An apology of 33 minutes length

I have to say that I wrote some perhaps nasty things about a rider in our midth who openly acknowledged that it too him 33 minutes to climb up to Wada Toge. To be more precise, I wondered if the gyrostatic forces of the wheels at this rotation speed would be sufficient to keep bike and rider in an upright vertical position. Another gifted rider in our group noted dryly that his best Togebaka time is roughly half of that.

Now, I have to admit that I got it completely wrong.

When I think about Wada, I am think about the steep approach from Hachioji. And I am thinking only about this approach because I have never ever tackled Wada from the other side. Why? Well first, all roads that lead you to the other side of Wada required at least a modest amount of climing (Otarumi, Kobu, Matsuhime, Sasago) so it is no fun to climb Wada from there. And second it is even less fun to ride downhill to Hachioji from Wada. Better take the rear wheel between your buttocks and start to squeeze to increase braking power. I mean, it's a free fall, basically.

And indeed coming from Hachioji, the best times are well below 33 minutes. The Positivo Espresso record, hold by Ludwig is at 17:24 minutes as one can see on the right of the blog.

TCC has a similar hall of fame, and here the best time is hold by clay, an unbelieveable 14:15 minutes. Clay must be made out of carbon fiber with kevlar knees and aramid tendons.
There is one more Japanese web site, Hill Climb Time Trial, where the all time best is an even more unbelievable 13:39 minutes. I mean come on, that's the time I need at least to make up my mind to tackle the bloody thing and get the shoes against all better knowledge clicked in the pedals.

So, Wada always meant Hachioji -> Wada for me. And that was wrong. Because yesterday I found out just by chance that small m (the rider in question) tackled Wada from the other side (West side) in 33 minutes. Now this is a completely different story. OK, according to the same TCC site, Clay can do it in 20:23 minutes, but that's almost 2/3 of the time and not less than half. And a very respectable rider like Naomi with whom I have ridden in the past, still needed 27:55 minutes.And let's not forget that we don't know where small m started to record his time, as there is no official Positivo Espresso convention. The TCC definition is this one.

So, summarizing, 33 minutes is a quite OK time and I have to apologize that I got it wrong. I don't think that the emperor was faster.

Did it took you 33 minutes to read this apology? No? So please read it again until precisely 33 minutes have passed or Michael Jackson will not go to heaven.

Perhaps we need an official Togebaka entry for the West Wada approach. Or perhaps not, perhaps we have more than enough rules and traditions already. That was the thing that went to my mind yesterday when I was riding out with Dominic and James and Dominic asked us to stop. In front of a Circle K convenience store. I was holding my breath, all muscles except the obvious ones were in full tension ... should I say it ... or should I wait for James to state the obvious "This is not a 7-eleven".

But luckily later on the trip all of us ran out of water which gave us some food for thought why we should stop even at our combinis.

I was some kind of associated member with Juliane of a Japanese cycling club in 2003/2004, all of them nice guys, and I even meet them today from time to time and we chat at the Tamagawa. They have a hang out close to the Noborito bridge and they really taught me a lot about cycling. The reason why I don't cycle with them any longer are many, but one important one is that they had such a unified and strong opinion on some things in cycling, that it was hard to have another, own one. One day, when we were riding up to Sengenzaka and Juliane had a flat tire (tubular) and throw it away on the spot, they were all moaning and telling her that this was the most impossible thing to do.
The tire should be properly kept and brought home where a piece of it should be buried in the garden behind the house and at least an "Otsukaresame, Tire-sama" should be mumbled in reverence to the good service provided.

Well, that was the end then and we should be also be very carefully not to fall into the same trap. It is nice to talk about "traditions" and rules, but we should not stick to them if they are not coming in handy. James made a good remark, when we stopped at the Family Mart in Matsuzaki: "Oh yes, that is the local traditional one." so let's see it in this light.
Positivo Espresso always had a slight anarchist flair to it, not to adhere to rules (traffic ones or others), not to put too much restrictions on it's members. We were not even able to draft in a group of four and change position for more than 50 meters. I think this is defining the spirit of Positivo Espresso best and that makes it easy for other riders to join us. Sometimes it is hard to organize a trip or a race, not to mention to design a jersey which everybody would like to wear, but that is the price we have to pay for a club of which Bakunin or Kropotkin would have been proud to join.

A Fine Day Out

112 km, 1900m, avg. spd 21km/hr.

More to follow...

