A Special Recumbent Gathering - Six wheels through Japan - CycleBlaze

May 21, 2023

A Special Recumbent Gathering

Every day, after our room is refreshed, a card with a new origami crane is waiting for us on our desk. A nice touch.
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Mutsumi Hashimoti has been a delight to deal with at the KKR Hotel. All of the staff here offer exceptional service, but Mutsumi has really taken us under her wing and made our stay even more special. She speaks English well and loved practicing her English with us.
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It looks to be a hot sultry day in Osaka.
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Tsurumi Park Ryokuchi  is our destination today. This park was the site of the 1990 International Flower and Gardening Expo which attracted over 23 million visitors over the 183 days.  We will be meeting Yoshi at the Life Tower in the park. Osaka will be hosting World Expo in 2025.

We stayed on in Osaka for an extra night so that we could attend Yoshi’s Recumbent Rally at Tsurumi Park Ryokuchi, about 10 Km from our hotel. As usual we enjoyed breakfast in our room - yogurt, granola, fruit and Barry’s Aeropress coffee. It continues to be humid and will be in the high 20’s.

The energy of the city will be different today. Being Sunday the park will be full of families having barbecues and enjoying the day. 

We heard the music, voices chanting and drums beating long before seeing this group on the road. The traffic stopped and let them through. We continue to be pleasantly surprised by the consideration of drivers, not only for us but for events like this. Not sure what is happening but I’m sure we’ll see more. Festivals are a common occurrence here.
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Two fellows have beautiful Velomobiles made in the Netherlands.
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The Strida is a portable belt driven folding bicycle. It has an A shaped collapsible frame.
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The proud owner of the Outre riding his bike. The front wheel is 8” and the rear is 20”. Watch out for pot holes or tram tracks with this one.
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Keith AdamsLooks like the modern descendent of one of the bikes you saw at the Shimano museum.
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10 months ago

The Outre is Japanese built and provides a solution to carrying a bike on the crowded public transit and storage. The vertical bar has a brake lever that activates a rear disc brake and a front brake. It features one and a half wheels, hence the name. The Shimano grip shifter features 8 gears.  A fascinating invention and it is about as far away from the huge size and comfort of our trike. We love the unique and quirky world of bikes that defy the conventional

This weird and wonderful bike defied the efforts of those who tried to ride it. It takes tremendous core strength and is quite twitchy. It seemed to us that it is perhaps like riding a unicycle but with added complications.
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Keith AdamsSomehow I don't think I'd want to try that one on a long, twisty, steep mountain descent. Or ascent either, for that matter.
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10 months ago
The Cruz Bike is American made. It features front wheel drive and the comfort of a recumbent bike.
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Keith AdamsI've seen these at my favorite local bike shop. There's a knack to steering and pedaling one.
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10 months ago

The fellow seated on my trike is about to have a test ride.   He owns  a recumbent trike as well.

This is what a Rally is all about. Like minded people enjoying each other’s ride. Some of the guys spoke some English, but it didn’t deter us from communicating as we all spoke the language of bike.
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The group with their bikes/trikes at the Rally. Yoshi is seated on Barry’s trike.
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It has been a wonderful day. We really enjoyed being included in this gathering and meeting these fellows and seeing their bikes/trikes. My trike was test rode by some of the guys and they loved the suspension and steering. Barry’s trike was too large for them.
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After spending a few hours at the rally we went for a ride around this huge park. As we were about to leave, we heard chants and drumming and sure enough, the festival and come to the park for their finale.
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It is a family affair with many generations participating.
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It looks to be great fun.
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The pictures say  it all. It has been an incredible day. Thank you Yoshi and Osaka.

Today's ride: 41 km (25 miles)
Total: 888 km (551 miles)

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