19 September 2016

Takao - Shiroyama Saturday Spin

On Saturday I took a short (~95km) trip with Jerome and Didier in not-too-hot but stiflingly humid weather.   We started late, amid heavy traffic, and needed to return early. At Takao, an overheating Jerome took a dip in the Asagawa.


Many passersby chuckled.  A few applauded.
Orange cosmos hide the Parlee Altum-R and Gokiso wheels.
Fun to ride a zippy road bike after lots of randonneuring the past month! 
Then we took Machida Kaido and did the climb to Shiroyama Dam, finally a route without traffic on the climb and descent.  Then back to town via the "tank road" and Onekan. As Jerome warned from a recent trip, two-thirds of the length of the "tank road" was mobbed with zombies staring at smartphones playing "pokemon go".
I pinch flatted near the bottom of the last descent on Onekan going over a big gap at the beginning of the last bridge ... Too late I realized that I had high rim wheels, short/mid-length valves on my spare tubes and no valve extender.  I patched my flat tube ... and made it another 4~5 kms.  There followed a number of attempts at a fix, none successful, and in the end I rode a few kms on the flat tube with JJ and DD to Seo Cycles north of Komae, got a valve extender, and was able to ride home.

I cannot wait for cooler, dry weather. But Sunday and Monday has been rainy, and the next week looks like more of the same.

2 comments:

Richard said...

Tank Road! Zombies! Oh, tell me about it!!!! They are ruining what was once a lovely place. The trash they drop is almost as bad as their zombie behaviour.

To say I am angry would be an understatement. Grrrrrrrr

Manfred von Holstein said...

Welcome back, David. You didn't miss anything weather-wise. This summer seems worse than usual in terms of rain and humidity, though far fewer days with extreme temperatures during the day.