Saturday, June 30, 2012

TCC KOM Ride

Joined as a participant (not as a contender) for TCC King of Mountain (KOM) ride. It was a tough ride and wasn't able to climb the last mountain pass as the time gap from the very best is too much... However, the course was beautiful and scenic.

The big starting group for the KOM trophy.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Gando Toge & Lake Tsukui

I have been thinking for a while to ride the closed forest road on the north side of Lake Tsukui and took this oppurtunity on my ride to Gando Toge (巌道峠) using my cross bike.

It was a cloudy day and left early and plan to be back for lunch (or late lunch). I took the quickest path to the wild west using Tsurukawa Kaido and then followed the nice cycling/walking path just north of Machida Kaido until Route 16. Did a small diversion ride to Lake Shiroyama for a quick hill climb before Lake Tsukui.

The view from Lake Tsukui is great as usual with the nice twisty small road. Now for the challenging part of crossing the closed forest road, the first problem is always, 'how do you get your bike across the closed gate?'... I solved that quickly with the small opening on the right side, just small enough for people to squeeze themselves in rather than lifting the bike over the fence. The road was really bad with remnants of past small avalanches. It took great focus to traverse this small wet and slippery stone pathway and have to walk a lot, not to mention spider webs. I was rewarded with a nice waterfall flooding the road. I probably go back again during the dry winter months and without the hassle of thick vegetations.

As a transition to Gando Toge, I took the nice hilly backroads south of Lake Sagami. The climb to the pass was very nice and I have the road all by myself. There were part of the climb that was pretty steep, probably greater than 15%. GPS slope reading didn't show because the climb was too slow on the steep portion. The descent was technical, with stones, roads made into river and lots of twisty steep descents. Though the view was very nice.

I finished the ride with the hilly portion of Doshi Michi and passing a few roads off the main highway.




Monday, June 18, 2012

Ogano-machi (Oku-Chichibu) Loop

Did a half day ride around Ogano Town in Saitama Prefecture on my cross bike. The course passes thru beautiful forest, rivers and mountains. I started at Ryokami Michi no Eki (両神道の駅) and followed a clockwise route to Otaki, then follow Nakatsu river taking me to an old mining town Nichitsu and loop back using R299.  This route also takes me to two mountain passes.

From Ryokami Michi no Eki, I rode K35 going south and turned west before the tunnel and followed a small tributary with a 15 kilometers of tough dirt forest road (Ontakesan Rindo) peaking at around 900+ meters. I have the road all by myself expect for a couple of motocross riders, who were racing on this track. The gravel is loose and lots of mid-size gravels making it difficult to have traction.  After the very steep descent, I joined the major road R140, which connects to Yamanashi via a long tunnel, and pass thru scenic Otaki village. I stopped by the bridge connecting to an school and took a few pictures of a 'small' river (Arakawa River). R140 splits into two and I followed the north road and then to K210 following Nakatsu River.  Along K210, there were remnants of the old road and I ride it as much as I can. These old roads, not passable by cars, is dedicated for hikers or walkers and is rewarded by picturesque views of the gorge. Would like to come back again during fall to view the kaleidoscope autumn colors.

Upstream of Nakatsu River is the old mining town of Nichitsu, mostly abandoned but still working with minimal activities. 'Do not enter' sign dotted the road. After the town, a long dark, cold and wet tunnel brings you to the other side of the mountain for a long descent to Chichibu. The entrance of the tunnel was a little bit scary because of dense fog blowing out of it. I hesitated for a moment....


Start of Ontakesan Rindo (御岳山林道)

15 kilometers of off road. This part is relatively good road.

Still climbing....

Abandoned shelter on the steep descent.

Shot from Otaki bridge (大滝)

Takizawa Dam (滝沢ダム)

Old bridge on the old road...

Old post office at old mining town Nichitsu.

No entry abounds in front of deserted buildings...

Dense fog blowing out of the tunnel after visiting the deserted town...

Inside the tunnel... cold, wet and chilly...

Resting on top of the mountain pass.

Hoyo Temple (法養寺)at Ryokami

Small garden at Ryokami.

