Archiv der Kategorie: Mob

von bikesnob28hb | 28. Dezember 2008 · 13:19

Kawasaki Keirin Track

After staying in Shibuya late yesterday night with my son and doing the things young people usually do in Shibuya [to be precise: playing table tennis and eating cheese fries at Outback], I decided that I should not go through all the hassle of riding out to Chichibu or some other mountainous place just to end up in piles of knee-deep snow. Instead I had an invitation from Hiroshi to join him and his clubmates for a training session at the Kawasaki Keirin.

I got ready at home after checking the way to the track and packed the usually things plus, as this was the first time and Japanese customs requires to be polite and bring some presents, I took a handful of Haribo Lakritz Schnecken with me. These are tycpical German sweets which look like rolls of low grade Pakistan made industrial cables and taste alike.It takes only 30 minutes from my house on route 140 to Kawasaki station, I arrived on time. The road is not too bad and there is even a river, Tsurumikawa where one can ride stretches of the ride on a cycling/pedestrian way just as in case of the Tamagawa. I was surprised how big and well developed the area around Kawasaki station is, completely different from my image where I put Kawasaki in the file lettered „insignificant“.

Actually for a very long time I have not been in Kawasaki at all. I mean, yes I have been in Kawasaki but the purpose was not to go to Kawasaki but to pass through, either on the way to Yokohama or to Tokyo. I have exactly three roads through Kawasaki, Dai-Ichi Keihin or Dai-San Keihin, if I am riding a car, the other one Nakahara Kaido if I am on my bike. This is my whole experience of the town which is insignificant indeed.
Apart from that I have been in Kawasaki one time and that was in 1991 or 1992, going to Club Quattro to watch STAR CLUB, a Japanese Punk Band which a friend from Switzerland called Urs (all male Swiss are called Urs, that is similar to Kims and Parks in Korea) recommended to me as the Toten Hosen of Japan. After watching them, I believe there were more the Plastic Bertrands of Japan [Thanks Tom for reminding me of this guy when you wrote your blog recently].

In summary, my image of Kawasaki developed through the years like this:

1977 : „Hey, these are the cool green motorbikes that my hero Yvon du Hamel is riding„
1991 : „Star Club is playing there too!„
1992 : „The environmental problem between Tokyo and Yokohama [Tokyo Journal]“

followed by a long time of nothing and which has now completely changed again.

Hiroshi waited for my at the parking place. I gave him some Lakritz for welcome, he managed to eat them well. The parking space was packed with cars of the spectators, did they come to watch us? Was I am going to race immediately? Of course not, a lot of people come to the Keirin stadium, owned by the city of Kawasaki, to watch the Keirin races at other places on the big screen and place some bets.

Why would anybody wanted to do that, if one can sit at home, have a glass of beer, a bowl of octopus on sticks in front of you and a nice warm blanket over your feet and one can place his bets over the Internet? Well, I guess the answer is that one also have a wife, kids in the midst of puberty, things to do and and and and at home so it might be better to escape and spend the day in freezing cold on the stands of the Kawasaki Keirin and watch TV. I guess this is called „public viewing“ today, a phenomena almost exclusively experienced by males in their forties and fifties.
Hiroshi was so kind to show me around, so I could take a look at a hall with rollers, where the Keirin pro warm up before the races, including ventilators in front and ashtrays on the bench. I also took a look at the parking place where the pro bikes were standing; I saw a Kalavinka bike, so nicely described in this wonderful book : „The accidental office lady.“ He also explained to me the basic differences compared to road bikes. Not the obvious things, but the finer details, such as there is almost no distance between the lower tube and the front wheel.

We then went inside and met some of the other guys. About 20 or 30 riders were presented from various teams, the atmosphere was relaxed and there was not much club mood. No exercising, no long pep speeches, no long explanation of the rules. Very nice indeed for a change. Juliane and me have some experience with Japanese club riding and we didn’t like the set of rules prevailing there.

