SBK Japan

.. and on the seventh day he rested.

Too bad he wasn’t mortal or he could’ve jumped on a bike and done the Daisen Sunday Special!

I make that poke to the omnipresent one in tongue in cheek protest.

You see, we had originally planned on heading north for our Sunday adventure. After nearly 3 weeks of awesome planning an Ironbutt schedule and route had coalesced that was a dream to behold and the best yet. All we had to do was ride and enjoy it. We’d planned gas stops, time to gas stop, break times and duration, meal times and incorporated a circumnavigation of a peninsula, a castle, a volcano, some of Japan’s finest seafood and the north tip of the main island. All set for a great ride. Until someone rattled the earth’s mantle? The early morning major earthquake to the north on the Saturday forced us to reroute and head west.

The contenders

The ‘let’s ride‘ mobile mail had gone out to all the long distance riders I’ve ridden with about 3 weeks before, in the hope of a weekend Ironbutt to the north. 2 others were keen.

Mic was in! No going back for him. First mail reply was, ‘any chance we could make it a SS2000k?’ He hadn’t done a real long ride in more than a year and wanted to bravely (or blindly) test his stamina on his current torture rack, the GSXR600. None too disappointed when I said ‘no chance’ as I’d just done one the month before and this was a touristy type thing and not a highway marathon. Tenaciously he hung onto the hope that he could split off, do an extra 400km and meet up with us later down the route. Looking back on it and our sluggish off-highway excursion, he probably could have stayed on the highway and done it.

Collin and I had been planning on doing the northern leg for a while and he’d tentatively penciled in the 15^th of June as a day when he had no other commitments. However, there was a twist. He seemed reluctant but determined and I could understand his wavering enthusiasm as he intended to deform himself by galloping the distance on his MV Agusta F4. How could one not support this endeavor? That’s what real bikes are for, riding! That MV sure looked and sounded sweet and the ride ahead would put it to a real bike test. But was Collin up for a 24hr yoga lesson?

After the April/May SS2000k, 12 days and 6300km of touring heaven, I’d been on a self imposed ride limitation of less than 500km a day. Had to get some regular sleeping patterns and reality back in order. But the FZ1 seemed to be itching every time I walked past it to catch the train to work and I had to turn my head in shame. But the planning for the northern route kept me content in anticipation of the ride being planned. I whispered the developing plan on passing the FZ1 more than once, as much to sooth the karma gremlins as to alleviate my shame. Along with the FZ1 my feet were itching too.

The route

As noted, we had a bulletproof plan for an awesome north course. However nothing is finger of God-proof! And with that earthquake we had 18 hours to plan an alternate route. I threw up a cool route west that incorporated some of the roads covered in May and roughly calculated to over 1600km. Then the others went to work making it seem doable. Collin punched in all the way points on his Zumo to get us some much needed route detail and accuracy while Mic ..  . what did Mic do here? Oh yeah, he agreed wholeheartedly with whatever was being planned, played around a little with the gas schedule and then went off to a sayonara party for a departing friend. Good job mate! Admittedly, he had already done a hell of lot on the north course planning.

Here’s how it panned out

Tokyo - starting at a gas stand in central Tokyo, easily accessible to all and our witness. Take the nearest expressway out of there and head for.. .

Himeji-jo - UNESCO world heritage kick-ass castle. Totally original and until this day as yet unconquered! Next .. .

Daisen – A sleeping volcano out west ringed with awesome twisties and vistas. Followed by .. .

Tottori sand dunes – Japan’s only desert. Let’s not go too far with the desert bit though. Just a pit stop really, on the way to.. .

Route 666 – hey, what can I say, it’s a hell of a road! After our escape from Hades .. .

Back to Tokyo – superslab it back via expressway.

 The route worked out to be 1700+km with options, should we be ahead or behind schedule. But a lack of detail planning would mean we would be going old-school ride as the road delivers style. All be it with one modern addition, Colin on the Zumo guided Agusta.

Headed out East to West on the South line and returned along the North line West to East.

The prep

Not much to write about here. All the bikes had new oil and more than enough tyre for the distance. We all knew what to expect and packed accordingly.

I’d pushed for a 2am start so we could get back at a semi-reasonable hour for a late Monday start at work. Well, with my Saturday work and everyone’s Monday work commitments, it became the only choice. Besides, no one had started a marathon from that time before. Ah the learning curve.. .

The Ride

Picture a corner gas stand on a five road intersection in the heart of Tokyo at 1.30am. Expressway humming overhead backed by a sky dimly glowing from the light pollution. The occasional free-flowing drifter exhaust wailing across the thrumming drone of down town metropolis and an endless parade of taxis filled with those that had missed the last train home. Here we find 3 Ironbutts on another journey that would take them everywhere but the metropolis, until 24hrs later. Hopefully.

