ROYALE GT S9 Foldable Bicycle by MOBOT https://mobot.sg/shop/bicycle-bike/royale-gt-s9-foldable-bicycle/

Thuong’s 6 speed Royale – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDrevmeyANo

Bicycle information

Frame: Chromoly steel

Weight: 13.4 kg

Wheels: 16″

Drivetrain: 9 speed c/w STURMEY ARCHER 3 speed internal gear hub

Dimensions: 1480 mm (L) x 540 mm (W) x 960 mm (H)

Folded Dimensions: 600 mm (L) x 380 mm (W) x 630 mm (H)

5 years warranty on frame under normal usage

The post Mobot Royale Folding Bike Review & First Ride / Royale GT S9 9 speed 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.

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.

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.