We then started to ride on the track. Tracks in Japan are either 333.33 m or 400 m long, this one being the later type. The direction is always counter clockwise, which fits me well as I am much better in left corners than in rights. From the inside to the inside, there is a green marked part and a red marked one which is for warming up and almost flat. This is followed by a small part in green which is enclosed by two white lines. The inner one of these two white lines is precisely 400 meters long. This is the normal racing part where one rides during the race, mostly in a draft line. There is a slight inclination on the curved banks but not too much. Then further up is another yellow line, about halfway of the width of the track.
First we went in a group of seven riders, starting slowly at 20 km/hr but accelerated equally slowly until 40 km/hr. We took turns in the lead after each lap. The pace was fast, but I could follow almost until the end. The last laps were at 46 km/hr and there it became increasingly difficult for me to hang on. It takes some power to concentrate on going at the same speed all the time, not faster, not slower, not to leave any gaps to the rider in front and keeping the same distance. It is not allowed to shift gears or to brake, so everything has to be managed with pedal power.

As I had no fixed gear bike, I could brake while continue to pedal but I rarely did. When I was in danger to overtake somebody, I climbed up on the bank in the curves only a little and that decreased the speed sufficiently.

The level of concentration is similar to riding in a a group during a race. I tried my best to keep pedaling all the time, not to use the brakes or shift the gears.The general feeling is a litle bit like on a home trainer, there is no change in position on the bike which I generally dislike because my butt starts hurting after some time. As long as one goes at the same speed I managed well, but sometimes there was some confusion when we overtook other groups and I started to brake or to shift out of habit.

After 40 minutes or so we made a break and after that we tried it again. This time we moved up to the highest point of the bank. When looking to the right, everything is normal, just riding along a fence. But when I looked down to the left and I saw the inclination and the height I didn’t felt too good. But I got used to that. Hiroshi showed me how to get down from the high line in the curves to the two white lines and accelerate, taking all the momentum. One can easily go up to 50 km/hr.

I then felt strong and stayed with another group making more laps. Then another break. I talked to some of the other guys and everybody was very friendly. I spotted also Ms. Takamatsu, JCRC women champion of 2007 from Maglia Rosa, who I have seen at some JCRC races here at there this year.

Then I did a last try and went as fast as I could, followed by some laps to regain power, so some kind of interval training. Just for the fun of it I did 1.000 meter time trial and with flying start and I could do below 1.30 min which would be more than 40 km/hr average, but there is still a long way to go to achieve a good time with standing start, which should be around 1:15 min a guess.

I must say that everybody was very friendly and helpful and the atmosphere was nice, just the right balance of being taken care of but also left in peace. I personally felt much more powerful when I left the venue and I thought that this would be a good training to gain more stamina and absolute speed, something which comes in handy when thinking of the races I would like to do in 2009: endurance and flat course short races.

I distributed the remaining Lakritz to everybody as a token of gratitude. Not sure if this was appreciated. Then I rode home. which felt strange. I mean it felt good to change position from time to time and to get out of the saddle. But I tried not to brake and not to shift gears and to keep pedaling, I just couldn’t get used fast to my usual style.

My thanks go to Hiroshi who as so kind to introduce me to track racing and to Tom who introduced me to Hiroshi. I would like to do it again in the near future. It is good to know that there are still so many things left in cycling which can be explored. Not only track racing but maybe I need also a mountain bike to do the remaining stretch of route 76 next year.

When I came home I found out that Hiroshi has already updated his blog about todays training. I got a very positive review and the Lakritz I have given him found their way into the glass heart of the family.

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Eingeordnet unter 2008, Hiroshi, Mob

von bikesnob28hb | 28. Dezember 2008 · 03:48

Miura Hanto Ride Friday

http://maps.google.co.jp/maps/sv?cbp=11,158.9085702567545,,0,-0.9218214130101792&cbll=35.185054,139.655172&panoid=&v=1&hl=ja&gl=jp
大きな地図で見る

I went out riding to Miura Hanto last Friday. The idea came when I wanted to go out cycling but it was already very late. My wife asked: „Where are you riding today?“ I said „Well, just around in the neighborhood.“ and she answered: „Neighborhood, that goes at least as far as Miura, am I right?“ So I thought, that is a very good idea, I have not been out there in the South for quite a while.

