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Today August 2015

Half-Fast Mike

Lanterne Rouge-et-vert
May 22, 2007
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Fun fact: did you know we started the "Today" microblog thread series in June 2010? Time flies when you're having fun. Not everyone's a fan of this cycloconsciousness stream, but enough people contribute to make me think it's still a good release valve. I was screaming at salmon then, and I'm still screaming at them now.

I finished July 2015 with 1,502 km on the clock. A little more than June. And 10,661 m climbed - substantially less than last month due to the absence of Yabitsu hill repeats.

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Totals for the year to date: 10,491 km across and 108,180 m up.

Highlights of July for me were (1) Norikura - a charity weekend ride that I organise annually. This year was memorable in that nobody crashed horrifically and nearly died but the weather was really crappy for both days; (2) Fujisan - finally getting to ride the Takizawa rindō. I want to repeat that ride soon.

Got a new carbon frame (Neil Pryde Bura SL). Sent back a split titanium frame for repair. Spent a lot of hours commuting on my Panaracer fixie.

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Too many of my rides are getting spoiled by my Garmin Edge 810 spontaneously shutting down and losing all the cool data. First world problem. I slightly hate myself for believing that the only viable solution is to buy a new Garmin Edge 1000 (and a yellow silicone case for it, to irritate the TCC site admin).

Anyway, keep the rubber side down boys and girls.
 
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The Sekiyado TT path is now completely blocked by long grass. This wouldn't bother me so much, except for the fact that I am extremely allergic to it, to the point where I can't breathe when I am in the middle of it, and any that touches my skin causes me to instantly come up in really heavy swollen white patches which are insanely itchy. It is like I am being maced every time I go through it.

Still keep going through it though. Wish they would cut it though, serious.
 
The Sekiyado TT path is now completely blocked by long grass.
I remember riding through there last summer.
It was like Noah had parted the waters and only one bike could fit through with a 2m high jungle wall, and yeah insects and allergies galore hanging in there (I'm also allergic to that crap [conjuntivitis]).
From memory, they cut it down real late in the season, too.
Much later than other jungles.
 
Got up at 5 am to check out for the first time the Saiko (lake) place everyone's talking about. It's about 20 km from where I live, and since I'm right next to Arakawa it makes little sense for me to go all the way up there just for some car-free tarmac. Very decent spot if you're closer to it though. I knew the general direction but still taken couple of wrong turns, what with all the bridges, underground tunnels, gates etc. Already by 7 or 8 am it's too hot for me to be out there doing longer or more demanding rides. Looking forward to "Today October 2015"

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Congratulations to @Pedro for being the first person to list an AX-Lightness component in the Classifieds section. Truly high end gear.

I think your next purchase should be an iPhone though, or decent Android phone with a good camera. Lolz.

Amazing stuff though, that AX-Lightness. I had a pair of their rims until I sold them to a mate in England after not riding them.
 
Ended July by finding that my gear indexing was suddenly way out. Fearing the cable was about to break I single speeded it for the last 30km home. Started August by trying to remove a badly frayed Ultegra gear cable from the shifter, took me nearly an hour. Relieved that it happened now & not when I am in Japan in 42 days (not that I'm counting). Ah well, off to buy a new cableset & bartape.
 
Ended July by finding that my gear indexing was suddenly way out. Fearing the cable was about to break I single speeded it for the last 30km home. Started August by trying to remove a badly frayed Ultegra gear cable from the shifter, took me nearly an hour. Relieved that it happened now & not when I am in Japan in 42 days (not that I'm counting). Ah well, off to buy a new cableset & bartape.
Do you know how long the cable had been in there?
 
I've had two cables go in the right brifter, in the 7-8 years I've had that bike (Ultegra). One was a nightmare for the shop, they thought they might have to ship it to shimano.

If I were starting some touring, I might replace both shifter cables pro-actively.
 
Takizawa rindō. I want to repeat that ride soon.
In fact, convinced myself to repeat that ride today. Civilised train time of 8:02. Fujisan station at 10:18. Up the Takizawa-rindō. Down the Subaru Line. Continued on down Fuji-michi to Otsuki where caught the Holiday Express at 16:49 and was home before dark. 80 km; 1480 up; ca 2000m down.

Will definitely want to repeat this ride again again soon. Start with an early train and there's time to do two laps!

https://www.strava.com/activities/358454012
 
Do you have to pay at the Subaru toll booth if you exited only?
 
Do you have to pay at the Subaru toll booth if you exited only?
No.

On a bicycle you don't have to pay to enter, anyway.

But if you go up Subaru line, you will spend many delightful moments sucking up fumes from the tour buses that blast pass you every three minutes.

Takizawa-rindō up and Subaru Line down, is my recommendation. There is a 2 km stretch of pumice track between the two that you can either hike (if precious about your tyres) or ride (if you have the cojones and balance). Watch out for fifteen million Chinese tourists.
 
On a bicycle you don't have to pay to enter, anyway.

Another cyclist and myself were made to pay 200 yen when we climbed it during the golden week. He keeps photos of these receipts for some reason, and on the website it also says it is 200 yen, so I'm pretty sure you'd have to pay to go up.
 
Another cyclist and myself were made to pay 200 yen when we climbed it during the golden week. He keeps photos of these receipts for some reason, and on the website it also says it is 200 yen, so I'm pretty sure you'd have to pay to go up.
How bizarre. I stood there waiting and watching and bicycles are not listed on the menu at the toll booth. The lowest price was for scooters less than 125 cc. But if It happened to you then it must be true. I stand corrected.

There are no tolls on the Takizawa-rindō or Azami line*.

*You must never go there, Simba.

Anyway, there is no exit toll and no-one stops you to check that you paid on the way up.
 
bicycles are not listed on the menu at the toll booth.
Well that's the trick, bicycles are classified as light vehicles (kei sharyo etc 軽車両等) and belong to the same category as scooters of less than whatever metric.
 
Do you know how long the cable had been in there?
I am ashamed to say about two and a half years :innocent: In my defense it is the summer bike so isnt used in the worst of the weather. In retrospect the shifting had been a little off for a couple of weeks. I had put that down to switchin to & fro between wheelsets recently.
Those thieving bastards.

Try the Shimanami-kaidō some time. Bicycle tolls a go-go.
Unless you dont work out what the recordings are saying & just sail through :innocent:
 
Technically this was on the 31st, but I finally got around to doing another 50 mile ride around the lake here. At the beginning uphill section I suddenly realized it was really, really hot out that day. I almost thought about turning back, but eventually I reached the flats and suddenly it wasn't so bad. Glad I started two hours earlier than last time.

This time I made sure to apply sunblock multiple times because I had gotten sunburned several times in the last few weeks and was already peeling. I also made sure to bring more food and drinks so as to not blow up halfway through the ride.


That said, my aching arse and extremities were pretty demoralizing on the second half. When I took my shoes off after getting back I almost immediately went into a five-minute fit of screaming and cursing because of horrendous foot cramps. And then I noticed a bunch of hairs had literally been pulled off my taint. That might explain why my arse was so uncomfortable....
 
Does anyone else think the heat has peaked?

I do. I felt a shimmer of coooler air pulsing across the fields from the north when I was out at 4pm today. It was not long lasting, and the heat came back a bit after, but not as strong. Looking at the weather report, the temperature for next week, it seems that this weekend was the hottest, and it is dropping by a few degrees from tomorrow.
 
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