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Jerome, Nishibe-san, Tom and I had a successful ride out Rte 299 and then to Saku-daira, where we enjoyed a late lunch and then hopped a 3:34 Shinkansen for Tokyo. … Read about it all … and see the photos … on Tom’s blog. Or see his Garmin Player GPS log of the trip.

Though Tom’s blog is very comprehensive, I had a slightly different perspective at some points … I did not need to wait at all at the top of Jukkoku Touge (十石峠), and so did not get cold, or enjoy the opportunity to converse with the elderly couple and their talking dog.

Also, maybe it was the very early start (5:30AM departure from my house), or maybe it was the fact that we had already gone 130 km and over two of the passes when we started the Jukkoku climb, but I felt weak and plodded up pretty slowly, despite the reasonable grade. At least I made up for it on the other side, averaging 40 kph on the 18 km stretch from the pass (1351 m elev) to the junction with Rte 141 (approx elev 750 m). In the end, I logged 185+ km and 2600 meters or so of climbing … barely farther than my trip to Honjo Waseda, but one more good climb.

1. We avoided the big box stores and chain eateries along Rte 141 South of Saku, taking local Rte 2 through various small towns and past farms about 70% of the way from the junction with 299 to the Saku-Daira shinkansen station. The last 30% on 141 was not pleasant. This area is one big suburban sprawl, without much of a center–kind of like Kofu or Matsumoto enjoyed on the Tokyo-Itoigawa run, if a little less dense.

2. I still need to find a better way through Chichibu City. We stayed on 299 all the way this time, and as Ludwig had said it is not particularly nice until past Ogano (about 10 km to the west), though this did save a few kilometers and a few hills compared with taking Rte 140 (also not pleasant) and connecting via Rte 37/297 as I did last week. Next time I will try local Rte 209.

3. Also, for future reference, there were 3 7-11’s on Rte 299 after the middle of Chichibu City, 2 after crossing the Arakawa. The „last convenience store“ was a „Save-on“ shop at the corner of Rte 299 and Rte 37. And there some tourist lunch options, including a cafeteria at the „Dinosaur Center“ just a kilometer or two west of where 299 meets 462, after Shigasaka-touge. The town hall had a large glass window and a very large skeleton of a dinosaur — worth a stop next trip?

On request of Dominic (and David who found this as well).

This Sunday, we will make one more try for the one-day run from Tokyo through to Saku or Karuizawa … lots of great reports from others (Ludwig, and many from TCC — Thomas‘ „Mountains of Madness“ most recently, and a more Northerly route taken by AlanW and Naomi coast-to-coast via Karuizawa).

If the weather (still a bit iffy in the forecast) and our bicycles and bodies cooperate, this time we should be able to get through, and return in the late afternoon (or worst case early evening) by Shinkansen.

Jerome and I will leave my house at 5:30AM, and plan to meet Tom, Nishibe-san and any others who want to join by 6:15AM at Sekidobashi. We will take the most straightforward route (Higashi-Oume, Yamabushi, and then straight on Rte 299) until the decision point (intersection of Natl Rte 299 and Gunma Pref. Rte 45). We can debate the relative merits of the two alternatives that morning en route … and even add to it if we get through and Tom wants to climb Mugikusa-toge (high, but not at all steep) or if we want to explore the environs of Karuizawa. Let us know if you plan to join.

Just thought I would share this with you.

In my ride report on MtB riding in Yokohama I mentioned that I snapped my chain while out riding, well on Friday last week the same happened again and I decided to bin the chain and get a new one for my Mt Bike and replaced it with a 9-speed Hyperglide chain which last an age!

Yesterday morning I was commuting in to work and alas, just outside Shibuya on the 246 pushing off from the lights I snapped the Dura Ace 7900 Hollow chain on the Pinarello. Fortunately my cat like reflexs helped me stay on the bike and also allowed me to continue having children.

Turns out that the Shimano Dura Ace 7900 hollow chain have issues with them and Shimano are no longer making them. Apparently they have 2 problems, the first is that the „Quick Link“ is prone to stretching and if you are using one of these chains and doing a lot of sprint training or aggressive hill climbing then your best off getting rid of the „Quick Link“ and replacing it with standard Hollow chain links.

