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Today May 2021

picked up my refurbished marzocchi from sico bicycle service. thanks for the reccommendation @bloaker, shikou-san was very easy to speak with and you can obviously see has passion for tinkering with stuff. fork feels better after changing the oil weight. need to do setting changes on the rebound and compression in the weekend. then hopefully by july i can do the tamer runs at fujiten.
 
Not sure where to post this, but seeing as the subject is related to a ride I did yesterday, I figure here is as good a place as any.

I managed to drag myself out of bed at a stupid hour for the Otsuki 4.5 ride, which was a combination of spectacular and spirit-breaking. I realised pretty early on that I wasn't in the right shape for it.

Anyway, this morning I woke up with a dreaded itch around my right ankle. Yep, flea bites. Quite a few. I smothered myself in insect repellent at the start of the ride, but didn't bother putting anything under my socks because I assumed insects couldn't bite through them. But now I read that fleas *can* bite through reasonably sheer fabric (eg the kind of stuff used for summer cycling socks), especially when it's skin tight.

So now I'm trying to figure out if this happened on the ride, while I was standing for minutes at a time in dead leaves/long grass by the side of the road to take photos, or if it happened after the ride, when I was walking the dog in the local (overgrown) park. I definitely felt something down there during the ride, but I was too focused on the aches and pains in every other part of my body to give it much thought.

Anyone else here been bitten by fleas through their kit? Do I need to start spraying my socks with insect repellent too?

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On Saturday I took my wife and her dog to Mount Nokogiri (鋸山, Nokogiri-yama) down in Boso.

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I had noticed the unusual cliffs at the start and end of many rides via the Kurihama / Kanaya ferry and did some research. There's been a temple up there since the Nara era (8th century CE), one of the oldest in the Kanto area. The mountain was used as a quarry providing rock for many temples and shrines in Tokyo (including Yasukuni jinja). From that time it has many completely vertical rock faces left from the cutting of sandstone, partially being reclaimed by vegetation. In this unusual scenery you will find the hyaku-shaku kannon (literally "30 meter high buddha"), a relief image of Kannon, the "goddess of mercy" cut into the quarry face.

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There are great views of the coastline, including the entrance to Tokyo bay and Miura on the other side (and Mt Fuji and Izu if the air is clear enough, which on Saturday it wasn't). There are many trails with hundreds of steps leading you around collections of numerous statues as well as one Daibutsu (large Buddha statue). Many of the statues were decapitated during early Meiji, in a sometimes violent backlash against Buddhism due to its connections to the Tokugawa regime (which had used it to suppress Christianity and to spy on the population in general).

Hiking up and down the steps to explore the temple complex almost seemed like a walk in the park after last weekend's hike of Mt Oyama :)

Yesterday was a bike day then, for another Century ride and a few tiles ticked off the map (+5T, 162 km on Strava)

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Like last weekend's bike ride I left very late. I didn't fully make up my mind where to go until I was already in Sagamihara. I decided to head to Yabitsu north side via the Karasawa rindo, a closed rindo with gates at both ends.

Before that I had lunch at the Familymart in Toya. I passed this Volkswagen Golf cemetery on the way there:

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and houses with beautiful gardens and flowers:

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At the lake there were lots and lots of motorcycles about. It was really warm, with my Wahoo showing 31-32 deg C while riding. This was my first ride to acclimatise to the heat and my first long ride without any need for a windbreaker this year.

I managed to get my bike over the gate at both ends. This was actually more difficult than getting out of the zone on Rt70 closed for repairs. On a Sunday there were no workers around, only some construction machinery.

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Currently the Karasawa rindo is in reasonable shape. A big landslide has been repaired. You can still see some large boulders next to guardrails, or crumpled or missing guardrails in a few places and there is debris on the road in many places. No doubt it will get worse again, come the typhoon season.

The rindo was not totally deserted. I met several groups of hikers and one guy descending on what looked like a kick scooter. Not sure how its brake will do on several km of descending... I saw one adult monkey but no other animals.

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I felt rather exhausted by the time I got to Yabitsu toge. Before the final section of the climb I refilled my bidons at the meisui (名水, "famous water") fountain. Whenever I pass there, I find people refilling a trunk full of large canisters and plastic bottles (See: 護摩屋敷の水).