This is probably one of the rides nobody would like me to join. Only one time I could convince David to come with me. One has to go through the congested traffic of Yokohama, followed by the congestion in Kanzawa followed by more congestion in Yokosuka, so 50 km at least of suffering on big roads and being passed by trucks. After Yokusuka it is basically the same until one comes to Kurihama. I always thought that it would be nice to take the ferry from there to Chiba and continue to ride on the other side.

After Kurihama there is one road [215] which leads along the coast. Yes, the coast. After focusing so much on riding in the mountains this year, one has almost forgotten that we are living on an island and riding there gave me the feeling back. The view was splendid on the Chiba coastline [One has to be a least 30 km away from Chiba to appreciate the beauty of the prefecture] and I passed some small fishing ports with boats neatly lined up in the harbour.

I then took the road back to Kamakura on the West side of Miura Hanto. I stopped at some shrines and bought 絵馬 for my collection, something I have not done for quite a while as I was always driven by speed. Mitsumine was an exception though. Mount Fuji was huge on the horizon, bot only the top as one can see from the Tamagawa, but one could see the full shape from the coast.

There were strong winds but I made only small breaks and managed to arrive at the coastline at 4 PM. I wanted to drink a coffee either at the Seascastle, the famous restaurant where fear and terror reign and which is operated nevertheless since 50 years by two German brothers and her sister, or at the Amalfi, a nice Italian restaurant further West on the coast in direction Enoshima. Both places were closed so I rode home through Kamakura and hopped the train in Ofuna.

From there it is only 45 minutes back to my house.

A nice ride, 5 hours long and about 110 km in distance. Could have gone faster but made a lot of short breaks. Not many climbs, but a lot of hills to oversprint.

Very pleasant short ride, just a good thing to do when one gets up late because of an overdosis or red wine and German movies the night before. I guess watching Rainer Werner Fassbinder movies on TV (Angst essen Seelen auf) and drinking too much alone is a German idea of having a good time.

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von bikesnob28hb | 14. Dezember 2008 · 04:53

Jinxed

I woke up this morning at 6 AM and when I looked out of the window the rain had already started to pour down. Now it is almost 12 and it is still raining outside. No way to enjoy the Tokyo Enduro Race today at Tachikawa Kinen Koen, so I informed Tom, David and Ludwig per e-mail this morning that I would not go and all agreed to go back to bed or do other more meaningful things. This is the third time I wanted to attend the race and the third time I couldn’t. I became sick some days before the race in 2005 and in 2007 I applied to late and missed the deadline. This race is jinxed. The location is actually the one where I saw the first cycle race of my life ever, in September1990 a German friend of mine was racing there.

What a bummer that was! Still, when I look at the TCC picture below, I don’t regret the decision to go back to bed. For me too, there has been a jinx on enduro-type races and this would have been the third one in a row after Shuzenji and Motegi last year. It is simply no fun to ride with muddy water spurting right into your face from the backwheels of riders ahead. I admire those TCC cyclists though who decided to brave the elements!

Tom

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von bikesnob28hb | 24. November 2008 · 07:35

LEAN AND MEAN

I promised my family to be back from cycling by 1 PM. And I was back at 1:15 PM, which is unprecedented and breaking every existing Positivo Espresso tradition. So what went terribly wrong – how could this possibly happen?Well it started with all the ingredients of a typical Positivo Espresso tour at David’s home at 7 AM. I needed to devour my 7/11 breakfast and delayed our start. Juliane didn’t show up at all and couldn’t be reached by phone. Jerome was assuming that she might be on her way to Ome, so we even didn’t had a clear plan where to go. I had previously discussed with David, that we will ride to Wada and then return through route 76 to Doshi and back into town through one of the amazing maze roads David was able to identify in the mess of Western Tokyo.

We started to ride along the Tamagawa and immediately tried to make up for the lost time. Three quarters of the members of our superior Saiko race time trial team were present and we rode a fast pace line which went exceptionally well. At Seikobashi we made a last phone call to Juliane, finally giving up on her and then deciding to do the original plan in reverse: First riding out to Tsukui, then travelling along the Doshimichi road 413 until the crossing with road 76, which then leads back to the notorious route 20.

