My Japanese Motorcycling Adventure

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 21:20:29 +1000

I thought it’s about time that I wrote this up before I start forgetting things. Not that it would be very likely that I would forget my first overseas motorcycling experience…!

It was January 26, some mates & I had been in Japan for nearly a couple of weeks, mainly for snowboarding - but I have taken onboard the idea that there’s no point in going to another country unless I can ride a motorbike there. Right? So that’s what we had planned for, just a one day (24 hours) motorcycle hire. The guys had done QRide back in November/December and got their international licenses sorted just in time before we left.

I had a fair idea of what to expect riding in Japan in winter - one year when I rode to the Phillip Island MotoGP we went over Threadbo. I had no idea what to expect then (riding over Threadbo that year was also the first time I had seen snow) and just kept my summer gloves on. I had to stop part way and put some winter gloves on, I’m not sure if taking the gloves off was worse than just leaving them (it sure felt like it), but after that I knew all about riding in the cold and came prepared. Thermals, winter gloves and rain gear to put over my jacket to cut out the wind. I kept asking the other guys if they had thermals, etc. “oh yeah, no worries - it’ll be fine, etc…” To some people it may seem a bit daft to plan a snowboarding and motorcycling trip both in the same country and at the same time of year, but to me the excitement of riding in a foreign country on some famous roads far outweighed the fact that I’d be a bit cold.

(Pardon this photo, it was actually a quick iPhone snap after we’d returned the bikes and were very relieved that the adventure had been completed successfully.)

Most shops don’t open until 10am around Japan, so there was no point in rushing. We made our way to Motorcycle SCS (the rental shop) and by the time we’d all done the paperwork it was close to 11am and we were ready to get on our way. I had an FZ1, the other guys had an ER-4n and a Gladius 400. They were swapping around because the ER-6n and Gladius are two bikes they’re interested in - they figured the Japanese 400cc versions would at least give them an idea of what their Australian counterparts would be like. One of the rental conditions was that at least one person in the group must be able to understand spoken and written Japanese. You’d think that it would be pretty easy to get around if you have Google Maps, but it wasn’t quite so straightforward.

We pulled out into the morning traffic and I hung back to make sure that the guys were going alright, plus Sciclone (I’ll use their online aliases in case they want to remain anonymous) was the main man - he knew where we were going, and he was the one who understands Japanese. We were heading onto the expressway, the idea was that we would make a quick stop at a shop that sold a bunch of different performance bike parts & pieces, then head up to Hakone (a famous drifting road) and Izu Skyline, and eat some black eggs. Within a few minutes I was separated from the others by a truck and a car - “no worries” I thought, I’d just catch them up at the next set of lights. What I didn’t know was that the raised overhead road that was running parallel to the road were were on was the expressway that we needed. That next set of lights didn’t come - and the next time I caught a glimpse of the guys they had turned off and were heading to a toll booth while I sailed by. CRAP! So 15 minutes into the ride and I’d already got myself lost. Thoughts of me wandering around lost and ruining the whole day came into my mind, but I wasn’t too keen on that so I thought I’d just go around the block (or two or three) and get back on the one-way road and take that onramp and catch up with the guys. (I didn’t have any way to contact them either, which is something I’ll think about for next time…) Thankfully my sense of direction is fairly reasonable, combined with the fact that it was easy to spot the raised expressway - I went past the hire shop and knew where I was. I took the exit and asked the man at the toll booth if two bikes had gone by - “yep” he said, big relief. I paid my ¥900 toll and the guys had stopped not too far down the expressway. *phew* Okay - from then on we stuck together like conjoined triplets.

The first thing that struck me around riding in Japan was that the speed limits really seemed to be something like a guideline. On the expressway I kept seeing all these signs that said “80” and we all guessed that was the speed limit - but there would be cars, trucks, maxi scooters and everything in-between passing us at closer to 100, so we just kind of went with the flow. We hadn’t even gone very far and there was another toll. Then another toll. This one really confounded me, but maybe we confused it because we all stopped close together near the booth. It was an automated thing, Sciclone took a ticket and went through - but Dark and myself were still sitting there waiting to take our tickets… which never came. Confused and cold, we just went through and pulled into a rest stop about 100m away. A quick bite to eat and a mystery energy drink that kept fizzing every time I opened it over the next 6 hours, Sciclone checked his directions with someone and we were on our way again.

Obligatory peace signs - when in an Asian country, do as Asians do in Australia.

