Is that a bicycle registration plate?

Japanese bicycles need to be registered, but foreign visitors are exempt.
It's just a sign I made up (the same one as last trip, with the year changed) that says "Japan 2024" on the left and the right side said "day number XX' that I would fill in with a whiteboard marker in the morning. At the bottom I added "Hello. I'm Ron"
Interestingly, after having this on the bike for two trips totalling 11 weeks in length, and having talked to hundreds of people, on the last week, someone i was talking with looked at the sign and said "You spelled your name wrong". And he was right! In all my interactions, no one had mentioned it. I think most Japanese are too polite to point out such a thing.

soooo green!!

I don't think that Japan has a large problem with wildfires because the hottest part of the year is also the wettest. And when it rains, it really rains. There were two mornings when the weather app was showing expected rainfall of 20mm per hour. Luckily all I had to do was hole up in a warm restaurant for a few hours and wait for it to pass.

The riders in the Isle of Man TT are practising this week

Saw the great Bill Ivy race at the first (and only ) Canadian GP in 1967.  He had a 125 cc Yamaha, and broke the existing lap record on his first lap. (It had been set by a Toronto rider on a 500 Manx Norton.)  His 12-spd Yamaha made a colossal row at 16,000 RPM on the back straight.  He also raced a Yamaha V-4 against Hailwood's 250 Honda 6 in the 250cc race.  The two of them could've been covered with a blanket for 8 laps, when Ivy's engine seized. (It was a cold Saturday in late September, and the Yamaha's motor probably wasn't used to such things.)  The Honda at 20,000-plus and the Yamaha 4 at 16,000 made an unforgettable scream.

The 500 race featured Hailwood on Honda's 500 four, and Agostini on the MV triple. Hailwood won--Ago had only to finish in the top 3 to win the championship.  I watched the race from the outside of the hairpin. Hailwood used all of the track to get through--the 85 bhp Honda was barely controllable. Ago was much tidier--he was giving away 15 bhp.  The only rider to stay on the same lap, about 30 seconds behind, was the Canadian Mike Duff, a former factory rider for Yamaha but riding that day as a privateer on a Matchless G50.  (The Matchy was about 30 bhp down on the Honda.)  Duff was the smoothest of them all.

That race was Hailwood's last FIM race, and Duff's last as a professional rider. I met Duff in 1990: he had transitioned to Michelle Duff, and was speaking in Ottawa about that change, and his history with AJS 7Rs and G50s in the early 1960s, before he signed with Yamaha.  She signed a b-&-w photo of her former self on the Matchless, which I'd taken during that race.

I watched part of the pre-race goings-on from the roof of the pits. (Imagine doing that today!)  One of the 500 bikes was a single-cyclinder Vincent Grey Flash -- I never knew there was such a thing.

Grand times.

I've clocked up many miles with 50mm tyres on 17mm internal width tubeless-ready rims. I think that such rims, designed to hook onto the tyre beads, have enabled the tyre width / rim width limit to be increased. I also feel that a light bulb-shaped tyre gives a more comfortable ride than a U-shaped tyre.

There should be a frame size number stamped under the bottom bracket.

Hi all.
 
 On April 10 I headed off to Kyushu, Japan’s most southern main island, for one month. I have finally sorted through the photos enough to post a few here so I'll let you know about my trip. I did not post a journal on any of the major sites but I did do a short Instagram post with a few photos every day so that friends and family could tag along, My Instagram name is cycles_for_food. If any of you would like to check it out you're welcome to have a look without clicking the follow button.

 How was the trip? In a word, fantastic. The people were as gracious as ever. In fact, on my first riding day, it was a whole 1/2 hour before I was given my first gift of an iced coffee, and I don’t think a day went by where I was not gifted something like a bottled water or tea while sitting in front of a convenience store.
 
Getting there was easier this time, partly because I’m getting more experienced with packing the bike, and partly from scoring a business class ticket, with a 2X32kg luggage allowance, for less than the price of economy.

The weather was much more pleasant for cycling this time around. Daytime highs were in low to mid 20s compared to 30 plus every day last time. There were more cloudy days and rain this time, but only once did I ride in torrential rain for more than half an hour, and never did it rain an entire day.

Last year I used my phone and GoogleMaps-AppleMaps for navigation. It was frustrating, to say the least.  This time around I added a Wahoo Elemnt Bolt GPS, and used Komoot for routing.  Let’s just say that Japan still presents a challenge to navigation programs. Or perhaps it’s just user error.

Here are some random photos showing some of the varied terrain. Next post I’ll get in to the trip itself.

1  Along the Arita river near Imari. The National Highway is across the river. The path on this side was used by local farmers and their Kei-tora (mini pick up trucks)

2  All the blind corners in Japan have these convex mirrors. They really work once you get used to them.

3  A lovely tiny road running through small villages, just 50m from the busy National Highway. It went on for many kilometers.

4  Kyushu is very mountainous, and I spent a lot of time on roads like this.