The 2009 Team Kit has Arrived

Thanks, Michael, for the effort to get these designed, ordered and delivered! They are a big improvement on last year's model in design/style, sizing, and safety (the orange is very safe/bright -- even my mother would approve)!



P.S. -- please someone replace this photo with one taken in better light, with less haste, and with a more attractive model! No time for perfection -- gotta pack!

705 update

For those with a Garmin 705..

"The Garmin 705 has just gotten a big update, with the Firmware bumped to up to 2.8. This big update fixes lots of things, including the recent bug where the history folder became unreadable. The update is so large, in fact that it wipes all of the data off of the device, so be sure to back up your Garmin before giving the 2.8 update a whirl."

Garmin 705 Update Fixes Boo-Boos - bikehugger.com

Peeing in the rain with the Tenno Heika

Two parties on Saturday and Sunday night and no riding on Sunday forced me to leave the house today despite cloudy, threatening skies.

I took the train to Hachioji and rode up to the Takao station.

Where I didn't took a break at the 7-eleven. By the way I am so glad that David clarified which restaurant one has to visit at Okutamako finally. Many times I rode by with empty stomach and no power left but as I didn't know which restaurant the Positivo Espresso approved one is, I mumbled "shikata ga nai" to myself and kept on pushing to the Western most convenience store at the entrance to Okutama village.

I guess what we need is some kind of stickers, which we could take with us on rides, paste here and there and which clearly state:

POSITIVO ESPRESSO APPROVED SUPPLY DUMP
ポシティーボエスプレソ確認店

Of course we would need to do also marking for roads and passes. To climb Kazahari by Ura-Kazahari with 15% plus inclination is OK, also Ura-ura Kazahari Rindo and Ura-ura-ura Kazahari boro boro Michi is OK, but the main road is not.
So who is going to take the lead ?

Anyway. The weather was miserable, always a light drizzle in the air. And so many policemen on the road, was there another traffic safety week I have missed?

I took the road to Jimba Kogen from Takao and was going up the second slope which leads just right through the huge Hachioji cemetery when I noticed that my climbing performance was not good - so what to do? As I didn't took a rest at the 7-eleven, I thought that draining some ballast water from my bodily vessel would help and I was looking for a suitable place along the road to do this quickly.

About 2/3 of the slope up I found a nice looking innocent bush and no people around so I stopped and was just ready to unzip when out of the said bush a young Japanese guy appeared and asked me to ride on. To be more precise he said:

"Our majesty the emperor will pass by in a few minutes and I would like to ask you to kindly walk with your bike on the sidewalk until he has passed."

I guess I was mighty lucky that the emperor, probably returning from his morning ride up Wada Toge, hasn't seen me with my bib shorts dropped in full exposure. And as I am a law-abiding subject of his majesty, I decided to push my bike along.

For a few meters.
Until I was out of sight.

As I wanted to give the emperor and his buddies a good show I climbed up the next slope at full speed in standing. Every 50 meters there were some undercover policemen with small earphones, I was starting to feel like being transferred into THE MATRIX - Agent Smiths, or perhaps better Agent Suzuki everywhere.

So here they came, first some motorcycles, then some black Toyota limousines with the characteristic doilies everywhere on the seats and on the windows.
Wow, my first encounter with the emperor since many years - and definitely the first time on my bike. I just felt sorry that I couldn't show off our new Positivo Espresso 2009 jerseys.

After this very motivating event and now free again to cross one or the other red light I moved ahead in direction Wada and started the long climb. I wanted to take it easy, but this is a contradiction in itself, Wada is never easy. And I still don't have the strength to climb fast for extended periods.

The road was wet and slippery and my new 105 rear derailleur was not well adjusted so I tried to move up steadily and without putting too much power suddenly on the rear wheel. At the steeper parts I was back into single digit speed; but in the end I made it up in less than 23 minutes despite my best efforts to go as slow as possible. I am still puzzled why it took michael 33 minutes to ride up (best time) - if I would go that slow I would probably fall off the bike due to it's instability.

I then went down the road very slowly, in the meantime it had started to rain a little bit more and I was trying the Positivo Espresso approved strategy in case of sudden rainfalls: ignorance.
After arriving at road #20 I continued along road 76 as I wanted to climb up to Hinazaru. But the rain was getting harder and harder and I had to give up and rode back to route 20.

But I wasn't completely wet yet and the traffic on route 20 was relatively light so I rode to Sagami and continued then with a reverse Otarumi approach. I wanted to see how bad I am.

