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Ride Nov. 22 or 23, Chiba dirt, gravel, 林道s and autumn leaves

hat and beard

Maximum Pace
Apr 3, 2012
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This is a long shot, but thought I would check just in case anyone is interested. I'm going to do my annual autumn leaves run on either the 22nd or 23rd and thought it would be nice to have some company. Start is in Sodegaura, Chiba. Access from the Tokyo / Yokohama side of the bay via the Aqua Line is very easy if you happen to have a car. You can park for free at my place.
Looooong stretches of this ride are on unpaved roads, poorly maintained roads, and there's even a little bit of easy single track. Thus either a cyclocross bike or a fat tired road bike would be ideal. Tires less than 28mm are probably not a good idea.
Distance can be adjusted. Pace is as fast as the slowest rider (i.e. me) is comfortable with. If you want to come but only have a skinny tired road bike I can cut out some of the nastier bits.


Edit: start time is whenever you want. Just let me know if you're coming and we'll figure something out.
 
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This looks great. I am 99% positive I cannot make it this year, but maybe next year if you do it again.
3 month old baby has daddy handcuffed to the yokosuka/Zushi area.
 
My cross bike should be ready, but I will not be. Please post the route and repeat soon! This is a ride I wanted to do for a long time!
 
A few people have expressed an interest in doing an on road / off road ride like this, but that particular weekend doesn't seem to work for anyone.
Maybe sometime in January or February when the usual mountain routes are impassable might be a good time to retry.
 
If the timing works for me, I could organize a rental car and trip from futakotamagawa area. Else there are buses leaving from Kawasaki to sodegaura as well.
 
I would be all about "foul weather" ride. Love to take out a mountain bike and do the loop.

I actually am in discussions with wifey about the weekend of the 22 now.
She is not against it, just have to make sure I have everything covered and figure out logistics.
 
OK - wifey just kinda green lighted me.... mind if I drag a couple others with me if they are interested?
I will try and figure out the logistic part on my end.... I will be leaving from Hayama/Zushi area.

MTB or Cross Bikes preferred for the route/pace?
 
I am definitely in + 1 more rider.
We will be running Cross Tires on MTBs... so not geared to go fast. But we can climb walls!
 
If the timing works for me, I could organize a rental car and trip from futakotamagawa area. Else there are buses leaving from Kawasaki to sodegaura as well.

Cool. I'll post a similar ride in the winter and see if we can't get something together then. FYI There are also buses from Yokohama, Shinjuku, and Shinagawa.

I am definitely in + 1 more rider.
We will be running Cross Tires on MTBs... so not geared to go fast. But we can climb walls!

Excellent. There are a few proper walls to be climbed so MTB gearing is no problem.
If you need to get home quicker here is a shorter version with more dirt but fewer leaves. Pick your poison. I'm thinking if we do the long way we'll have to get started pretty early. Either way is OK with me.

 
I will let you know when we can roll out. My buddy is going to head out from Zama to meet me then we will head over. I expect I can be there around 8am, but cannot confirm yet.
I also converted my touring rig over for the ride.

10373043_10152784093462808_2294257631053251785_o.jpg
 
I will let you know when we can roll out. My buddy is going to head out from Zama to meet me then we will head over. I expect I can be there around 8am, but cannot confirm yet.
I also converted my touring rig over for the ride.

10373043_10152784093462808_2294257631053251785_o.jpg
Wow!
What a top ride!
Salsa,Brooks and Avid.
You really can't go wrong.
 
It is a beast of a bike.
Of all my bikes, it is actually the most fun to ride, but the problem is that it is too slow to keep up with a road bike and not quite nimble enough to keep up with a MTB.
BUT... I can get groceries with it, hop curbs, ride gravel roads and easy single track. - Here she is in all her grocery getting glory.... (I have top bags and front panniers for it as well)
10636388_10152784093457808_7202981100656095276_o.jpg
 
Wow. I'm starting to get really jealous of your bike collection.
That looks like a good set up for this ride. There are some pretty long stretches of pristine tarmac so what you've got there is probably about right.
I'm going to be riding slick 35mm tires on a light tourer, so I'll have a slight advantage on road but you'll be a lot more comfortable on the bumpy bits.
Any preference for Saturday or Sunday?
 
Can I ask what is that seat post? What's the square part?
 
Well that's a new one on me - Thanks:tup
 
It is a Thudbuster ST.
The square pare is a parallelogram setup with an elastomer in the middle.
The elastomer can be switched out for different weight riders.
The post just takes the edge off when hitting roots or any other nasty stuff.
 
Wow. I'm starting to get really jealous of your bike collection.
That looks like a good set up for this ride. There are some pretty long stretches of pristine tarmac so what you've got there is probably about right.
I'm going to be riding slick 35mm tires on a light tourer, so I'll have a slight advantage on road but you'll be a lot more comfortable on the bumpy bits.
Any preference for Saturday or Sunday?

Saturday works best.
We will shoot to be there by 0700.

As of right now it is me and a buddy with an mtb running cross tires.
So the on road stuff we will be suffering a tad bit.
 
As of right now it is me and a buddy with an mtb running cross tires.
So the on road stuff we will be suffering a tad bit.

Don't worry about that, I'm slow as hell.
I'm thinking of adding a few more stretches of single track to make things more interesting. I'll try riding them this Saturday to see if they are at all doable on a road bike.
 
I did about 100 kilometers of this ride today and I'm absolutely shattered. You may have to put me out of my misery at some point next Saturday. The extra bits of single track are pretty much a no go without full suspension. I ended up hiking most of a 7 kilometer trail with my bike on my shoulder. There's still a solid 30 km or so of dirt, though.
 
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