Japanese Mamachari Bicycles Arrive in London

Mamachari bicycles are the family station wagons of Japan, they're the perfect bicycle for city cyclists, ridden by everyone – old/young, female/male, students, salary men, mothers, grandmothers and fathers in Japan. No other bicycle is better suited for cycling cities around the world.  But sadly Japanese bicycle manufacturers are reluctant to export their bicycles overseas leaving most of the world ignorant of the benefits this style of bicycle presents for the city cyclist.

In 2012 Noah Fisher established Mamachari Bicycles in London with a simple mission: to bring mamachari bicycles to the UK at affordable prices, for that is one of the main attractions of the mamachari here in Japan, its affordability.

First Shipment of Mamachari Bicycles on Display in London
Photo by : Kuba Nowak, www.dokument.co.uk
Having worked in the bicycle industry since 2001, the idea came to Noah during a conversation at his London workshop. A customer who had lived in Japan came to look at bikes and was shocked at how fancy and expensive the bikes were. ‘In Japan a normal city bike is cheap and built like a tank. Why doesn’t someone load up a container and bring them here?’.

Noah filed the idea away, but increasingly heard from customers who had spent time in Japan about the convenience and affordability of Japanese mamachari bicycles.  With their upright cycling position, and standard accessories such as baskets, racks, mudguards, mudguards, locks, chain guards and dynamo lights they seemed to Noah much more suitable to your average London based cyclist than the expensive sports style bicycles on offer from the major manufacturers.  After all the Dutch have been riding similar bicycles for a hundred years and look how cycling flourishes in the Netherlands.

Exploring the idea of importing bicycles from Japan he found the Japanese manufacturers unhelpful, but later discovered he was able to import refurbished second hand mamachari's by the container load after making the right contacts in Japan.

Mamachari Bicycles London owner, Noah Fisher
Photo by : Kuba Nowak, www.dokument.co.uk
The first shipment of mamachari bicycles has arrived on British shores, and Mamachari Bikes is open for business at 18 Ashwin Street, Dalston, London. They currently have over 400 bicycles in stock, and prices range from £100 for a simple single speed to £300 for a deluxe model which includes a front mounted child seat.

All their bicycles regardless of price come with standard accessories including mudguards, chainguards and lights at no additional cost. Repairs and parts are no problem either as Mamachari Bicycles offers an after sale bicycle repair service from their well stocked workshop.

If you're in London and want to experience a Japanese mamachari bicycle then I'd strongly recommend you pay a visit to Mamachari Bicycles London, and be one of the first in Britain to try a little piece of Japanese cycling style. I'm sure you'll be amazed at both the usefulness and affordability of the mamachari bicycle, after all, over 100 million owners in Japan can't be wrong!

Check the article Introducing the Mamachari Bicycle for more information about the features that make Japanese mamachari bicycles the perfect city bicycle.

Mamachari Bikes

18 Ashwin Street, Dalston, London E8 3DL

Phone: 0207 254 0080

Mobile: 07743 899 391

Email: contact@mamachari.co.uk

Homepage: http://www.mamachari.co.uk/

Opening hours:

Mon, Wed, Fri 08:00-18:00

Tues & Thur 08:00-19:00

Sat 12:00-18:00


  1. Haha! Rather stylish mamachari than Japanese ones?! Wonder if they can cope with the severe London traffic cos, unlike in Japan, you need to cycle on the driveway.

  2. Yeah, its always been my dream to open a Japanese bicycle shop in Los Angeles for the same reasons. But I am sure working with a Japanese supplier is so hard. I wonder if it would be easiest to start a bicycle shop in Japan to create a relationship with a supplier, and then get to a point where one could order a containers worth to ship to the states. Hmph. Either way, a lot of work involved. They do not make it easy.

  3. They don't have the basket on the front which IMO is the integral part of the mamachari. It's where we put our stuff - whatever it is that we are carting around. In the basket it is safe as there are no bags swinging dangerously from handlebars, plus there is no strain on the back as there is when lugging a　heavy backpack around whilst cycling.