Well, this is the day we have been waiting for, and the results have made it worth the wait. Yoshi has completed the installation of the replacement wiring to accommodate the new Shimano 630 battery. It has incredible range, exceeding 200 Km and it makes the trike so peppy. We so appreciate Yoshi’s dedication and his hard work in retrofitting the wiring , which is not an easy task.
We are riding from our hotel to Yoshi’s shop for him to finish the wiring. We had the trikes for the w/e and rode our trikes without e-power.
This recumbent trike is Yoshi’s…a Performer trike from China. Its pedal assist has a turbo setting…just like the film, we were off like Marty Mcfly in Back to the Future.
Yoshi is the sole dealer for Azub in Japan. He is an avid recumbent rider and advocate for this style of riding. Recumbents are still very rare here, especially recumbent trikes. When Honda of Azub Trikes fame visited Yoshi’s shop, he billed it The Smallest Recumbent Trike Shop in the world. Small but mighty.
This is interesting. A parking lot for bikes and the tariff is 100 yen for 24 hours….$1 per day. There are many solutions we see in Japan to compensate for limited space.
We are very keen to explore areas away from the cities. The easiest way to travel distances is to hop on the ferry. Our plan for tomorrow is to take the overnight ferry to the southern Island of Kyushu. Sunflower ferries operate vessels to many locations. The problem is that we have been trying to reach them for some time…from Canada and Japan by phone, by internet…they don’t allow that if you are travelling by bike. They never answer the phone. We discovered why this is, we think…when we arrived, there were no bodies in chairs taking calls. There was only a guy doing truck bookings. His lack of English prompted him to seek out a manager, and voila…he helped us secure a booking. Everyone seems surprised that we have come to do this, in advance before the sailing.
We are excited. In another day we will be in sub tropical climes with beaches galore, less populous areas and good riding.
We have finally mastered the Metro (subway) system. It is very affordable and makes this vast city accessible for all.
The ATC building (Asia Trade Centre) located at Osaka Bay is where you go to book your ferry. We were surprised to see stores in this building as well. We visited a discount store and this Outdoor Store…Logo which caters to car camping.