The roads selected by David were very good, it was still early in the morning and even the traffic on the big roads was light. He led a through all the shortcuts with sherpa-like qualities. There were some fast downhills and a lot of climbs.

The crazy Tsukui climb. Almost as high as the offical approval rating of Kim Il Jong in North Korea [close to 120%]

I have done some of this roads before with David, but always in the opposite direction. Now going there it felt less than going downhill, but more like „reverse-climbing“.

We continued to pull each other through at a fast pace; David also has improved compared to the last Chichibu trip. And finally we took a break a a Daily Yamazaki Conbini where not only us, but also other customers of the shop could witness a highlight of the day:

It was cold outside and we were sweaty, naturally we rested inside the Combini at the adult magazine corner and ate our replenishments. All three of us were wearing high quality, overpriced Assos jackets in the colors of the German flag, but what was hidden beyond that jackets was quite different.

When Jerome peeled off his jacket, his space-technology grade high-tec underwear was revealed. As he explained, this garment was originally developed for the Usbekistan army as a full body condom for contraception of male army members. One cannot see this on the photo, but it fully encloses every possible boundary of the human body, starting from the toes on the neck. It also provides labour to the rural knitting community of Usbekistan, having much free time during long winter hours.Unfortunately after extensive testing by the army, for unknown reasons, it failed to shown the expected contraception functionalities, upon which it was sold to France as cycling gear. Jerome swears that it keeps him warm and the amount of sweat emitted by his body should proves him right.

We then continued along road 413 and finally to road 76. Beautiful ups and downs in the autumn scenery. When we reached route 20, Jerome decided that he would try to ride over Wada as originally planned (again, clearly against the Positivo Espresso tradition as we never ride as planned), whereas David and me decided to go home along road 20 and make it back home by lunch.

With a nice tail wind in the back we went fast to Sagamiko station where a big truck lorry, coming up the hill, wanted to turn left and almost crashed with a minicar. I stayed on the scene to watch the whole tragedy unfold, while David moved on to climb Otarumi. This was the second time in three days that I encountered a crazy truck driver.

On Saturday when David, Ludwig and me rode into Chichibu, we made a fast downhill ride at 40 km/hr + on road 299 where we were overtaken by a very long speeding truck. He left ample clearance with us, but by doing so he occupied more than half of the opposite lane and as the road was winding along the valley, there was no way to tell if cars would come up or not. A motorcycle coming in our direction was barely able to squeeze in between the truck and the guiderail, and another white family van could just do the same. I remember all the details, as I was expecting to hear the sound of a crash any moment.

So David was ahead which gave me the motivation to start the reverse Otarumi time trial. The first part is mostly flat which even some descents, but I got blocked by traffic congestion three or four times. But I was feeling good and when the real climb started, a tried to stay at 20 km/hr spinning at a high cadence. Finally I saw David in front of me and overtaking him at elevation 300 meters. He was shouting encourageously:

„Come on Michael, keep going, PUSH IT!“

which gave me the neccessary extra motivation. The last thing I heard of David was:

„Ahem, I am keeping it easy, don’t wait for me!“

I arrived at the top at 17:17 minutes, which is fast, but not my best time. But it is OK I guess.

I nevertheless waited for David on the top and together we made the fast downhill from Otarumi, which was blocked by traffic at the entrance to Takao. But after that the roads were OK and we continued at 35 km/hr towards Sekidobashi, first along road 20 and then later along the Asakawa. Where we went into pace line again.

After a last break at the Y park 7-eleven we started another fast pace line at 35 km/hr along the Tamagawa. Clearly it was starting to rain any minute and there were less people on the pathway as usual. We were really fast and that brought as home so early.

Much earlier as expected. Of course my family has given up all expectations that I would be back on time after many disappointments and subsequently no lunch was prepared. The Saturday trip to Chichibu must have been the last nail in the coffin, I guess. Everybody was out and they came home at 4 PM only, much surprised seeing me showered and neatly dressed.

Jerome made it over Wada, as usually excelling late in the ride. He was also home by 1:30 PM, so on his own he rode on the last stretch very fast as well.

Last 30 minutes are cut off, as the Ciclo stops after 6 hours recording.

