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Tranporting Bike (and Cyclist) To/From Narita Airport

Helen C

Cruising
Aug 26, 2010
8
1
Hi,

I'm arriving at Narita at the end of the month and will be cycling around Japan for six weeks. My intention is to discard the bike box that I use to bring my bike to Japan in at the airport and then to ride from the airport to Narita town, where I'll spend my first night. I'm hoping to find a bike shop in Narita where I can organize for them to have a bike box available for me come mid-November. At the end of my trip, I'll bike to the shop and ask them to box my bike up and then find a bus to take me and the boxed bike to the airport.

Does this plan sound feasible? Am I missing anything? Does anyone know of any bike shops in Narita which might be able to help?

Thanks.

(I'm not necessarily unhappy, but really liked the 'unhappy' icon. Please don't be sad for me.)
 
Be aware that Narita city is near but not walking distance to Narita airport. I've boxed my bike and taken it on the train with no problem other than not having many hands to carry all my nonsense. You can also take luggage or a boxed bike at the airport and leave it there for a fee (look for luggage storage) or potentially get it shipped there (if, for instance you don't make it back to Narita in time).

Good luck!
 
Pretty much the only shop I know in Narita is called "authen" and they are a very fashionable fixed gear/fashion shop. Not a lot of produce for the road rider if you are not interested in fancy t-shirts, but very nice guys running it. I only had positive experiences asking for these kind of favors at shops, but would recommend shooting them a mail in advance.

The shop is in schluffing distance from Narita or Keisei Narita Station, which both are one train stop away from the airport. If you can manage to ride your bike with your bikebox and everything in hand it is about 3km from the airport.

Good luck!

authen
〒286-0025
千葉県成田市東町159-3
TEL 0476-36-7969
OPEN 12:00~20:00
Wednesday closed
[email protected]
 
Hi
Good luck with the trip.
If you assemble your bike at the airport you will have the problem of disposing of the box. I don`t recall seeing any large dumpster type bins. You could leave the box outside where the coach/bus stands are but this would be seen as bad form in Japan.
When you exit the customs area if you turn right and keep going to the end of the hall you will find some seats, restrooms, drink machines and some space. Here you could attend to the bike. In this area are some luggage couriers who may take your box but they may not.
As others have suggested you may find it easier to catch a limousine bus or train to a nearby town. There you could take some time with the bike.
Safe journey
Rob
 
You could leave the box outside where the coach/bus stands are but this would be seen as bad form in Japan.

Not to mention in these times of hyper-sensitive security, you could shut down the airport while the bomb removal unit removes your box. :eek:
 
Hi Helen:

You could do something similar to what I will be doing which is to take my bike box from Narita to Ueno on the Keisei skyliner. I found a hotel about 6 minutes walk away that will store my bike box while I'm away riding. I arranged this a few months ago when I made my hotel reservation. I'm sure you could find a hotel in Narita who would be willing to do the same thing. I think there are shuttles from Narita to nearby airport hotels that you could try contacting.

Good luck. I may bump into you along the road somewhere.
 
This is an old thread, but I wanted to post on this since it comes up in a google search for taking a bike from Narita to Tokyo and others might see it. Just a bit of information about taking a (very) large bike from Narita to Tokyo.

I have a friend visiting Japan and he ran into a few issues with his bike. He's (unfortunately?) very tall. At least 6'5" ~196cm. His bike touring setup is on his hardtail mtb, which is what he brought. The Yamato & JAL desks both refused his bike for transport. (Yamato 200 size shipping is 200cm total dimensions, his box is around 275, yikes). He was also turned away when trying to buy a ticket for the Narita Express, they gave him the big X when he asked about his bike.

Things looked pretty grim, but he was able to put his bike on the Airport Limousine Bus from Narita to Tokyo Station. When he asked the folks there and showed the box they said it wasn't a problem. Finally, he was able to take his bike onto the Shinkansen from Tokyo Station to Kanazawa. It fit behind the last row of seats in a train car.

The Keisei Skyliner may have worked, but he didn't try it after the NEX attempt. And that would have involved transfers to reach Tokyo Station, something he wanted to avoid since he was lugging his bike around.

The massive box did fit (upright) in the back of our Tanto with the back seat folded flat & the front seat scooted all the way forward. So if you're renting a car at the airport you can probably make it work as long as you don't have more than two people.
 
The Keisei Skyliner may have worked, but he didn't try it after the NEX attempt. And that would have involved transfers to reach Tokyo Station, something he wanted to avoid since he was lugging his bike around.
Not an expert on the connections, but the hokuriku shinkansen stops at ueno. So when going in/out of narita we connect/change there. BUT, do know that at ueno between the skyliner and shink is fair hike--recently we even sent our bags separately to avoid dragging them thru there.
 
Not an expert on the connections, but the hokuriku shinkansen stops at ueno. So when going in/out of narita we connect/change there. BUT, do know that at ueno between the skyliner and shink is fair hike--recently we even sent our bags separately to avoid dragging them thru there.
That's a good tip. If the Skyliner had worked that may have been better. I think it was a ~7 minute walk from where the bus drops you to Tokyo.

I'm just personally very relieved that our Oru bike bags measure to less than 200cm overall and we could use Yamato.
 
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