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Rerun: Oku-Musashi Madness

thomas

The Crank Engine
Nov 1, 2005
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With tsuyu over and no typhoons in sight, it's time for some madness, some Oku-Musashi Madness!

Deej and I have been contemplating a rerun of that legendary TCC ride (aka KT4, KT8 and "Third Time Lucky" in the TCC nomenclatura) for quite a while and decided to launch a new attack on Saturday, August 6. Please read up Deej's introductory post on the old thread and be advised: this ride is not trivial and the same rules apply.

Disclaimer: due to the length and the number of climbs, we cannot afford to do too much waiting and regrouping, so this ride may not be too well-suited to riders who would need to stop often.

Roll-out: 0900 at the Higashi-Ome 7-11. People coming by train can store their rinkos and belongings in lockers at Ome Station (quite close to Higashi-Ome).

Distance: 135km for the entire loop with some 2,250m of climbing, some hills up to 22% (Kaoburi-toge). Map here.

Who's interested in another adventure of epic proportions? :)

Killer Kaoburi-toge:


Kariba-toge:
 
If anyone wants to lend me a Dura Ace compact, I am in.

If not, I might just get one anyway, and join you, spinning low and slow, but consistent.
 
Fantastic!

I'm in :) - calendar marked !! August 6 (sat) Higashi-Ome 7/11 at 9:00 :cool:
 
Thanks for posting, Thomas. I'm really looking forward to this! I hope to see a bunch of the TCC veterans and newer faces as well.

Yamabushi -- I've been reading about your Greenline adventures with envy, as I've been too busy to join them, as much as I wanted to. I hope you can join this one. And I hope I can join one of your rides soon.

Deej
 
Been waiting for this ride to happen again

I am in. Just hope I can keep up!

Keren
 
Yamabushi -- I've been reading about your Greenline adventures with envy, as I've been too busy to join them, as much as I wanted to. I hope you can join this one. And I hope I can join one of your rides soon.

Deej, coming from central Tokyo combined with the fact that I don't use the train, the starting point isn't so convenient for me... maybe I can meet up with the group along the way somewhere? Late me take a closer look at the route map. BTW, the posted route seems to be using a lot of Route #299 which I avoid when possible. Is this still the intended route or is there an update?

As for my weekly Green Line rides, absolutely, please come on out already! :D
 
I would really have liked to join this one - just the right amount of climbing, no early morning start way on the other side of Tokyo.

Timing just doesn't work out, since I will be in Europe for all of August. Hopefully there will be more like this one leading up to the Hakone race.

Aaron
 
Boing boing

Look at that elevation profile.

I'll sign up for this.

Looking forward to it.

Lee
 
Hope we get to meet Pete...this route is a good opportunity for the faster Arakawa and Tamagawa tribes to clash with each other:ninja:...

The route you provided is familiar to me and would be a nice alternative. On the other hand, the TCC patented Okumusashi Madness is not that bad either - that stretch along #299 is not so long as you fear + it is all the way downhill (-2% or so) and therefore fairly fast. The Kaburi-toge turnoff - with the fresh water well waiting - is reached in no time.

Anyway, I'm open to both versions and hoping to see many old buddies as well as strong-legged members like you whom I haven't had a chance to meet in person yet.

If you want a beautiful route to and from Ome covering the area you are interested in with minimal traffic and plenty of climbing, try this on for size: ROUTE.
 
If you want a beautiful route to and from Ome covering the area you are interested in with minimal traffic and plenty of climbing, try this on for size: ROUTE.

Thanks for the great route alternative, Pete! I'll definitely be hitting that one of these weekends. But the "Madness" rides -- warts and all -- are kind of a TCC tradition.

As for route 299, I plan to talk Thomas into letting us skip Yamabushi-toge and instead turning off a little sooner, at route 395, so that we traverse what I think is called Amamezasu-touge (天目指峠). This is a nice, shaded climb and will drop us off a few kilometers closer to the Kaoburi turnoff. And as Tom pointed out, it's a downhill TT that lasts less than 10 minutes.

I understand that the starting point is far from your place, but you're a hardman and therefore and extra 15-20km one way surely means nothing. :D

Deej
 
I understand that the starting point is far from your place, but you're a hardman and therefore and extra 15-20km one way surely means nothing. :D

LOL... mate I would really like to join this but, it's about 50km from my place to Ome, that's 50km of traffic, not fun. Unless I change my regime and start using the train, that's an extra 100km on top of the posted route. That's not nothing! :cool:

All that being said, maybe I will suck it up and by a rinko bag in the next week or two? Let me think about that one.
 
LOL... mate I would really like to join this but, it's about 50km from my place to Ome, that's 50km of traffic, not fun. Unless I change my regime and start using the train, that's an extra 100km on top of the posted route. That's not nothing! :cool:

Traffic is a drag, no doubt. The starting point is 45km from my place, but a lot of that is along the Tamagawa, and when I finally pop up off the river, the shoulders are generally wide and traffic is not a problem.

