Come Ride Kyushu With Us
Come Ride Kyushu With Us
The fall ride film is up. Watch it here.
Kyushu, fall 2026. Coast roads with the ocean sitting right there on one side. Mountains. A cave. A lighthouse. Food in small places where nobody is filming anything. Old motorcycles and good friends. No script and no production, because that is not what the ride is.
It is the closest I can get you to what Japan actually feels like to me.
Oita
I ride in Oita every spring and every fall. It is the same group of friends every time. I met them on my first trip to Japan about ten years ago and we have been riding together ever since. We do not share much language. We have never once needed to.
The bikes come out of Freeway, the custom motorcycle shop in Oita that has been open since 1986. BJ is the master builder there, and the machines he makes are the reason these rides are what they are. My own bike at home is a 1948 Panhead, so you can guess what I am happy on.
What is in it
A day on the road, and then another one. The roads along the water are the ones I think about when I am back in Seattle. The mountain sections are tighter and colder and the light comes through the trees in pieces. We stop and eat. We stand around the bikes. Somebody takes a wrong turn and nobody minds.
The film is unfiltered on purpose. Just the road, the machines, the places, and the people who make it worth riding.
Why I put it out
A lot of what I make comes out of Japan, and most people only ever see the finished piece hanging on a hook. The country is not a line on a label to me. It is friendships that have run a decade, roads I keep going back to, and a shop in Oita where somebody is still making machines one at a time because that is what he decided to do with his life.
So here it is. Japan, a little closer.
Come into the studio, October 31
We are doing a pop in at the studio. This is rare. It is a chance to come in, see the designs in person, put your hands on the cloth, try on the piece you have been thinking about for a year, and take it home that day.
Saturday, October 31, from 12:30pm to 3pm.
We are also releasing our second honey with The French Beekeeper that day. This run goes to the pop in first, and only there to start.
You have to be on the invite list to come. Email Quentin at quentin@blackbearbrand.com to get on the list and get the directions.
The holiday COMMANDER preorder, October 27
The holiday preorder for the two COMMANDER jackets opens at 8am Pacific on Tuesday, October 27. The Rough-RIDER COMMANDER in natural horsehide roughout, and the COMMANDER in black charcoal horsehide roughout.
Horsehide tanned by Horween for Black Bear Brand, around 3 to 4oz, which moves a little the way every hide does. Roughout, worn raw side out with the finished side in, which is why there is no lining in it at all. Custom Black Bear Brand YKK snaps. Made in the USA. X-Small through XXX-Large. The natural inconsistencies in the hide mean no two come out the same.
Roughout, rough out and rough-out all mean the same thing, and COMMANDER is what people call the shape. These sell in set preorder windows only, three or four times a year, and this is the holiday one.
Your turn
Watch the film and tell me which road you would want to ride. Write me. I read them all.
Have a nice day. I mean that.
josh
WATCH
Japan, BLACK BEAR BRAND, fall 2026 ride
SHOP THE STORY
The Rough-RIDER COMMANDER Natural Horsehide Roughout Over-Shirt
The COMMANDER BLACK CHARCOAL Horsehide Roughout Over-Shirt
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