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Ride Friday 19th July - Arima Duez

Half-Fast Mike

Lanterne Rouge-et-vert
May 22, 2007
4,644
3,700
WHO? Half-Fast Mike. Anyone else who wants to come along and promises to not complain that the aforementioned rider is too fast/slow/quiet/smelly/fat etc.

WHEN? Friday 19th July. I'm planning to take the first train from home, which gets me into JR Ome at 05.56. OMG did I just say that? Basically I want to get out before the commuters start clogging up the trains.

WHAT? 100 km out and back, with probably 3,500 m climbing. Route Map

WHY? Because Sibreen said so.
In honour of the double Alpe d'Huez on Thursday, I suggest insist you do Arima-toge from both directions.

Of course if the weather gets silly there is always an option to cut the route in half and terminate in Chichibu. And if more food/drinks are needed I may extend the turnaround by 5 km to reach the main road and civilization.

Stalk my Strava to see whether my flight times are compatible with yours. PM if interested.

FAQ

Can we start earlier?
No. Well, you can if you want to.

Can we start later?
Possibly. Make me an offer?

How long will it take?
Maybe ten hours. I would be delighted with eight.

 
Hey HFM,
What sort of time do you expect to arrive at the top of Arima-touge on the way out?
 
I was hoping you would post your intended ride and I could join but there is not a train that early for me.

I'll steal it and use it when the time better suits my Chiba-dwelling self.

Have a good one.
 
Killer! I will definitely be up for this sometime but alas with it being a friday and all I cannot make it this time. Have a great time!
Be sure that you have plenty of tyre changing backups, the road has a history of inflicting damage on tyres.

Lots of stuff about the ride
 
I was hoping you would post your intended ride and I could join but there is not a train that early for me.

I'll steal it and use it when the time better suits my Chiba-dwelling self.

Have a good one.

When's your first train out?
My plan, depending on how fast HFM is, is to set out a little later and meet him at the top of Arima (either first or second time).
I'd be leaving from near Hanno Station - you're welcome to join.
 
Yeah. Thanks for the reminder.
I'm going out on a huge limb here, by saying... 09:00


From road junction yambushi/Arima dam at the very bottom to the top its about a 60-70minute climb, so you can work back from there!
 
From road junction yambushi/Arima dam at the very bottom to the top its about a 60-70 minute climb, so you can work back from there!
Yes I have previously stalked your and Pwn's Strava data. 60-70 minutes is about right for a bunch of testosterone-fuelled nutters trying to sweat each other to death. I'm shooting for about half the speed/twice the time. I may even stop to take pictures. Or breathe.
 
Just got back - good fun, this!!
Blazing hot in the morning for the first ascent and suffered terribly, but had cloud cover for the second and felt strong. This was my first ever metric century, so pretty chuffed. Hope to do it again in a couple of weeks.

Good riding with you HFM!
 
Quick report from me.

Got up seriously antisocially early, to have a decent breakfast and catch the 04.51 Sunrise号

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I hit up the 7-Eleven at Ome station for a big black coffee. HIGH5 tabs in the bidons with ice and water. Then hit the road. Most of this route was new roads for me; until two weeks ago I had never gone anywhere from Ome except up to Okutama! But I navigated the roads and tunnels easily enough with Michiko, my Edge 810, and reached the r53 turn-off for Arima Dam. I had passed this turn on a Half-Fast ride a few weeks back - we talked about it and ever since it had been calling to me.

Signs said that a landslide meant the road along the north side of the reservoir was closed. Yeah ride. Rode through the barrier anyway and there was nothing except another barrier marking the end of the meaningless closed zone.

Once the two roads from either side of the reservoir rejoin, there's a kilometre or so of gentle introduction and then the real climb starts: 6 km at 10%.

The road is definitely not pristine. Although there are some clean, beautifully-surfaced sections, you must constantly be on the lookout for rocks, landslips, gravel, drainage grates, wet patches, and other usual rindo hazards (monkeys, deer). These hazards are all the more risky during descending, of course. So it's not a ride for you if you're precious about your tyres.