Me - Fazer                     Colin - Agusta                       Mic - Gixer

Our start witness was another long distance rider who was out racing mini-bikes until midnight and graciously agreed to ride across Tokyo to see us off. Thanks Anthony.

Filling the tanks, triple checking the equipment, taking some photos and getting comfy we trundled out of the gas stand around 2.15am and headed for the Shuto Expressway to take us out of the urban maze and onto the Tomei expressway which would guide us some 300km into the morning light out west.

Gliding down the Tomei and stopping for gas only once we had the sun lighting the sky hot on our heals as we veered off left onto the Ise-wangan Expressway that cuts across Nagoya Bay. A superb 3 to 4 lane elevated expressway, with great panoramic views, that rolls and flows along the coast before island hopping across the bay to the west side.

Heading further west we took the extensions out to the Shin-Meishin Expressway. A beautiful new road with near zero traffic and great views when exiting tunnels into new valleys filled with rice paddies and wooded hills. These wonderful views took us onto the Meishin Expressway and into the heart of Osaka and it’s dreaded morning traffic.

Shuffling into the traffic the three of us settled in for the stress. It slowed down and down and then we were doing 30km/h and thoughts of the ticking IBA clock rang an alarm. At this point the sign for a bypass(Keiji bypass) showed us to be only 2km from salvation. Patience fellas. It paid off with a clear run along the Keiji before rejoining the Meishin Expressway in much thinner traffic. That hurdle cleared, we followed the signs for a short run along the Chugoku Expressway heading west in search of our 1^st sightseeing stop.

Before we got there, the fuel meters started complaining and my memory of the course was a little fuzzy this far west so a stop was called for. Kasai SA(service area) was just ahead with fuel, restaurant and facilities. Perfect! Pulled into the designated bike parking, dismounted and scrabbled around all hunched, warped and stiff. Especially the other 2 on there decidedly more unergonomic torpedoes. Breakfast would straighten us out. Gathered up the valuables and headed inside to feed the furnaces. A visit to the bakery with a coffee to wash down the solid fuel then made our way to a booth overlooking the parking area with a view to the bikes.

We gas bagged for a bit whilst satisfying our appetites. Immediately after, Mic was drifting, head in hand and eyelids setting. He needed another kind of fuel. Rest. So Colin and I gassed along for a while sorting out the route ahead and some gas-stop strategy. But we could only keep this up so long with Mic, ever the comedian, even managing to get us laughing in his sleep. It started like this. Head rocking, hand slipping down over his brow and with a start he’s back into his original rest position. Everybody’s seen it at one time or another. This continued deeper and deeper. Then Colin pulled the camera. He dipped and rose ever deeper descending into his slumber, only to rise with a start time after time. Finally, he had dipped too far and his head and hand ended there zombie dance. The neck snapped his melon upright again with confusion and embarrassment alternately fleeting across his glassy eyes. Then he saw the camera and a smile split ear to ear. We all had a laugh and it was time to head out again with Mic having lit his riding fire again and putting a smile on all of our dials.

We didn’t get too far as Colin seemed to have debilitated the Agusta. While gassing up he’d left the Zumo and headlight on without the engine running, as he does on his FJR, but now the Agusta wouldn’t even crank over. Time for his 1^st lesson in push-starting. Luckily he’s a fast learner, the Agusta trumpeted it’s quad exhausts in a return to life and we were on the road again, headed for Himeji castle.   

 Himeji-jo : One of Japan's "3 famous castles" and the first to be given UNESCO world heritage status: Also known as the White Heron

Daisen is a sleeping, almost dead volcanic zone ringed by memorable twisties and vistas. About 60km of them. Great elevation changes, hairpins, dog legs, sweepers, dense forest, volcanic dust pans, odd rock formations, valleys, bridges and jungle. We all loved the jungle passes. Hahaha! Not really, just a personal favorite of mine. Don’t know what the others were so worried about. Just because the edge of the road is utterly undefined due to the voracious consumption by the encroaching foliage. Could it be, that voraciousness had them worried about disappearing off the side of the road into the primeval tangle never to be glimpsed again? To me it just looked like a soft furry fringe along a most excellent meandrous ride. Aaah, now I get it! From their crouched torpedoes they had trouble seeing the asphalt carpet snaking its way through the entrenched green.