The Second issue is with the Hollow pins, these fail rather quickly especially if you have removed or replaced a link and used the original link pins. If you have I would suggest you take a look at where you made the joins and replace them with replacement pins that once inserted require you to snap off the remainder of the insertion pin.

Please note that Shimano have not recalled the chain but have stopped making them, so if you need a new chain make sure that you are getting the new version that doesn’t have the „Quick Link“ and has the new reinforced pins.

I have to say that I’m rather glad it went yesterday on my commute rather than on Saturday durring the „King of Endurance“ Race in Shin- Yokohama!

Safe Riding Guys…….

After visiting the Keirin track on Saturday to watch Michael’s non-ride and enjoy some of the sprint event, and then traveling up and back the hills of Onekan-sen on my fixed gear track bike to get to the Starbucks at the very far end with Michael, I had a good ride on Sunday, leaving early with Jerome, getting to Higashi Oume by 7:45, and then pushing on to Yamabushi. We parted at Yamabushi … Jerome to return via Shomaru, a dip down to Rte 299, and a loop back South over the next pass along the same ridge as Yamabushi via local Rte 395, to get home by 1PM.
I had more time (though I needed to get home by around 6PM), and Jerome had lent me his fast NFCC wind-breaking vest so I could ride even in sprinkling rain on descents. I traced Michael/Michael/Graham’s route through Chichibu City, onto Rte 140 and then cut North via local Rte 37. After a short cut via local Rte 297 and a connecting „rindo“, I headed west on Rte 299.
I guess I should have realized it from all the blog posts by others, but Rte 299 west of Chichibu city is a delightful road, no trucks and almost no through traffic, gradually climbing to a pass at around 780 meters elevation at a short tunnel in the border with Gunma.
Rte 299 about 10-15 km west of Chichibu city. … no danger of getting hit by a truck if you stand in the middle of the road and frame your photo carefully:

There were cyclists resting a both ends of the tunnel on the border, including a team of at least 8-10 riders putting on an extra layer for their descents.
It was almost Noon … and a quick [mis]calculation suggested that despite having gone 125 km and made it here in good time, I could not make it NW to Saku/Sakudaira or Karuizawa and likely be home by 6PM, even with the benefit of Shinkansen … so I opted for a shorter ride East/North East down Rte 462 to the now famous Waseda Hongjo station.

The valley is spectacular, until arriving at a reservoir that is at least 10 km long.

The reservoir and dam are spectacular in a different way … but really do ruin what was probably once a very nice stretch of valley:

Honjo Waseda … what more can be said. These photos are of the „main“ North side of the shinkansen station (trains to Tokyo stop at 2:50, 3:50, [4:50]PM, for future reference).
I arrived at 2:20, with lots of time to buy tickets and pack my bike.
The South entrance … is now closed. The women at the convenience shop inside did not even laugh when I remarked that this was a very „shizuka“ shinkansen station.

Today’s route map should be here.

I hope I will get a chance to do the full Rte 299 ride to Saku, Nagano this fall, before the weather gets too cold for Chichibu/Gunma/Nagano riding.

My younger brother was visiting from Kyushu for the long weekend and being a fan of the mud, dirt and the escalated danger of being attacked by Japanese Super Hornets brought his MTB with him, he was also kind enough to transport my KONA AA Custom race frame with him when the company moved him to Japan.

After building up my frame and putting some big fat knobberlies on it (That felt like they would roll off the rims on ever turn and fixing the chain after it snapped on the first climb 10 minutes into our ride) we headed out to see if we could find the missing trails.

For those that don’t know I live in Yokohama near ZooRasia and there are hiking trails that link the station to the zoo. Now according to legend there are many more that link together the green belts around here and apparently make up over 30km of un-spoilt off road riding, so I and my brother went in search of the missing trials.

