orange-toei

I moved to Japan in July 2008. I ordered a randonneur frame from Toei and it will be ready this week end after waiting for more than 5 months.

My previous ride was a Fuji Track and a Specialized Tricross.

I have never ridden any brevet, but I want to start training for long distance riding. I am located in the Hiroshima prefecture about 1h North of Fukuyama.

Are there any long distance riders in my area? Have any of you ridden brevet in Japan?
If any of you have any experiences about riding in Japan, I would love to hear about it.

khearn

I'm not in Japan, but a quick web search found https://audax-japan.org/. I hope you read Japanese better than I do, though.

orange-toei

Wish I could read Japanese a little better. I will ask my girlfriend to read me the Audax Japan website.

Randochap

There's also Audax Randonneurs Kinki.

Several from this club came to Rocky Mountain 1200, last year

mattm

friend of mine got a toei, seems like a really nice bike! be sure to post pics once you gets yours.

i read an interview with the frame builders (in Bicycle Quarterly), they are an interesting shop.

orange-toei

The whole process was really interesting. A co-worker of mine faxed my measurement and called Toei every second week for 5 months. The frame is amazing, I could not stop looking at it. I equiped it with a lot of Nitto parts, custom Toei stem with bag decalleur, Shimano Ultegra and Sugino triple crank.
I will get the bike Saturday and see how nice of a ride it is. I hoped on it last week and it seem to be the right size, but there was no pedals on the bike.
I am 220 pounds and 5'11", the builder was quite surprised at my size. He is a great guy from what I was told by my co-worker. My Japanese is not good enough to order a bike on the phone, but I get along quite well with my mechanic.

I will post some pics once I get it.

My first trip on January 31 should take me from Onomichi to Matsuyama on a serie of crazy bridges. Can't wait.

IceNine

Lived in Japan for 5 years but was not into biking back then. I think you'll really enjoy cycling there. Lots of scenic backroads and most cities are close to both shorelines and mountains. Nothing would feel better than combining a long bike ride with a trip to the onsen.

orange-toei

I am addicted to onsen (hot springs)
What are your favorite?
I will end my first bike trip at the famous Dogo onsen. I was thinking of going to Oita Prefecture for Golden Week and enjoy Beppu onsen.

Moto-Velo

orange-toei, are you the JET I talked to on the ithinkimlost forum? I'm the guy with the Rivendell living in Tottori. Nice call on going with the Toei. I'd love to see pics.

Hocam

Whatever you do, please take lots of pictures!

papawizo

Japanese randonneurs were 60 strong at PBP in 2007. I had a great connection with this one fellow who didn't speak English except to say "mistah vinsant, my fren" or something like that. He was about my age and we leapfrogged each other a lot. Neither of us spoke the language but we nodded with smiles, appreciated each other and said our hello's.

IceNine

Sorry for the thread jack.

My absolute favorite onsen was on a the small island of Yakushima an hour south of Kagoshima by hydrofoil. That was an awesome place with old growth trees and this onsen in the rocks beside the ocean. During low tide it was too hot. During high tide it had too much ocean water and was too cold. Somewhere in between it had the right mix and was just right. They posted the times when it would be just right. Men and women in the same bath. I went about 10 o'clock at night. That was the ultimate roh-tenburo.

Generally, I like onsen that are the least well-known aside from the locals, esp if they have a sauna as well. Lots of tiny hole-in-the-wall onsen in the Kirishima Mountains in southern Kyushu.

orange-toei

Hey Moto-Velo,
I am the JET you talked to on ithinkimlost.
I will post some pics really soon. I will get the bike this Saturday morning, I asked a mechanic in Kurashiki to build it. I have an Ostrich front bag in the mail and a Nitto back carrier coming too.

I will visit Tottori in late March, my girlfriend is taking me to an onsen and crab restaurant for my birthday. Where are you in Tottori? I know a JET near Yonago, I will bike there this summer for sure! I'm about a 2h away if I drive fast.
Are you recontracting?

I will look into those wild out of bound onsen, thanks!

Moto-Velo

I'm in Tottori city, about 100km east of Yonago and a very nice coastal ride from there to here. Who do you know in Yonago?

I rode from Tottori to Hiroshima city back in October for the sake festival and had a wonderful time, both on the bike and at the festival. It was about 300 km and split the trip up into three days, going from Tottori to Yonago on day one, Yonago to a campground somewhere around Iinan along the 54, then on to Hiroshima. It was a great little trip and I highly recommend it - maybe not now though as I imagine it's covered with snow.

If you ever need a tatami mat on which to crash in my neck of the woods, let me know. My wife and I have a huge apartment and I'm always happy to geek out about bikes with someone.

Moto-Velo

Still undecided on whether or not we'll be recontracting.

ablejack

Toei frames are also available in CONUS for anyone interested. I believe through Jitensha Studios. The frame is among the finest in the world.

orange-toei

The bike turned out to be amazing on my first short ride, about 30 km round trip from Mizushima to Kurashiki Station. I went on a second ride the next day and climbed a small hill, the hill was really steep and I appreciated my triple crank. An old man, probably in his eighty came a talked to me about my bike. I didn't understand much, but he seem to enjoy the look of my frame.

I will post some pics soon of the frame, but I agree with Ablejack, Toei are among the finest and well worth the 5 months wait.

I am going on a 130 km day trip next weekend, I will be in a better position to tell you about the ride quality.

Has anybody ever ridden between Imabari and Matsuyama on Shikoku Island?

roadfix

Man, all this Japan talk is hontou ni natsukashii desu. I grew up in Yokohama and spent almost 20 years of my life there.

orange-toei

Hey guys,
My super long day trip started under rain and my back wheel Paul Touring brake was not screw tight enough, so I ended my first trip after 35 km. The bike rode like wonder. I needed a 15mm wrench to fix the brake, forgot mine, so I just put the bike in my girlfriend car and we went straight to Dogo Onsen in Matsuyama.

Tomorrow, I will go on another ride from Fukuyama to Kurashiki, about 50km with a few detour. My mechanic spent almost an hour working on the bike last week end and it should be perfect.

I really want to visit the Ramen museum in Yokohama.

Appart from the faulty brake, this bike is an incredible ride!

Six jours

We are still waiting for pictures!

orange-toei

This is my baby. I will try to post some better pictures soon.
I normally ride with an Ostrich handlebar bag, it's on the pavemement next to my glorious Daihatsu. The bike actually fits in the back of this Kei-car!

Toei.jpg

Six jours

Daihatsu! LOL.

I am really becoming a fan of Toei frames. I do not know where one can find a better randonneuring frame for less than $3000.

Say, how do you like those bars? I have just put on a pair of the Nitto "Randonneur" bars made for the Grand Bois shop but have not ridden the bike yet.

orange-toei

I really like the Nitto Randonneur Grand Bois, it's my first randonneur bike, so it's hard for me to compare. I am going to visit the shop when I get a chance to visit Kyoto. You could get a Grand Bois bike which is a rebranded TOEI and they would deal with finding the parts for you.

The whole Toei adventure was worth the wait . Cherubim and Hirose both make very nice randonneur frames.

I sent TOEI a fax and a drawing of my body size and a drawing of all the things I wanted on the bike and that was about it. The fitting informations I provided were all very childlike (I drew a couple of stick figures) , but it was easy for them to understand. I provided everything in metric measures.
I was lucky to have a japanese speaking teacher to help me.
The TOEI custom stem is really nice, order the decalleur and front rack from TOEI.
For the color, I ask them a color I saw in a japanese bike magazine.