A HUGE thank you to Kaze bicycles for helping support our channel with these awesome bikes to ride!

KAZE BICYCLES is a Japanese inspired bicycle brand based in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Kaze (風) means wind, so the brand name literally means “ride like the wind”

Kaze bikes website – https://ridekaze.bike/

This is Thuong’s first time on a fully carbon road bike with carbon wheels. Fully aero, stiff, and a beautiful color to top things off. So needless to say, we’re both pretty stoked right now and will be putting a LOT of miles on these bikes 🙂

Thuong is riding the matte white frame. Cruise is riding the glossy red/black frame. Which one do you like better?

Today’s ride (Thuong’s Strava) – https://www.strava.com/activities/638…
Today’s ride (Cruise’s Strava) – https://www.strava.com/activities/638…

The post KAZE Race Kansai 2 Disc Road Bike Review & First Ride appeared first on Two Wheel Cruise.

Bike info – https://ridekaze.bike/product/kaze-ra…

Check the Thai website for local rates in Thailand. The English website includes international prices, which is much higher due to export duties.

At $900, I think it’s hard to find a better aluminum mountain bike with Shimano SLX components.

A big thank you to Kaze bicycles for letting us demo these MTBs while waiting for our new road bikes to arrive.

Our first bike ride on these bikes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVw4D…

The post Best Mountain Bike Under $900 – KAZE RACE SLASH 29er MTB Review appeared first on Two Wheel Cruise.

Despite looking at all of the solutions out there currently, including wheel on trainers, smart trainers, direct drive trainers, etc, this was by far the best solution for our situation. Here’s a link to the bike we got here in Japan.

IROTEC SPIN BIKE (road bike drop handlebars)

IROTEC（アイロテック）レーシングスピナー RS220 フライホイール22KG

The exact same model is not available in the US, but there are plenty of similar alternatives.

Sunny Health & Fitness SF-B1002

Spin bikes usually range from about $200~$600, and are a bit cheaper in the US compared to US (as is the case with most things unfortunately..) Despite the price changes, I don’t think the quality of the main parts changes that much. One of the main reasons I went with a slightly more expensive model was because of it’s simplicity.. There are no extra unnecessary electronics (since I’m using my pedal power meters to connect to ZWIFT they are not necessary) and also it has a standard road drop handlebar in addition to the regular spin bike style handlebars.

All in all, we are very happy with this purchase. This thing is super quiet and I’ve been able to get some great workouts in before and after work now without having to worry about annoying my neighbors. A great alternative to spending a lot of money on the newer direct drive smart trainers.

To complete the setup for the ultimate indoor cycling cave, I also bought the WAHOO standing desk for easy ZWIFT access and computer work while riding.

The post I Bought a Spin Bike! IROTEC スピンバイク Review appeared first on Two Wheel Cruise.

I decided to call up my friend Zac from BMC Japan, who also happened to be working the same event with me, and asked if I could borrow a one of their test bikes for the event. And he kindly lent me one of their top-end bikes, the BMC teammachine SLR01 with regular shimano ultegra (just the way I like it).

You’ll be seeing me ride this bike in a couple videos, and so I thought I’d do a proper introduction video of the full bike and it’s components. Also, we’ll be showing BMC Zac’s Roadmachine disc, which has a beautiful red and green color combination.

This bike is extremely fast, and I’ve already taken one of my target KOMs with it on Strava (ironically one where Zac was ahead of me haha).

It’s going to be hard to say goodbye to this bike, but it was fun while it lasted.. 🙂

The post BMC Teammachine SLR01 & Roadmachine Disc Review With Mr BMC Japan appeared first on Two Wheel Cruise.

Mama chari’s are the standard bike in Japan. They’re big, sturdy, comfortable to ride, and can carry lots of luggage with big baskets up front and racks in the back.

I bought one myself when I first came to Japan years ago..

Sadly, I only had the bike for about a month before selling it to my coworker since it was a bit too small for my liking. But we finally have a new mama chari bike back in our family, and are already putting it to a lot of good use..

Enjoy today’s VLOG where Thuong and I go hunting at a few different bike shops for the perfect mama chari!

The post Buying a Mama Chari Bicycle in Japan 新ママチャリ appeared first on Two Wheel Cruise.

We searched for quite a while without any luck, but eventually found a scooter shop that had some old “new” mountain bikes in the back corner collecting dust.

We were able to get 2 bikes for about $300, which was a bit pricier than what I was expecting, but I was desperate to have something to ride. They cleaned up the bikes for us and delivered them back to Thuong’s home, so we were able to go for a quick ride later that day.

Also can’t forget to mention these awesome blue aero spokes on my new bike 😉

Once we were back home, we quickly set out for a ride on our new bikes to explore the nearby Vietnamese countryside.

There were lots of farming nearby, as well as some rivers and pretty interesting bridges.

We decided to ride to Thuong’s old high school, and her commuting path was a pretty bumpy road filled with buffalo poop, watch out!

We ended up having a pretty fun ride, but didn’t have much time remaining as the sun was starting to set.

Very happy to finally get some wheels here in Vietnam, and excited to go on some longer rides from now on 🙂

The post Cycling in Vietnam Countryside With “NEW” Mountain Bikes appeared first on Two Wheel Cruise.

Track cycling played a really big part in developing my cycling racing career. I grew up with a velodrome very close by to my house, it it became one of my first entry points into the world of competitive cycling. However, once I moved away from home, participating in track cycling became more and more difficult, since there are not many tracks in the US, and I pretty much stopped riding / racing on the track.

