Trevor Bollinger’s JNCC Trip – Day Two

We woke up bright and early on Thursday morning so we could get to the test track and start preparing for this weekend. The hotel had complimentary breakfast so we had a quick bite to eat before we loaded up. I was amazed that we had rice for breakfast too, but probably the most interesting thing we had for breakfast was spoiled beans. Although they may have not been the greatest, the rest of the food was delicious. 

It took about four hours to get to the test track which is located in Nagano. On our trip there we drove around Tokyo and even saw Mount Fuji! The drive took us through the country side and through the mountains. We drove through multiple tunnels, one of which was over 3 kilometers long, and we also passed a dormant volcano!

After having lunch, we arrived at the test track where we met Takeshi's father, Toshii, and received Trevor's bike. Eric and Hide quickly began working to customize the bike for Trevor, and before long three more Honda employees showed up to help. They had the bike set up for Trevor in no time. 

While only a handful of people have ridden the CRF 450 RX, Trevor will be the first person to race it! You can just tell the excitement that everyone has for Trevor to be racing this bike. Honda has put in a lot of time designing it, and Trevor even said it majorly exceeded his expectations. Trevor’s mechanic, Eric, is also great at his job because he only had to adjust a couple of things once Trevor came back from his first couple of laps. The bike also has an electric start so Trevor spent some time working on his starts, along with starting on an uphill like the race will be.

Masami, the JNCC president, also showed up during testing and gave us a race program. Trevor made the front cover! There is also a picture of the WXC podium from Unadilla that include Kacy Martinez, Becca Sheets and Mackenzie Tricker. I can’t express the hospitality that we have been experiencing while we are over here. To see Trevor on the front of the season finale program is incredible.

Once testing was complete we spent some time in Toshimi’s house and had apples and Belgian waffles. They had two different plates for apples, one with the skin cut off and one that still had the skin left on. Ayako referred to the skinless ones as the Japanese style, and the ones with the skin as American style. Another interesting fact about Ayako is that she loves Zumba, and actually teaches two classes a week! She is so thoughtful and upbeat that I’m sure she is a great instructor!

With it now dark we headed back into town to check into our next hotel, Hakuba, and have dinner. After dinner we all dressed in our Yukata (similar to a robe) and went to a Japanese public bath. If you are interested in learning more about this, I would suggest Googling it. It’s a very extensive process, but it was cool to experience a part of the Japanese culture.

For those of you wondering how Takeshi is doing, he’s doing well! He has already wrapped up the JNCC championship, and we will meet with him tomorrow once we arrive at the race track!