Pop-up restaurants, pop-up bars, pop-up labyrinths, ... what else might pop-up in London? Tokyo Bikes has already selling points in Australia and in Japan of course and they do want a permanent store in London from 2011 on.
In the meantime they opened a pop-up one near Whitechapel for one month to give the city the opportunity to get accustomed with their products.
I do like the design of their bikes. The colors are nice, the bikes are sober, and the handlebars retro. In a way I can't explain, the bikes look Scandinavian to me. It might be the colors, opposite to the suggesting of blingbling.
Problem with the Tokyo Bikes are the size of the wheels, a little smaller than the ones we are used to. It makes it not that simple to find other inner tubes; I wouldn't even know one shop which sells them...
One of the most exiting mass produced bikes nowadays in the shop is the KHS Flite 100. I do adore the golden-brown color of the frame in thin and elegant tubes. The genius of the design is the limitation to two colors that fit well together.
The Globe Roll 2 is designed in the same two color philosophy. The green is marvellous but I am not convinced about white handlebars and about the combination of that green and white. The colors refer to something different. The bike is nice though.
Difficult to say a wrong word about the Trek 2nd and 3rd District. They look awesome, and are developed in the same philosophy of the first District: combining retro and futuro elements.
The revolutionary characteristic of the first Trek District was however the belt that replaced the chain, like all bikes have. The belt was inspired by motorcross bikes.