〈Ride and Talk〉枯白の工房でお話会 ゲスト：AYABIKES 赤松綾さん (姫路の自転車工房)前編
It’s been exactly a year since we moved here, and this spring will be exactly one year. We had made the effort to move to a new place, and I was thinking about opening it up a bit, and Aya and I were thinking about holding an event around spring, so that coincided. Also, we’d always been working on creating things ourselves, and we’d always been focused on creating, but when I was little, I wanted to open up the art of hanging out a bit more, and there was a book called “Creating Your Own Work” that had a huge influence on me. For example, there ‘s a man named Ishimura from Kurumi no Ki in Nara, and he writes about how he’s done things up until now, and I found that to be a really useful reference for me. While I was driving my light truck, I suddenly thought that it would be nice to be able to send out such messages. The next day was the day I was meeting Aya, so I thought I would discuss with her whether it would be okay to plan something like that. The next day, I met Aya and asked her, “Aya, what do you think about a talk session?” and she said, “Sounds great.” So I thought that this was the flow of things, and since we also do ride events, I would like to continue in that vein, so today I would like to dig a little deeper into Aya. That’s about it, but today’s guest is Aya. [Applause] Today, How can I put it, I know so much about Aya that I could write a Wikipedia entry about her, so if I may proceed by explaining a little about her, please, please, how about it, san? Like, do you have a meeting like this? Is that okay? Oh, it’s fine, it felt natural right from the very beginning, it’s not the first time, but I don’t think we’ll talk slowly or anything, really , yes , I think you all probably know more about Aya than I do, but we’ve known each other since 3 or 4 years ago, and as I’ve listened to her stories, there are all kinds of interesting stories, but I didn’t know how they were all connected, so I’ve been really interested in her and so I would like to introduce them to you today, that’s right, let’s dig a little deeper, so let’s get started right away, please, please, please, thank you, san’s tennis days , we’ll start here, before your tennis days, Aya, let’s start from your kindergarten days, kindergarten days! It goes back a long way. What did you want to be when you were in kindergarten ? Well , at first I wanted to be a police officer , and that was something I had for quite a long time, but why did I start with the police? Well, I don’t remember, because I was in kindergarten so I don’t know why I wanted to do it , but I don’t want to be a firefighter or a member of the Self-Defense Forces or anything like that, but at the time I think I wanted to be a police officer. And then you start playing tennis , right? What prompted that? I started swimming and gymnastics, and my dad was a tennis player and went to the Inter-High School Championships or something, and there was a tennis school called Noah Instage nearby, so I went there just to try it out, and it was fun from then on, so I continued. So I tried it out of curiosity, yes. I started with that kind of light-hearted feeling. By the way, I probably should have made a question time today, but when the questions are decided, I would like everyone to be as frank as possible. Are you a first grader? First grade. This is Aya-san. I don’t know which one I am. This is something I pulled from the internet. Where did I get this from? This is something like a SimWorks blog. I thought I would do about four slides today, but when I searched Aya-san’s name, a lot of pictures came up, and when I looked on Instagram, I saw that she had been there for quite a while. We started in 2016, but Aya started in 2014, so we can go back quite a bit in time and there are a few more photos. This is how I played tennis. When I was in junior high school, I went to Australia to study tennis by myself. I was thinking about what time I should use for my summer holidays and when I wanted to go somewhere, I searched for something and I happened to find a Japanese wife and her Australian husband in Australia who were accepting students for tennis study abroad. So I searched for it myself, contacted them on my own, and applied in English without telling my mom. I applied in English and asked her about how much it would cost to study abroad and when I got the documents, my mom said, Aya, you want to go too. I looked into it and she said, “If you’ve gone that far, you can go to Australia, too.” I looked up all the information myself and she said, “You can go to Australia if you’ve gone that far.” I looked up all the information myself and she said, “You can go to Australia if you’ve gone there.” I looked up all the information myself and found out how much it would cost and she went to get your passport with you and I studied in Australia for about two weeks. The next year was fun so I asked her to go again . So I went for two years in a row and they had several Japanese exchange students there so I didn’t have much trouble with English . Really? Elementary school students also came. He continued playing tennis not only in junior high school, but also in high school and university . He continued playing tennis until university , but tennis was too tough… Tennis was pretty tough, and practicing every day was hard and tiring, and practice was tough. I hated practicing in the first place (laughs). At this time, did you have