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.

BRM515 Kazahari

I did managed to find a Tiagra 4600-GS rear derailer at Y's in R1 and installed promptly. My current rear mech setup is Shimano Dyna-Sys XT 11-34T rear sprocket and was a little bit concern if I can use the GS version of Tiagra, with low sprocket limit of 30T. I know makers sometimes quote their spec conservatively so I took the risk. This Tiagra is the only Shimano road groupset I know of to support 30T rear sprocket. It turned out to be OK and shifted perfectly on all gears. I have gotten rid of my SRAM shifter and will be sending the defective shifter for replacement under warranty. My Lemond bike can now be commissioned again...

Installed new downtube shifter.

With a Tiagra derailer...

Another look on the weather the night before the event didn't look promising. I decided to use my other Audax bike, with full fender and wider tires (of course, with a downtube shifter). It is little bit heavy but not an issue with the relax pace. The organizer later called my bike a "truck"!!! Not surprised at all when 99% of the riders were using a road racing bikes for brevet.

Left home early in the rain to the starting point. There were 19 on the entry list but only a handful started (probably just 7-8 riders), split 50-50 beginners/veterans. We all rode together until the first control point. However, we cannot really draft because of the rear wheel muddy water spray directly to the face. The group got separated very quickly on the ascent to Kazahari Toge. I arrived at PC2 around 11:25. I was expecting to have my lunch at this point but unfortunately "Tabayama Michi No Eki" doesn't have a restaurant.

My "truck"... 

Starting point under the cover of R246.

On the return leg from PC2, I joined a group of two seasoned brevet riders (Suzuki-san and Tashiro-san). They invited me later to a gourmet lunch along the River. T-san is a very strong brevet rider and showed me a different way of enjoying the event. What T-san do every event is to research a popular restaurants (yes, plural) along the route and enjoy the food. On this route he took us to Soba Taro (蕎麦太郎) along river. I ordered same food as T-san, which is the Wasabi Croquette (わさびコロッケ). We spend around 40 minutes on this restaurant. Around 10 km after the restaurant, T-san and S-san stopped again for another gourmet food stop. This time, I have excused myself as I'm still full. I realize that this is a good motivation to get stronger for the brevet ride. You can use the extra time to enjoy local stuff rather just endlessly pushing the pedals. I will meet both of them again at Shizuoka 600km brevet at the end of the month.

View from Kazahari Pass.

Soba Taro.

Wasabi Croquette

BRM512 Kazahari 200 km

Before the brevet, I did the usual preparation:

• Q-sheet printed and laminated (check)
• Clothes (check)
• Bike maintenance (check)
• Participant Agreement Form (check)
• Entry list (Opps... my name is not on the list!!!)

Hmm... my name wasn't on the BRM512 entry list. Kind of confused a little bit. A quick check on Sports Entry website confirmed that I actually registered for the BRM515 (Tue) not the BRM512 (Sat) event. The course and distance is the same. I thought I have registered on the Saturday event. Anyway, I sent an email to the organizer if I can still attend the BRM512 and they confirmed that I could, so got a late entry. I cannot move my BRM515 registration to Sat, so I'm both registered for the 200 km event. I though I can use the Tuesday event as a backup (and I actually will be using it... more on that later). The organizer updated their entry list on their website and now that I can put a [check] on the entry list, I have confirmed that I'm ready for the event.

Woke up around 4:30 and had a quick cereal breakfast. I made sure I pack my homemade energy bar and left home around 5:10. The starting point is around 10 km from home and arrived 5:40. The morning briefing has already started. I quickly registered and received my brevet card.

At meeting point before the 6:00AM start.

The bike I used for this brevet.

Feeling good...

The ride to the first checkpoint was uneventful and was confident on the route (due to previous week reconn ride). There were a bunch of riders so we made sure we ride in waves of 5-10 riders so not to interfere much with the traffic. After many traffic lights, reached the first checkpoint (46 km)  after 2:15 hours. Quickly got my receipt and off to the climb to Kazahari Pass. I felt good on the climb and found my rhythm.

Then around midway to the pass at 485m, while shifting down, I heard a load crack on the right shifter. I tried to shift down again but the lever is not pulling the cable. I think have broken the shift lever. I can shift up but not down and while trying to figure out what was wrong, I shifted all the way to the top gear. That was a mistake that cause me to DNF (Did Not Finish). Adjusting the rear mech limit stops could only bring me two gears down (15T) and there was no way I can climb Kazahari Pass with this gearing. I decided to turn back and call the organizer I DNF. I was not happy with broken shifter. I have been using this SRAM groupset for only just a year. Not sure if this is a manufacturing issue or something else.

While riding down, I was pondering replacing my shifter with the more traditional downtube shifters. They are bullet proof and simple mechanically and could last a long time. I can only worry about broken cables, which should be easy to repair on the road. I stopped by Y's Road at Tamasai and they didn't have the stock parts I wanted to buy. 

As I wanted to ride this bike for few more brevet this month, I'm going for quick modification as follow:

1. Replace the rear derailer with Tiagra.
2. Cut the shift cable on the handlebar and only use the SRAM brifter for braking.
3. Install a downtube front and rear shifter.

Now, I just need to find a shop that has the Tiagra derailer.

The cause of my DNF... broken shift lever (SRAM RIVAL)

Another view.

Got stuck with 15T...

BRM512 Reconnaissance Ride

This 200 km brevet was designed to start within the suburbs with easy access if you happen to live at 15 km radius of the starting line. I happen to live within the radius and know the river path very well. Unfortunately, this brevet doesn't allow riding on the Tamagawa cycling path and passes thru residential areas I'm not familiar with many twists and turns. The Q-sheet has around 115 rows and is very easy to get loss. I did this reconnaissance ride for me to get familiar with the residential roads until prefecture road R7, which is a route I know and start of the long climb to Kazahari pass, and then loop back to the tail end of the brevet route.

It was good I did this recon ride as I got loss a few times as well as know a leg of the route that has too many traffic lights and long waits. This will be a time killer unless I find alternate route :)

Looking forward next weekend for the real ride.