What's new

Onekan, Shiroyama

Half-Fast Mike

Lanterne Rouge-et-vert
May 22, 2007
4,644
3,700
I'm planning to try this ride tomorrow with some half-fast pals.

http://classic.mapmyride.com/ride/japan/-hashimoto/792129439669184214

Meeting up at 10.00 at the Tamagawa Eco Museum near Noborito.

I don't know whether it's actually possible to ride out the other side of Shiroyama through to R20 as I've mapped. Maybe Ludwig or someone else knows? If not, I'll find out tomorrow. And if it's not navigable, then we'll find another way back!

So, come along if you're interested in a little exploring! Very medium pace.

Questions? Thoughts? Abuse?

--HF Mike--
 
I'm planning to try this ride tomorrow with some half-fast pals.

http://classic.mapmyride.com/ride/japan/-hashimoto/792129439669184214

Meeting up at 10.00 at the Tamagawa Eco Museum near Noborito.

I don't know whether it's actually possible to ride out the other side of Shiroyama through to R20 as I've mapped. Maybe Ludwig or someone else knows? If not, I'll find out tomorrow. And if it's not navigable, then we'll find another way back!

So, come along if you're interested in a little exploring! Very medium pace.

Questions? Thoughts? Abuse?

--HF Mike--

Wish I could go, but this weekend we are working both Saturday and Sunday, lots of deliveries for "Shin Nen Kai" etc.

Have fun, take pictures! :D
 
Mike:

I rode the hiking trail between Shiroyama lake and Road 20 (Mileage 27 to 29) earlier this year with Ludwig. It requires a lot of walking and is basically not accessible with road bikes. So please come to your senses.

A nice alternative would be from my point of view, to ride up to Shiroyama lake directly from M21, then ride down again Southeast to Road 413 and continue along the beautiful road 513 / 515 on the North side of Tsukui lake.
You will also pass the villa of the Columbian druglord.

Now instead of turning South at the end and cross the suspension bridge at Tsukui lake, you just continue the road on the North side. After about 50 m the road is blocked, but you can climb around. This road is also not in good shape but its also not very long. It is indicated in GoogleMaps. After another block you are back on the asphalted part of road 515. Just continue to ride on this road which will lead you to road 20.

Unfortunately you will need to ride over Otarumi if you want to go back to Takao. I would be nice to cross over through Kobotoke Pass from Sagamiko to Takao, but I don't know of any road leading up from the Sagamiko side.
 
I rode the hiking trail between Shiroyama lake and Road 20 (Mileage 27 to 29) earlier this year with Ludwig. It requires a lot of walking and is basically not accessible with road bikes. So please come to your senses.
m o b that's prezactly the information I needed, and in the nick of time. Thank you. I've ridden to both of the gates on the closed section of r515 and they looked sufficiently formidable to turn back. But having since read from both you and Lugwig that the road can indeed be passed I will give it a shot!
 
8 Jan Ride Report - Onekan, Shiroyama, r515, Otarumi

This was a great ride, although it took much longer than expected due to some riders having vertical gain challenges and a tubeless pneumatic trauma.

What wonderful weather!

We started out from the Tamagawa Eco Museum. Four were gathered by 10.00, the posted start time, but in true half-fast tradition Brian was 30 minutes late.

Soon crossed over the Tamagawa and proceeded upstream. Stayed on the road to avoid the worst of the Chofu speedbumps, and crossed back on the Tsurukawa-kaido for Onekan.

If you haven't ridden Onekan, it's an undulating highway leading west toward Hashimoto. Lots of nice, quick ascents and descents. Very popular with clubs and teams - we saw at least 6 separate groups coming the other way. There can be quite a lot of traffic, but there's a nice wide shoulder for much of the route. Big differences in climbing ability spread our group out a bit.

Stopped at the 7-Eleven for coffee, and then hit the 'tank road'. First time for everyone on this section; I was the only one who'd heard of it. Michiko, my Garmin navi, didn't let us down and everyone enjoyed this ride in the park.

A little dodge across - first on R16 which wasn't too bad and then r47, the Machida-kaido. This was almost nose-to-tail with cars and trucks, with narrow lanes. No fun at all. This got us to the start of the climb up to Shiroyama Lake - a reservoir with hydroelectric power station.