A very enjoyable mid-length trip, just the right ride for autumn.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http:%2F%2Ftrail.motionbased.com%2Ftrail%2Fkml%2Fepisode.kml%3FepisodePkValues%3D7196560&ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=35.605946,139.385824&spn=0.122163,0.504986&output=embed&s=AARTsJoBnhnw44Ojb7PO4unDVb7-f1pMYA
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Eingeordnet unter 2008, David, Jerome, Juliane, Mob

von bikesnob28hb | 24. November 2008 · 06:49

A comment to Southern Chichibu

I want to scribble down this thought before I forget it and as there is no new Chichibu post in view for the immediate future, I rather do it right now: Imagine that you were born as a piece of rock millions of years ago in Southern Chichibu. As you are embedded in a gigantic puzzle with billions of other pieces of rock in the inside of a mountain, you feel safe and you have no idea what is going on in the world. However, chances are big, that you will end up tomorrow in concrete as part of a residential tower in central Tokyo.
The amount of dumper trucks, transporting to Tokyo what has been blasted, excavated and scraped away from the landscape of Chichibu is just amazing. Every time one rides out from Ome over the hill parallel to the Ome – Okutama railway line and enters into greater Nariki, one is overtaken by many dumper trucks and one can see the quarries lining up on the left side of the road to Ikusabata.
This is just crazy, because otherwise Southern Chichibu would be the perfect place. It is like travelling in time, or changing the set of mind by taking special medication. Ome still has the sounds, smells and the general feel of hectic of Tokyo, but once the hills are crossed one feels like entering a different part of the country, many miles away from the big city. The contrast is just mind-boggling. Sure, this is still Japan, but one rides through it very much like through rural Japan of, say, Noto peninsular and not like on the dog & Obasan infested pathways along the Tamagawa.
The impression of the time travel is just distorted by the dumper trucks. So one has to travel some more kilometers along road 53, before one has finally left allTokyoisms behind.

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von bikesnob28hb | 23. November 2008 · 15:36

Saiko race

MOB has already written about the Tour du Japon/JCRC race around Lake Sai at the foot of Mount Fuji: D as in „Done“ and Championship Reflections. Let me add a few short impressions of my own.

The best thing about the race is probably the scenary. Where else do you get such a beautiful view from your hotel room on the evening before the race?

My goal in the actual race was to survive: most importantly by not crashing (which is a distinct possibility when racing at 40km/h in the middle of a large pack of riders, mostly less than half a meter apart), secondly by not losing the peleton and thus the benefit of the windstream created by others, and thirdly by not doing anything else embarrassing in what was only my second race (MOB wrote on the first one in Gunma a few weeks earlier).

At the start – I’m in fifth row at the outer left.

I’m happy to report I did not crash and felt surprisingly comfortable in the tightness of the pack. Even better, I managed to stay among the top group of riders throughout, and arrived in the finish only 6.5 seconds behind the winner.

The final sprint in my E-class.

Unfortunately, another 20 riders managed to do even slightly better and I ended up only 22nd. (That’s why I can’t be seen in the above picture.) Still good enough to earn me the official qualififcationto race in the E-class in future. Strictly speaking I had qualified only for F-class with my performance at Gunma, but somehow I managed to convince JCRC to let me race nonetheless in E-class (which I chose upon MOB’s recommendation as being probably slightly safer than F-class).

The race itself are two rounds around Saiko, 20km in total. At an average speed of 39.33km/h, the race was over after just over half an hour.

One of the rather wider bends (photo is of another class). Some curves are nastily narrow.

At a heartrate of just over 160, the 7 degrees Celsius didn’t feel that cold, despite relatively light dress.

After the race, in increasingly miserable weather.

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von bikesnob28hb | 23. November 2008 · 12:06

Addendum to Mitsumine Shrine pilgrimage: Photos

155km distance, something like 1,700m climbing in total

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von bikesnob28hb | 23. November 2008 · 04:13

BREAKING NEWS : MITSUMINE MOUNTAIN FINALLY CONQUERED BY TWO GERMAN DAREDEVILS

After two unsuccessful tries in the past weeks to scale the heights of Mitsumine, two German alpinists and their American Sherpa started yesterday another run. Meeting at the Futago-Mandu, the capitol city of the small Himalayan country of Chichibustan at 8 AM in the morning, the first part of the TREK along the river was fast and various new techniques were tried to add momentum to the tour, thus proving everybody wrong who dared to call the expedition a „late local train“.

