Shimanami Kaido Brompton Trip

Just came back from my first flight with my little lime green 6 speed. Travelled from Canada to Japan to ride the Shimanami Kaido and little side trips here and there. That route was absolutely beautiful; every hill climb was rewarded with breathtaking views and fun descents. Highly recommend!

I did a lot of research on how to fly and move with the bike. This channel helped a lot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihlxnkhQE5Q

I ended up purchasing a Vincita bag set for my travel. The Sightseer 4 bag was excellent. It protected the bike on the two international flights and a domestic flight. The airlines didn't have any problem with the bag and didn't know it was a bike. Even after cramming it with souvenirs at the end of my trip, I still had 1.5kgs to spare.

When traveling from place to place, I loaded up the bike-bag onto the front carrier block. In that configuration, there is still some storage space in there (this wasn't clear when researching the bag). If I was doing more than 10km, I used luggage forwarding to send my luggage ahead of me – very easy to do in Japan. One day I took a train out of Tokyo and rode back in for about 40km with the Sightseer on the bike, which also worked just fine.

The other bags got me around my day-to-day. The perfect fitting frame bags were just fun to have on the bike. As you can see, I don't travel with a rear luggage rack. A bit unusual perhaps, but I just didn't need that added weight or the added rolling capability. For rolling in this setup, the bag is easy, or I prefer to use the shoulder-carry method.

A bag is necessary for any bike travel on the trains. The Sightseer loaded with the Brompton has space still for my helmet, some clothes, and other small bits. This fit beautifully in the Shinkansen storage areas (not overhead, though it was possible if desperate). This also worked well for several local trains, but you do have to avoid rush hour on the Tokyo subway lines. Outside of rush hour, it fit just fine.

The folding aspect was great for Tokyo. I was surprised by how tricky it was to find appropriate bike parking in many areas in central Tokyo. Being able to fold it and tuck it somewhere in the popular areas got me out of some tricky situations; though you'll see that many locals seem to gravitate toward parking their bikes (deliberately?) in the NO BIKES parking zones, which are everywhere in Tokyo.

This was the culmination of a lot of research from various sources, so maybe this post will be helpful for a future traveller. TLDR; just do it