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Today September 2019

After 4 weekends in August with one long ride each I went hiking with my wife and her dog yesterday. 12 km through Nishizawa valley (Nishizawa Keikoku) in Yamanashi.

I can't believe I had never heard of this place before. It was amazing!


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These products probably aren't workable. They're labeled "junk goods," and are probably only used for parts. Be careful if you buy anything with this label on it.

After posting the pictures, I noticed that it said " junk". Thanks.
They have another section that I don't this is junk. Be going back this weekend if it doesn't rain. Prices are a bit higher, up to 20000 yen so I think lot of the stuff is collectables.
This place has some good prices and some are way over priced. Due to the shipmen coming in from all over the world and they think the prices are cheap. Which is probably true to them.
 
finally found some time to fix the RD hanger this morning. did a bit more indexing tonight, and look forward to trying it out tomorrow. it seems perfect without the clutch on, but with it I have slight hiccup when shifting from big ring front - largest sprocket rear to the next sprocket down the cassette. really busy these days, no time for proper solutions, only stop gaps to get through the day. will return to this on Sunday. I suspect low end screw and/or B screw

BENT

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FIXED

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Hey, I know it is a big secret, but I do have more than one bike.
So now that I spilled the beans, WHY WOULD I RIDE A RIGID ON TRAILS????

Image may contain: bicycle, cloud, sky, outdoor and nature


Yup, I lugged this 20kg beast up and down trails and honestly had a blast. The climbs were a bit of a struggle... not solely due to the weight, but rather the lack of suspension. Things I am use to ignoring because my fork will soak it up.... well, those things beat the shit out of me this morning on the climbs. Momentum stoppers - over and over. Add to it the humidity today and I was a mess. I also had a liter of coffee in the frame bag at the start of the ride - so that contributed to the 20kg along with the racks.

In the end, I descended way better than I had anticipated. A couple chunky spots I expected to get bounced around, I just over exaggerated my usual form and the bike did all the work. The only "this was a bad idea" moment involved taking an alternate rocky line with a descent drop at the end. Once committed I could not back out, however I surprised myself at just how easily I handled it. All in all a good ride, however if I drag this thing out again for a goup ride like today, I will strip off the racks and frame bag.
 
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Hey, I know it is a big secret, but I do have more than on bike.
So now that I spilled the beans, WHY WOULD I RIDE A RIGID ON TRAILS????

Image may contain: bicycle, cloud, sky, outdoor and nature


Yup, I lugged this 20kg beast up and down trails and honestly had a blast. The climbs were a bit of a struggle... not solely due to the weight, but rather the lack of suspension. Things I am use to ignoring because my fork will soak it up.... well, those things beat the shit out of me this morning on the climbs. Momentum stoppers - over and over. Add to it the humidity today and I was a mess. I also had a liter of coffee in the frame bag at the start of the ride - so that contributed to the 20kg along with the racks.

In the end, I descended way better than I had anticipated. A couple chunky spots I expected to get bounced around, I just over exaggerated my usual form and the bike did all the work. The only "this was a bad idea" moment involved taking an alternate rocky line with a descent drop at the end. Once committed I could not back out, however I surprised myself at just how easily I handled it. All in all a good ride, however if I drag this thing out again for a goup ride like today, I will strip off the racks and frame bag.

I need to get out there on those trails with you again! Looks like so much fun.
 
I would love to investigate, @sean-e - can you give a precise-ish location, please?

I found it https://goo.gl/maps/vxddEVoh2X1Z3u3h8 ! It's right after a little restaurant, left side going eastbound. I was following this route from some old TCC thread: , the first 1/3 is kinda meh lots-of-traffic-going-to-the-lake, but the next 2/3 was nice (especially the part in the "highlands" with the cows at the end).

 
Yesterday I hiked to the Tokyo Peace Pagoda that I had previously spotted on a mountain from the viewpoint overlooking Okutama-ko during the Kazahari toge descent.

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My original plan was to cycle there via Rt18 / Tsuru Toge, but then I joined Peter's Kazahari rindo ride (two Kazahari climbs in the space of two weeks) instead and went my own ways after Kazahari toge. There were too many friends on that ride to miss it :) We met up at Musashiitsukaichi (MII) where the Sarusuberi were in full bloom.

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I finally got to see @luka's new gravelmobile in action, as well as Kelvin's new 29er MTB with its 30T (1x) / 10-50 gearing. Kelvin still needs to dial in his fit before he can fully enjoy it, it seems, but @luka seemed to have a lot of fun on this ride.