The Fuji views on the descent were quite nice.

I did not descend all the way to Rt246 but turned left towards a golf course to bag a tile. Then crossing Rt70 to the west to bag another 4 tiles. I saw lots of construction for Shin-Tomei, the parallel route to Tomei expressway, which currently ends there.

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After an Indian dinner in Hadano I cycled back to Tokyo on Rt246. It's not the most pleasant road to cycle on, but it gets me home with the least amount of climbing -- a persuasive argument at the end of a warm day with 2,200 m of elevation gain :)
 
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Hi @leicaman,
How do you keep your (in)sanity without bike rides? I would definitely have to do something similar (such as hiking) if I couldn't cycle, just to get away from it all and reboot my mind. And when it seems risky to socialize in the usual settings, rides in general and also rides with others are still one of the safer activities, as long as you don't crash!
 
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I have good and bad days. It is just becoming more good than bad now.
I am definitely more capable now than in Feb/Mar - but I get more disappointed when I can't do things now more than then.
Squatting and Kneeling are two things that are still off the board for me.
That's excellent in a way, as the initial prognosis seemed to be pointing to an ACL and I assumed reconstruction.
I hope the good days continue to increase.
 
Hi @leicaman,
How do you keep your (in)sanity without bike rides? I would definitely have to do something similar (such as hiking) if I couldn't cycle, just to get away from it all and reboot my mind. And when it seems risky to socialize in the usual settings, rides in general and also rides with others are still one of the safer activities, around as long as you don't crash!
I do other forms of exercise such as running , although that's only in the winter. I said I haven't been riding but that's not exactly true. I've been commuting by bike every day since the pandemic started in Feb/March last year so that keeps my sanity intact and keeps my legs ticking over (although it's certainly no substitute to riding regularly in the mountains.
 
Sorry I've been absent for a while club. Daughters Hoikune in Ichinomiya got a Covid case and with GW it was pretty insane. We have been hiking, walking the sunsets along the the "mountain" (hill) range near our to-be-constructed land/home, riding some including the 4 y.o. and generally happy except with the massive Tokyo crowds coming out for GW. Understand the need to let loose but holding our breath there are more vaccines distributed before rolling out the Olympics here, its already packed on regular weekends.

Riding wise, any recommended resources for replacing my chain?
 
not riding related but was recently bit by the camping bug. with social distancing a must and having a very active 2 year old, camping outings seems to be the way to go at the moment :)

last week we only had a coleman cooler, now we have a tent, a tarp that is on the way and 2 collapsible coleman chairs :):):) this is where we booked the day camp/bbq (link). the first time in this park we rented a slot to do day camping/bbq and on the 2nd outing, we went to the same park but set up camp on the "free portion" (no need to pay for the slot as long as you don't do bbq or open flame).

any good camp recommendations?
 
not riding related but was recently bit by the camping bug. with social distancing a must and having a very active 2 year old, camping outings seems to be the way to go at the moment :)

last week we only had a coleman cooler, now we have a tent, a tarp that is on the way and 2 collapsible coleman chairs :):):) this is where we booked the day camp/bbq (link). the first time in this park we rented a slot to do day camping/bbq and on the 2nd outing, we went to the same park but set up camp on the "free portion" (no need to pay for the slot as long as you don't do bbq or open flame).

any good camp recommendations?
I have used this as a guide for place to look - however I have never used any of them. Just a good place to see what is available.


There are tons of camping options near Fuji5 lakes worth checking out too.
 
Cleaned up the cockpit just a bit with New Bars and stem.
I seem to have a bit of a green theme going on. My SS, Nordest and now the trek are all green highlights.
For those wondering - yes the valve caps are green as are the cable ends.
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And yes - the pump will come off the bike, I know it is a nono and I will abide.
 
For those wondering - yes the valve caps are green as are the cable ends.
I used to have valve caps on my Presta (French) valves but more recently I didn't. In my case it was only the simple plastic ones that came with the tubes, so not much of a fashion statement.

