Gidday from Kobe, Japan

[FlatSpinMan]

Hi
I found this place a good source of practical user advice, in particular for Bianchi bikes, so I just had to join.
I have lived in Japan for years now but started riding road bikes about four years ago (plus 4 years on a hybrid before that). The time has come to get a second road bike, so I have ordered a Bianchi Intenso. I ride a lot so I thought I might as well as get a thing of beauty to make it even more enjoyable.

 

[Cycleops]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

I'm sure you'll enjoy the Bianchi.

 

[Andy in Germany]

Hi
I found this place a good source of practical user advice, in particular for Bianchi bikes, so I just had to join.
I have lived in Japan for years now but started riding road bikes about four years ago (plus 4 years on a hybrid before that). The time has come to get a second road bike, so I have ordered a Bianchi Intenso. I ride a lot so I thought I might as well as get a thing of beauty to make it even more enjoyable.

Hi and Welcome. You've some nice cycling in that region. I may be asking you for tips soon when we get ourseelves into gear to take the bikes to Mie with us on a family visit.

 

[FlatSpinMan]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

I'm sure you'll enjoy the Bianchi.

I reckon I will.

 

[FlatSpinMan]

Hi and Welcome. You've some nice cycling in that region. I may be asking you for tips soon when we get ourseelves into gear to take the bikes to Mie with us on a family visit.

Thanks. Yes, we don't lack for hills, that's for sure. I just wish the roads were a bit wider - the cars pass awfully close in lots of places.
If you have any questions about cycling here, or just Japan in general, feel free to ask. I'm happy to help. Mie is a pretty spot, especially the coastline. I don't know it well though. Where I live, in Kobe, has a great range of hills (Mt Rokko) to ride.

 

[Andy in Germany]

I just wish the roads were a bit wider - the cars pass awfully close in lots of places.

I noticed that too. It took me a while to realise that it's not aggression like it would be in Germany, but that drivers are used to squeezing through tiny gaps. It doesn't make it any more pleasant though.

I've been looking at possible routes in the Ise/Toba region: one practical issue is that the mountains are very steep, so once you are at the top you either have to go back the way you came or make a very long detour around the coast.

The other one is tunnels, but I guess we'll have to learn to live with those.

 

[FlatSpinMan]

Ah, tunnels. My bête-noire. Once you get up into the hills around the cities, or in fact, in order to get into the hills, tunnels often loom up. I’m really reluctant to enter them. Some near Kobe are several kilometres long and run in series of three or four. Not my idea of fun on a bike. I know that as a driver the last thing I’m looking for in a tunnel is a cyclist, especially, god forbid, if it’s a long descending tunnel.

About hills, yes, we don’t seem to do the ‘long steady climb’ like they always talk about on GCN. Here it’s more about the (well, for me at least) “All hands on deck emergency power climb until you die or reach the top” sort of hill. Around work there are tons of short climbs in residential streets with pitches of 17-20%, possibly nearer 25 if my highly-dubious Strava data is to be believed. I freely admit to being no mountain goat, but I do struggle. If you’re travelling in Japan though there really isn’t much option unless you have loads of time to take the flatter routes.
The climbs you have seen are one way routes to the top of hills? I

 

[FlatSpinMan]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

I'm sure you'll enjoy the Bianchi.

It just arrived yesterday and I rode it for the first time this afternoon, and you know what? - I did enjoy it. Your powers of intuition are formidable.

 

[Andy in Germany]

Ah, tunnels. My bête-noire. Once you get up into the hills around the cities, or in fact, in order to get into the hills, tunnels often loom up. I’m really reluctant to enter them. Some near Kobe are several kilometres long and run in series of three or four. Not my idea of fun on a bike. I know that as a driver the last thing I’m looking for in a tunnel is a cyclist, especially, god forbid, if it’s a long descending tunnel.

About hills, yes, we don’t seem to do the ‘long steady climb’ like they always talk about on GCN. Here it’s more about the (well, for me at least) “All hands on deck emergency power climb until you die or reach the top” sort of hill. Around work there are tons of short climbs in residential streets with pitches of 17-20%, possibly nearer 25 if my highly-dubious Strava data is to be believed. I freely admit to being no mountain goat, but I do struggle. If you’re travelling in Japan though there really isn’t much option unless you have loads of time to take the flatter routes.
The climbs you have seen are one way routes to the top of hills? I

Thanks for the info. I've come across a number of such tunnels and I suspect a similar tunnel in Germany would be off-limits to bikes so I wasn't sure what the laws in Japan would be. I'll be based in Ise, and looking around a couple of tunnels have a nice wide pavement which you can ride on but most don't. I've even found a single track one in the hills but it is so far from anywhere I doubt we'd meet a car in it.

I'm not entirely sure what routes we'd use, it depends how we'd feel when we go because we don't have a lot of experience riding in the temperatures we've experienced in Japan. We may stay in the wider valleys and explore those but I really want to try some of the mountain roads which are basically one long hill. One that has fascinated me since I saw it is route #12, running directly south from the Ise Naiku Shrine into the mountains: it goes up to a small viewing area and I've always wanted to know what was up there. It's a heck of a climb but the ride back wouldn't be to bad...

 

[FlatSpinMan]

That road does look like it'd make for a nice ride. I enjoy biking through forests and the local rural scenery over here. I couldn't see much info on elevation on my phone. What's the max?

 

[Andy in Germany]

According to Bike Map it's 550m but when I saved it the data panel said 350m so your guess is as good as mine. It's 36k there and back from my Inlaws house, to be honest the altitude is less of a concern than the temperatures.

 

[FlatSpinMan]

I'm kind of in the neighborhood at the moment, well, Wakayama, but it's kind of nearish. Same Kii Peninsula sort of thing. Driving here was just tunnel after tunnel. We were in the highway of course, so normal roads may be different (no bikes on the highways, naturally) but all the way along I was looking for places you could ride through them. Slim pickin's in these tunnels. They were long, too. 2km, 3km, 4.5km. Still, as I said, this was on a highway so normal roads may make more provision. Beautiful scenery though. I'd love to bring my bike this way some time.

 

[FlatSpinMan]

As for temperature, when are you planning to ride? I now really like riding in the summer. I sweat buckets, even my shoes are sloshy, but your body can relax and open up. Right now riding here I'm all hunched up and tense, despite good clothing.
Autumn is the best, in my opinion, as long as you have the flexibility to wait for typhoons.

 

[Andy in Germany]

As for temperature, when are you planning to ride? I now really like riding in the summer. I sweat buckets, even my shoes are sloshy, but your body can relax and open up. Right now riding here I'm all hunched up and tense, despite good clothing.
Autumn is the best, in my opinion, as long as you have the flexibility to wait for typhoons.

We'll have to come in summer because of school holidays. My plan is to start on the flat bits (we'll have to ride from the airport ferry in Tsu to Ise anyway) and then build up to more mountainous routes.

 

[FlatSpinMan]

We'll have to come in summer because of school holidays. My plan is to start on the flat bits (we'll have to ride from the airport ferry in Tsu to Ise anyway) and then build up to more mountainous routes.

Ha! You'll still be screwed anyway as it is just so damned hot and humid -sweat doesn't really evaporate! - but pace yourself, take breaks, and carry isotonic drinks and you'll be alright. My point of stopping is when I start noticing myself trembling slightly on a climb. That or I get hot and cold flushes. Those are no good. No good at all. Stopping before/when they happen is the thing to do. I got heatstroke once riding here and it left me feeling like shoot for about two days afterwards.

And at least you don't have to worry about bringing a jacket for the descents.