[NEW STAFF] I'm Baki!

2026/2/2 山田大司

Nice to meet you. I joined Circles this New Year.
My real name is Taishi Yamada.

At my introduction I wanted to say “I'm stiff with nerves (gachi-gachi),” but what came out was “I'm baki-baki!”

On the spot, my nickname became Baki, ha

Self-introduction!

Without further ado, let me briefly tell you about myself and how I came to join!

Born in Nagoya and raised in Owariasahi, I grew up as a little kid who loved vehicles and moving my body.

Before I discovered bicycles I did track and field; the results change depending on your own fitness! It was around then that I came to love that kind of free feeling.

It was in high school that I got seriously into bikes.
It started with a cross bike I got for getting to school; the feeling of surging forward was such fun that I was hooked. Before I knew it I was doing things like riding through the night to Osaka.

From there, when I got an MTB I rode the mountains and got covered in mud, and when I built up a road bike I did hill climbs and entered races.
In any case, I spent my student days spinning the pedals like mad.

But keeping the pedals turning gets tiring, too, and when I'd gone a bit slack, it was Circles that blew in a fresh breeze.

Is there a frame that's fast~, fun~, and free enough to take onto dirt, too? It was the MASH Steel I ended up buying after that far-too-rough inquiry that was our first encounter.

The directness that surges you forward in stop-and-go city riding,
the generosity that takes dirt that suddenly appears on the riverbank in its stride,
and the liveliness that lets me do a trick when one pops into my head: I love them all.

That MASH is now my commuter to Circles.

I'd thought about nothing but turning the pedals fast, so the Circles style of enjoying not just the destination, of course, but the way there as well was full of new things for me.
I was strongly drawn to it, and before I knew it I was joining the team.

A long ride with “enjoying it” as the destination

Now, the other day, inspired by those senior colleagues, I went on a long ride. The goal: the Budokan concert of a rapper called Tsubaki.

There was just one rule: “enjoy it.”

For me, whose style had been to pedal flat out, everything was new.

When the dawn glow appeared, I watched until the sun came up;
when a diner that looked like it had some history caught my eye, I wandered in;
I went to a famous sauna in Shizuoka and took a leisurely break;
and I gazed at the town lights from partway up Hakone.

Having enjoyed myself so much that I ran out of time, I finished with the first train-with-bike trip of my life.

Although there was a clear destination in the Budokan, what stays with me in the end is the scenery along the way and the feeling of fun. The theme of “enjoying it” showed me all sorts of sights and values I had been overlooking.
From start to finish, it was fun the whole time...