stylish. We built the wheels in the workshop with the goal that they would be indestructible; the rim choice landed on DT Swiss XR 331, which is rated for tough MTB riding. It may be unnecessarily tough, you say, but it weighs only 380 g, giving us a fantastic weight-to-strength ratio. The rim is made for disc brakes and the front fork is not drilled for rim brakes, so for two reasons you cannot mount a front brake on the bike. Note that you must have one according to Swedish law if you ride outside the velodrome.
A fairly large front chainring with 53 teeth. Our general advice for fixed gear in Stockholm is 48x17 or 47x17 if you want to experiment with different rear sprockets and get many "skid patches." This bike's gearing is 53x19T, which is similar to the above recommendations. The advantage is the visual impression, of course; a larger chainring looks cool, but if you have larger sprockets in the back, you get a more efficient chain that loses less energy in tight turns. You should only really think about that if you race track cycling.
As mentioned above, the fork crown has no hole for a front brake. There is approximately 3 mm of space between the tire and fork (the photo angle exaggerates this somewhat). On NJS bikes, they rarely use tires wider than 23 mm tubulars for racing; however, that is too narrow and inconvenient in the city. We did not want to build a complete NJS-stamped bike even though we respect those who do; we wanted some practical choices such as clincher tires and clipless pedals from Time, of course. The internal width of the DT Swiss rims is 20 mm; the 4-season tires, which say 25 mm on the packaging, swelled to almost 28 mm after a day at max pressure. Fortunately, they fit both front and rear so the cyclist does not have to bounce around on 120+ psi tire pressure.
Drop handlebars, preferably a model specifically for track cycling, are really the only right choice on an NJS bike. Without brake levers to rest your hands on, such bars unfortunately become impractical and uncomfortable, as the neutral position is in the drops. Therefore, we settled on a straight handlebar with a moderate 65 cm width. If you brake/skid a lot, you get much better leverage and control of the bike with a wider MTB-style handlebar. This is not just an aesthetic trend we have seen in recent years but has absolutely practical advantages. It is so easy to change handlebar setups on this type of bike that we encourage you to try many variations.
Specifications:
- Frameset: EIMEI NJS (57 cm)
- Stem: NITTO NP II NJS 25.4 mm (110mm)
- Handlebar: NITTO FW-82 For Shred 25.4 mm (65 cm)
- Grips: Cult x Vans (Black) /w NITTO bar-end plugs (Black)
- Headset: Hatta Swan Super Deluxe
- Seatpost: Thomson Elite 0 mm Setback 26.8 mm (Silver)
- Saddle: Pro Falcon CrMo
- Crankset: Sugino 75 NJS w/ 53T chainring
- Bottom bracket: Sugino NJS 109 mm
- Track cog: Soma 19T
- Chain: D.I.D. NJS
- Wheelset: Halo TK hubs laced to DT Swiss XR 331 rims
- Wheel nuts: Runwell Elite Hub Nut (Black)
- Tyres: Continental 4-season 25 mm (27.5 mm measured)
- Pedals: Time Atac XC4