After getting confused at the last toll booth that was 100m behind us, we were immediately faced with the same situation again while gearing up. Which lane…?

We took the 2nd from left option.

Thankfully this one had a manned booth and we sorted out our little mess. The way it works is you just take a ticket and present it at the next booth where you pay. At least we got one ticket, so we just paid 3x that amount. By now Sciclone had taken over the toll booth duties and was just paying for all of us, I think the whole day cost each of us around $40 in tolls.

From here the expressway kind of ran out… traffic got really heavy and we were sitting alot and moving very slowly. We thought about splitting, but I wasn’t sure how confident the other guys would be, and definitely didn’t want to get separated again. Eventually we took our next turn - but we missed the turn off to the bike parts shop. Ahwell - we figured that time was getting on, so we decided to ditch all this city traffic and head off to Hakone. The expressways are fine - but eventually it just ran into a normal suburban area and then it was slow going again. It was 60km/h for a little while, but then it went to single lanes each direction and 40km/h. It seems like Japan is just so built up everywhere, there wasn’t really anywhere that we “got out of town” and onto a real stretch of open highway like we’re used to in Australia. Around Nagano where we were snowboarding it is not as built up, there’s alot of agriculture industry, and I suppose we didn’t really try and venture too far away from the city areas, but it’s easy to think that all of Japan looks like this:

Or at least the city of Tokyo is very large, you’d have to spend a lot of time on the roads to get away from all of this…

By around 2pm we stopped at KFC for some lunch, by this time we figured we only had about 20-30km to go until Hakone. But it was still slow going, 40km/h in a quiet two lane suburban street. After some further dramas involving Dark skidding to a stop and nearly running into Sciclone, and Sciclone nearly running into the back of a car on a railway crossing, we were only minutes away from Hakone. There is another toll booth at the bottom of Hakone, the man here told us that there was no black ice, but to be careful of the water on the road. No worries - I can handle water. ¥500 to ride this famous road - I could handle that as well.

It was starting to get dark, so we headed off after some quick photos. I think Dark wanted to take the FZ1 for a squirt, but that didn’t happen since the guys were still on their P’s and it was over $1,000 excess for the big bikes (I think the smaller bikes had an excess of a bit over $500).

The bikes were very, very clean - I think the ER-4n had the most use on it at around 7,000km.

The FZ1 was practically new, only 3,700km when I picked it up - love it! :mrgreen: Very impressed with the Motorcycle SCS rental service. Most rental shops in Japan have daily travel limits - nothing like that with SCS. More on the FZ1 riding impressions later.

The speed limit was 50km/h on the whole mountain, not sure if that was maybe just changed for winter? But after seeing how everyone else drives on the expressways, I saw 50km/h and thought “yeah, right…”

Going up from the bottom of the mountain it almost looked like every other mountain road, aside from alot of snow on the sides… I was taking it pretty easy, mainly because I was unsure about the limits in near 0º (or it may have been lower?) temperatures. But then I came around on corner and saw it and said to myself “Oh… wow….” It was a big open right hand sweeper, and to top it off the corner was banked! The single best mountain corner I have, or probably ever will see.

I didn’t actually ride that corner on the way up, I pulled off into a rest area to take some photos of it.

There was not much other traffic at all - it’s a shame that we ended up getting there so late, because I would have liked to have a bit of a play there. But it was getting colder and darker, so we pushed on to the top. I was testing out the FZ1 and stretching it’s legs on the straights, so the other guys were a bit behind. They were being sensible and taking it easy, being careful on the wet road. Even though we’d been told there was no black ice, they weren’t convinced and they were still on the looking for that as well. I just trusted the guy at the toll booth and put any thoughts of black ice out of my mind. There was a great view at one spot as the sun had started to go down, but the rest area was under 4ft of snow, so I thought I’d just pull up on the side and snap some quick photos. That wasn’t such a good idea because while the side of the road just looked a bit snowy, it was actually mostly icy. I came onto it at about 20km/h, but had a medium-large “oh crap” moment as they tyres started slipping and sliding - but I kept it up and just parked it. I didn’t take any photos, instead I went on the lookout for the other guys and waved them on in case they saw me parked and decided to test their own luck riding on ice… But all’s well - I rode on ice and I survived! Anyway, this is what foreign motorcycling adventures are all about - trying different things and experiencing something new, right?

