Road Fixie

Since most of my riding mates were competing in the Utsukushigahara Hill Climb (say that 3x fast!), I had to get a hilly ride in this weekend myself. Mike from Half Fast was leading a tour from Tokyo, up Yabitsu then to Hadano. Sounded perfect! Arrived at the Hyatt and saw that Pete (fudoshin) was also riding – sweet! Pete is a great rider and good pace mate. He came along with Tetsuo from Y’s Ueno. Also joined with about 5 other HFC’ers, including some new faces – so this should be a nice ride indeed. The weather was a bit spotty, but since the temperature is in the 30′s – a little rain would feel good! Navigator Mike steered us into the hills from T-Town always amazing me with his vast knowledge of the cool shortcuts, bypasses and generally the best roads to ride – anywhere. At the base of the Yabitsu Pass Road, we stopped for some yummy ramen refuel before our assault to the top.

Sated, we began the ride to the top. I love this road. It follows a river and has a nice increasing elevation gain to it. You can keep a strong pace almost to the top, where it becomes increasingly steeper and steeper in a challenging, leg sucking sort of way. The road had quite a few sight seers on it and a couple of them served as pretty decent durneys and road block – so we made a quick passage of the first 3/4 the climb. For this ride I had decided to push a fairly large (for hills anyway) 16T cog. The final 25% of steep climbing had me over the top LAT and I lost some ground to Pete and Tetsuo – who managed to get a second (or third wind) and scram away like he was being chased by the mountain demon himself! Reaching the top just shortly after Pete, we regrouped and hooked up with a few of the other HFC’ers making the climb.  I believe Jay was just after me, then followed by Mike. Pete, Tetsuo and myself had planned to ride back to Tokyo, so we said our matta ne’s and began descent to Hadano. I clicked a quick snap overlooking the valley. Amazing view up here – all of the Tokyo plain!

The ascent plus the descent mushed out my legs and I had to push hard to keep up with Pete and Tetsuo. We stopped for another refuel and I jammed a Pepsi ‘Strong Shot’ plus a natto roll as an after burner. The slightly easier pace allowed me some in saddle recovery and I found enough wind to finish off the ride ok. We split at the Tamagawa and by chance I saw another fixie rider hammering down the road. At the light, I noticed he was riding a beautiful steel Kalavinka, sporting some nasty topside track rash and wearing Keirin issued shorts. No doubt out to work off some serious pain! We talked a bit, admired each other’s rides (his more than mine!) and rotated up the road for a peel off at Komazawa park (his turn around). I found the Yamete then made it back just as the daylight was nearly gone. Stopped at the Olympic and picked up a large steak and a couple of  Japanese Hefeweizen.  160+km and about 1500m climbs – nice!

I’m not much into politics except for being a generally opinionated, slightly leftist, radical, eco proselytizer left over – but I DO have to get the word out on this:

Hands Across the Sand is a grass roots movement to gather and show support for clean energy and a statement against hazardous exploration and drilling methods now used globally. Like the atrocity happening in the Gulf of Mexico right now – Thanks BP ! NOT!!!

My dear friend Koji is organizing the first one  in Tokyo area (Yokohama) on Saturday, June 26th, so please come down if you can.

http://maps.google.co.jp/maps?q=%E6%B5%B7%E3%81%AE%E5%85%AC%E5%9C%92&oe=utf-8&hl=ja&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&hq=%E6%B5%B7%E3%81%AE%E5%85%AC%E5%9C%92&hnear=%E6%B5%B7%E3%81%AE%E5%85%AC%E5%9C%92&z=14&brc

Umino Kouen 10ban, Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama-city, Kanagawa-ken, Japan http://www.umino-kouen.net/shisetsu.html Phone: 090-2748-9482 ( international : 81-90-2748-9482 )

We’re playing around with some ideas for ‘cultural marketing’ and one of the most obvious (at least in Japan) is the whole tissue thang. So, I ordered up some tissue packs and JF knocked out a few designs. I kinda like this one. Now, instead of carrying around tissues with adverts for Pachinko or Dating Clubs, I can toss out our own BG Pack. If you want some of your own, just give me a shout and I’ll be happy to hook you up. Whatever you do, don’t leave home without one stuffed into your back pocket!

I’ve always been a tech head and in searching for new upgrades to my ride nothing really struck as particularly innovative as the Chub Hub. So – after careful negotiation with the significant other on how this particular piece of technology would dramatically improve <our> relationship and increase my fitness level, yadda yadda … I was able to go purchase one – just in time for the Mt. Fuji Hill Climb.

The Chub Hub is BIG.  Everyone asks what’s in there and of course you HAVE to answer (ala Adam Sandler .. you can keep your w… in there!)  HAHA! Or just claim that its actually a ‘mechanical doping’ device. In any case – there is absolutely NOTHING in there – and thats the point. It is just a very large circumference HUB.

