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Today Today - September 2016

Half-Fast Mike

Lanterne Rouge-et-vert
May 22, 2007
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As predicted, a low-volume month for me. My sister and her family were visiting so I spent almost two weeks (very enjoyably) as full-time tour guide, bus driver, hotelier, interpreter etc. Only did two rides that weren't commutes in August - a double-Yabitsu and a cave/waterfall jolly in Okutama.

Since yesterday I'm riding again, and the time off really shows in my (lack of) fitness. I'll be in the mountains of Toyama for the next four days, and off-roading in Hokkaido for (hopefully) all of Silver Week, so need to build it up again sharpish.
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Just got in after an evening pit stop at the former local. A couple of firsts for me today, but I am so tired and emotional I will have to edit this post tomorrow.

Yesterday I wore some addidas shoes with a slightly recessed spd cleat that I haven't used for years while riding my hack MTB. They were grand, miles more comfortable than my road set up.

I also tried to acknowledge in passing a fellow gaijin with interesting wheels and a well developed undercarriage resting along the beach path. I suspect he may post on here.
 
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Finally got around to changing the battery in my garmin 800. Haven't tested it yet but will see how it goes this weekend, hopefully I will be able to start using the mapping function again without it running out of batteries at about 140km.
 
After months of creaking and repeat shop visits to regrease, and one crank replacement due to wearing down the axle, I've finally replaced my BB30 bearings and FSA crank with a KCNC adapter and Shimano crank. Reporting this non-news here just to say I never knew how bad my FSA chain rings were until today. Changing into the big ring is ridiculously easy on Shimano, or in other words, is ridiculously bad on FSA rings. Also 210 grams added to my bike, but we can't have everything I guess. :(
 
I never knew how bad my FSA chain rings were until today.
My old Felt F3C came with a FSA crank and I hated it from the start. Razor-sharp teeth and no end of shifting problems. Once I'd saved up for an Ultegra crank the world was better again... and I'm still using it two frames later.

Other people seem to love FSA. Horses for courses.
 
@GrantT And the creak stopped I assume? I take a silent bike over 210g any day of the week.

Shimano 105 or Ultegra crank?
 
@saibot No idea! I'll find out tomorrow morning if the weather holds. Pretty embarrassing to be racing with a noisy bike. Everyone was too polite to mention the rattle, which just made things even more uncomfortable. New cranks are the 4-arm 105s.
To offset the bloating of my bike, I bought a MET Manta helmet that will save about 80 grams. Undecided if it will be a race day helmet to go with race day wheels.
 
Almost collided with a mama cyclist oblivious to his surroundings this morning.

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Still there must have been something more interesting than looking where he's going.

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Then a sudden stop and a... "gomennasai" haha

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Almost collided with a mama cyclist oblivious to his surroundings this morning.
Then a sudden stop and a... "gomennasai" haha]
no harm , no foul. about the safest place to day dream on a bike.
 
why are you on the sidewalk just there?
The section just before that bridge is very heavy with morning traffic, and the section after actually has greens for pedestrians/bikes on the sidewalk while having red in the same direction for cars! So that's the reason.

no harm , no foul.
Still, having to come to a complete stop and shout to get his direction... I take it as a foul, albeit a light one.
 
From what I see whilst commuting 4 days a week, riding as if no one else exists is Japanese culture. As long as you give a gomen nasai or just completely don't make any eye contact what-so-ever, all is well.
 
Useful Tsukuba info, for those who ride there...


I did a couple of climbs at Tsukuba today, and was surprised to find that the climbs south of Mt. Tsukuba itself are basically a war zone with landslides, rockfalls, road closures, heaps of water still seeping out of the mountain, and debris all over the road.
Fudou Touge and the climb directly to its east are both closed.
I did break the gates and descend down the eastern side, but it was hellish (15km/hr) all the way down.

A heads up for you guys.

Cheers!
 
Thoroughly cleaned the cassette and replaced the chain today, and the bike feels much fresher. It's been rained on a lot over the last 2 months or so, and it was long overdue. Hubs need looking into too, but I found out today that my poor excuse for 100 yen spanner won't work here, so proper bike hand ones are on their way. Felt cool for the first time in a long while today too. I hope it means good riddance to the humidity soon, and welcome nice autumn temps.

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After placing too much faith in the weatherman on the weekend, @kawa and I headed down to boso last minute on Saturday to follow one of Stormy's boso routes out and back to Honda station. It was to be my return to being a navigator after replacing my battery in my garmin 800. The ride started well, the weather was superb and boso was delivering all it's usual scenery. Unfortunately for us I managed to skip from the downward leg to the return leg after about 30km, taking us in a loop almost back to our starting point....For some reason it was heartbreaking at that point of the ride. I think because it had been somewhat of a hammerfest and to realize that I was going to have to do it all again was extremely depressing in that moment.
Anyway we switched to another(more direct) route and headed down to the coast.

By the time we got there, about 110km my garmin battery was down to about 1/3 of it's power left... not happy.
So I switched off the navigating and we checked the route by phone on the way back, actually it was on a route we have done a few times so it was fairly easy to get back.

The battery made it to the end 178km so that is not too bad, I guess if I am not navigating then it will last a full day without a worry. That is good... probably for everyone involved.....

BTW, @GrantT you should consider more boso training if you are after the short sharp training. It's non stop up and down but nothing more than 200m.
 
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@theBlob I don't know much about the 800, but was wondering, can't you charge it on the fly with one of those fandangled USB chargers?
 
@theBlob sorry to hear your replacement battery is also gash, no words.

Boso is the biz. I am long over due a Boso ride. 178km? That's not a course I know but we are all aware that Honda has no coin lockers and now the conbini across from the station has closed down the 7/11 a bit down the road is the new Spaceship.

I fancy a Koyo ride come november
 
Well not totally gash. It lasted 178km without dying. With my old battery in that may have been....difficult. So not a total loss but certainly not back to it's glory days.

AS for Boso... I'd be happy to go back down there...

Here is the route we were going to do, I'd be keen to have another crack at this one.





@theBlob sorry to hear your replacement battery is also gash, no words.

Boso is the biz. I am long over due a Boso ride. 178km? That's not a course I know but we are all aware that Honda has no coin lockers and now the conbini across from the station has closed down the 7/11 a bit down the road is the new Spaceship.

I fancy a Koyo ride come november
 
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