Bike Friday in Karuizawa
photo by Lynette Chiang
Having returned from field studies in Izu, we were set to head to Nagano on Saturday night. With my Scott Road Bike off the road thanks to some issues with my relatively new Easton Wheelset, I was happy to take my Bike Friday Pocket Rocket to Karuizawa for a week of play in the mountains.
I regularly follow YAK which is BF’s email based message board. On Friday night I got an update from Lynette Chiang, who I knew had been in Tokyo the week before, saying the Bike Friday group was heading to the mountains of Japan. Curious I checked to see where they would be staying.
Much to my surprise, they were in Karuizawa and further that they were staying at a pension less the 1km from our family place out there. Not certain what their internet access would be, I sent off a last minute invitation for anyone in the group to join me for my typical 60k morning ride that runs the ridge from Karuizawa 72 golf course out to Uchiyama Farm, with fantastic views of Mt Asama and down a spectacular 12k descent into Saku city, then along the foothills of the same ridge back to Naka-Karuizawa.
Mt. Asama from the Shimonita/Saku Super View Road
I swung by the Pension at 6:30am to see if anyone was awake but save a dozen Bike Fridays snoozing in the back, all was quiet around the place. After completing my ride, I stopped by the pension around 9am to see what was going on and enjoyed the shock of all particularly Lynette Chiang aka. Gal from Down Under or Bike Friday Customer Service Evangelist. I guess an unknown foreigner rolling up on a pocket rocket wasn’t what they expected to see. Apparently I had just missed the rest of the group departing for Karuizawa station.
Hearing that the group’s experience with Karuizawa had pretty much been limited to the major roads, I took it upon myself to at least share a bit of Karuizawa’s back road charm as they headed into town. Under pending drizzle, we climbed into the edge of the mossy forest that characterizes this region. We lucked out with a bit of beautiful fall color on this short 4k back way into town.
With Jeff and Miki taking in the leaves on a chilly Karuizawa morning (photo by Lynette Chiang)
It was good fun to connect with other Bike Friday people. I’m not usually one for networking with people just because we own the same brand of something but there is something unique about Bike Friday that makes it a bit of a exclusive club. For one, as Lynette pointed out, it takes bit of security to ride around on small wheels. As she said, most people want to look like Lance and a foldable doesn’t quite cut the image.
The bikes the other members of the group had were great to see. A couple of Tikits, which I had already seen around Yokohama, and Jeff’s Air Friday – my first to set eyes on. That really is an interesting frame design.
After a quick little descent along the golf course adjacent to town, we rolled along some of the old foreign vacation properties. We ended up in the old shopping district of Kyu-Karuizawa and finally onto to Shinkansen Station where we would rejoin the rest of the Bike Friday traveling contingent. It was great to meet some others who are passionate about these little bikes that fly like the wind.
With a classic Karuizawa drizzle settling in and my low blood sugar levels from the longer ride that preceded this gathering I zipped back home to a hot shower and full breakfast.
Thanks for the warm welcome from all the people on the Bike Friday Japan Tour. For more photos of the gathering click through to this link.
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