Why?  To quote the folks at Hive — “The answer is by increasing flange diameter,and dramatically increasing the torsional stiffness of the hub shell the result is a hub that more efficiently transfers pedal force from the drive side to the non”drive side, increasing wheel strength by reducing spoke stress..” If you want to learn more – just check out the Hive.

I had my LBS (where I bought the hub) lace it up to a Mavic Open and managed to get the completed wheel just in time for the Mt. Fuji Hillclimb.

Prior to the race, I rode from Takao up to Mt. Fuji , so I had a good chance to shake it down. The first thing I noticed was that I pulled to the top of the first hill we hit coming out of  Takao at higher gear (42/17) loaded with a backpack at higher than my ‘normal’ rate. On hard standing climbs at high torque – typical of the lower rpm stuff you encounter on a road fixie – the CHUB definitely felt more solid on the road. It’s like the pedal motion was resulting in pavement transfer rather than wheel slush. I loved it, and my personal mechanic gives it her approval.

The CHUB is definitely an attention grabber. The only issue or complaint I have with this wheel is that the builder chose 3x rather than 2x. The Chub puts lower spoke loading – so you can easily spoke 2x or even radial. And he didn’t put rim plugs in the wheel! besides that – its a perfect build and a fun addition to the ride.

Update – I finished the Mt. Fuji Hillclimb using this combo.  Absolutely no issues whatsoever.

After completing the Kusatsu Hillclimb after many years ( more than 20 in fact) of any kind of competitive cycling I was struck by the bug – again. The next event I registered into was the Mt. Fuji Hillclimb. This was a bit confusing as there were actually TWO events by the same name – and on the same day!! WTF!! In any case – I somehow managed to struggle through the registration process and figure out the ONE I was doing was the 10th Mt. Fuji Fillclimb and was being held on a relative consistent grade of 25km. Sounds good. The OTHER Mt. Fuji Hillclimb was shorter and more gnarly – GREAT! I’ll save THAT ONE for NEXT YEAR!

With that being said – I ramped up my training a bit to include more hills. My goal thus far is to really just get back in shape, lose weight and have fun. I have no intention of becoming a serious contender or racing  at an elite level anymore. But I do want to go out with my friends, show some cred and hang with good riders on fun rides. Plus, when my daughter gets older – I’ll be in enough shape to <hopefully> coach her along, which would be a nice legacy.

Adding a small twist to this event, I decided to hook up with some fellow TCC members in a warm up ride OUT to the Mt. Fuji. Sounds good to me!  I rendezvous with them in Takao and together we went to Yamanakano via roads I’ve never been on. This ride turned out to be a bit more than I expected, and it sapped my pretty hard, though fun nonetheless and would be a good test and conditioning ride.

On pre-race day – Kimm, Keren and I managed to get our race packages without any hassle and enjoyed the many bike booths located around the park area. It was pretty much cycling heaven with Mt. Fuji in the background.

Kimm hooked us up with an awesome Onsen Hotel – and believe me the hot soak felt great! We joined up with Phil and his family for a great Udon Nabe dinner then back to the hotel to chill and sleep. James made it in that evening and we prepped his bike for the race then crashed for the early morning start (6am).

On the ride out to the park – I hit a large grate on the bridge and promptly received a snakebite award. DAMN! The LAST THING I wanted was a flat. We repaired it quickly, then hooked up with another gang riding to the starting park. At the park – i frantically searched for replacement tire / tube. ANytime I get a snakebite it jinxes the tire. I simply can’t race on a tire that has been ‘bitten’. Luckily – one of the booth’s had not only the large allenkey for my CHUB HUB but also a lighhtweight tube and replacement Michelin tire. Sorry – no more Panaracer for me!

With that being accomplished – we found our starting grid and waited for the gun. Japanese races use nifty RFID timer – so you just ‘chip’ your bike and ride. When you cross the timing grid you are ON.

On the race itself, we follow a beautiful road leading to the 5th Station. Its a continuous grade of about 5 or so percent, with some steeper sections. All told, about 25km to the finish. James and I rode together to nearly the top, where he pulled away on the  Colnago Master. I managed to grit out some more energy and finished strongly with the last 300m basically a stand up sprint.  At the top we were welcomed by an amazing view of the mountain.

Looking around I spotted a guy on a Surly PUGSLEY! WOW! He made it up in just about 2hr!! Awesome ride!

Back at the park after the seriously tedious descent (what goes up – must come down) we ate some more Udon , snapped some shots then headed back home.

The final touch to an awesome weekend of riding – Mesquite Grilled Steak Dinner!