Bicycle prices in Tokyo

Hello to all :)
Soon I'll be for a moth in Japan to travel on bike. Since transporting own with airplane is now days very expensive, it is more economic most times to buy cheep one on place. So my question is what are the lowest prices in Tokyo of bicycles with at least rear derailleur ?
At best 28" wheels, but normal 26" will be perfect. I'll be making ~1600km, so I belive anything will withstand that :)
From what I've read prices I should expect are ~12000 yen, but I'm not shure if for the type of bike I need.

Best regards
Romek

12000 yen gets you a basic mama chari, but that probably won't suit your plans. For a 1600km trip you will need a decent road bike, and those can be quite expensive in Japan. I would plan to triple or quadruple your bicycle budget, or just bring your own bike (you'll probably find it cheaper in the long run).

mama chari(mom's bike) is a sort of "town bike" with which moms can take her children to the kindergarden and supermarket.

This type of bicycle is enough when getting around the suburban area of huge city. It's also what you can rent from rent-a-cycle outlet in Tokyo, Kyoto etc.
http://www.edita.jp/kimono/image/kimono8607/mama01_mal.jpg?_ex=128x128

you can find used road bikes and even new single speed bikes for around 30-60,000yen.

if you don't mind a single speed you can get a good one for under 50,000yen.

in tokyo a single speed is good enough, there are no hills steep enough to make riding one impossible.

sorry, i misread your original budget but - if you look hard you can probably get a used single-speed bike for around your budget but it'll be old. you might also ask your japanese friends if they know where to get old abandoned bikes that the police have given up on finding the owners for. they're often free or very cheap.

I bought my daughter a new 15 speed hybrid (more like a road bike with front shockers) alloy frame bike for about 35,000yen, from Tokyu Hands in Yokohama. They always seem to have sales there.
The bike is light and easy to ride.

I'd strongly advice against buying the bike on the spot. Even with the extra cargo costs, it will be still cheaper to bring your own bike that is already set-up and customized for such a journey. What about your panniers, racks etc? Have you done anything like this before?

Thank you for feedback.
But this is a surprise for me what you write - I thought that bicycles are not much more expensive then in European countries... :(

Panniers, racks and all the equipment I'll bring with me, so what I need is cheep bicycle.
Last year i was in China with the same idea - we bought cheepest, market mtb bicycles - for both of them with some minor equipment I paid
somewhere around 330USD (so around 25000 yen).
That were normal mtb - on the pictrue below is the one I rode (with my panniers)
http://xor.iq.pl/img/chiny/SAM_0202.jpg

And in Europe I'd pay max 20% more.
What are the cheepest market mtb/trekking, multispeed bicycles ?

'Mama chari' is no good :)

BTW. Bringing own bike would cost me both ways around 50000 yen.

Bringing own bike would cost me both ways around 50000 yen.

That depends who you are flying with. For instance, Air France will charge you 240 EUR (23,000 yen) via internet booking for your bike's return ticket. And the weight of the boxed bike is not counted in the 23 kg allowance of your regular luggage. That's a fair deal IMO. British Airways can offer similar deals. Korean Airlines = hopeless. Japanese Airlines will let you take a ton of luggage, if you can satisfy their volume requirements. So it really depends, and it pays off to research the offers.

Where did you find, that taking bike with AirFrance/KLM will cost both ways only this much ?

On AF web page (choose bicycles and tandems)
http://www.airfrance.com/PL/en/common/guidevoyageur/pratique/bagage_eq...
from what I see Japan would fall into 4), thus taking bike both ways would cost 400EU

Where did you find, that taking bike with AirFrance/KLM will cost both ways only this much ?

Oh dear! I did the research some months back. They must have increased the charges in the meantime. I see they even dropped the online booking discount. 400 EUR is way too much IMO.

Try to check Aeroflot. They seem to have the cheapest fares ATM. They have 2 pieces of luggage (total 23 kg) free allowance, 5 kg carry on allowance, and 150 EUR one way oversize charge (for your bike box). The one downside is that you will have to change the plane in Moscow (a dreadful experience).

If find some better deals, let me know in this thread.

Good luck!

Sorry. My info regarding the free baggage allowance for Aeroflot was partially incorrect. The checked-in baggage free allowance is 20 kg and the carry-on baggage free allowance is 10 kg, thus 30 kg in total (not bad, right?). The oversize charge is the same as I stated - 150 EUR one way.

You can verify this here http://www.aeroflot.ru/cms/en/offices?city=253

If you do, please let me know whether they confirmed.

So you bought a "normal" MTB bicycle in China for around 25,000yen? It would have been Chromoly steel. I bought my alloy frame MTB at Tokyo Hands for 32,000 yen, 21 speed, disc brakes, front shocks.... I can pick it up with two fingers.

see if you can find a used bridgestone roadman.

you can find them on yahoo auctions for super cheap - i bought a roadman for 7000yen a few years ago. it came with luggage racks both front and back, lights, fenders, etc.

i junked all the fenders and racks and upgraded it to be super fast and worth probably over 300,000yen but the point is you can get cheap bikes, but they'll be old and used.

Hi
Sorry for delay :)

Sea Monster )
After long considering pros and cons, I decided to take my own bike.
With Aeroflot bicycles are free, as long as it will fit in 23kg baggage limit (size limitations are not applied to bicycles !). If it weights more, overweight costs will be applied.
One bicycle takes entire 1 baggage slot, and free baggage allowence for economy ticket is just 1 piece of baggage.
So I'll have to buy 1 (or 2) additionall pieces - each cost 50EUR, so taking bicycle both ways will cost me probably 100EUR, max 200EUR.
Acceptable, around my limits for buying bicycle in Japan, and I'll not loose day/two for searching one in Tokyo :)

Since you seem interested in a matter - originally I planned to take my bicycle with Swiss Air - bikes are also free as long they fit to free baggage allowence, and there give 2 piecess of free baggage :) But they have cheep flights available only for some dates, and these were not convenient to me.


Sandy )
Oh, in China both bicycles cost me 25.000YEN (~2000yuan) together - one was around 12500 :)
But yours sounds very nice for such price, hope it will serve you well for long time.


Thank you all for feedback :)

@ wiewiór

That's a good deal from Aeroflot. But I advise you to learn which transit terminal will be used for the flight at the Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow. And if it's the dreaded terminal F, then brace yourself for the dirtiest, smelliest, the most unfriendly and least hospitable place on Earth. Make you sure you bring your own food and something to drink while you wait for the connecting plane.

And please, when you return, come back here (to this thread) and let me know how it all went.

Have a safe trip and enjoy your travel in Japan. Bon Voyage and good luck! :-)

@wiewiór
I'm leaving for a cycling trip at the end of this month, flying with aeroflot. When informing about this statement on their website"The bicycle equals to 1 piece of luggage and is included into the free baggage allowance" I found out that they do apply size limitations to bicycles, which I find quite odd as for a bicycle 158cm as the sum of all 3 sizes is always too small. Can you share with us how your flight went? Did they not apply size limitations to your bicycle?