Phil Harris
Speeding Up
- Nov 9, 2006
- 303
- 0
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.
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.