Places to Ride - MTB

I am a mountain bike rider at heart, so this will be predominantly a list of places to get dirty, if anyone wants of recommend road rides please shoot me an email or add a comment and I will start a new list.

Fujimi Panorama. Downhill Paradise. Near Suwa-ko in Nagano.

Inuyama - Hasso - great XC on hiking trails (shared, obviously!) with views of Nagoya, camping and BBQ facilities.

Okazaki - Behind Okazaki IC there are a bunch of hiking trails which are moderate XC, but huge fun. good for beginners to intermediate riders.

Toyota - Kura-ga-ike - my latest area of exploration, with a few super fun sections already found, and lots more potential.

Mikkabi/Hamamatsu - Tonmakuyama - steep, rooty and loose XC, not for beginners! Great views and mikan!

Sengen (Horai) - Technical DH. Not for the faint hearted.

Fuji-5-lakes - smooth, wide singletrack to loose and exposed trails, with fantastic views of Mt Fuji all the way.

Susono - Great XC trails starting and finishing in tea fields, but hard to find - local knowledge or a guide needed.

Ashinoko - just over the hill from Gotenba/Susono/Mishima, great technical lakeside XC. Good fishing and swimming too!

...and lots more to come soon - time for bed now!

Cheers.

Good Bike Shops

These are the people in your neighbourhood, in your neighbour-hood, in your nei-bour-hoo-ood (a tribute to Sesame Street, sing to the tune of 'Who are the people in your...)

Links coming soon. Or a search works too!

Groove Cycles Niseko - Hokkaido rental, repairs and sales - run by a Canadian MTBer in Niseko, Hokkaido.

Tsukude - Aichi (up the hill from Okazaki/Toyota) - Salone del Monte. Very cool shop and people with a whole lot going on - the owners are putting in a huge effort to build a local MTB community and doing a great job. Lovely people. www.salonedelmonte.com


Tajimi - Bike 8 www.bike8.com

Nagoya - Kato Cycle www.katocycle.com

Hamamatsu - Player Bike

Osaka - Ringo Road www.ringoroad.com

Tokyo - Y's Corporation - Galaxy (Ikebukuro)

Shimada - Naruoka Cycle

Mishima - Cycle Kids

Anjo - Active Ride Target

Nishio - Maruichi Cycle

Gotemba - Komiyama Cycles

All of the above have a good range of bikes and parts, all are foreigner friendly, all have been visited by me (Gosh, I'm a bike geek!) and some even speak a little English. More on that next time when I add links. I am sure there are other shops too, so If you know a good one, let me know and I'll add it to the list. Let's see if we can build up a comprehensive network of places to spend our hard earned.

Cheers!

Do you know your ABC?

ABC = Altia Bicycle Club. I'm starting an unofficial cycling club, at this time for Altia staff, but of course anyone is welcome in reality. I'd like to get some rides organized and will work on it soon, but first up I think I'll kick off by getting some information out there for the cyclists and potential cyclists among us. Next two posts will talk about good shops and places to ride.

Stay tuned!

Wow

Happy birthday to the bloog - three years this month! Of course I have hardly posted enough for one year's content, but still...

Welcome back me!

Hi folks.

Those of you who remember that this blog exists, that is.

I am now going to be posting regularly again, with a bit of a different focus - still all about the bike, but with less about me, and more about a bit of a community I am going to try and build over the course of this year. More about it in the next post - stay tuned!

Cheers,

The Single Guy.