At the basecamp in Omir, the friendly locals supplied the adventurers with the required freshly backed, fluffy bread which is traditionally eaten since many years at this place. The town was in a mild uproar, as the local festival of „International High Color Exchange“, whatever that shall mean, was celebrated. From there onwards they entered the hilly lands of Chichibustan. A last supply of water at a holy fountain, and off they went to attack the first mountain of the day, the lowly ranked Yamabushi. Giving it all and, for the first time in the history of mankind, marking the start and the end of the climb, one can expect to see a new addition to the traditional records of the Togebaka.

From there on everything was a fast downhill to the abandoned city of Chichiborek, where a last lunch was taken and prayers for a safe journey were send towards the nearby skies. Along the old trading road to the lost state of Yamanashikan, the three proceeded with great haste and after many dangerous adventures, featuring fabulous creatures disguised as speeding dumper trucks, endless hairpin turns and inhuman exhaustion, they finally arrived at the entrance to a tunnel which should lead to the enchanted Mitsumine mountain. Under many tears they bate farewell to their faithful sherpa who needed to be back at his village before 6 and hunt down some dinner before that.

Thus they entered the tunnel, which was so small that a modern time commuter bus could barely fit into its cross section. The tunnel was dark and water was dripping from the ceiling and the remaining two were constantly afraid that a horde of wild animals, fearless warriors or fabulous creatures disguised as speeding dumper trucks would turn up suddenly right in front of them without any place to let them pass peacefully. After about 170 meters, a branch of the tunnel was leading to the left and finally here they stepped out again into the light, seeing the most wonderful thing they have ever encountered.

Before their eyes, the vast lake of Chichibustan was extending to the horizon, the huge water masses conquered and impounded by a dam, built by a long lost civilisation which the older still remember as „The ministry of Construction“. The two rode over the dam crest and started the final approach on Mitsuhime. Barren was the land and all traces of civilisation were long left behind. In an endless sucession of hairpin curves, the last 600 meters to the top were attacked, steadily moving up at low speeds. The bodies were close to fall apart from sheer exhaust ions and the temperature dropped to a life threathing 3 degrees (plus). Nevertheless the two pressed on and finally, after time has almost come to a standstill, the parking lot of the Mitsumine shrine was detected under shouts of joy.

Now it was only a matter of time until they reached the Mitsuhime shrine itself, which was built by a sage a long time ago on top of the mountain (Note: Why is somebody considered a sage who builds a shrine in such a goddamn difficult accessible place without any infrastructure?). The two planted the German flag on top of the mountain to claim the place once and for all times, before the much competitive Kingdom of Belgium would have any chance to do the same. And then it was already time to start the descent, as the darkness of night was approaching with great speed.

After many more adventures, which are too many and too boring to be told here, they finally arrived already in pitched darkness at the signpost of new civilisation. Their trip was such long, that in the meantime the Seibu department store company, a venerated and fast growing state-owned company has built a railway almost as far as the lake which facilitated very much their return to the capitol. Although, as they noted, the bloody trip on this local trains took more than three hours to complete.

And finally they arrived at home, welcomed by their loved ones and scolded for their emphasis on the adventurous and by not being back for dinner on time.

Thanks David and Ludwig for this very nice trip in late autumn. Ludwig made some photos which he might add to this post in due time.

