cross country bike tour with a fancy carbon bike?

[Caballero]

I’ve lived in Japan for coming up to 12 years, I ride and train 5-6 days a week regardless of weather conditions, have toured up to 300ks a day for 7-10 days at a time and from reading your ideas and expectations regarding what you’ll be carrying on the bike, available facilities and restaurants/convenience stores and your planned sleeping arrangements etc... you’re going to be severely unprepared.

First of all April is still quite cold in the mornings, after noon and at night - meaning you’ll need multiple layers of clothes for the changing conditions throughout the day. During this time of year the water temperatures of rivers/streams/lakes whatever are going to be COLD ! Not really a good idea to jump into a freezing lake in a cold day...

You’ll also find once you get out of the cities and into the more ‘rural’ areas of Japan you’ll have a hard time finding replacement parts like tubes/chains/tires whatever if you need them. It might be slightly easier than rural America but not easy by any stretch of the imagination and you could be in for a long walk. (Ask me how I know !)

Also once you get out of the city a few hours /hundred kms- depending on the season you’ll find that they’re basically uninhabited. For example if you go near a coastal sea side town which is usually bustling in the summer with thousands of tourists, in the off season (October ~ ) you’ll be hard pressed to find open restaurants / even hotels are closed etc...

I think you need to put more planning into appropriate clothing, sleeping arrangements, carrying 2-3 tubes, spare tire, chain, tools etc... + you’re going to need to charge your phone every few days.

Anyway if you make it through Osaka I’ll be more than happy to take you on a 2-3 day trip through the mountains Osaka / Nara /Kyoto /mini / Wakayama.

Great riding ! Good luck

[jr59]

Originally Posted by zmalwo

Guys, I'm about to head over to Japan and thinking about biking around Japan with a road bike. This would be my first time doing multiday rides involving sleeping outside etc... I don't have a fancy Ti touring bike or a touring bike at all but I do have 2 choices of bikes, a Steel colnago with campy mechanical and alloy wheels or a carbon bike with di2 and carbon wheels. Japan is a safe country so something like my bike being stolen while I go in to the convenience store is not a problem there. lack of rear end bag carry system means I would have to carry everything on my back. a top tube bag is not and option since I don't want neither the colnago nor the carbon one to get scratched. is it possible to do something like this on a road bike carrying everything in person? what are the options if I want to attach a luggage carrying system on a road bike? neither bikes fit 28mm tires so would my butt be pulverized?

Just buy a used trailer and tow your stuff. Sell it when you are done.
That way you can carry the stuff you will probably need/want. Most tow very nicely


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[sg8357]

The Japanese make the finest French touring bikes, you can buy one there.

Bicycle Quarterly has lots of articles on riding in Japan,
worth looking at. Lots of fun semi abandoned mountain passes to ride.
Pass Hunting looks like fun, but maybe not solo.


"Adventure is just bad planning" Roald Amundsen.

[weisan]

Cross country bike tour with a bike

Just do it!

[buddybikes]

First job in bike shop, 1973 - 2 guys I worked with did x country tour, east to west one riding an Atalla pro, all campy - the other Ralieigh international with front tubular. Said his tubular gave way 50 miles from Seattle...

[zmalwo]

Originally Posted by weisan

Cross country bike tour with a bike

Just do it!

Yesir! Must listen to Zhu Geliang!

[zmalwo]

Originally Posted by Caballero

I’ve lived in Japan for coming up to 12 years, I ride and train 5-6 days a week regardless of weather conditions, have toured up to 300ks a day for 7-10 days at a time and from reading your ideas and expectations regarding what you’ll be carrying on the bike, available facilities and restaurants/convenience stores and your planned sleeping arrangements etc... you’re going to be severely unprepared.

First of all April is still quite cold in the mornings, after noon and at night - meaning you’ll need multiple layers of clothes for the changing conditions throughout the day. During this time of year the water temperatures of rivers/streams/lakes whatever are going to be COLD ! Not really a good idea to jump into a freezing lake in a cold day...

You’ll also find once you get out of the cities and into the more ‘rural’ areas of Japan you’ll have a hard time finding replacement parts like tubes/chains/tires whatever if you need them. It might be slightly easier than rural America but not easy by any stretch of the imagination and you could be in for a long walk. (Ask me how I know !)

Also once you get out of the city a few hours /hundred kms- depending on the season you’ll find that they’re basically uninhabited. For example if you go near a coastal sea side town which is usually bustling in the summer with thousands of tourists, in the off season (October ~ ) you’ll be hard pressed to find open restaurants / even hotels are closed etc...

I think you need to put more planning into appropriate clothing, sleeping arrangements, carrying 2-3 tubes, spare tire, chain, tools etc... + you’re going to need to charge your phone every few days.

Anyway if you make it through Osaka I’ll be more than happy to take you on a 2-3 day trip through the mountains Osaka / Nara /Kyoto /mini / Wakayama.

Great riding ! Good luck

That'd be so awesome, pmed for details

[RFC]

Sounds like Philmont. 2002 during the drought and fires. Two showers -- before we started and at the end. Thank God I was sleeping in a one man tent.

Originally Posted by djg

I'm guessing from this that you're a fair bit younger than I am. Still . . .

I don't know what's acceptable (or legal) in Japan, much less what's comfortable (or tolerable) to you, but there's no way I'd sleep on park benches for 5 nights in a row, much less 10, if I could help it. I gladly did a 12-day mountain backpacking trip with the scouts in the summer of '17, and I'd do it again, but on hard ground or soft I wanted a pad between me and the ground, and benches don't seem more appealing to me. And you probably know that getting wet and cold is not actually safe. If you don't know for a fact that it's going to be mild AND dry, every day and night, I'd recommend a bivy sack, at least, and it's hard for me to picture this sort of trip without at least a lightweight sleeping bag or quilt. I'd also have a change of clothes -- at least a change of base layers.

If you are planning on riding through developed areas for much of the journey, do you plan to visit any sites of interest? You mention eating out -- can your family in Japan tell you what's required to be sort of basically/minimally presentable at places you mean to visit? How casual is casual in Japan? And what's the tolerance for downright filthy? I'm not trying to be contentious here -- just remembering how we came out of the mountains in NM -- we weren't really suitable for a diner in the American southwest without a shower and a change of clothes. Different trip, different place, and different conditions, but that's what I have in mind.

[RFC]

Originally Posted by zmalwo

Yesir! Must listen to Zhu Geliang!

I thought it was Gary Gilmore who said that.