The caps help protect the tube from the pointed end of the valve when the tube is rolled up as a spare, but unlike a Dunlop (English) or Schrader (US) valve a Presta valve has no open void in which dirt could collect. That means a cap is not really doing much to protect the valve from contamination when it's screwed shut (Dunlop valves are quite vulnerable in this respect). Supposedly not using a valve cap will save you a few seconds when you have a puncture and the bike will be a fraction of a gram lighter...

OTOH I had an incident recently where a rider crashed next to me and pushed me over. Afterwards I found that the pointy end of the valve on my rear wheel was bent 90 degrees, as it must have been bit by some part of the other bike! A valve cap would have protected it. I carefully bent it back with pliers and the valve was still working, but it was a reminder that valves are vulnerable.
 
Not a very good pic, but..

I've mostly been riding the trek this spring, the other (ridgeback steel touring, w/reynolds main tubes) is geared for mountains, lowest MTB gearing available at the time, it was my commuter when I was working and would come home thru the hills--I used to wonder about getting a carbon fork for it. The bonty wheels were actually warranty replacements on the trek, but then I got the DAs for that, so they swapped onto the other. I have a third bike, older, also a triple like these, also blue, and also with a brooks. Three of a perfect pair.

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Ultegra on the trek, XT on the other. Triples are heavier..., but at least the trek's seat rails and cassette are Ti. I should weigh it one of these days. Hard to see but there's a seat tube rockshock on the right.
 
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wow, looks just like my home country :cool:

@leicaman you passed me twice on arakawa while I was doing my post-workout flush-out walking on Sat or Sun afternoon. you proly didn't recognize me with spectacles and overgrown beard :crafty:
The fact that I waved at you both ways kinda gave it away that I recognised you ;) . You were doing some weird stretching as you walked along. Thought you might have turned into a Japanese Oyaji and started walking backwards along the river road:nose:
 
yeah those are not so much stretching but moving upper limbs about to get the blood flow there after exercising. it makes a world of difference the next day if you do this flush-out after the workout. and walking backwards is surprisingly good for you in many ways I won't go into here. just don't do it in the middle of the effing path as many oyajis do, is all I'm sayin
 
It happened.... I finally threw my leg over a road bike again.
This is my first "Ride" being clipped in since I got hurt in December.
Overall, I am feeling good about the ride. I can definitely improve my stamina a bit, but there were two on the ride with a slightly slow pace, so plenty of time to get myself sorted out as the ride went on.

 
today was a troubleshooting day for me. after the overhaul I did on my commuter during the GW, I noticed a slight glitch or a hiccup of sorts in the drivetrain. a quick look found the chain trying to go up to the next largest cog on the cassette, so I put it down to RD cable tension and put it off till the weekend. so this morning was the reckoning day.

on a closer look, it turned out to be a totally different issue. not sure why or how, but looks like I messed up when installing the chain. the connecting pin didn't do its job properly, and the outer chain plate was a bit loose, touching the next cog on the cassette and causing the hiccup each time it passed there. no amount of fiddling now could set it straight, and I had to retire the chain after only about 50 km on it! after all, it's only as good as the weakest link...

my guess is, one of these two issues were at play, or possibly both. I had a lot of rings from previous chains remaining on the chain cutter. you'd normally accumulate two for each chain replaced. one when cutting the old chain to get it off, and the other when cutting the new chain to size. so with about a dozen or so of these around the piston, they could have contributed in some way to less than ideal installation of the connecting pin. so I've removed these with one of those small and weird nail clippers found in female nail kits that surely cannot have other worldly use possible for them, so slightly damaging the blade is no big deal 🤭

the other possibility is that I did not push the pin just far enough in. ages ago, I did the opposite mistake of pushing it in a bit too far, and the link became stiff and unusable as a result. ever since I was careful not to repeat it, but if not pushed far enough, it is also possible that the connecting pin won't engage with the outer chain plate as needed, and that's not good either. so I've learned - the hard way - to watch out for both extremes here.

another chain is now installed, and looks perfect for now. rain in the coming days means I'm not sure just when it's going to get a real world test ride, but it is what it is. hopefully someone learns from my mistakes and saves a few yen. luckily I had a spare chain laying around. probably time to order a new one, just in case
 
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