Heading back to the Chugoku and going west, we turned off north onto the Yonago Expressway before the Chugoku turned south west and its famous twisties started. Damn! However, the Yonago was nice and new with lots of tunnels but mainly single lane. Luckily it wasn’t busy and we could keep rolling along without the clock stressing us. We pulled off the expressway one stop early in search of some much needed gas. By this stage we could assume that Mic’s and my bike were the serious drinkers while the Agusta was showing a surprisingly frugal side. The gas-diversion had us rerouting along some cool old-forest lined byways to get us back on our original course leading into the Daisen loop from the north-west corner.

 158 gives the first up close views of the snow capped 1700+metre peaks of Mt.Kengamine whilst climbing at a steady rate. 45 is 25km of super-twisty heaven! 44 initially continues the twisties before smoothing out and running down a valley side. 34 is slowly being reclaimed, from the curbside in, by jungle. The blacktop is in good condition and there are mysterious mid-jungle oases of finely engineered dual lane super-twisties. But mostly it’s jungle running. 30 gets you back onto decidedly more civilized dual lane mild twists with nice farm vistas. 54 is the down hill run to the Sea of Japan coast with cool views to the west and east.

Oh! And bloody bright tunnels. Lights ON lights OFF! Maybe it would be easier to count how many times the lights are turned on and off next time.  

The route home took us 650+km along the following expressways: Kyoto-Jukan, Maizuru-Wakasa, Chugoku, Meishin and then onto the Chuo for the last 350 odd kms back to Tokyo. We just kept ticking along and didn’t stay together so much. We’d settled on a plan for when we got separated, to stop at the first SA/PA with gas after 160km from the previous stop. So we’d meet at the agreed stop, see all were ok and still functioning then gas up and head out again. No waiting to regroup after the gas up as some gas stands were only manned with 2 staff and that extra 10 minutes waiting would only be amplified by the end. Actually, we were beginning to run a little behind schedule each stop. Making the distance wouldn’t be a problem but making it back in time might.

As we climbed into the hills north east of Nagoya an increasing mountain cold was waiting for us. The temperature gauge had previously been floating between 20 and 25 degrees C. Perfect riding temperatures for that time of year. As we climbed both in altitude and northern latitude the temps dropped and dropped until it hit a low of 12C. Not too cold really but about 10C below previous average temps. Enough to make you feel it. Nobody wasted time to rug up, just soldiered on as the route back into Tokyo promised rising temperatures and the need to disrobe again.

Around our last gas stop on the expressway the Zumo was telling us that the Goal was still 240 something kilometres away. Damn that was near impossible with my bikes current tune. Maybe if I tuck behind the screen, be real slow and smooth with the throttle, leave the throttle lock on as much as possible and fill the tank to the brim it may be able to stretch it. Maybe! It had previously been doing around 210kms per tank on fills of 17-18litres. Another 15%? Mmmm  So, told the pump monkey my dilemma and he went right to work like a moonshine salesman with a limited number of bottles and barrels full of liquor. He filled that tank with such devotion and patience I was impressed by his skill and commitment alone. Then I looked at the pump, 19.3 litres! Probably had less than half a litre in there before the fill. The extra fill was looking promising. Got back out on the road and it took 78km before losing the 1^st bar. Great! It had previously vanished around the 55km mark. Halfway there. I sat with Colin for this leg and kept it steady and on target. The fatigue was starting to creep in though. Mic had rolled out ahead of us and was in the same situation, fuel consumption wise, as me.

Getting off the end of the expressway in Tokyo was a great relief. The gas stand was just around the corner and I was 58km into a reserve that I’d never dared push past 61km before. But we hadn’t seen Mic. He wasn’t at the gas stand either. Where was he? We pulled up to the pumps and gave our labored steeds a much needed drink. I threw a couple litres of Hi-octane into the FZ1 as a reward for getting me home AGAIN. But the time on the receipt showed the end of the fill was 2:04AM. I’d started at around 2AM. Had I made it? Seems I was 4 or 5 minutes late on the receipt. How long did the fill take? Well, I had managed 1742kms in those 24hrs and 5minutes. Hope the IBA sees it that way.

But where was Mic? Sent him a text and he called back almost immediately. Wasn’t he on the road? Nope, seems nature had called on his Ironbutt and a switch to the porcelain water chariot had become an immediate necessity. He said he’d done 1650 kms, or there abouts, and his bike was low on gas anyhow. He wasn’t concerned about the certification. He’d done it, he knew it and that’s all that he needed to make him happy. It wasn’t his 1^st SS1600k anyhow. He was content in himself that he’d done it and on his GSXR600 no less. What a Champion!

All in all, from a great sunrise ride to a magnificent castle to an awesome volcanic ring of twisties to giant coastal wind turbines to the quasi desert and then the devil’s byway, it was a different way to do an SS1600k!

About 1420km expressway

320km local roads and byways

24hr