Now, actually I was feeling good, just like Lance Armstrong after his battle with cancer, which he so skillfully described in his book "It's not about the bike" (an affront of a title like no else, because if the performance is not there it is ALWAYS the fault of the bike). So I started to think about this book and about one story in particular:
So when he has had his cancer surgeries and it was going better, he started to train again on the bike, riding out with his friends. His friends were constantly telling him how great he was doing and how quickly he came back into shape. Then one day, while the group was riding out and started to climb at a small hill, Armstrong was overtaken by an old lady on her shopping bike who happened to take the same road and he realized that cancer has hit him much harder than he ever thought and that the return to pro sport would take much longer than he has realized so far.

I like this particular story very much, it is one of the few things I remember from this book which is otherwise uninteresting for normal human beings. I like this story because it has a small flaw: "Who would believe that Lance Armstrong actually has friends?"

I mean, think about it, well he probably has, yes, but isn't that the same "probably has", as in "Adolf Hitler probably had a barber." or "Josef Stalin may have had a priest." or "The mathematic teacher of Mao Zedong"?

It took me some time to understand, but now I think that his so-called friends dressed up a female pro-rider in old lady clothing on a shopping bike and made the whole situation up.

Anyway, as I continued to feel like Lance Armstrong on the slopes of Otarumi, I had a very nice tailwind that pushed me forward and I was up in 18:19 minutes which is respectable.
The fast descent on the other side brought me in no time through the rain to Takao station where I was finally so wet that I decided to give up riding for today.

Only 60 kilometers, but hey, I have met the emperor on my bike.

POSITIVO ESPRESSO MIDSUMMER PARTY JUNE 24

POSITIVISTAS

On Wednesday, June 24th 19.30hr we will gather at

ARIETTA DANJO

東京都渋谷区広尾1-11-2 ＡＩＯＳ広尾ビル　１Ｆ
.... ebisu 1-11-2 tel 03-5447-5553

http://r.tabelog.com/tokyo/A1303/A130302/13028748/dtlmap/

to celebrate the various events which are obviously being made, or being made up to celebrate:

1. The forthcoming departure of our Transalp team consisting of David "Stiftser" Litt and Jerome "Stelvio" Bouhet who will represent our team colors at this gruesome event where not only riders are forced to climb more than 3.000 meters per day, but also must sleep in cramped sport halls along the way.
   
   Read more about the Transalp Tour HERE.
   [Corrected link ... David L.]
   (See especially the 2008 Review - Pictures and look at the slideshow of Stage 5 -- really spectacular! Or see the suffering cold and wet riders on Stage 2.)
   
   
   
2. The arrival of the new POSITIVO ESPRESSO 2009 TEAM WEAR
   Yes, finally they are there. So you can pick up your jerseys and bib shorts directly here.
   
   
3. Me back on the bike after a forced four weeks break with a broken hand

Jerome was so kind to organize the event, so please let him know by Monday afternoon latest, if you will attend the party so that he can make the appropriate reservations.

Please contact Jerome directly.

See you on Wednesday.

A Charming Tradition Since Before Positivo Espresso

Before P.E. -- A tradition since 2005. That is how long founding members of Positivo Espresso have been stopping at the charming little reservoir-side cafeteria at the far end of Okutama-ko. (Well, at least I was there in 2005 with Jerome and Juliane; it is mentioned with a photograph of the exterior in a post from one of several earlier 2009 visits; Tom refers to a visit from April 2008 as stopping at "Juliane's favorite okutamako cafeteria". Archeologists report visits by foreign road cyclists dating back to the last millenium, as well as entire busloads of Japanese tourists stopping there in the decades after it was first built).

Actually, the off-white (beige? grey?) stucco exterior of the restaurant is not so charming, and not nearly as nice as the much newer, but quaint-by-design, Japanese-style wood building down the street. In fact, from the exterior, to the uninitiated--such as the typical gang of motorcycle riders, ready to gorge on some food before heading up Kazahari who joined Jerome and me mid-meal on Saturday--OUR restaurant is virtually indistinguishable from the one next door.

(Note to Michael H. and Manfred -- PLEASE be careful not to step into the wrong restaurant. This would be even worse than going to the wrong convenience store, as the restaurant proprietress is far more likely to take offense than the convenience store clerk if you should excuse yourself to go next door. And if you should happen to make a mistake and stop at the wrong shop, just be sure not to record the error in a blog post!)