After following the known course we found ourselves in the usual residential area with no signs or indication of where we needed to be so we decided to have a ride around to see if we could find where the trail picked up again. Fortunately as we took a right turn into what looked like a promising route two old ladies shouted at us “no left, left “ low and behold 200 meters later we found the trial. Now this might seem easy enough but the first trial picks up behind someone’s house and you need to ride partially down their driveway to get to it.

The trial we found is located just opposite ZOORASIA in the huge woods that over look the main entrance, these are total un-spoilt and it seems that the old government didn’t know about them as they have no cement pathways or cement log climbs/descents to ruin the ride, also it seems that the locals have no interest in them as we only met 3 other people on the trails.

The trials were a nice mix of fire roads and very technical single track and involved perfect timing and bike handling as you weaved through the trees. We decided to follow the outer edge of the course to see just how far it went. It was very hard not to stray off down some of the pathways that branched off.

After around 10km of riding we burst out on to another road and we consulted with another local to find out if the trails picked up again in the forest behind his farm or if it was private land. No normally you are met with “Hmmmmm ahhh chotto ne…….hmmm ahhhhh wakaranai!” but in this instance the farmer gave us very clear instructions on how to get back on the trail, not only one route but two!

So having thanked him we headed off again in search of the entrance point for the forest, again unless we had clear instructions there is no chance we would have found the entrance point as this time you had to slip behind a crash barrier at the side of the road and up an over grown path in to more farm land. Once on the farm land we spotted a sign that gave us directions on where we needed to be heading… why this couldn’t have been on the road I have no idea, but this sign was 100 meters up the path hidden from view.

Again the trial was un-spoilt and weaved through bamboo grooves and forest paths switching between single track and fire roads. We decided again to stick to the outside trails that went around the outside of the forest again to see how long the ride was and thus giving us an idea of the types of rides we could put together. Finally we emerged on the road in Midori Ward very close to Nakayama Station and with my Brothers train leaving early afternoon we decided to take the road back home and save riding the internal tracks for another time.

All in all an awesome off road course free of all the trappings found on other hiking trails with only a few of the steep climbs staircased and very, quiet! If there are any other MTB riders out there I would be more than happy to show you the access points to the trails.

http://www.youtube.com/get_player

Due to my old man pulling out of what would have been an epic ride with Michael due to having to stay home and look after me this Sunday (Don’t believe a word of it… he is vertically challenged and hates anything with an incline) We decided to see how far we could get a long the KatabiriKawa that runs through Tsurugamine.

Having completed my chores, Cleaning Dad’s Pinarello FP3 , doing my home work and tidying my room, we finally set off from the house at 10am.

Recently they have built a nice nature walk from the bottom of our road all the way to route45 just before Zoo Rasia and speeding along this I soon found myself climbing up the first serious climb of the day. It’s about 50meters and before long Dad was giving me a push to reach the summit. (No crashes this time Michael as Dad has worked out the best way to engage in the pushing.)

Finally we got a nice downhill to route 16 were I was able to clock 31kmph. Crossing Route 16 was very sketchy but soon we were on our way again and heading towards Mitskiyo…..hang on! Where’s the river??????

It turns out that Dad need to drop of his racing wheels to be trued ready for the Enduro Race at Yokohama Arena early next month, fortunately a Snickers bar was enough to keep me happy enough for this slight breach in protocol, especially when Im training for the next JCRC kids race!

Having looked at the computer I noticed we had already clocked in a nice 6km and before long we were heading back in the same direction to the river.

Just after the Tomeii Interchange we turned right in to some amazing country roads that are sandwiched between the Expressway and Route 16 and we were able to keep a steady 18-20kph, Dad must have been blown as he was on my tail all the way in to Tsurugamine where we joined the river.

Cruising along we got to see some nice scenery and the undulating hills that broke up the monotony of following the river. Around 12 noon we stopped for our first proper break with 15km on the clock and drank some Dakara from one of the vending machines on the route.

Setting off again we got just outside of Wadamachi when disaster struck, Forced in to the curb due to the narrow road and cars squeezing past I hit a pot hole which not only punctured my front tire but my rear as well! In my 4 months experience of riding road bikes this has never happened before. Fortunately the old man knew of a bike shop about 1 km away and we managed to get the bike there with no problems.

