riceowls

My wife and I are coming to Japan late November and were very much hoping to do 4-6 day independent touring of the countryside. That time of year Kyushu's weather sounds more attractive and we have never been there. However, I am unable to find any info on a rentals of touring bikes. Does anyone have any suggestions? We can bring our own panniers if needed but need quality bikes with the rack. If we could rent a quality tandem - even better!

DanBell

I don't know of any service like this. At best there is bike rental in touristy cities, like Kyoto, but I don't know of any kind of multi-day rental service, especially for touring bikes. I recommend you ask on the forums at tokyocycle.com.

riceowls

Thanks for the lead for that forum. Registered but it looks like can't post "You have insufficient privileges to post here." - any ideas what it takes?

DanBell

Oh, not sure about that. It's been a long time since I first joined that site. Try contacting the site admins. They're usually pretty active online and should get back promptly.

KyushuWoozy

It's beautiful here at that time of year and hopefully your timing will be just right for autumn colours. I'm pretty sure there are some places you can rent touring bikes multi-day. My Kyushu local wife will know better than me. Drop us an email to letsgo@kyushujourneys.com and we'll see what we can do.

KyushuWoozy

We phoned around quite a few places. Most of them don't offer multi-day rental. Basically, Japan is a very risk-averse society so they are worried that if they rent you a bike to tour around you will get into problems if you have an accident or need to get the bike repaired. This is especially true (they worry) if you don't speak Japanese.

However we finally found one place where they can offer rental on a multi-day basis. They have mountain bikes and cross bikes but don't have a huge stock so advance booking would definitely be required. Anyway you would need to get all your accommodation booked in advance so it would definitely need to be a well-planned trip. They would need to know your height to see whether the bikes would be suitable (I'm guessing the Japanese cyclist is a bit smaller than the average Westerner). You would need to bring your own pannier and rack. We didn't discuss rental price in great detail but for previous clients this place has charged about $30 for rental on a daily basis around town.

Contact us (letsgo@kyushujourneys.com) if you want to explore this further or just continue with this thread. I don't cycle myself (dodgy knees) but I'm guessing Kyushu is a cycle-friendly place because it's much more rural and more traffic-free than other islands in Japan.

riceowls

Just want to update the community of what we've found. We have found a local store in Fukuoka, MigrantCycling, that rents decent mountain bikes ********************? | MIGRANT CYCLING
They do not rent/provide racks, tools repair kits or train bags. The cost was around $20/day.

Global Wheels japan is about 2-2.5x the cost but they have road bikes, will install racks and pedals your need, can rent train bags and/or panniers. They ship the bike to your hotel and then you ship it back in the same box. www.globalwheels-japan.com

We were on the edge choosing between the two but then got a bike friday travel tandem and decided to take it with us.

DanBell

Congrats. The solution that involves buying a new bike is always the best option.

Trevtassie

Worthwhile getting onto the Japan Cycling Navigator Facebook Group. Lots of advice and tips about riding in Japan.