I skipped the Itachari and made two Itasha instead - the Nissan March and recently the Nissan Dualis - but! The circle had to be complete so I recently made my road bike into a Mirai Suenaga Itachari.
An Itachari ] is the word to describe a bike that is decorated with moe 2D girls. The kanji 痛 (ita) when prefixed to an object usually means that its covered in 2D girl stickers. Examples are Itasha and Ita-curtain.
The "Chari" is a short form of "Chariot" which is a colloquial term to describe a bicycle. A bicycle used by a mother is called Mama-Chari for example.
The model is GIOS Leggero. I was told that the bike cost a bomb - the basic model alone retails for 388500 yen at Rakuten @.@
Yes - it fell from the ceiling ^^;;
Anyway, today we look at road biking and how to make an Itachari. First up - turn bike upside down like so and remove wheels. I removed both because I thought I was going to do both wheels but it seems that most folks only do the back - apparently having the front one done too could cause the bike to blow over in strong winds.
But why go out biking in strong winds anyway? ^^
Wheels are Shamal Ultra 2 Way - looks like they cost 123500 yen alone on Amazon Japan ><
Preparing image data on the computer. I've asked POPBOX in Asakusa to help me with the printing - all I do is give them the data in Illustrator format and they make the wheel cover.
If you dont have folks handy who can do this for you, you can just try using your printer at home too. What you print should then be covered in a plastic film which you should be able to pick up from a stationers.
And here is one I prepared earlier. You should be able to pick up sheets like this from a DIY store. In Japan you could go to Tokyu Hands.
The folks at Popbox now proceed to print the data that I sent them. You need not worry about the markings of where the screws go as they do all that.
The Mirai on the left of this sheet in Summer uniform will be the sloped side of the wheel meaning that a small slice needs to be cut off.
I didn't know this but if I did then I would have designed the wheel in a way so that the slice that gets chopped off does not affect the illustration - will show you what I mean further down the post.
The other side of the wheel (the side with the gears) is completely flat so no slices need to be cut off.
Picked up this DS-30 BLT Minoura stand from Amazon - will need it to display the Itachari at events such as ItaG Festa.
Illustration is by Japanese illustrator Hagure Yuuki-sensei. If you look closely at Mirai's arm, you will see that a slice has been taken out. You should design your wheel cover so that the slice is taken out of the background instead.
My first time making an Itachari and have gained much learnings. It's much obvious later on but we were designing just the wheels in Photoshop and Illustrator - should have taken into account the position of the bars which hold the wheel - at the moment they cover up Mirai so we should have designed this side with her facing backwards.
The person who gave me this bike replaced the parts with a load of highgrade bits n bobs - DURA-ACE 7900 series which seems to have cost a bomb ><
I've always loved Hagure Yuuki-sensei's artwork and was over the moon when he agreed to doodle Mirai-chan for us. You can see some of his work below in the eroge title Koikishi Purely Kiss.
Front light - if you dont turn it on during the night then be prepared to be stopped if a policeman sees you. The light was picked up from Amazon - really cheap at about 700 yen.
Dura-ace dual control levers. These alone cost 54546 yen ><
MiraiClock3 to keep me company during a ride - free for you iOS users and Android coming soon. Android is so much more difficult to program for which is why its taking a long time.
Retail price for this crankset cost 53898 yen. Have no idea why they cost an arm and leg.
The pedals alone cost money too! 23000 yen ^^
The person who gave me the bike literally high-graded everything! Brakes cost 31639 yen @.@
I usually leave bicycles outside the house but everybody understandably recommended me to leave this one inside^^; Not much space to put it though so made use of the Minoura Bike Tower 10 - 10830 yen.
And she's up and away - bottom rack waiting for my wife's road bike to be shipped from the UK she's going for Wiggle.
A lock for the bike also from Amazon for 1575 yen.
And here is that pump up close - Mini Morph from Amazon - 3431 yen.
Reached Tamagawa River a few kilos away from home. Photos taken in the same spot as the Cycling in Tokyo post.
I initially wanted to respray the frame orange but was told that to strip the paint and respray would cost about 200000 yen! I decided to convince myself that the blue matches Mirai's blue ribbon and that I should keep it as it is ^^;
And here is the Minoura iH-100M Phone Grip which I picked up from Amazon.
The iPhone can be mounted with its case still on - many other mounts require that you remove the case. The case I'm using is the Magpul.
A few companies have offered to make Mirai cases but I dont want to make anything that I would not use myself. The character cases I've seen offer no protection of the actual phone apart from scratch protection - I drop my phone all the time and need to make sure that it does not bite the dust. Will consider making some if the covers protect the phone from a drop.
The ZEFAL 472SPY Mirror - 1420 yen from Amazon.
Going back in time to see where I got the bike from. Tonight we are at the Good Smile Company offices.
And there it is!
As you have read, I have spinal hernia which means that my back is pretty much in constant pain. The Good Smile Company boss and comrade Aki Takanori was telling me about somebody who cured his spinal hernia after regularly exercising using a road bike. Then during dinner all of a sudden he said "Take my blue one - I dont use it" and I was like "WHAT?!"
This was back in February just after Wonder Festival. This was also the evening where we decided that we would work together to change the way Japanese language was taught - a few months later Moekana was released and due to the success it became the start of a series - the booster pack followed shortly and later on this year we have Moekanji.
I always look up to Aki-san - an inspiration of mine. Thank you for everything Aki-san!