Kazahari rindo never gets any easier, especially if preceded by the Tossaka rindo, but at least the temperatures are slightly lower now. I was 9 minutes quicker than last time, but that was probably just one photo shoot less :)

After the toge group picture everybody else descended to Tomin no Mori while I headed west, descending to the lake. At the second view point I stopped for pictures. You can see the pagoda in the back.

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Down at the T-junction I turned left towards Kosuge-mura. After 1-2 km I crossed the Tokyo-Yamanashi border and village boundary. I climbed a steep road on the right towards Komori-jinja.

There an even steeper gravel road branched off. I parked my bike there and changed into my sneakers. Next to me a couple was just loading things onto a kei truck. I asked the lady how far it was to the "o-tera". She told me it was not so far, 15-20 minutes. I explained I wanted to see the Indian style temple. "That is further, maybe 40 minutes". They said they were heading up there now, did I want to ride with them? I declined as I wanted to experience the walk. The gravel road was narrow, just wide enough for one vehicle. It probably helped that their truck had 4WD. As I walked up slowly, my legs kept reminding me about Tossaka and Kazahari this morning. I passed a rusting discarded concrete mixer by the road side. I assumed it must have been used in the construction.

After 20 minutes I reached a clearing with some buildings. This was the temple the lady had mentioned, though it didn't look too different from a normal home.

After another 10 minutes I finally reached the top. The stupa is a white building with gilded Buddhist images facing steps in four directions. It literally sits on the edge of Tokyo, straddling the prefectural boundary with Yamanashi. The kei truck was parked there. The couple explained that the way to venerate was to first walk around it once, then to ascend the steps and walk around the four images and pay one's respect to them. They invited me for a cup of tea at the temple later.

The pagoda had recently been been renovated and repainted. In the midday sun the white paint was almost blinding. From upstairs one could catch a glimpse of the lake, but not much more as the trees were too tall.

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As I was about to head down again, a young couple came hiking up. They asked me if I was the cyclist as they had seen my bike parked at the bottom of the gravel track. They were very friendly.

As I passed the temple, the couple invited me to come and have some cold water and tea. Sitting in front of the house, they served me some rice dumpling with beans that they had bought at the Michi no Eki. There used to be a monk and nun at the temple, but they now have retired. This couple comes here every now and then and stays at the temple, working to maintain the pagoda, which was built about 45 years ago. We talked about Kosuge village, the history of the pagoda, about travel and a little bit about Buddhism.

The young couple also came down again and was invited to join us. They were into haikyo (visiting ruins) and had come here after being told that the ropeway on Lake Okutama that they wanted to visit was not safe due to bear sightings. This was an alternate destination on their list.

Eventually we thanked our hosts and headed on. On the way down we talked about haikyo, Nichitsu, cycling and other subjects. They highly recommended Ikeshima (池島炭鉱, a former coal mine island like "Gunkanjima", 30 km northwest of Nagasaki) as a haikyo destination.

They left on their motor scooter while I cycled to Ome for my curry dinner and then back to Tokyo (on Strava: bike and hike).

I'm up to 85 consecutive months of "A Century a Month" now.
 
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indeed, a lot of fun that bike. a bit heavy to climb, but kinda compensates with low gearing. but then descends like a motorbike, all the grip, predictability etc... too few pics of the actual gravel road, which is what I'm interested in here. would you say it's rideable?
 
@luka, the gravel road up to the temple was in much better shape than what you posted from your recent ride: No ruts from wear or heavy rain yet. In fact the couple told me it had been freshly repaired. However, it is very steep, probably around 20%. I think you might have traction issues on a bike, even with wide tires, especially if you had trouble keeping your momentum around the hairpin turns and had to stop once. But you can always push where you need to and just descend on the bike. However, to me the idea of descending on the Elephant did not add enough appeal to make up for the added pain of also pushing a bike uphill when the old pair of legs were already complaining.

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Thank you. Yes, that's a very pretty part of the country - I haven't done enough exploration myself there, yet. How were the road conditions on the rindo going north?
That section is pretty good as far as rindos go, it's open to cars and there's not too much moss/debris.

I lucked out going this weekend, when I returned to Shimo-Imaichi station this was nearby:
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I'm always fascinated by blasts from the past that show in the random media on top of the forum. this one kinda stood out this evening. it says 2007 but it seems more like 1987? don't know anyone pictured, just talking about gear and general vibe, wasn't into cycling back then at all, so could be just subjective tho but the orange car, the toe clip? bike, the biceps walkman?!

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