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.