These rides are always well over 200km for me, as I don't bag my bike to the meeting point. I treat the rides out and back as a warmup/cooldown.

Perhaps one easy way for you to get to the river from Nezu (and you may already know this) is to take Route 246 to Sangenjaya, then take Setagaya Dori all the way to the Tamagawa -- this is the route I take to my office in Otemachi. It is by no means stress-free in terms of traffic, but it is pretty direct.

I would be happy to meet you somewhere in the city and guide you to the meeting point if you are not familiar with the Tamagawa route.

All that being said, maybe I will suck it up and by a rinko bag in the next week or two? Let me think about that one.

Some of the Eastsiders (YellowGiant, for one) who have done this ride take the train out. In my experience, bags that let you keep the rear wheel on are the easiest to use. Yes, they take up more space on the train, but you don't have to worry about damaging your rear derailleur or getting your hands oily from removing the rear wheel.

I use a Tioga bag -- the コクーン ブラック BAR012 -- which is sold in a lot of shops in Tokyo, including Ys, as well as online. I'm very satisfied with it.
31CEQHKj69L.jpg


Anyway, I hope to ride with you one of these weekends!

Deej
 
Tom, I am sure we'll get together before long!

Cheers Deej, I do know a number of routes including the Tamagawa route, but really none of them are particularly appealing coming from the Ueno area. That being said, I look forward to riding together sometime soon as well. Regarding the bike bag, that's precisely the model I am considering. I don't really want to have to deal with removing the rear wheel and actively protecting the derailleur.
 
I agree it is a good idea to avoid route 299 as much as possible. It's full of crazy trucks, especially dump and cement trucks. There are some alternative passes that take you very close to the start of the climb, avoiding route 299 almost altogether. You'll see them if you zoom in sufficiently on google maps. They are all quite nice.

I will decide closer to the time whether I will join. This is all quite low altitude and mostly not with running water close by, so will be real madness in full-blast heat. It's made even harder by the very late start.:eek:

BTW, if you want to make it a notch harder (though possibly more pleasant), return via Iruma Toge rather than 299 and Yamabushi Toge.

Yamabushi, I thought you were a friend of heavy traffic, judging by the route you usually take out to the Green Line? :p Did we get this wrong? :confused:

Anyhow, as Deej says, going out to Ome is actually very pleasant if you follow his advice. Whatever mileage it may take you to get onto Setagaya Dori is for sure much less than what you spend in heavy traffic on your way to the Green Line via your preferred Arakawa route.

Here is the route - the warm up to one of my recent rides:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/100008806

On a nice day, it's a 30km/h average out to Ome, without excessive effort. :)
 
Yamabushi, I thought you were a friend of heavy traffic, judging by the route you usually take out to the Green Line? :p Did we get this wrong? :confused:

Anyhow, as Deej says, going out to Ome is actually very pleasant if you follow his advice. Whatever mileage it may take you to get onto Setagaya Dori is for sure much less than what you spend in heavy traffic on your way to the Green Line via your preferred Arakawa route.

Ludwig, you got me all wrong! I don't mind a bit of traffic here and there, but am happy to avoid it whenever possible. I will freely admit that Route 15/16 that we took last year was absolutely horrible. That being said, you haven't been keeping up. Have you looked at any of my Green Line route maps recently? I haven't used Highway 15/16 in over a year. I currently have 4 or 5 routes that I use now that are 85% river with the remaining 15% being very minimal traffic rural type roads. I know our start times are way too late for you, but you should join us sometime.

Regarding getting to Ome, respectfully I repeat, I know multiple ways to get there and there are no pleasant routes without adding excessive distance. And BTW, I am not a fan of the Tamagawa until you get well up river. It's just too narrow with too many people not paying attention. You can never really hold any pace there.

As for the route you posted, the lower Tamagawa sucks! I really don't care for it (reasons posted above), and you are forgetting the part where I have to get from the Ueno area to your start point. What you posted is not an attractive option for me, thank you.
 
OK, OK. See your point. The initial part of the Tamagawa is definitely crowded (BTW, even at 5am in the morning!). And I should now join you on one of your Green Line rides - though preferably when the weather is again cooler.

One other option for you would be to go to Ome via Arakawa and Irumagawa and then across the tea plantations. That should be pretty pleasant, even though it is definitely not short a short-cut.
 
Cheers Ludwig! I definitely respect your route and road knowledge. In retrospect, I should have taken your advice that day. I was a newbie and didn't really know you well enough to trust you at that point. Sorry for being hard headed! Since then I have definitely done my homework and have found much better routes... less traffic, etc.

With all that in mind, I would definitely like to ride together again and look forward to it once things cool off a bit. Hey, while we are chatting I'd like to get your opinion on a section of road in Nagano off the Venus Line. Can you take a look at this thread: https://tokyocycle.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=2782
 
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