the idea of being a police officer somewhere in your mind? Well, you had it in mind… Well, you thought about getting a job? Yes, but then you moved on to cycling, so from then on, the idea of being a police officer disappeared. Around this time , I quit my sports recommendation and wanted to become a police officer, so I thought I would go to a different university, but I started cycling at that time, so I was still a police officer. Yes, a university in Hyogo? Yes, a university in Hyogo. Why did you find a bicycle? Let’s dig deeper into that, shall we? It’s where he awakened to cycling. From that point on, his life was dominated by cycling. That’s right, this was when he was a vocational school student. That’s right, I don’t know if this is Natsu from Love Lug, but anyway, that’s when he got into cycling and has participated in various races such as triathlons, hill climbs and road races . That’s when he first quit tennis and was interested in triathlons since he was playing tennis and thought he wanted to do one someday . So when he quit tennis, he thought he had no choice but to do triathlons, so he thought cycling would be the answer. That’s right, from there he started working part-time at ASAHI, thinking that it would be nice to be able to ride around town and also to enter a few triathlons . He also started cycling, and from there he became more and more addicted and participated in various races such as mountain biking and cyclocross. So he wanted to do triathlons, and what about cycling? And marathons? And swimming? That’s right. Swimming, swimming, biking. Of those, only biking remained . The reason why I quit triathlon was because the entry fee was so abnormally high, and I normally had to pay 15,000 to 20,000 yen. As expected, the cost was a bit tough for a university student , so I quit, or rather, that’s the reason why it’s a bit tough, but it wasn’t easy, and instead, I was into hill climbs and races like that… Yes, it wasn’t that expensive, so I tried it a few times just out of curiosity, I guess. I tried everything, so I bought my first road bike . I bought a road bike, and the second one started triathlon, so I bought a carbon bike, a carbon frame , a carbon frame is light, it’s pretty light, but it’s a little expensive, yes. It’s pretty expensive, it’s a serious mode bike, there wasn’t a single person here today, basically that bike is either iron? It’s iron. Or aluminum, so it’s lighter , and when I bought the carbon bike, I was getting serious about it, yes, when I bought the carbon bike, I was getting pretty serious about it, that was when I was a university student, yes , around the third or fourth year of university, did you know anyone who rode a bike like that around you? No, there weren’t any, so… when I was a university student, I was told that it was fine, that classmate, right? Why a bicycle? I was like, what am I doing? So I was a bit of an oddball. But what was it that was fun for you that allowed you to go that far? You can do it alone. It’s true that cycling alone means you can ride at your own speed at any time you want, and I think that’s one good thing about it, but I also thought it would be good to get my body moving. When I got my second bike, I wanted a bike that suited my body… Yes. So when I bought those first and second bikes, 10 years ago, before “Yowamushi Pedal” became popular, it was like the bikes in the manga, where short people like 150cm or 155cm were easy to ride and had good designs, and there weren’t many of them. I wasn’t really satisfied with the design, so I was looking through a lot of magazines and I found a Cycle Design College in Tokyo that said you could make your own bike from scratch, and I went to that college because I wanted to try making a bike myself, or rather, I could make one myself. I went to that school out of curiosity , and I entered races, and from then on I raced on bikes I’d made myself? At that time, I was not there yet. I still went to college, but I moved to a vocational school and then went there. I’ll go back to my time in Tokyo. Did you overcome your parents’ objections? Yes, I’ve forgotten how much they opposed me, but they told me, “If you really want to do it, then you should go,” so I went. Tokyo Cycle… This is something I made at the time at the vocational school for bicycles. It’s beautiful, isn’t it? Yes, in Shibuya, there is a school called Hiko Mizuno near Cat Street between Harajuku and Shibuya, and this school is affiliated with that school, or rather, it is the bicycle department of the school, but it is also close to Aoyama. Ah, so I held my graduation exhibition at Spiral. Oh really? Yes, I know Spiral. It’s a yellow bicycle. It’s a Spiral, and it ‘s amazing. I’d like to rent it out for myself. Yes , did you think bicycles were that big and wanted to make one? Yes, this is what I made at that time. My mother rides it now, and it was a present for her. Yes, it’s basically a mother’s bike. Now I put a basket on it and it ‘s just a bike to go to the nearby River City (shopping mall). What is this? This is a Rapha event. This is Rapha’s Women’s 100. Yes, is this Hokkaido? Nagano? This is the Yatsugatake Mountains and this is Chiba. Ah, that’s right. I went to this… That’s right. I went to a vocational school in Tokyo but didn’t do anything, or rather I thought I should just get a part – time job or something. But then I went to cycling, so rather than working for Asahi or something, I thought I’d like to work