Preface

March 30, 2023

Ever since my trip to Japan in 2006, I longed to go back. This time it'd be with a sidecar attached to the Nimbus bobber, and an old friend of mine in it. The plan was to go in spring, and head for the north island of Hokkaido, which I missed last time around.
   In early 2020 I got quote for shipping the sidecar bike by sea, at a surprisingly low $431 - about 1/4 of what I paid to have a solo MZ shipped to Los Angeles two years previously. Apparently they have a lot of empty containers going eastwards, and are happy to put anything in them.

Bought plane tickets for both of us too, so everything looked fine. Then the bloody virus hit, the world grinding to a halt.

Trip postponed first to 2021, then to 2022, where we do a trial run to England and Ireland instead. The Nimbus blows a cylinder head gasket and the ignition system dies on the very first day, but hey, better in Northern Germany than 300 clicks outside of Tokyo. The rest of the trip was taken on a 50 year old Moto Guzzi V7 with a Watsonian sidecar, Wallace & Gromit style. Most of the trip, anyway, because that bike died too. 

While preparing for finally making it in 2023, the old friend decides to skip the Japan trip. Another friend steps in, but refuses to ride in the sidecar. Won't borrow another Nimbus either. He'll rent something over there, and I demand it be something at least somewhat interesting, if we have to ride together. So he gets a 125 cc Honda Grom.

Like in 2006 the Nimbus will go by air to Tokyo, as I'm getting paranoid about it being stuck in a container terminal somewhere, like Shanghai. I knew it'd cost more, but $3.200? Plus the extras like a carnet, declaration of dangerous goods and such? Figure I'll be looking at at about $7K before the bike is back in Denmark. 

The Nimbus has been registered as a 1938 model. 

Droptank is off a F-86D Sabre jet, and 3,5 meters long.

125 cc Honda Grom