Ambling around

I stopped by the Shinonome Ricoland today, my wife was picking up some frame sliders for the SV. Ricoland, standing for 'riders community land' is a chain of stores selling all kinds of stuff for bikes. They sell all kinds of clothing, boots, helmets, accessories (covers, locks, GPS gizmos, intercoms etc), commonly upgraded things (mufflers, suspension, brakes, lights etc), and of course consumable like tires, oil, filters, chains etc. There is an area out the back where they work on your bike while you mosey around the parking lot looking at the other customer's rides - well that's what I do anyway.

The store is mostly aimed towards people with bikes that work just fine and they want to fiddle with them, rather than being a proper repair shop. So most of the 'repairs' they do is routine maintenance like brake pads etc or stuff that just bolts on. If it's work that can't be done in under an hour, you're probably better off at a genuine mechanic's bike shop.

I have a members card which gets me a free 2000 yen voucher every time I clock up 25000 yen in purchases. And with this particular shop being about 15 minutes from my apartment, that doesn't take too long. I guess this is one thing I can't complain about in Tokyo, there are bike shops everywhere!