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Another 'Merican in Suginami, Tokyo

Omar

Warming-Up
Aug 19, 2020
15
13
Hi all, I've been living in Asagaya for about a year, was always in and out of Japan often before that. I've mostly been an urban cyclist, cruising around San Francisco in a vintage steel road bike before I moved here, and I've continued that here with a not-so-vintage cheap chromoly road bike. Almost every day I bike mostly to cafes and lounges around Tokyo, but I haven't really been out of the urban jungle on my bike yet so I want to explore more. Now that COVID caused my Tokyo DJing friends to mostly disperse around the country and stop hanging out, I also want to get into a regular groove of pedaling around and hanging out with people in a less-cluster-breeding social environment: the outdoors. Nice to meet you all!
 
Welcome! Can you get to (and back from) Takao or Musashi Itsukaichi? They're two of places in the west of Tokyo where the good rides start.

I only know SF via the movies, which perhaps overemphasize the ups and downs. How does the gearing of that vintage steel road bike -- or rather, how do your legs handle them?
 
I should be able to get out to Takao easily - I've been many times for the beer garden but not for cycling!

And the hills in SF are no joke - I climbed the medium sized ones pretty regularly for the views, but it took all my effort to get up the truly steep ones so I usually didn't do it. One of my coworkers valiantly tried to commute by bike from his home in the upper reaches of Twin Peaks - but apparently ending a day of hard work with a serious hill climb wasn't always what he was looking for everyday, so he'd often take the bus back 😂
 
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