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Last Week Trip

Phil Harris

Speeding Up
Nov 9, 2006
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Departed Yokohama for Numazu on 31 March; I took Route 246 to avoid the wicked mountain passes, though Route 246 proved a most unpleasant ride: too many trucks. On 01 April I biked down the west side of the Izu peninsula along route 17 and 136. Route 17 was a very nice ride as I virtually had the road to myself. I stopped at a small town called Arai 安良里。The town didn`t have an izakaya or snack of any sort, but the Ryokan was very nice. The next day I was enroute over to the east side of Izu to Atami to meet my wife. I had asked her to bring my bike bag so I could bring it on the train and return home with her. On the down hill side after the pass, my back tire exploded (probably from an expansion joint) beyond a patch up job, so I walked about 8kms into Ito calling the wife to meet me at the station.

A word of caution: Tunnels are not lit to evidently to conserve electricity (other than the lighting for emergency call stations). Even with my bike light, I found tunnels greater than 400 metres in length too dark to safely ride. Problem was the lack of any reference points to orientate on. I almost toppled over doing about 40kph on a down ward slope in absolute darkness. From that point, any tunnels greater than 250 metres in length I would disembark and walk thru. The 1400 metre tunnel sucked! So unless you have a powerful light, consider walking thru tunnels.

I`ll upload pics soon. Great to be back in the saddle.
 
I took Route 246 to avoid the wicked mountain passes, though Route 246 proved a most unpleasant ride: too many trucks.

R246 is one of my favorite don't ride road right now.


A word of caution: Tunnels are not lit to evidently to conserve electricity (other than the lighting for emergency call stations). Even with my bike light, I found tunnels greater than 400 metres in length too dark to safely ride.

Same thing along the short tunnels of R16.
The issue is that even vehicles don't turn on their lights while inside! I always turn on a rear-facing flasher just in case.
 
Hey Phil, glad to see you riding again. Nice report, glad you survived the various mishaps--even, most alarming of all, the lack of izakaya's in that benighted village :)
 
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