Guell Saturday Ride To Kyoto (And Shiga)

We joined up with the Guell crew again yesterday for a ride into Kyoto prefecture...

A nice, gentle ride along the cycle path next to the Kizugawa river...

A brief rest stop....

Then back on the road to Uji, Kyoto, famous for green tea and we passed many plantations along the way...

We rode by the Nagare-bashi bridge, sadly destroyed by recent typhoon rains but promising to be rebuilt yet again soon...

 Passing through many underpasses along our way to Uji, Kyoto...

Our destination, Nakamura Tokichi, a famous tea house in Uji, a beautiful building both outside...

And inside...

We stopped for lunch and to sample some of the many wonderful varieties of local green tea on offer...

Then  a ride through Uji to chill out by the river while we waited for the Guell Shiga crew to join us...

 A truly beautiful place...

Yasushi-san, pondering a change of career from successful BMX flatland rider, to local fisherman?!..

Our leader, guide and navigator, Toshio-san enjoying the river life!...

Then back on the road for the return journey to Nara...

Toshio-san, no-handed, speeding along in the afternoon sun...

A quick chance to re-group...

...Then back riding into the setting sun...

Slow train coming...

More stunning scenery along the way....

A fantastic day spent with good friends in a beautiful setting, many thanks to Toshio-san who takes a lot of time planning and organising these rides and a big thanks to the whole Guell crew.

Guell Night Ride To Cafe Junk

Out with the Guell crew yesterday for what was meant to be a "gentle" and "short" 10km night ride across Nara to Tomio to visit Cafe Junk...

Flying past Heijo Palace

 ..And it was just that, gentle, rolling through the Heijo Palace, speeding around Saidaiji...

Yamato-Saidaiji Station

A brief rest at a train crossing...

But then Toshio-san had a little surprise for us, as he is training for the Suzuka Enduro we were going to take the high road, because from there on in the journey was filled with some quite serious climbs...

Up, up, and away!

A lot of grinding of gears, swearing and sweating before we finally made it to our destination....

Cafe Junk

Suitably rested and refueled, we prepared for the journey back to Nara...
 

 Thankfully the ride back was what we would call gentle...

 No killer climbs, no grinding gears and no swearing....

...Just a nice, relaxed ride back to Nara...

We were back in Saidaiji before we knew it...

Toshio-san, ready for the 8 hour Suzuka Enduro!

A fun, if somewhat exhausting night! Arigato to Toshio-san and the whole Guell crew.

Chillin' back at Guell.

 And just because we love this bike so much, a photo of Yamamoto-san's seriously cool Kuwahara...

Kansai Street OSGP Clip

Kansai Street OSGP Clip from RyoYokota on Vimeo.

CycleMode International 2013

Held in both Tokyo and Osaka, CycleMode is Japan's largest bike show with exhibitors from all over the globe showing off their new bikes and kit. We are kind of doubly excited as our good friends from the Guell  store will be taking part in the BMX Flatland Battle being held at the Osaka event. We will be there taking as many photos as out camera will hold!

Girl's Keirin At Nara Keirin

We were at Nara Keirin yesterday for the first of a three day F2 meeting. Each day featuring two Girl's Keirin races. We tried our best to get as many decent photos of those colourful bikes as possible, here's the results of our efforts...

Kuwahara X The Misfits

Spotted out in Osaka last week, this Kuwahara BMX, looking good, layback seat, Skyway wheels, real old school vibe...

But it's the custom Misfits head badge/sticker that does it for us....Punk's Not Dead, Etc.

WEiRD PiSTA036「マエアゲ〜」