Coming up to the top of the mountain we spotted a truck with a shovel on the front coming back down - he was just ramming the ice banks on the left side of the road, looked like he was having good fun. The road narrowed to one lane, snow (or more likely probably ice banks) on both sides. We reached the top and parked very carefully since now there was a fair bit of “not-quite-so-black ice” on the ground in the parking areas. We were running around with all our gear on trying to take some photos and get back down before it was dark. It was a fantastic spot, it would be brilliant in summer…

How good would it be in summer - spend a bit of time playing around on the mountain, then come up to the cafe and sit back looking out over Mt Fuji.

Well that was it - time to head back down. We all made it to the bottom okay and and the man at the toll booth asked us how the conditions where - “all good, no worries!” Back into the suburban 40km/h crawl, we pulled off soon for some dinner at Yoshinoya. They’re the largest beef bowl (gyudon) restaurant chain, a good place to thaw out for a bit. One great thing about Japan is that food is really cheap compared to what we’re used to. A big bowl of gyudon can be had for about ¥400 (under $5)!

It was about now that the guys looked like they were really starting to feel the cold… I think that Dark had thermals, or at least a few layers on - but Sciclone only had a pair of jeans, with boardies underneath as his extra layer. At least the jacket he borrowed from me had an extra winter liner. But I have never seen someones face looking quite that shade of purple and blue. He didn’t complain too much about it though, and he still wanted to head to the Daikoku Parking Area, which is a night time meeting spot for modified vehicle enthusiasts. It seemed like Dark had the same idea as me, which was just to get back to our hotel ASAP. But we headed off to Daikoku which was on the way back to the hotel anyway. It was around this time that we started seeing the distance to Tokyo signs and realised that we had only come about 100km during the whole day so far - I reckon at least 5 hours on the road! That would explain why it was getting dark by the time we reached the top of Hakone, and we didn’t get to ride Izu Skyline and eat our black eggs. Something to think about for next time, I don’t know if it’s even possible to really get out of Tokyo and find a back route to Hakone, but that would definitely be preferable.

Daikoku is a shipping area by day, but at night you’re nearly guaranteed to see some modified cars parked there, or cruising around the expressways nearby. There’s a giant set of ramps all around, which I’m sure the locals find very suitable for drifting.

We sat inside a shopping area for a little bit, there were a few cars turning up but not too many. There was one other guy on an R1 who’d come out for a ride, but not too much happening. We hung around until 10pm and headed off.

A couple of landmarks that we rode near Daikoku were Rainbow Bridge and another big tunnel that I can’t remember the name of… but this tunnel is nearly dead straight… for a very long way… Apparently this is where alot of Japanese high-speed runs are filmed. The guys wanted to have a go, I thought they were just messing around, but it was getting late, I was getting tired and I didn’t want to do anything stupid. Maybe if they had told me beforehand that the tunnel was straight and there were no speed cameras… then again I didn’t see the point unless I was going to beat my previous best speed of 260km/h, which is not something I’d ever really want to do on the streets. We spent a bit of time cruising around, Sciclone decided to try and race an old Supra - the drivers over here don’t mind playing around on the expressways either.

Eventually we made out way back to a parking station near the hotel. With no obvious motorcycle parking areas it seemed like we were kind of stuck… Sciclone went back to the hotel and asked if they knew of anywhere we could park a few bikes overnight. Sure they said! They had a little laneway right beside the hotel. Score! And “little laneway” was no understatement. Still, free parking - we were happy. The rental shop guys had warned us that parking inspectors heavily enforce the city areas.

Next morning was no rush again. There had been brief discussion about going out for an early morning ride to make the most of the rental, but after getting back in so late that wasn’t really going to happen. Especially after the fairly painful experience of riding long distance at 40km/h. So we moseyed on out with the final goal and the completion of our motorcycling adventure in sight with the return of the bikes by 11am. We found a petrol station to fill up, which should really be called service stations because it is full service, I never once saw a self-serve petrol station. They have a bunch of guys standing ready and they wave you in and tell you where to park. They all have a large concrete parking areas and high roofs that the hoses hang from. You just tell them what fuel you want, then they pull the hose down and fill ‘er up. A few quick dashes down one-way back streets and were had the bikes back to the shop. The guy there asked where we went, we told him Hakone and the reaction was something like “Oooohhooowww… cold, very cold!” Maybe he felt sorry for a bunch of crazy Aussies who rode to the mountains in winter, he gave us discount vouchers for the next time. I’m thinking I’ll use it at some stage - a quick trip to Japan in their summer, a weeks bike rental and riding Hakone and other mountain roads properly is definitely on the cards.