The last stages of the climb were steeper than I'd imagined, and two of our number had to get off and walk. But once up the views from the high vantage point overlooking Tokyo were wonderful. We rode down to the dam and had a look around, then continued back down the hill by a different road.

Went slightly astray shortly afterwards and got into a pickle in a housing estate trying to get down to R413 via what looked like a shortcut but turned out to be a technical challenge of gates and footbridges.

Stopped briefly at the Tsukui-ko Commemorate (sic) Park for a toilet break, and then onwards with r515. I'd been looking forward to this immensely. It's just 7km long. Motorcycles are banned. And 1.4km is completely closed and barricaded due to landslides years ago. However I'd learned from TCC friends that it can be navigated (with care) on a road bike. So the six of us pressed on around the substantial gates.

We'd been warned by a couple of locals that monkeys were abroad, throwing rocks around. We didn't see any monkeys. However there was a wonderful, crunchy carpet of dry, fallen leaves, hiding lots of rocks and branches, big and small. It was necessary to dismount maybe ten or twelve times to cross bad patches of landslip.

It was on this section that one rider got a flat on his tubeless rear tire. He didn't want to try to fix it in the middle of all the leaf crap, and so walked more than half of the disused section. Waiting around for him to catch up, the rest of us had a 30 minute break basking in the early afternoon sun.

We clambered around two more blockades before finally emerging into civilization again. We then fixed the tire. That was all good fun, but in the end it had taken us 1h10m to travel just 2 km. A little behind schedule now!

The rest was plain sailing, however. Straight out to R20, hang a right, and ride up to Fujiya Ramen atop Otarumi-toge for delicious food and lots of beer. It was virtually dark as we freewheeled down the other side to Takao station. One took the train, and the others rode - Asagawa then Tamagawa.

I clocked 109.7km for the round trip - 5h36 in motion.

Dramatic geotagged pictures of derring-do on Picasa...

 
Looks like a nice Spring day.

Those photos are awesome.

The cross-hatch scaffolding particularly excited me! Looks like Zombie Invasion protection. Amazing.
 
515

Mike:

I am glad that you could use the info and made it through. Perhaps I wasn't precise enough about the conditions of the discarded stretech of road 515. It is passable but not rideable. Given the shortness I also thought that doesn't matter that much. Still, the road is much better than crossing directly from Shiroyama to Takao. I am glad to see from the pics that the road is still Positivo Espresso approved.

Last year I encountered some monkeys crosing the open part of road 513 or 515. There were not aggressive.

Where is the photo of the villa of the Columbian drug lord?
 
Looks like a nice Spring day.
We had one day last January that was 25ºC.
The cross-hatch scaffolding particularly excited me! Looks like Zombie Invasion protection. Amazing.
I'm not quite sure why the gates are 3m high. Maybe because that's the length in which scaffolding poles are sold. Or maybe to stop BMXers bunny-hopping over the top.:p

Thanks again to m o b for timely advice. May the Hoff be with you, brother!
Where is the photo of the villa of the Columbian drug lord?
Er... what?
 
Mike, sorry I'm seeing this thread only now. Otherwise I would have warned you of that barricaded section. I would not do it with a road bike again. Did it again the other day with my cyclocross (and Frode and his) from the other end. If you look at it as cyclocross adventure, it is fun, but otherwise surely not. I hope you are not being hated by your group after putting them through this.
 
Escobar Estate

Not so far away from the start of road 515 is the villa of the Columbian druglord. It is on the left side before the road makes a sharp right turn and an old land rover is always parked in front of it.

Take a look here, for example:
http://positivo-espresso.blogspot.com/2010/02/for-fistful-of-holes-in-gloves.html

That a Columbian druglord is living there is a well known fact among Positivo Espresso members.

For example here (almost at the end):
http://vlaamsewielrenner.blogspot.com/2010/03/double-serving-of-endorphin.html
 
Oh, and BTW - this is about the worst condition of a rindo I have ever encountered (I can think of only one exception, near Otoge). For example, the Norikura Super Rindo Section A (don't know about the others, I think they are actually grown over) is in really great condition by comparison. Actually in great condition, except for a few stray stones here and there. No need to dismount at all.
 
Oh, and BTW - this is about the worst condition of a rindo I have ever encountered
Agreed. Really, though, it's a haido (廃道 - disused road) rather than a rindo (林道 - forest road). Your average rindo, even if closed to the public, is periodically cleaned to allow access by official vehicles.

