This time, I introduce Holks which is the original brand of Yokoo. Holks racer had been a longing brand to me who was a cycle-sports-magazine-boy. I was so surprised when I saw the advertisements in Cycle sports magazine and New Cycling magazine which were issued in the September of 1972 which I bought for the first time. Since the price was 190,000 yen!

The catalog was issued around 1965. If you can find out where and when the photograph was taken, you must be a veteran cyclist.

The catalog was offered by Mr. Delinquent middle age.

Here is the front cover of the catalog Holks R series. The photo was taken in the Individual road-race of Tokyo Olympic in 1964. The slope must be Takatsuki.

Individual road-race was held through the 194.8 km course of Hachiogi suburb. Athlete Ohmiya who was Japanese expectation had fought well, had kept him at the head proton and went up to the 4th place, eventually ranked 37th.

"Photo: Velo club Tokyo" was printed on the bottom right. It was published by Yokoo Sorinkan Velo Club Tokyo after the Olympic as a photo book of the bicycle competition which was a special number of the club bulletin; the title was "Tokyo Olympics 1964".

Holks R-special was the highest grade bicycle of those days. It was equipped with Campagnolo group-set. However, Campagnolo didn't produce brake yet. Therefore Universal Super 68 center-pull brakes were used for the bicycle. The stem and handlebar must be Ambrosio. Nitto Dynamic seemed to imitate the design of this stem.

The rear derailleur was so-called Iron-Reco. The front derailleur seemed to be a previous model of so-called "three-points-protruding-navel", which needed an outer cable. The Chain-wheel was Record that minimum size was 44-T. The saddle was Brooks of course.
The lug-less frame which didn't have direct-attached works was Toei? It truly looks like a pure Italian road-racing model of those days.

Holks R-popular was composed of domestic parts of those days completely.
The derailleur was Suntour competition? The chain-wheel was Sugino Pro-Dynamic Compe. The brakes were Yoshigai (Dia- Weinmann) 500 side-pull model. What's the hub? Was it Sankosha? The saddle might have been Fujita seamless.
In spite of full domestic products model, we can still feel an intrepid atmosphere from the bicycle. It was worthy of Holks.

This was a sports model which was equipped with 27 inch WO tires. The grade was almost same as R-popular.
The brakes were Yoshigai (Dia- Weinmann) 610 center-pull model. The chain-wheel was Sugino Pro-Dynamic cottered model. The derailleur was Simplex prestige set. However, the rear derailleur was attached to the bracket, not to the direct-attached end.

This was so-called club-model type. The mudguard was fixed by the ornamental hairpin type (Kanzashi-stick type) stays.
The wheel looks small and wide a bit. Therefore it must have been 26*1-1/4.
The rear derailleur was Suntour Competition (or might have been low-normal model Grand-prix?). The brake was Yoshigai (DIA- Weinmann) 750 center-pull model.
As for the chain-wheel, the close ratio is nostalgic.