But it was wonderfully quiet - saw only a half-dozen cars and a couple of motorbikes. Lots of trees, so very shady right through the day.

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Quite suddenly the road levels out, and the final 4 km stretch before the 1140 m pass at Arima-toge is a nice roller-coaster, with previews through the trees of the view that awaits you at the top.

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Et puis vous voila. Eric (the bike) looks back where we've come from.

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I knew Sibreen was riding out to do the same ride. I had his number, but as expected there was no SoftBank coverage. I left my calling card - literally - with a message but it seems it had blown away by the time he got there. No harm done as we did find each other later on. The view was a bit hazy, but at 08.30 I could just make out the Tokyo skyline. You can see Arima Dam and the reservoir from the pass.

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I thought there might be a hiking trail to the nearby summit of Arima-san, but if there was I could not find it.

The temperature for me had been just right on the climb. Once the descent started I got a bit chilly in the shade. That makes a nice change at this time of year. The mountains close in, and it's very green. More of the rocks and grates to contend with.

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Eric made some new friends at a camp/BBQ site

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Finally the road reaches the beginning of Urayama-ko, the reservoir created by Urayama Dam. Again there's a choice to go left or right. Left. Again there are dire warnings of road closures due to landslides. (Bartek had intimated this was probably true, but that the road would be cyclable anyway.) Unlike the road around Arima-ko, this one is quite a workout. Almost immediately it climbs up high, before plummeting down, across a bridge, and into a doom-warning barrier. Meh. More ups and downs and dodging sand and rocks, and finally you reach the dam.

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The path over the dam is easy to ride. On the near (west) side is a building with toilets and vending machines, a water fountain outside, and the top of a staircase that leads all the way down to the foot of the concrete dam. If you don't fancy the stairs, there's also an elevator! On the east side is the visitor centre.

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Eric looks out over Chichibu
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Looking back toward Arima-san

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Having refilled, Urayama Dam was my turnaround point. So I crossed over and headed up the east road. This has a few tunnels. Once back at the south end of the reservoir, the climb back to Arima-toge starts once more. The first 5 km are easy, and the rest gradually gets steeper but at an average of 6% not nearly as steep as the Ome/Hanno approach.

Eric made some more friends

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And we developed a new inspection/maintenance stand (GSAstuto can we patent this, quick?)

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Up up up

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About 9 km into the climb, I finally encountered Sibreen coming down. Good to see another cyclist! I turned around, and we set of down toward Urayama-ko. It was my intention to ride together for the rest of the trip. This was not to be. After a few minutes of cautious descending I incautiously hit a sticky-up drainage grate and phlatted my rear. Urayama-DAMN. Oh well. I had lots of spare tubes, a spare tyre, my tool kit and pump. Should be easy to sort out, right? I sent Sibreen on alone, expecting to catch up with him at the lake somewhere. In the event, I was messing around with the phlat for an hour. Learned a few things. Topeak valve extenders fall apart. Tyre levers wear out and can snap. Finally I got it fixed and was rolling, but I met Sibreen coming back up after less than a kilometer.

Filled up bottles at the Fishing Centre, and set off back up the hill together. There would be no more pneumatic trauma. SIbreen is a quicker climber than me, which me work harder to avoid embarrassing myself too much. We made the 7.8 km from Fishing Centre to Arima-toge in 37m 46s. I would not have ridden so fast on my own. Presumably Sibreen would not have ridden so slowly ;-)

Back here again, then!

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And from the top, a suitably cautious descent...

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...back to Arima Dam. Then on to Hanno for Sibreen and Ome for me. Plan the ride. Ride the plan.

Yeah I rode home from Ome. That was hot, trundling along the Tamagawa into a headwind. Stopped off at Y's Fuchu for some shopping including new tyre levers.

Well... it turned out to be not such a quick ride report after all.

The photos are here.
 
Excellent! I am dead keen on this route in the near future... I have unfinished business on Arima.
 
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