Engineers in Japan were able to make music from one of their roads by virtue of vehicle tires rolling over different sets of grooves.

The musical notes you see on the road are simply warnings that just up ahead you'll start to hear music from your tires. The music is made from a series of grooves cut perpendicular to the road. Different pitches are created by cutting the gooves closer or further apart.

The result is a cacophony of tires humming. Apparently, 28mph is the ideal speed to hear for a musical interlude.

InventorSpot.com has a video where you can hear it in action...
http://inventorspot.com/articles/melody_road

Labels: Japan, Road Technology, Strange Stuff

Here's a cool story about a guy in Japan who makes an annual trek from Yokohama to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, carrying 1,000 origami cranes that he hands out as gifts to children.

Every year, Hiroshi Toda, aged 74, rides his Electra Glide, through the "Land of the Rising Sun", amidst cherry blossoms, and views of snow-capped Mt. Fuji. You can imagine as children smile with anticipation to the rumble of Toda's Twin-Cam 88 like a modern-day Santa Claus.

The origami cranes are actually made by children at a local school, containing messages that they've written to their eventual recipients. Then he pours them into his Tour Pak and hard bags, and sets out on his trip to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the two cities that we atomized over 50 years ago.

The journey takes 13 hours, and he keeps journal of his travels, one of which says...

"I left early on the morning of Oct. 13, 2006. There are a few stars here and there, twinkling in the early morning sky late in fall. My beloved Harley-Davidson Electra Glide's engine sounds good and strong."

Labels: Hiroshi Toda, Japan, World Peace

An interesting story posted on Biker Think, from a biker in Japan who noticed cops pulling over bikers, and handing them packs of tissue paper...

While I'm driving down this road, I see a few police cars ahead with red cones on the shoulder of the road.

They were pulling over ONLY bikers. This one old geiser cop (Had to be in his latter 50's or early 60's) came up to each biker and handed them something and then they drove off.

When he got to my bike, I looked at what he was handing out and it was a small packet of tissues with something printed on the back of the tissue pack.

It said... "Drive safely"... (* CHUCKLE *)

Labels: Japan, Police

MasaManiA has published photos of some odd-looking custom choppers/motorcycles/scooters. Some really freaky stuff.

Labels: Choppers, Custom Motorcycles, Japan, Strange Stuff

In Japan, a group of biker youths reported a fake crime to police and then sped off on their bikes when officers arrived so they could experience the thrill of being chased by cops.

Investigators said the youths used a public telephone to phone police at about 2:20 a.m. on Dec. 4, saying, "We were robbed of 6,500 yen."

Eight officers in four police cars sped to the scene, arriving about 5 minutes after the call was made. As soon as they came near, the three youths sped off on their motorbikes. They fled into the grounds of an apartment block that was not accessible by car, and repeatedly sounded their horns and beckoned to police.

Labels: Japan, Police Chases

An article in the Mainichi Daily News says that the police in Japan are taking advantage of new laws in an attempt to pull the reins on the "bosozoku biker gangs" that roam the country. Apparently these gangs don't cause much physical harm, but are more of a nuisance with their late-night rides, their loud mufflers, and hogging up Japan's narrow streets.

Previously, police really didn't have the power to do much about bikers zig-zagging on city streets, or blocking road ways. But now, they have a new law where if you're suspected of being in a biker gang, you can be arrested on the spot.

Geez! So that does that mean if a H.O.G. rider is seen riding around with a club emblem on his jacket, that he can be arrested on the spot?

It's get worse though:

It's not the only new tool in the police arsenal that helps them combat bikers. Cops will also be armed with paintball rifles, nail guns to shoot out tires and can now use unmarked Black Wing motorcycles to keep watch on the roads. A whopping force of 250 road patrol cops conducted a special training session on Oct. 19 in anticipation of the crackdown on bikers.

Labels: Bosozoku Biker Gangs, Japan, Motorcycle Clubs