On r515, as you know, there are plenty of signs warning of the danger, death and doom sure to befall transgressors. Went anyway! We just saw one other person, walking along, although I'm sure locals take their dogs for walks etc. From what I've read, there's no intention to ever open it to vehicles again, so it's just left to rot.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. Admittedly I probably wouldn't feel so enthused if I was the one who picked up a phlat.

Have you ridden Inugoeji, which links Doshi-michi to Tanzawa-ko? There are several kilometers of firetrack, as they never got round to surfacing it before they ran out of money. You'd be fine on a CX or MTB, but definitely no fun on a road bike; tires would be chewed up in seconds, even if one could stay upright. But it's a really pretty ride with the right bike, and the Tanzawa-ko side is perfectly paved.

I still haven't done Hadano-rindo, though I've been meaning to for a long time.
 
515 looks like fun, especially on an MTB. I think I'll dust mine off and take a spin, but I think it might not be until Feb. That might add new challenges!

Tank Road is indeed a pleasing little ride, I live right on it, and in fact walk part of it to get to work. :) In summer it's a risky ride in the small hours though, as it's populated with elderly folk getting their walking miles in before the sun rises and the heat sets in.

I find Machida Kaido a pig riding towards Takao, but quite nice on the return trip. Somehow the traffic is more tolerable on the other side of the road. Same with One Kan - riding towards Chofu is a lot more fun than coming back. But of course this has a lot to do with it being more up hill coming back
 
Have you ridden Inugoeji, which links Doshi-michi to Tanzawa-ko? There are several kilometers of firetrack, as they never got round to surfacing it before they ran out of money. You'd be fine on a CX or MTB, but definitely no fun on a road bike; tires would be chewed up in seconds, even if one could stay upright. But it's a really pretty ride with the right bike, and the Tanzawa-ko side is perfectly paved.

I still haven't done Hadano-rindo, though I've been meaning to for a long time.

Sure I have done it! On my cyclocross virgin ride with MOB, up from the Doshi side. Just the other day the other way round. Some parts are not easy even on a cyclocross because they are very steep (ten percent and more) and the gravel/stones/rocks are very uneven. But then I have done worse "gravel rindos" with much more climbing or descending involved, e.g. Mikuni Toge (not the one everybody talks about, another one between Yamanashi, Gunma and Nagano).

Do you know for sure they ran out of money or is this speculation? There are still paved rindos being built these days (some not far from there) and there are many other rindos that seem to be left quite deliberated unpaved, even when they are used (Mikuni Toge is such an example).

I would not recommend doing Hadano Toge now in winter on a road bike. Lots of landslides, rocks/stones and ice-fields. With my cyclocross and quite some patience I was fine, but not really recommended otherwise. The views of Fuji from there in the early morning on a clear winter day are fantastic though, esp. at the right spot, overlooking Tanzawako.
 
Very nice movie - well shot!

Next time you might want to tell your friends to keep the bike on the outside when climbing around a slope. Much safer!

Aluminium or carbon work just fine for cyclocross. Actually, these cyclocross frames are overspec for the purpose of riding around gravel rindos. One never goes fast enough to put excessive force on the frame. I'm actually more worried about the components - they have to take a lot more than on a road bike and still they are exactly the same components... But so far so good - maybe 4,000km is still not enough...
 
My current Ti bike will work for CX just fine, though I'm making some changes in design to make it even more flexible for variety of rindo riding. Mainly - I'm prototyping a disc-brake spin on adapter for the rear and also adding disc brake fitting to the rear drops. Also getting some low cost carbon DB only forks made up. This way, I can easily fit 42mm CX tires /rims and use disc brake. With the couplers, you can quickly breakdown the bike and simply backpack it over the rough parts. Total weight even in CX trim is less than 8kg. That's by using no derailleur whatsoever and a 'dingle' cog. Soon as Chosen releases their quick-change free/fixed hubs, I'll be in heaven!

Incidentally - that's why I have the ISCG tabs on my new bike - so when I get a little richer, I can swap this puppy on there! http://www.sram.com/truvativ/products/truvativ-hammerschmidt-am-crankset <drooling in advance>
 
Back
Top Bottom