【BIKE of the WEEK】Rim brakes are not dead

This week, we’re doing a bike check on a build everyone will envy.
The HUNTER CYCLES road frame we had listed as a stock frame here at Circles has found a new home.

As it turns out, the owner of this bike is Hosokawa-san from tade qui. He had been eyeing this frame for a while and decided to purchase it back in the spring when we hosted our first-ever tade qui POP UP at Circles. He built it up himself, swapping over parts he already owned, and since he brought it along to play at our WONDER HOPPER vol.1 event in October, we took the opportunity to snap some perfect shots—so let’s get right into the bike check!

When you think of HUNTER road bikes, you might recall the "Rough Rider"—a modern sportif style model. This bike follows the Rough Rider concept but is a pure road machine designed with a tapered head tube and carbon fork in mind. If we had to name it, maybe "Fast Rough Rider" would fit. And the fact that it's running rim brakes is just absolutely killer.

While disc brakes are taking over the road category, if you know how to ride, rim brakes are still perfectly fine—in fact, this is just the right amount of tech. That’s the kind of bike this is.

HUNTER’s iconic, sexy mono-stay rear end is, of course, present and accounted for; it’s enough to knock the socks off anyone, rider or bystander alike. When you hop on this thing, everything just clicks—it’s a bike that moves with such wonderful ease. Truth be told, I’m one of those people who was completely blown away by his work.

Everyone has their own criteria for what makes a "good" bike, but for me, this is certainly one. The bikes Rick builds are the ones that taught me, "This is really all a bicycle needs to be."

The components are SRAM’s 10-speed era Force. I love how he used his existing parts effectively here—it’s not meant to be a serious racer, and this setup is honestly plenty. It’s a clean, no-nonsense build that I could easily imagine Rick doing himself, which is exactly what I was thinking while taking these photos.

For a fast, rugged road bike, the wheels are hand-spoked with a combination of CHRIS KING R45 hubs and VELOCITY A23 rims. It’s a sturdy 32H build. The fact that he used PAUL COMPONENTS quick-release skewers just proves how Hosokawa-san doesn’t overlook a single detail. The more you look at the wheels, the more refined touches you find—like the radial lacing on the front and non-drive side rear, or the way the spoke colors change only at the valve holes.

For this tapered head tube frame, it was hard to decide on a fork, but we chose the WHISKY No.7 Tapered Road Fork because it follows the lines from the head tube so beautifully. From there, it was a natural choice to match the rest of the cockpit parts with WHISKY. The bars have a subtle 12-degree flare, and while the build is mostly monochrome, using BTP’s woven bar tape as an accent is a nice touch.

Hosokawa-san really enjoyed riding his HUNTER at WONDER HOPPER vol.1. The route this time was mostly paved, with some loose gravel sections like you see in the photos, making it the perfect bike for the job.

For bags, keeping it simple is key—if you’re using tade qui gear, you could go with the Cunningham Camera Bag or the 2hour Tripper. With that kind of lightweight setup, you can really enjoy long rides or just head out for a quick, breezy spin.

Oh, and for our 17th anniversary event next weekend, Hosokawa-san is preparing some special items from tade qui, so be sure to look forward to that. Keep an eye out for another blog post from Yanase-san with all the details!

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Take a look to get some inspiration for your own custom build.