Disaster 2!!! STAGE1 was out of 24 inch inner tubes, fortunately the old man came to the rescue again (God knows why he didn’t have his tool bag with him!) But bought a puncture repair kit and went about fixing them right there in the shop. Fortunately he knows the owners and they went about helping out getting my Pro-Light Road bike back to the race perfection.

Having sorted out the repairs we headed back down to the river and looped over to the other side and followed the river back towards Tsurugamine on the far bank. Reaching Nishiya we decided to stop for lunch at the Denny’s on Route 16 and got some hot food and sugary drinks in us. Also as a special treat I was allowed a Ice Cream Sundae, for all you Dad’s out there this is pure energy, just take a look at the photo, I’m about to go to critical mass!

Filled up with hamburger steak, soda and Ice cream we hit the river again and headed home, taking some of the back roads to avoid the heavy traffic on Route16.

Finally pulling up to the door with an almost perfect 25km on the clock, 1 Quarter of a centry!

I wanted to try to get in a big ride today, after rain on Saturday, and hearing about Michael and Domenic’s great ride on Friday.

With an early start, I figured I could do the ride planned for last weekend — and make it to and up the Green Line — or maybe do something like Michael and Domenic … but go a bit further, maybe end up at Karuizawa via the same forest road from 15-20 km South that I enjoyed in July. Despite the best of intentions to ride at or soon after 6AM, some mechanical problems caused me to turn back after less than 10 km to go home and get a temporary fix, and then I ended up riding around near Y’s until after their 9AM Sunday open.
On my way after 10AM, having done plenty of shopping, and installed a new seatpost clamp.

I tried a new way into Chichibu (for me — old hat for Tom and probably some others). Instead of taking Nariki Kaido I made a right turn and ended up going parallel somewhat to the North, on Rte 193, zigged right on Rte 70 and zagged left on tiny Rte 350 — which goes up the valley toward Takedera and Nenogongen.

Rte 193 was a nice alternative to Nariki Kaido — less traffic, and a wider lane with shoulder.

Of course, there were some Chichibu sized „rollers“:
I took a right turn about 7-8 km before Nenogongen and climbed over the next ridge to the North and down to Rte 299, just East of Adano station. I headed East down 299, looking for the turn off for the climb up to the Green Line … until I realized after 4-5 km that I must have started already East of the turn off, and retraced my steps up Rte 299 toward the West.

I climbed up to Takayama Fudo — a temple on the ridge. After a climb through a nice cool forest, the road became slippery, to the point where my wheel spun repeatedly and I needed to walk. The lower climb:
After getting to the temple, at 650 meters elevation (last part VERY steep — reminiscent of Kazahari Rindo — I had the typical Chichibu experience, leaving the temple and still needing to climb UP to get onto the ridge, then traveling on the ridge and climbing UP (complete with switch backs) to get to a higher part of the ridge.

Anyway, there were lots of spectacular views, of ridge upon ridge stretching into the distance, and lots of ups and downs on the road in order to arrive at Karibazaka Pass (818 meters). Then a descent back toward 299 at the mouth of the tunnel, and the climb up to Shomaru Touge, where I enjoyed some quick udon thanks to Sato-san, Saito-san and Suzuki-san at the Okumura Chaya, and then started a long slog home.

The usual boring home ride along the river, with (almost) no natural beauty and (almost) nothing memorable to look at:

A nice 200 km+ ride, with 2100 meters climbing, the last stretch home in the dark to arrive at 645PM. Good night!

Felix Salmon, the finance blogger for Reuters (formerly for Portfolio.com) is also a bicycle commuter in Manhattan. His many finance reports are interspersed with occasional adventures of a cyclist in NYC — difficulties getting permission to take your bike up to your office in the elevator and such. Today, he links to a video of what happens if a thief makes the mistake of trying to drill off the lock that is securing a bike messenger’s sole source of livelihood on First Avenue, while the messenger and his friend are enjoying a meal at a nearby cafe.