somewhere where I could be more involved with cycling, so I interviewed at Bluela first. I was rejected . The reason is that places like that are quite well put together from the beginning so it’s difficult, or rather they don’t take vocational students in the first place, so I gave up for a while and started looking around. Then I went to a Rapha event and the president of Rapha happened to be there. I told him about myself and he asked me if I wanted to come to Tokyo to cycle and work there because Rapha Tokyo was opening. So I went to various events and ended up working at cyclocross, and from there my network expanded quite a bit. It seems that due to Rapha’s influence, he also started doing cyclocross. らファミコンが登場したズにかわりまして クロイチャを売りたい方にオススメは English: Rapha’s influence is quite big , so if I hadn’t been invited here I might not have appeared in many events, so I don’t know, but the decision to go there was quite good. I ‘m really glad I went at the time. And the fact that I was able to work at Rapha was also a result of participating in this. I’m not very familiar with Rapha , but it’s a bicycle wear brand , and it’s an Ikiris brand. Why is it so popular? Cycle wear has a kind of patterned design that can be a little awkward in everyday life, but Rapha is a fairly simple, short, color-matched outfit that is stylish and cool. It was a pioneering brand, and it even had a cafe on site and was one of the things that created a community, so it was quite rare at the time. I think it was quite rare . Yes, the combination of cafe and clothing, not just bicycles but clothing as well, was also there, and they had live events and all sorts of things . By the way, do you all know Rapha? Sorry (laughs) this is my graduation project that I made around that time . This is the one I was talking about earlier. I exhibited this at Spiral and it was well-received, so much so that I was told at the time to go independent. It’s amazing, it’s definitely the most usable bicycle. Among the graduation project exhibits, wow, isn’t this one? It’s all welded and made, isn’t it? Yes, the framework is made. As for the parts, I ordered them, but the framework and so on were properly made. Does that mean AYABIKES was already around at this time? Were there no other names already in existence? Yes, about two people asked me to make one during university. That’s where the name came from, right? This is it, right? It was made while she was still a student. She was 152cm tall, so it was made with 650C, and normally it would be a little higher and look quite like this, but it was made so beautifully that it was almost a 700C, and I get the impression that it was made so beautifully. It seems that this is a bike made here for women , and at the same time, they also make bikes for bicycle races. What’s amazing is Aya, who has won quite a few races and always been on the podium. Around this age, she was a member of Circles, and this jersey is , right? At that age, they basically wore the jersey of the team they were wearing, so what is this? This is the shop that I used to use in Chiba.What were you doing here? You were part of a team here, and you were part of a cyclocross team, and it’s a bicycle shop that does things like maintenance and handmade products, so I was able to train here for a while.I’m slowly getting closer to being a bicycle shop, yes, Aya, this in the middle is here , and yes, this is a race held in Kansai, held in Tondabayashi and Osaka in the Kansai region, and they already look strong, so what does it mean that they’ve secured a good position? This is like F1 where you can choose in order of ranking , so to begin with, are they some kind of thoroughbred ? (laughs) This is called cyclocross, yes, this is cyclocross and this is bikelore, but what is bikelore? It ‘s a cultural festival for adults, a sports day, and with cyclocross as the base, you can dress up, wear denim, ride on a ha bike, ride tandem, and ride a little more leisurely with cyclocross as the base, for both adults and children , and that’s all I’m serious about, this is serious stuff, this is Aya (1st place). Now let’s move on to the glorious days of Circles, but before that you went to Giant… That’s right, when you were in Tokyo… Yes, you first got a job at Giant, but after 11 months you quit and moved to Circles. Why did you quit? You first got a job at Giant, but you were assigned to Nagoya, and when you got to Nagoya, you went to introduce yourself to the circle, and it seems that the president of the circle, Mr. Tanaka, had been wanting to recruit you from that time, and he slowly drew you in. About six months later, around the summer, they asked me if I would like to race on a frame they made, and from there they started recruiting me and I ended up fully involved with Circles. But I was at Giant and got told off; I had a bike from another company and I was told by someone that I wanted to race and get on the podium, and they told me that that wasn’t possible at our company, so I kind of made a bit of a mistake and so I was sent to Tokyo, and they remembered that I was in Nagoya , and I was about to be demoted to Tokyo, but I thought that if I was going to go to Tokyo, I wanted to study at a club, and for some reason I was sent to Nagoya. Yes , if I had stayed in Tokyo, things wouldn’t have been different, but I happened to go to Nagoya , and Tanaka-san already seemed to know me, and so I really wanted to be a part of the team, so it took a lot of time