Japanese bad bikes - a unique subculture (7 photos + 1 video)
28 March 2024
In Japan they love bicycles very much, so they modernize them beyond recognition. This subculture is called Decorachi (from the word decor). 
It even has its own canons, for example, the use of light plywood to form the body, chrome plating and as many lighting effects and displays as possible. 
Damn, this is cool! Like Fury Road, but on bikes
How long have the Japanese been at this? 
The more headlights, the better. I SAID MORE HEADLIGHTS
The decorative culture is not at all young; it began in the 1970s, when bicycles became more or less accessible to everyone. Because not everyone had cars back then, teenagers and young people, in order to stand out, began to decorate their bikes as brightly as possible.
By the way, the Japanese also tried to decorate trucks, like in Pakistan, but almost immediately went too far. They began to hang so many lanterns on them that it began to enrage other road users and the police, who raised the issue with the government.
And riotous decoration of trucks was prohibited. And the creative spirit wanted to escape!
Why is this thing on the front wheel? NECESSARY
Some of these decorated bicycles weigh more than 100 kilograms, so a battery can be built inside under the plywood body. At some point, the owner can no longer pedal with such weight.
Look how happy the guy was, he spent a long time collecting foil!
The decorating community has its own groups, meetings and races. They even compete with each other, imagining themselves as tough street gangs from Tokyo (as a joke, of course). They have appropriate names - cool ones, such as the All-Japan Gang of Kyokugenmaru and the All-Japan Fleet of Hisomaru.
Why decorators may die
And the reason for this... bike rental shops. Now that you don't have to own a bike to go anywhere, fewer and fewer teens want one.
Although they still ride bikes here, the girls are not at all embarrassed to cut their skirts
Because with a rental bike you can get where you need to go, leave your bike there, and go home by train.
And if the bike is not yours, but always rented, then there is no point in decorating it. So now in the subculture of decorators there are mainly more mature people who have been interested in this since their youth. But just twenty years ago this was a topic for young people.
Decorators from a five year old girl
I remember, as a child, we wound beautiful colored wire onto knitting needles. Even cataphotics were very rare, and if they were available - oh, we would have turned around!
