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Moving to Tokyo

chuck lyon

Warming-Up
Feb 14, 2008
6
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Hello. This site is quite impressive, and I am very glad I found it. I will be moving to Tokyo next week. Living in Kichijoji. Can't wait to get started riding in Japan. I have a two questions: (1) I would like to hook-up with a group for regular weekend rides. How do I go about getting announcements/invitations etc.? (2) I need to find a good bike shop (hopefully in the Kicjkijoji area). Any recommendations? Thanks, I look forward to riding in Japan!
 
Welcome!

Hello Chuck,
1. As far as bike shops go, there should be quite a few out in the Kichijoji area.
For main parts & service though;
You can get parts more cheaply from the larger stores near the middle of town - Ikebukuro, Shinjuku, and Ueno - the cheapest place we've found so far is, "Nalsima" (who have their own racing team) near Harajuku. But if you want personal service, it's better to find a local-bike-shop "LBS" in your region; Most of the smaller bike shops catering to the "road-bike" market are run by guys who were either ex-professional-cyclists in their youth, or older guys that have always had passion for riding & top quality bikes - they will usually give you top-notch service.

2. As for the regular rides; They are posted by various members of the site - including meeting times & places... Then you just basically "invite yourself". Just turn up at the starting point, or somewhere-else along the planned route, and you're in!

Hope to ride with you soon:bike:
Travis
 
Broken Spoke

Thanks for the information, Travis. I plan on joining one of your weekend rides very soon.

Today, I rode from my temporary residence in a hotel in Shinjuku to Itsukaichi. An interesting, traffic-laden ride. Loved the smooth, relatively clean roads. Unfortunately, however, I broke a spoke on my rear Mavic Kysirium ES wheel.

Can you recommend a bike shop in Shinjuku that might carry a replacement spoke? Or do I need to go over to Nalsima?

Many thanks.

Chuck
 
Nalsima Friend

Go to Nalsima Friend. Honestly, you won`t be disappointed. I look for reasons to go.

1. They are the cheapest I have found in Japan. And have a good selection.
2. Their staff is great - very knowledgeable, friendly, and helpful. And they race.
3. They built my dream bike last month - I walked in with my own parts that I bought at auction and several different US bike shops (online) in the past 6 months. They did a fitting on the spot and the and built the bike in a week. Perfect.
4. It`s not that far from Kichijoji. Plus Harajuku is a cool area. They are between Harajuku and Yoyogi.

Good luck!
Danny
 
Thanks and a question

Based on your recommendations, I went to Nalsima yesterday and they fixed me right up within a 1/2 hour. Nice shop. So thanks very much...and to think that I was so anxious about finding a spoke in this town!

Now a (first-timer) question: I see there is a planned ride next Saturday from Itsukaichi station, I believe. To get there, do people carry their bikes on the trains to get to the starting point?

Thanks.
 
Hello Chuck

Glad to hear you got everything taken care of at Nalsima. If I may ask, what was the cause of the broken spoke? I have the same wheels as you, so I'm curious to know.

As for your question about how people plan to get to the ride (which will be starting from Ome, not Musashi Itsukaichi, by the way), it depends on where you're starting from. I live in Setagaya Ward (west Tokyo), so it's easy for me to ride to the Tamagawa and follow the river all the way up to Ome.

Those who live in east Tokyo or other places that are rather far away may choose to bag their bikes and ride the train. Some ride out and take the train home. Guys like Thomas and Travis (YellowGiant), our resident Eastside Hardmen, tend to go the distance on their bikes.

It all depends on how far you feel comfortable riding.

If you like, I can send you links to possible routes you could take to, say, the Tamagawa cycling path.

Cheers,

Deej
 
Thanks Deej...

...after all, it looks like I will not be able to ride this weekend. I just moved to Tokyo, and my airline shipment is scheduled to arrive at my home Sat am. So I will have to wait to ride with TCC (lamentably).

But I would appreciate the links for possible routes to the Tamagawa. Maybe that is something I can explore on Sunday. You can email them to me at "[email protected]".

Regarding my broken spoke: the only thing I can figure out is that I was trying to turn around in a driveway and clipped the rear tire on part of the curb. I then heard the spoke break. It seems that should not in itself have caused breakage, but there may be two other causes I was wondering about: (1) cumulative stress related to going in and out driveway entrances as I was riding through traffic out to Itsukaichi; or (2) I have heard from at least one LBS that these spokes do have failures due to an inconsistent production process.

At least (1) I can control.
 
E-mail addresses.

But I would appreciate the links for possible routes to the Tamagawa. Maybe that is something I can explore on Sunday. You can email them to me at "[email protected]".

Hey Chuck,
I took your e-mail address off the post.
The reason is, as this is a public site it's easy to receive "spam" mail because of the openness (Thomas usually does this, but he's not on line right now), so I took the liberty.

If you want to send personal messages to another member, please use the "Private Message" (PM) system on the top-right section of the Home-page.

Check it regularly - it works the same as e-mail (within 5,000 characters), but it's more secure than posting your hotmail account on the site.

Travis
 
Thanks

I appreciate that...I guess I wasn't sure how to use the site fully. Thanks for watching out. I have to tell you: this site has been a great welcome for me to Japan.

Chuck
 
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