Hi bicycle touring friends,
After a 3 week touring trip in Taiwan in 2023, I am planning for a trip in Japan in 2024. I have a few questions for you folks, regarding bike and itineraries.
1) Bike selection: first, do you suggest that I transport a bike from my home country or should I buy something there? Issue is that I will have numerous hops before reaching destination. Also note that I don’t own a touring cycle (I rented one in Taiwan).
2) Itinerary: I have been scavenging all Reddit posts on Japan and, even with 4-6 weeks ahead of me, it seems that I will have to make some concessions.
Initially, I was thinking of crossing Kyushu with a start in Kagoshima. Push to the Shimanami Kaido road. Reach Kyoto and accelerate my trip with a flight or train to Hokkaido, where I would stay for the rest of the trip. It would be like directionally going for the blue, purple and green routes of this map found online. Do you think that the itinerary seems feasible?
Thanks a lot for all your suggestions!
by PieceAgile8125
1 Comment
FWIW, if you have facebook, the group “Japan Cycling Navigator” is extremely active and very useful. I never went through with my tour, so IDK the answers here, but they almost certainly know re: routing.
If you are remotely tall, you should bring a bike though. That seems to be universal, that getting a bike over like 52cm to buy is really hard.