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Bike Travel Bag in Japan Taxi? Possible or not?

dastott

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May 10, 2012
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Hi guys. Does anyone have any experience of taking a bike box in a Japanese taxi, particularly the black JPN taxis which look like London taxis? The bike will be in an Evoc Bike Travel Bag Pro. There will be 2 passengers including me. Thanks in advance for any help.

Alternatively, wondering if it's possible to use Yamato or another delivery company to take it to the airport, where I can collect it? Thanks.
 
I`ve done it using the Ostrich OS-100 bag, no issue. That bag is smaller/more compact and no internal frame like the EVOC.

However 2 pax and EVOC might be tough/tight even in the London style taxis.

How about reserving an MK Taxi van?
 
Thanks for the answer. Will search for MK Taxi van but we are based down in Kyushu.
 
Thank you! Space does indeed look a bit tight in the JPN taxi linked above.
 
A bike won't fit into a regular taxi, be it the old one or the new one that looks like a "London taxi". You need a big taxi, and you might need to order them in advance. Yamato is also an option, we used them when we arrived in Sendai for our luggage. But I don't know whether they will charge extra for oversized luggage.
 
Sorry for the very late reply.
I once took a taxi with my completely made up bike (size 56). It fit together with me (only passenger), and no luggage, in a "London taxi".
I got a flat on the way home, and had to be home by a certain time.
 
I was able to squeeze my bicycle Flightcase in a Toyota London Taxi.
But note, that is with both wheels dismantled
 
You will (almost certainly) be able to fit into a London taxi, even with three passengers. Whether you can find a driver that will "take the risk" is another matter.

Kuroneko Yamato offers a service for bicycles, which would probably be easier especially if you have a hard case.
You should be able to do a 支店止め(shitendome), though I don't know if they offer that service at the airport. I don't see why they wouldn't though.
Cost will (probably) be the same as a 160cm size on their website/costs table, but I recommend asking your closest office.
They will probably pick up for a nominal (200yen?) fee as well.
 
Benedikt, can you link to the kuroneko service?
They list 200cm as their max dimensions, and although they have a bike service it seems limited to folding bikes or mini-velo`s.
Most cases - Trico, EVOK, etc are well over 200cm.

I`ve been rejected a number of times with regular kuroneko, and go with Sagawa.
 
Must admit I had never looked into it beyond them having a bicycle service, and you seem to be correct that it's ridiculously limited to 200cm.
Anything larger than that has to be sent via their moving service, not the normal package service, and becomes unnecessarily expensive.
Sorry for not checking that beforehand.

There seem to be some services that offer (actual) bicycle transport services but you're going to have to ask each one if they offer airport pickup.
If you end up using one, I'd be interested in knowing which one and how it went!
 
Shame that its become such a hassle to ship bikes!

In the past I used Sagawa to ship to the airport and pickup at one of the counter services (ABC might be the name if I remember correctly).
However this was stopped when COVID started, and not sure if those services are back in business.
 
It's been years and years, but I once shipped a bike from aomori to ishikawa--the tour wasn't working out and I decided to end it.

I rode the bike, fully assembled and not bagged, to a kuroneko place and they took it as it was--rolled it away after I filled out the form and paid (it was ¥13-14,000 IIRC). I took the trains home, the bike arrived a couple days later.
 
@jdd sounds like their moving service, which will take a bike even if not packaged! Like you said, it's double to triple the price of the normal package service for a similar size baggage..
 
It's unfortunate Japan doesn't have something like Gogovan/ GOGOX. Private hire Uber for panel vans.
 
Hi guys. Does anyone have any experience of taking a bike box in a Japanese taxi, particularly the black JPN taxis which look like London taxis? The bike will be in an Evoc Bike Travel Bag Pro. There will be 2 passengers including me. Thanks in advance for any help.

Alternatively, wondering if it's possible to use Yamato or another delivery company to take it to the airport, where I can collect it? Thanks.
Hi maybe late to the party here but hopefully it will be helpful to someone else. I once took a size 54 gravel bike on JPN Taxi(London style cab) It was in Fairmean bike bag so only front wheel removed. It didnt fit length wise if I just put it on the car floor so I had to put it at an angle with front part resting on the car seat. If you already took the trip let us know how you took it to the airport in the end.
 
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