Monday, June 4, 2012

BRM602 Aoba 600 Hiekawa Toge

I thought I had a good rest after last week 600 km brevet and was looking forward to this event.

The bike...
I tweak my bike a little bit and removed the Nitto front rack, Orlieb handlebar bag attachment and T-bar attachment. This saved around 800+ grams and used the lighter Montbell bag. I also replaced the thick mattress with a lighter one and didn't bought the sleeping bag liner. This brevet has an official sleeping point at Kiyosato with drop bag. However, I opted out of this option and carried all the necessary nap goods.

There were few participants this time.
The starting point is a small cozy park near Keiyo Tamagawa station along Tamagawa River. There probably around 20+ riders, not many riders so I don't expect groups to be formed and probably riding solo for extended time. I also met Craig, wearing Nalshima Frend jersey, at the starting point and his first 600 km brevet. He is fast rider and zoom with the lead group early in the ride. I never saw him again after PC1.
Starting point at a small park at Tamagawa River.

It was a fast pace towards control point 1 (76km) but too many traffic lights. This is to be expected for brevet starting from the metropolis. However, comparing to a similar course three years ago, the organizer has made revision of the course going out of Tokyo and there are more back roads with less cars... making it a little bit better.

After an hour riding, I start noticing that my saddle is swaying left and right when I push the pedal hard and pushed further into the seat tube. It was good that I had a classic frame and a saddle bag support. This limited the lowering of the saddle and was still comfortable pedaling. I did put grease the day before on the seat post as I expect some rain. I didn't expect that the lubricant made it worst. I stopped by a cycle shop in Takasaki and replace the seat post clamp (I thought this was the issue, initially). It worked but the saddle post still goes down after many hours of riding. I came to know after the brevet that the seat post is only 27.0 mm not 27.2 mm. That explains the problem and I put an 'aluminum can' shim to fix the issue.

One tributary of great Tone River in Shibukawa.
The scenery gets better past Shibukawa as the course led us to R354/R145 (also known as part of Japan Romantic Highway). This is also the start of a long climb to Kita-Karuizawa. The greenery along this route is just spectacular. From the top, it is followed by a quick but too-many-turn descent to Karuizawa to Saku. I had a small break/dinner at Saku before attacking next climb to Kiyosato. I was caught in the rain after dinner just before the climb got steeper. It rained hard but stopped after 40 minutes. I found later that the fast riders were safe from the rain in Saku. The sound of frogs was deafening as I passed the farms of Saku.
Small gorge along Japan Romantic Highway


After a long slug, I arrived around 22:10 at Kiyosato manned checkpoint and the cut off time was 1:24. I figured that a long descent from Kiyosato could buy me additional time so I decided to sleep till 2:00. The sleeping place is a small Minshuko with three rooms assigned as sleeping quarters. I did a quick nice hot bath, ate and slept from 23:00. I promptly woke around 2:00, with 3 hours of sleep, and was soon descending to Minobu, Yamanashi Pref. I remember last year brevet in this same route and it was the second night of evening start 600 km brevet. I was so sleepy that I had to slow down on descent from Kiyosato and sleep on one of the underground passage. This time, I was able to descent in anger... After an hour or so, when the course is a little bit flatter, I was attack by sleepiness and was difficult to continue. I found a shelter and probably slept around 4:00. I slept soundly and woke up around 5:30. I was so sleepy that I forgot to set the alarm clock and rewarded with the refreshing sleep but at a cost of not having enough time to check-in Control Point at Shimizu around 9:16. I bailed out at Utsubuna Station on the Minobu Line for a 3:30 hours train back home.

Looking back, I'm beginning to learn that the offering of a nice sleeping quarter at a specified location is good but I force myself to sleeping even if I still had the energy to continue. Later on, I was hit again by a nasty drowsiness after a couple of hours while it was still dark. What I should have done is push hard as long as I can until a few hours before dawn, sleep and wake up on sunrise. This way so that I trick my body clock that I sleep in the dark and wake up when there is light. I had plenty on time and could have plan better for a sleep break... somewhere...




Cow mascot in Nobeyama

I woke up overlooking this village on the side of a hill
Second sleep break in an open bus stop
Fuji River
Bail out point from Utsubuna Station Minobu Line.