Bikepacking Archives - Two Wheel Cruise

BLUE LUG – Japanese Bike Shop Tour / Custom Bikes & Bikepacking Bags in TOKYO

Cruise — Sun, 28 Nov 2021 13:25:00 +0000

BLUE LUG is a custom bike shop based in Tokyo. They specialize in custom bike builds, unique bikes, and custom frame bags and other bikepacking accessories.

This is an extremely popular Japanese bike shop, which also sells their cycling goods online with worldwide shipping.

Some of the bike brands we saw in today’s bike shop tour include Surly bikes, Affinity bikes, Crust bikes, All-City bikes, MASH steel bikes, including city bikes, road bikes, gravel bikes, touring bikes, and more.

BLUE LUG HATAGAYA – https://bluelug.com/#shops

Cycling Lake Biwa – Bike Touring on Folding Bikes

Cruise — Wed, 10 Nov 2021 12:33:00 +0000

4K Japan Cycling Tour – Lake Biwa to Kyoto. Bike Touring on folding bikes.

Lake Biwa is the largest lake in Japan and is one of the best cycling routes in Japan. They have protected shared pedestrian / cycling roads around most of the entire lake.

In today’s ride, we are starting in Maibara and riding South East towards Oohashi (the big bridge) near Kyoto.

Full cycling route on Strava – https://www.strava.com/activities/6172851405

Gopro 4k cycling video

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How to Bring Bicycles on Trains in Japan | Rinko Bag (輪行) Tutorial

Cruise — Tue, 08 Jan 2019 06:45:06 +0000

Is it OK to bring your bicycle on trains in Japan? I often get asked this question on this channel, so I thought I’d make this video about this topic.

We’re in the last day of our Kansai road bike bikepacking trip and we’re taking the shinkansen high speed bullet train back to Nagoya. In order to bring your bike on a train in Japan 99% of the time you will need a rinko bag (輪行袋).

They are usually about 3,000~5,000 yen and come in various sizes/colors.

TIOGA Rinko Bag (the one that I own) (タイオガ)

DOPPLEGANGER 輪行バッグ

Both of these are large enough to carry a road bike, but you need to take off your front wheel.

Some extra tips
– take off your pedals (though not necessary)
– strap your front wheel to the frame to prevent movement
– if you’re on the shinkansen, there’s plenty of space at the back of each train car.
– For regular trains, aim for the front or back of the train. Peak hour times on crowded lines are not allowed, so be careful to avoid this situation.

Any other questions about bringing bikes on trains in Japan, leave them in the comments.

Kansai Japan Bikepacking Trip Playlist

The post How to Bring Bicycles on Trains in Japan | Rinko Bag (輪行) Tutorial appeared first on Two Wheel Cruise.

Bombtrack Beyond 1 | Bikepacking Bicycle & Bag Setup

Cruise — Wed, 11 Jul 2018 09:39:01 +0000

Today we’re taking a look at an awesome bikepacking bike setup with the Bombtrack Beyond 1. We met up with a local subscriber while cycling the Chita Peninsula (知多半島) here in Aichi, Japan, and his bike setup was just so awesome that I wanted to share it with you guys.

Bombtrack, The Company

Before seeing this bike, I did not know about the Bombtrack brand. Apparently they are a fairly new bike company based out of Germany that specialize in making Steel / touring focused bikes. Needless to say, I quickly became a fan after seeing their Beyond 1 model in full bikepacking mode.

Bikepacking bags, bags, and more goodies

This bike had a wide arrangement of goodies and bikepacking bags attached to it… I was quite jealous to say the least..

Front handlebar bag – Porcelain Rocket Horton

Double Bottle Cage – Wolf Tooth

Other items on the bike..

Front rack – Kaddy Rack

Lights / Camera combo – Cicliq

Other bikepacking bags – Oveja Negra bikepacking bags

Other bikepacking bags- Bedrock bikepacking bags

The post Bombtrack Beyond 1 | Bikepacking Bicycle & Bag Setup appeared first on Two Wheel Cruise.

Restrap Saddle Bag Review / Test Ride

Cruise — Thu, 05 Jul 2018 08:23:26 +0000

I’ve been looking into solutions for good bikepacking bags that I can use to attach to our bikes for our longer rides to help us carry equipment so we can stop relying on backpacks and killing our shoulders. Recently, my local friend here in Nagoya (Japan) bought a Restrap saddle bag and was telling me how good it was, so I decided to pull the trigger and purchase one for myself.

They come in two main sizes, 8 liters and 14 liters. The main difference being with the dry bag itself. We ended up going with the 14 liter option, so we would have more room in case we needed it.

One interesting thing to note about this saddle bag is that it is actually split into two parts. The dry bag (above) and the holster which attaches to the seat post and saddle (below).

Installing the Restrap Saddle Bag

Installation is quite simple. There are two main contact points which are very easy to attach. Two Velcro straps which go around the seat post, and two clips for each side of the saddle railings. Once the harness is attached, you just need to slide in your dry bag. Actually, if you wanted to, you could fit in other bags into the holster as well.

And voila, as you can see our new Restrap saddle bag is looking quite good with my black specialized Allez. I’ve done a few test rides with this saddle bag so far, and it’s been doing an awesome job and it seems to be very durable (can’t forget about waterproof as well!)

How to purchase

The bags currently cost about $110-$130, and you can purchase directly, through Amazon, or through a local distributor.

Restrap Homepage: https://restrap.co.uk/

Amazon Links: Amazon US /// Amazon Japan

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