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Eingeordnet unter 2008, David, Mob

von bikesnob28hb | 21. November 2008 · 14:54

Chichibu Trip Number Three

Autumn is here. Yesterday the Kakis were still hanging in the trees, today they are left to dry and become delicious Hoshigaki.After two weekday trips with Ludwig, I had another one with Juliane last Tuesday. Actually David joined us as well in the morning, but due to work commitments he could just ride up to Ome, buy some good pastry and the wonderful Aurora bakery in front of the station and return back to work by train. The Aurora bakery, where Positivo Espresso riders traditionally buy their pastry proviant, is really a wonderful place and one can see the delight of the things to come in the eyes of David and Juliane in the photo below.Juliane and me continues continued along road 53 up to Shomaru Toge where we exchanged our bikes against something more fast and agile for the downhill.We then rode up to Karibazaka and continued to Ono Toge, Shiraishi Toge and Sadamine Toge in a repetition of the Chichibu Two trip with Ludwig two weeks ago. Since my first trip I wanted to write something about the unnecessary road obstacles which are so abundant in Saitama. There must be a prefectural road construction guideline which advises to mount treacherous body traps in the middle of the road.And in addition one has to slalom its way down to avoid the speed traps, for example between Shiraiashi and Sadamine Toge.Then we mustered all our courage and had lunch at the Soba restaurant at Sadamine Toge. The Owneress was quite nice, more friendliness than on Wada and more water than at Shomaru in this place.They also produce a nice sake with giant bees inside there.Although I have to admit that there was not much meat in my Niku Soba, but finally with the help of a magnifying glass I was able to find it.An amazing restaurant by the way. With a lot of stuff inside. And a lot of calenders on the wall. They surely know which day it is [Note for readers of Wilson/Shea „Illuminatius“ of the Seventies: “ A man with one watch knows the time. A man with two watches is never quite sure.“From Sadamine Toge we didn’t take the right turn (road #11) in direction Ogawacho, but the left one which led as to Chichibu city. On the way down we passed another nice scarpyard which looked similar to the Soba restaurant.Finally we arrived at Seibu Chicchibu station and took the train home, app. at 15:57 hr in order to somewhat preserve our traditions (since 2006). A very nice ride in good weather conditions within a splendid setting enjoying Julianes company. I hope it will not be the last time.

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von bikesnob28hb | 17. November 2008 · 05:48

Chichibu TWO Ride on Nov. 13th

Ludwig and me set off on the proposed Chichibu ride on Thursday. I had caught a cold and was not in the best shape, but nevertheless the weather was splendid and I desperately wanted to ride out into unknown Chichibu. From the Tamagawa we could see the snow caped Fuji in the distance, the first reminder that winter will arrive soon. Nevertheless I was overdressed and started to sweat.After the traditional break at the Aurora bakery at Ome Station, we took the #53 escape road until Yamabushi Toge. As I was riding poorly, we decided then to proceed to Shomaru Toge. In the old Positivo Espresso tradition of not riding where we have planned to do, we added a new chapter.

On Shonaru we had lunch at the small restaurant and were served by friendly Obasans. Who were a little bit scroogy with handing out water and green tea.

We then went down on the other side of Shomaru until we crossed over the tunnel of road #299 and started the approach on Karibazaka Toge. A very nice climb and the view from Karibazaka is spectacular.Like Tom, we continued to climb some Mini-Toge [Ono Toge] along the ridge of the mountains towards Shiraishi Toge and then further down to Sadamine Toge.

After a break we followed road #11 towards Higashi Chichibu and we could have then rode directly to Ogawacho station and take the train home. But it was still early, so we decided to make one more climb up to Nihongi Toge – where no Positivo Espresso rider has gone before.
This is not an easy climb, the inclination is almost similar to Wada, and as we had already more than 1.500 elevation meters in our legs. But the road is free of traffic and there seems to be many alternatives to add more climbs or downhills in this area. We choose one which took us back to road #11 and then to Odagawacho.

Where we took the 15:57hr express train back to Ikebukuro, just like we did on our first ride. I hereby declare than following this great tradition, which has been established by Ludwig and me this month, every ride into Chichibu needs to be finished at Odagawacho train station and no other train should be taken home than the 15:57 hr express train.

Overall it was a nice trip in the best of autumn weather, only spoiled by my cold. The difference in temperature was quite substantial between the city and the mountains, the sunny sides and the shades, the uphills and the downhills.
I wanted to go riding on the weekend as well but couldn’t do so on Saturday and when I woke up Sunday morning it was raining and all hopes of riding were gone. I hope I can do another mid week ride into Chichibu tomorrow, the weather forecast looks fine.