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My Japanese Motorcycling Adventure
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. -
I was on Stoners MotoGP bike
Tokyo Auto Salon, January 2012.
I was keen to see what it is really like to sit on a MotoGP bike, so many people mention that they’re very small machines. And they’re right!
I consider myself an average size guy at 5’ 11”, maybe a bit heavier than average weighing in at 83Kg. I always used to think of MotoGP in terms of relating it to production sportsbikes, but now I’ve seen for myself - they’re nothing alike. Not that anyone really needed to be told that, but it’s shown me just how extreme MotoGP really is.
I tried to tuck in as best I could, but my backside is firm up against the rear seat pad, my elbows and knees are not fitting well together, and there was a really limited amount of room to move front-rear in the seat. This is a racing motorcycle at the extreme!
To help put the size in proportion I’ve posted a photo of Matt Mingay and Casey Stoner below. Mingay posted this on Facebook over the holidays when Monster Energy threw a bit of a beach party. I’ve seen Mingay in person and he’s pretty much the same size as me, but what’s really interesting in this photo is that we get a direct size comparison with Stoner. Think about that next time you see Stoner on his MotoGP bike.
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