I just finished a 10 day tour around Southern Japan on my Swift. I bought the Swift specifically for this trip, which was to include riding one way to Kumamoto and then returning by bus to Miyazaki where I live. In total I spent 8 days riding of which 3 days were really only half days, less than 3 1/2 hours riding time.

The bike did very well with the biggest problem I had being the chain coming off the chainring several times each day. A few days before the ride began I changed the chainset to a Campy ten speed and I think the bevels on the chainring contributed to the problem. This didn’t happen with the Tru Vativ chainset I borrowed off my Dahon when I originally built the bike.

In all I did 420 miles with 17,000’ of climbing the longest day was the last one, 115 miles. My gf met me for a few days in Kumamoto and when it was time to leave I folded the Swift up and put it on the bus so that we could go to the airport together. After seeing her off I rode for a few hours until finding a place to camp. I was having so much fun I decided to ride home instead of take the bus. But at least I did get to take advantage of the fold once on the trip and justify buying it.

I carried 25 pounds of camping gear, clothes and tools most of it was carried in a daypack strapped to a rear rack. About 8 pounds were carried in a handlebar bag. The bike handled pretty well in spite of the weight. I did notice some twitchiness because of the heavy handlebar bag and next time I’ll do something to get the weight lower on the front. This was my first loaded tour or any kind of tour for that matter and the Swift helped to make it a great trip.