Biking the Shimanami Kaido

I am interested in biking the Shimanami Kaido on my next trip to Japan from Onomichi city to Imabari city. It looks like great cycle route. Is this a cycle route only for bikes or does part of the route involving sharing the road with auto traffic? I prefer to bike only on separate cycle paths.

Arigato!

Is this a cycle route only for bikes or does part of the route involving sharing the road with auto traffic?

I was there last November, but did not complete the whole journey. It is for both bicycles and pedestrians only :
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3478.html

The Shimanami Kaido (しまなみ海道, Shimanami Kaidō) is a 60 kilometer long toll road that connects Japan's main island of Honshu to the island of Shikoku, passing over six small islands in the Seto Inland Sea. It is also known as the Nishiseto Expressway. There are two other land connections between Shikoku and Honshu, but the Shimanami Kaido is the only one traversable by foot or bicycle.

I only went from Onomichi to Ikuchijima so can tell you only about that part. Rented a bike at Onomichi port and caught a ferry to Mukaishima. The ride starts from there. The path is marked for the most part with the Shimanami Kaido symbol on the pavement. Even with that i got lost a few times. It was pretty safe as i recall with barely any traffic or seeing people along the way. I had one of those single speed "mama chari" bikes with the basket in front and remember having a tough time with all the climbing on the approaches to the bridges. Hope this helps you.

There is a separate bicycle/pedestrian path all the way, so you won't have to share the road with cars. There are a few places where path crosses from one side of the road to another, but there are traffic lights so you can cross over safely.
If you want to go all the way from Onomichi to Imabari, make sure you get a good road or touring bicycle. Most bikes that you can rent along the way are small city bikes, which are horrible for long distance rides.

Thanks for these suggestions and information! I wonder if there are any biking tour guides I could hire to show me the way.

Cheers. Looking forward to this.

I wrote my entry about Shimanami kaido in the following forum.
I hope this could help you find the best place to go.

http://shimanami.life/t/shimanami-kaido/28