In Japan, there are hundreds of velodromes or keirin-jo (競輪所), which is what they call the velodromes here when they are for the purpose of gambling. There are about 4 or so tracks within a reasonable distance to my home, so I decided to get a track bike of my own so I could participate in some of the training events and races at the local tracks.

Since I was only doing this for fun and I did not have a lot of money to spare, I was looking for a cheap, but good option. My friend suggested the Undefeated II model from State Bicycle Company, which at the time was an unknown brand to me. It appeared to be built for street fixed gear racing, but it looked like it could handle itself on a track (especially a nice wide open Japanese 400 meter track). The price was also perfect, at just under $1,000 with a decent wheelset and omnium track cranks, I couldn’t have picked a better build for this price point. To top things off, they were running a 20% off campaign when I bought mine, which helped cover the international shipping charge to Japan!

Here is the bike fully built up. Can’t wait to put it to the test. Full review coming up in a later blog post!

The post New Track Bike – State Bicycle Undefeated II appeared first on Two Wheel Cruise.

At last, cross season is here! A few weeks ago, I committed to racing CX this season by buying a new cyclocross bike from Planet X.

My region of Japan is known as the Tokai region, which mainly includes Aichi, Gifu, Shizuoka, and Mie prefectures. We have a cyclocross series called Tokai CX, and today was the first race of that series. Luckily, because of my past experience, I was able to start at Cat-2, rather than starting from the very lowest category and working my way up like everyone else.

I entered this race after a solid block of training, having just started to race semi-seriously again, so I came hoping for a win. Especially since I wanted to quickly upgrade to cat-1, and the only way to do that is to win a Cat-2 race.

Although I had a last row start, I was able to quickly move up by powering through the heavy mud on the course.

Definitely helps to be a power rider on a muddy course.

I quickly worked my way through the field and then attacked off the front by the end of the first lap.

After about halfway through, one rider managed to bridge up to me.

We mostly stayed together for the rest of the race, but I got gapped a little bit as he attacked through the last muddy section before the finish line on the last lap.

Looking at this picture, it’s clear I didn’t have the best tire choice for today. I’ll have to stock up on some mud tires for the next mud race..

Although I didn’t get the win I wanted, it was a great race and it felt great to race CX again. I’ll just have to train harder so that I can get my upgrade next time!

All in all, I very impressed by the Tokai CX community and vibe. It felt great to have so many people who I didn’t even know cheering for me. I forgot how much I loved CX, and I can’t wait to race some more in the rest of the Tokai CX series.

Thanks to Kikuzo Photo for the great photos
https://www.flickr.com/photos/maekawa0717/

The post 2016 Tokai CX #1 First Cross Race in Japan appeared first on Two Wheel Cruise.

Part I – Visa

A few weeks ago, I received my certificate of eligibility from Japan, which allowed me to apply for my Japanese Visa. The last time I applied for my Japanese Student Visa, I was living in Detroit, so I was easily able to go the Japanese Consulate there. Now that I am living in St. Louis, the closest Consulate is in Chicago. Rather than making two separate 10 hour round-trip drives, I decided to send in my application via FedEx Air Mail. In total, the roundtrip shipping cost was a bit over $30, which is a little bit pricey, but definitely cheaper than the alternative of driving there myself. Also, I received my completed Visa within a week of submitting my application!

I have steadily been making preparations for my departure, but have been slightly cautions and nervous in case anything did not work out for some reason. Now that I’ve officially gotten my visa it looks like everything is all clear and I can start to relax a bit. Right now, my estimated departure date is set for the end of March and so I am planning on buying my plane ticket very soon.

Part II – New Bike

One of the things I have been most excited about for my move to Japan, is bringing a bicycle with me. Cycling has been a very big part of my life and one of my biggest regrets during my time studying abroad was not being able to experience Japan via bicycle (I am planning on doing another blog post focusing on this in the near future).

Ever since I came back to the US from Japan 3 years ago, I have been primarily riding my Trek Cronus cyclocross bike as both my cyclocross and road bike. Although the bike was built and intended for cyclocross racing, I found it to be an excellent bike all around. When I was racing regularly in the road circuit, I would frequently get many looks from people since my bike obviously stood out. However, with that bike, or with Fang as I like to call her, I never felt like I was at a disadvantage in any road races. The main differences I noticed was that the bike would absorb more shock compared to road bikes and the position was slightly more upright. Both of these actually made the ride more comfortable. Unfortunately, I never did get a road race win with Fang, but I did get numerous podium spots, including a second place in the competitive MWCCC conference championship road race (Maybe I could have won with a road bike?).

Anyway, I decided that it was time for Fang and myself to part and that I wanted to convert and get an actual road bike for when I move to Japan. Despite all of my praise for my Trek Cronus, I have 2 main reasons for wanting the switch. The first reason is Japan is extremely mountainous and I would prefer the safety of road brakes compared to CX brakes. The second reason doesn’t really have to do with CX vs road, but I wanted to switch to a more durable aluminum frame. I stopped racing over a year ago and do not currently have any plans to race in the near future so there really is no need for me to have a carbon frame.

So, without further ado, let me present my new bike, a Specialized Allez! (not yet named)

Specialized Allez Road Bike

This is actually the first road bike I’ve owned since a car crash broke my Felt team bike almost 4 years ago. Hopefully I have better luck with this one. Anyway, I am starting to look into the cycling community around Nagoya, and I can’t wait to experience riding over there. Less than 2 months now!

The post Japanese Visa Approved and a New Road Bike! appeared first on Two Wheel Cruise.