and it ‘s amazing. I think it was because of my race results, and also because I was able to touch and make bikes and ride them, so Circles was in its 10s at the time. In the years that they’ve been doing it, there’s never been a woman in the bicycle shop department, so they wanted to get away from that awkwardness somehow , and there were a lot of factors that made it different if a woman was there, and so they decided to join Circles, and that’s where they ended up. I see, the reason they went from Tokyo to Nagoya wasn’t to go to Circles, but rather to Giant to have a Nagoya perspective, so I guess that’s why it ended up feeling like Giant was just doing it. After they sent them to Nagoya, Circles did a lot of different things, right ? It was an event held in Hokkaido for women only, called Ride A Live, which was a little bit of a women-only thing called cycling, camping and hiking, and it was the first time that it was planned and tried out, and it was a little bit of a women-only thing. Aya was one of the planners, and I also led the ride and did various things, so as for the mechanics, I think it was really interesting, it was like a blast of girl talk, which isn’t something that’s done very often with only women, so it would be really fresh and if we could do it in Himeji , it would be great. I’m really excited about it, and I was thinking that maybe they could call on Circles and such, to encourage cooperation, or something. Since it’s Himeji, it has to be Himeji, so… Himeji! Princess RideIf we put that aside, the men might not keep quiet either.I want them to do a guys’ ride too.Everyone has already done the guys’ ride, so I guess that was quite a challenge.Sending the bicycles by plane is something I think is quite difficult for women, and it’s a little hard to do with just one or two people, but if there is an opportunity like this, then yes , we should do it.And yet they are riding quite a lot, they are riding quite a lot, and they have a strong desire to reach the top.While they were preparing and riding, there were quite a few freshers at the time, and they basically supported us with all the equipment.Do you mean Circles’ equipment? That’s right, Circles, or rather bike equipment and clothing, were basically supported by Tanaka-san, or rather the whole circle, we wore SimWorks clothing for the time being , but it was called Shima Race, so if we wore that and lost, well, we were under a lot of pressure because we received a lot of support . Tanaka-san, who is also on TV, has a YouTube channel, and when I watched it, he was really funny, and many different people watched several episodes, and Masayan-san was also on it. He was active like that around 5 years ago, and he was certainly a very interesting person, and he appeared in an event called Morimichi Market in Nagoya , and Aya-san also participated in the talk show. It feels like you’ve had a lot of different experiences, right?Yes, the World Championships are coming up next, and this, too, was the catalyst for Tanaka-san and Circles, right?That year, I had the chance to go out into the world , and all of the bikes shown here were custom-made, and we decided to order a custom-made bike from Seven in America, and it was all full components and cost about 1 million yen.Is that excluding the bike?Does it include the bike?Just the bike alone is 1 million yenYes, that’s the world of bikes.Yes, I just got it back and have it on display in the shop.What is that? Tanaka brought it to me as a kind of farewell gift.The other day it was just the frame, but it was an amazing gift.Yes, it was probably a celebration for opening the shop.Yes , hey, here , here , yes , he’s almost not in the picture, no, he’s not in the picture, but I think you can get the idea of what it was like.He ‘s in the World Championships here, where is he? He was in the last row.His body size is the same, isn’t it? The World Cup, right? This World ChampionshipThis World ChampionshipYes , the World Championship is…SwitzerlandThe World Cup is in the NetherlandsYes, I think he was second in the Japanese national team around that time? That’s right, I came second in the All Japan Championships, and because of that I was able to participate. That’s right , the top three are all Dutch? Everyone is Dutch. It’s the home of the Dutch . Were you nervous? I don’t really remember being nervous, it was so hard, it felt like a cliff and I was climbing up easily, but once you get to the top, is it something you don’t get in Japan? I’m sure no one will be able to get down, the course is so showy, this is an air force base, and if they use a field like this, it’s bumpy here too, and of course this will be broadcast all over the world .
枯白の工房を拠点に、ライドイベントとお話会を開催しました。
参加者の皆さんと夢前町山之内の自然の中を自転車で散策し、その後工房でお話会。
AYABIKES 赤松綾さんのストーリーを綴ります
聞き手は枯白の乾 喬彰
動画の続き、後編はこちら
＊音声が聞き取りにくい箇所もありますので字幕と合わせてご覧ください
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AYABIKES ほっとステーション(Youtube)
https://www.youtube.com/@ayabikes
AYABIKES instagram
https://www.instagram.com/aya_bikes/
お話の中で話題に上がった方々：
Circles
Sim Works
まさやん（西川 昌徳）
https://www.instagram.com/earthride.jp/
とかなんとか(podcast)
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枯白チャンネル登録はこちら
https://x.gd/FLWGd
instagram
https://www.instagram.com/koku_products
ホームページ
https://www.kokuproducts.com
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0:00 はじめに
2:53 テニス時代
8:25 自転車への目覚め
13:42 東京時代
23:08 Circles時代
30:09 世界戦
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