Koushou Kinugawa is one of those Japanese custom frame builders you know must exist but, because they don’t actively seek out an American or European market, fails to blip on your radar. Thankfully, we discovered Koushou and his latest creation.
Next year, Koushou-san will celebrate ten years of fabricating bicycle frames and components and, evident from browsing his previous work, has spent it building a typically eclectic portfolio of utilitarian and classy bikes.
He seems to have honed his focus now, though, on the kind of highly refined and finely crafted handmade bicycles the Japanese market appreciates. This classic road racer is his latest and a good example of his craft.
Koushou vehemently describes it as a classic road racer, not a classical road racer. he doesn’t care for old things such as antiques or vintage objects. Rather, he simply appreciates the beautiful styles that preceded today’s mass-produced goods.
The Helavna Signature Road Racer debuted last weekend at Japan’s Handmade Bicycle Fair, which saw the country’s luminaries, such as Cherubim’s Shinichi Konno, give talks amongst the best of his contemporaries and their work.
There’s a philosophy behind Koushou-san’s work, a consideration for the multitude of the customer’s needs and desires, which he sums up as their “wants”. It defines the end result, and it’s a territory that must be navigated with integrity and sincerity.
Koushou-san built this one out of Columbus Spirit and Richard Sachs’s lugs, who he consulted during its construction. Like Mr. Sachs, Koushou was “extra careful during the process, so never needed to file the lug shape or shoreline, because it was perfect”.
Words to build by.
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