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anderbond

Cruising
Nov 8, 2011
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Hi guys and gals,
Thanks for reading my intro. I am a Sydney based 65 y/o married to a beautiful Japanese lady. My name is Kevin Anderson. Although resident in Sydney, we have recently bought a house near Yokohama for future holiday stays. I am a keen cyclist and currently ride about 200 kilometres per week with a group from the LBS which includes several female riders( but not my wife).
I will be coming to Yokohama for Christmas and New Year and hoping to bring the road bike to keep up some training. I have a couple of questions which I hope someone can help me with. Firstly, does my bike have to be registered in Japan if I am staying for a three week period? Secondly, as it will be well and truly winter then, am I being optimistic about being able to go out on training rides? And finally, if not will there be organised (or makeup) rides that I might be able to join?
Thanks and cheers,
Kevin:bike:
 
No you don't need to get your bike registered.

Yes you will still be able to ride some amazing coastal routes durring Dec-Jan as well as some of the more traveled climbs.
 
Welcome Kevin!:)
 
Miura Peninsula

Hey Kevin,
In winter, it only snows about 2 or 3 times per year, and sometimes not until after the new year.
That being the case, there's some great low-altitude, but hilly, riding around the Miura Peninsula to the southeast of Yokohama. It's a decent 100-120km loop course following the coast most of the way around, and then riding back via Kamakura.
There might be more than a few guys who'd like to join you, if their regular mountain passes (above 500m) get snowed under.
Keep an eye out in the forums for some rides in that area.
Travis
 
Thanks Heaps to all those who have responded to my message. Sounds like some good riding ahead. I am riding a 53/39 x 11/25 set up. Will this be ok for the hilly sections or will I need say 11/27 or 11/29 or a different chainwheel setup?. I am fairly strong but slower(struggle a bit) on the sharper gradients.
Thanks, Kevin
 
If you are riding thee coastal roads and Miura Hanto then the set up you have is fine. If you fancy riding some HC level climbs then you may need something a little more forgiving.
 
Thanks Heaps to all those who have responded to my message. Sounds like some good riding ahead. I am riding a 53/39 x 11/25 set up. Will this be ok for the hilly sections or will I need say 11/27 or 11/29 or a different chainwheel setup?. I am fairly strong but slower(struggle a bit) on the sharper gradients.
Thanks, Kevin

Your setup is excellent; the 11/25 cassette is very handy (I keep a whole stock of them :D).

If, however, you are thinking of doing lots and lots of really long-distance climbing like this fruitcake does, I recommend that you either (1) switch to a 11/29 cassette in case you stick to your normal 53/39 crankset or (2) swith to a compact 50/34 crankset in case you do not want to change that 11/25 cassette.

(1) is the easiest and least expensive way of course. I use both (1) and (2) combinations on different bikes and find that both combinations are equally comfortable.

If you want to be(come) a champ in the HCs and if you like to grind a coffee mill, then you may want to consider a compact crank (although big HCs like Norikura are usually won on normal cranks).
 
Tom,

An even simpler and cheaper solution for a bit more gearing is to switch the 39 front inner for a 38. Sugino make excellent quality ones in the 1000 ~ 2000 yen price range.

After putting a 38 on, I never saw the need for a 39 again.

Andy

www.jyonnobitime.com/time
 
Welcome

Awesome thing about the beautiful Japanese wife isn't it! Let me know if you need a proper fit on your bike while you are here. ProRaceMechanic @ your service. I also agree with the compact crank for the Mountains, unless you like pain :cry:
 
Hi Guys, thanks so much for all your inputs. It sounds like it will be fairly cold out riding. Yes ProRaceMechanic, it is an awesome thing about the beautiful Japanese wife. I have been married about 11 months, met her here in Sydney a couple of years back. She has persevered and trained me wonderfully well so I am now almost an acceptable person (I hope!). One problem I have is I am yet to learn virtually any Japanese words. Must be something to do with my old brain!
May I ask for inputs on whether this would constitute a problem if I am riding in Japan. In Australia we drive/ride on same side of road, but I was thinking about the usual things, eg getting lost etc.
Kevin:bike:
 
Hi Kevin,
I am a Sydney resident and ride 400 to 500km a week with 4km to 5km of elevation gain. I recently returned from a holiday in Japan and ridden from Tokyo to Biwako through some mountain passes, I strongly recommend getting compacts. There is nothing in Sydney that prepared me for some of the climbing that I did in my first two days of riding.
If visiting Japan frequently, I would also recommend buying a bike locally and leave it there. I had to a few hundred dollars to fly the bike one way.
Riding in Japan is awesome. :) Hope to be back there soon.

Jon
 
Hi Jon,

Thank you for the tips. I am thinking of taking my "second" bike and leaving it there. Sounds like I should do some tinkering with the setup before going as it will probably be easier to do it here. I regularly ride Akuna Bay, West Head, three gorges, Mt White etc but sounds like I will be doing more climbing than normal. Can you comment on whether my complete lack of any Japanese might be an issue if riding, or getting lost etc. Cheers Kevin:bike:
 
Hi Kevin,
I speak some Japanese so I managed to get by. It is a good idea to be able to speak conversational words. I can understand more than I can speak. You should practice as much as you can if you are going to spend some time in Japan. I found that it is really hard to find English speaking people while I rode in more rural areas.
If you really want to enjoy riding up mountains and not suffering up them, get compact cranks. Thats what I would recommend.

Cheers,
Jon
 
Hi Kevin,
Hope you had a great stay in Yokohama. Did you you end up getting compact cranks or did you make do with the 39ers? I'm headed for Shizuoka and surrounds in late May, hoping the weather gods will smile for a week or so.
Cheers,
Christian
 
Hi Spike,
Sorry about the prolonged delay in responding. Nope I stayed with the original setup as I decided to stick to flatter rides. No problems at all with this but didn't tackle anything too steep. Only problem was I got lost one day and cooled off so much got bad head cold and then sick for weeks afterwards. Wife got into me a bit for the air transport and hard case costs to then end up sick.
Enjoying Sydney's late autumn, did B2B race last Sunday. Great fun!
Kevin
:bike:
 
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