Report: Riding a motorcycle in Japan

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Report: Riding a motorcycle in Japan
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Report: Riding a motorcycle in Japan

Report: Riding a motorcycle in Japan
The cradle of the modern motorcycle: Through Japan by motorcycle

A motorcycle tour in Japan sounds tempting. Finally turn the throttle where the modern motorcycle was invented. But the street worlds there are different. Can we understand them??

Michael Pfeiffer

08/16/2012

“We need your driver’s license because we want to do a day tour with motorcycles.” Sounds really good, what the nice German Suzuki press lady pushes through the e-mail. Because basically two things in my life made me a motorcyclist: “Easy rider” in the youth cinema and Honda & Co. with their amazing machines in the 70s. Go biking in the country where the modern motorcycle was invented – that must be enlightening. Where the CB 750, Wasserbuffel, Z 900 and my beloved RDs were built, finally laying a tire track myself, great idea!

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The cradle of the modern motorcycle: Through Japan by motorcycle

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The first morning walk in front of the hotel is a challenge for the whole man: 30 degrees early at seven turn a leisurely stroll into a jogging aria. Cicadas chirp at the perceived volume of a thousand car alarm systems. And – oops – the cars are coming from the wrong side. Left-hand traffic, I forgot, sorry. In Japan the horn is probably only honked when you have already hit the ground. I quickly realize that no matter what happens, I must never make a loud voice to anyone here. Hamamatsu is practically the opposite of Rome. Where you get honked at before you put your helmet on. Drive here?


Report: Riding a motorcycle in Japan


piper

Arai is more than just a helmet manufacturer

After half an hour I see exactly four motorbikes along the main road: a polished CB 1100 F, an indefinable scooter, something with two rear wheels and a swiveling front part and – thank goodness – a Suzuki Bandit. That’s not much when you consider where I am right now. Suzuki produces tens of thousands of motorcycles here, and the main Yamaha factory in Iwata is only a few kilometers away. Should they all just for the money? No. A number of Suzukis are waiting for us, plus a number of Suzuki managers and a Suzuki test driver as a tour guide. They all look pretty real. It cannot be a mirage.

But the streets hate motorcyclists. Otherwise a red traffic light would not be installed every few hundred meters. And red also really means red here. Not a little, but what feels like two minutes. After half an hour stop and go, I’m done. And my GSX-R 600 also, blows groaning with the fan at a cooling water temperature of 105 degrees. At the next stop I will bring up the topic of roundabouts. That would keep you moving. There is not a single one in Japan. Therefor traffic lights. I see it as a mistake. Nevertheless, the discipline in our group is absolutely exemplary. Even Uwe from PS submits to peer pressure and rolls along completely without a wheelie. I know him differently.


Report: Riding a motorcycle in Japan


piper

On the famous French “rond-point” – or in German roundabout – you do without in Japan. Instead, traffic lights wherever you look.

Mountains are slowly peeling out of the hazy horizon, the traffic is thinning, something is missing. Exactly, traffic lights! No traffic lights for four kilometers, but first turns. To my great satisfaction, I see that our tour guide also takes the radically low limits as a rough guide. Where it says 40, he lets it roll a little faster. In Japan you can drive at a painfully slow 60 km / h on country roads. He’s already over it. I decide to put the topic of roundabout aside a little longer. Now that even a rather wild mountain stretch begins, there is no need to discuss the basics.

Something happened to our tour guide instead. Is it deceiving me, or did I just see a jagged movement of his right hand? But, in fact, the boy suddenly lets it go as if he still wanted to qualify for the next eight-hour race in Suzuka. Hangs out the knee a bit and bends comfortably. The other Japanese men do the same, so it doesn’t seem to be a problem. Cars haven’t been around for a long time, but a sensational sequence of curves. You have to ignore the fact that you are driving on the wrong side all the time, which feels kind of weird, especially in left turns. Stay tuned is the order of the day. I’ll stick with it, but it has to be five digits here.


Report: Riding a motorcycle in Japan


piper

City maps only help to a limited extent – without a tour guide it is quickly over

Now it turns into a single-lane, graveled mountain slope that leads quite steeply up towards the summit. The long noses, that is, we, use it to drift a bit, which is fun, but stirs up stones for the man behind. A Japanese doesn’t do that. Out of courtesy. Very pleasant. “You are not controlled here?” “Only on weekends, because that’s when the bear is going on here”, explains our tour guide. Motorcyclists come here in droves to get their hands on it, and there would be quite a lot of accidents. Traffic fatalities in Japan? Unimaginable with these tough laws. “Yes, 15,000 every year!” Four times that of Germany !? How can that be? “Maybe because rules that are too hard are implausible.” May this realization reach every politician’s brain worldwide.

Far away, our hotel tower protrudes from the haze. In the middle of a seemingly endless depression full of industrial buildings and intersections. Finally my topic comes up. “Roundabouts would be good.” “Yes, roundabouts, that would speed up the flow of traffic.” We involve our Japanese hosts in a discussion about the advantages of this French invention. The most fascinating roundabout would be in Paris. There are six lanes around the Arc de Triomphe and still there would never be any serious accidents. Didn’t we also hear the story of the driver who tried for two days to get out and ended up running out of fuel? “Lost in rotation?” “Yes!” We laugh at each other together.

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