55mph - Roots. Vol.02

The restrictions the COVID-19 threat has placed on us has generated within just about everyone a longing for the freedom to go wherever whenever we want. With a faint light finally beginning to appear at the end of the long proverbial tunnel, here we are looking to go on a motorcycling adventure, a grand tour from Tokyo to Kochi in Shikoku and back. It’s also a journey of rediscovering our roots as motorcyclists, something that is on the verge of being lost from day after day of being “garaged” due to the pandemic.

We set off from the Marunouchi business district in Tokyo on a sunny morning in November 2021. It was the start of another new 55mph touring adventure for me together with photographer Rowland ‘Rowly’ Kirishima and two women riders, Reina and Tanya. We would be traveling just over 2,000 km to Tosa in Kochi Prefecture and back over the course of six days. Our first day was a roughly 450 km ride to Kyoto.
Rowly and I are on Yamaha’s Tracer 9 GT sport tourer. It’s based on the MT-09 hyper-naked bike and uses its 888cc 3-cylinder engine, but gains some fairings and other changes for touring duty. In addition, the higher-spec GT version has upgraded suspension front and rear, cruise control, heated grips, full-color TFT LCD displays, and more. The day’s highway-to-highway route along the Tomei, Shin-Tomei, and Meishin Expressways made the Tracer 9 GT the perfect partner for the job. The CP3 engine provides plenty of powerful torque down low but also great pull even at higher revs, giving it a character that boasts the advantages of both 2- and 4-cylinder engines. While riding between 80 and 100 km/h, which is the normal speed range for highway travel in Japan, I was able to enjoy the unique pulse of the triple powerplant.

I’d like to borrow some space here to briefly touch on the origins of the 55mph name since it’s the keyword of this long tour as well as the title of the original Yamaha Motor publication from the 1980s. As most know, “miles per hour” is the unit of speed mainly used in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 1 mph converts to 1.6 km/h, so the equivalent of 55 mph is about 88 km/h. Riding the expansive road network of the United States at a somewhat relaxed 55 mph has its own special draw, and the 55mph title was chosen to represent the more relaxed enjoyment of motorcycling that comes at that speed.
After setting off from the city center, we made our way onto Tokyo’s Metropolitan Expressway and headed west via the Tomei and Shin-Tomei Expressways. The route itself was generally easygoing, but even motorcycles with ample wind protection still constantly subject the rider to a certain degree of oncoming air, and all four of us keeping the same pace was obviously not as easy as just driving the whole way in the comfort of a car. So, we stopped frequently for meals and breaks to avoid getting too tired. After all, it was still only the first day.
While riding on the Isewangan Expressway, which runs past Nagoya along the north shore of Ise Bay to connect Aichi Prefecture and Mie Prefecture, we had first-class tickets to a view of a beautiful sunset in the western sky. Since it’s mid-November, the sun falls quite early and by the time we got off the highway in Kyoto, night had completely set in. The four of us rode through the crowded rush-hour streets of Kyoto managing not to get lost and arrived safely at our accommodations for the night. Day one of our 55mph tour was over.

After crossing the bridge, we stopped for lunch and a short break at the Awaji Service Area, a highway rest stop overlooking the Akashi Strait. Once we got started again, we continued along the highway and crossed the length of Awaji Island from north to south to the Onaruto Bridge. This bridge passes over the Naruto Whirlpools and was our final landmark before reaching Shikoku, the smallest of Japan’s major islands. I’ve been here several times before, but this was the first time I had made the trip by land and on a motorcycle. There are many ways to travel places, but there’s a special feeling of accomplishment when you finally arrive somewhere by motorcycle having kept your senses sharp along the way. It’s one of the real joys of going touring.
Before heading to our lodgings in Tosa, there was an interesting place we wanted to visit along the way: the historical townscape and streets of Udatsu in the city of Mima in northwestern Tokushima Prefecture. The buildings lining the streets are just as they were in old Japan, from the Edo period (1603–1867) and Meiji period (1868–1912) through to the Taisho and early Showa periods (1912–1945). Considering the purpose of this trip was to rediscover our roots and the charm of Japan, we were dead set on seeing the district in person.

Because it was a weekday, late in the afternoon, and there were few tourists around, we forgot all about the clock and clicked off photo after photo in the streets as if we had gone back in time on our motorcycles. When comparing Japanese motorcycles to offerings from Europe and other overseas brands, I sometimes feel that their designs, color schemes, and the like give them somewhat modest looks. But when you put a Japanese bike in a traditional Japanese setting like this, there’s something about it—the Japanese DNA in them or what have you—that makes it blend in effortlessly.
Before we knew it, the sun was about to set and we hurriedly got back on the steel horses of our own time and set course to our tour’s main destination: Tosa.