The experience was a real eye opener - I started to understand why there are so many small bikes and scooters around. I had originally wanted to hire a Hayabusa just to see what they’re like, but there just wouldn’t be any point with the majority of riding at 40 or 60km/h. Then aside from the cheaper registration for smaller bikes & cars, there is the issue of where to park. Plus if you need to use the expressways you’ll be paying for it - multiple times unless you’re going a very short distance, and fuel was not exactly cheap either. It works out to $1.77/L for regular unleaded. Catching the train is just alot easier, not just for tourists. I met some locals this time, and no one was driving anywhere - most were just walking. Push bikes are very popular in the city as well. A note on the roads - they were pretty much flawless. No pot holes, no lumps, no bumps - aside from one small section where road works had been done and holes were filled in - everywhere else was about as close to perfectly smooth as you could want. I guess the tolls all get put to good use keeping the roads in good repair.

Now onto the FZ1 riding notes - all up, it’s a pretty fun bike! The riding position was really comfortable, and it’s easy to ride around at low speed. I found the throttle action to be really smooth, no jerkiness at all. The gear change action was super-smooth as well - not sure if that’s just because it was still new, but I was loving it. I didn’t notice any vibes coming through, but I had some fairly thick gloves on. It felt really nimble and turned in very easily, at first I was a bit surprised by how quickly it leaned over - it felt like it really wanted to carry some lean, which gave me confidence to make quicker steering inputs - a nice zippy kind of bike. I was kind of disappointed that I didn’t get to see what it could do on the mountain, since it felt really stable all the time and I really liked the way the suspension felt. It seemed to have fairly firm high speed damping - the suspension remained firm over small bumps and the feedback from that felt really good. Now that I’m trying to think about how the low speed damping was, I’m struggling a bit… I don’t think it really stood out to me because the roads were pretty much always level and smooth. I’m not sure if the guys at the shop had tweaked the suspension a bit - maybe the lesson here is that it’s just not fun to ride on typical Australian roads?

Obviously it’s not too quick if you’re used to a 1000cc sportsbike, but it’s got pretty good instant low-down torque you’d expect in a big bike. Combined with the smooth throttle action it’s really easy to make a quick getaway from lights. The smooth power curve was put to the test when I was turning onto an expressway on the way home from Hakone - I thought I’d see if I could find the limit, and did manage a little slide from the rear. It slid pretty much when I thought it would, which was alot sooner than I’d expect on QLD roads at any time of year, but I was glad that I had a good feeling with the bike after a fairly short time - that just proved to me what an easy bike it is to ride. After that I was also glad that I didn’t try and push it too much in the mountains. I really liked the look of it as well, the flat bars etc. The tank was very wide though, which really stood out at first, but even so it put my legs in a comfortable position so that’s okay. I’ve read some other reviews and the exhaust seems to be the one complaint because it touches down fairly easy with a moderate to decent amount of cornering effort. It’s just fairly huge as well - I managed to scuff the underside of the exhaust on a low guardrail that is common on Tokyo footpaths (I wasn’t the first to scuff it either - I don’t think the shop even noticed). The other negative I’ve read is that the suspension sags a bit with heavy riders over uneven roads - but I couldn’t really test that out because everywhere we rode was fairly smooth and level and awesome. It seems that building roads properly automatically solves alot of handling issues.

Well, that’s just about my entire story! Thanks for looking & reading, if you want to see a bunch more of different photos they’re on Flickr.

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PostPixel

My Japanese Motorcycling Adventure

"There are two rules for success: 1. Never tell everything you know."

Funny stuff from Triumph North America featuring Nick Apex,...

Hi-tec mechanic in F1.

F1 steering wheel.

Two guys, one really bad crash

McLaren 1989 Brazil 01 Quiet ”moment before the beginning...

Photo

KTM 690 Duke in EJC (European Junior Cup) spec. A bunch of KTM...

johnnyr1: Yamaha r1

Photo

Photo

Photo

I remember seeing this video a while back. Just came across this...

Do want! Now starting to get a bit excited to find out what the...

Photo

sportbike: Nice little effect here!

sportbike: By Nike SB’d on Flickr.

The Gonzo. Terribly underpowered, but indestructible. What other...

The New MotoGP - Carmelo Ezpeleta is setting a different course for Grand Prix roadracing.