In any event, Jerome and I stopped at The Restaurant on Saturday for some well-deserved nutrition. We noted to the proprietress ("Mrs. Watanabe") that we would be in Europe next week at a famous bicycle race, attempting a nearly impossible crossing of snow-capped mountains together with the tall German woman who used to frequent her establishment. After some urging, Mrs. Watanabe agreed to come out of the kitchen for a photo so that we could send her best wishes to the "bijin", as Juliane is known at The Restaurant. (The word "bijin" was used more times than I could count.)

In this atmosphere of being among old friends, international fellowship and goodwill, Mrs. Watanabe comp'ed us some extra cucumber salad with special mayonnaise sauce, and a large Aquarius sports drink each. And her friend and helper ("Mrs. Tanaka") even joined one of the photos as they let Jerome put his arms around their shoulders, even as the sweat glistened.

Anyway, I've gone straight to the highlights, but let me offer a brief trip report.

Jerome, chastened by last week's humor regarding his insistence upon, and failure to show up at, the ridiculously early start time, made me promise to call him at 4:45AM to make sure he was up and ready for a 5AM start. Before I could do so at 4:44, he called me and the start was confirmed. We made it to Takao in decent time, stopped at the traditional 7-11, with time for a photo of my new Assos gear -- I'm told that the white bib shorts are really FAST, passing like a flash of light, and I wanted a photo since they will never be quite as white again as on this maiden ride.

We went over Otarumi and along Route 20 to Uenohara. Uneventful so far, but I was not enjoying the Route 20 traffic or the increasing heat, and I was still convinced that this should be a relatively easy, "warm down" ride before our departure for Europe. Jerome still wanted to go over Matsuhime Pass from the long southern approach. So we parted ways at Uenohara, Jerome headed for Sarubashi then Matsuhime, and I headed to the Northwest up Routes 33/18 along the beautiful, deserted "Uenohara-Tabayama-sen" through a valley and up and over Tawa Pass and Tsuru Pass.

I just cannot get enough of this road, and leapt at the chance to ride it on my "warm down" day, somehow forgetting that Tawa and Tsuru can be pretty miserable in the sticky heat.
I made it over them (no rest except at the traditional covered rest area table/water faucet/toilet between lower and upper Tsuru, around 700 meters elevation), and then down to the base of Matsuhime. I stopped to wait for Jerome, pondering the near future when we (and the occasional motorist) will have a choice between the beautiful climb over Matsuhime (right fork), and a multi-hundred-million dollar series of tunnels and bridges (left fork).

I took the right fork and had climbed about half of the remainder to the top of Matsuhime, when Jerome came heading down at me. I turned around so we could both descend to The Restaurant and then head home.

... After several hours of suffering in the heat riding into a stiff head wind, a 185 km+ ride (more than 200 km for Jerome) with "only" 2000 meters or so of climbing, and a brand new tubular tire going flat on Yoshino Kaido, replaced by Mr. Wachi himself of the Wachi Cycling Team, we finished our warm-down ride.

Bike fit at HiRoad

Over the last few years I know I have tweaked and fiddled with my bike set-up to the point where I am no longer 100% confident it is correct set-up anymore. For this reason I wanted to get a professional bike-fit done.

Some internet research led me to Aoyama-san at Sports Bikes HiRoad today. He is an ex-employee of Y's bikes in Akasaka, but branched out on his own 2 years ago, setting up his shop in Koyama 18 months ago. He provides professional bike-fitting analysis and advice using www.bikefitting.com.

Firstly, he completely readjusted my Look cleat positions after measuring my feet and checking the exact position of the ball of my foot whilst wearing my cycling shoes. The result was to move the cleat forward and in. This in itself was probably worth the visit to his small store.

He conducted a short interview to learn a little about riding style, then did a set of very precise body measurements. This data is sent to the database in Holland, after which it returns the optimal bike geometry measurements.

He then sets this 'perfect' bike on his simulator. On the simulator you can try out the set-up. Aoyama-san uses his experience to talk you through cycling technique, lower body physiology and upper body position. He then 'tweaks' the simulator to try a few different positions, eg. lower bars, more forward, higher, etc.



Before the "shoulder" explanation




After the "shoulder" explanations




The www.bikefitting.com set-up. Gripping firmer. It is a bit too far and we revised it.




Revision 1. Slightly easy. 0mm vertical and 20mm closer on horizontal slides.




Revision 2. Slightly agressive. 20mm lower vertical and 10mm closer (10mm further than revision 1) on horizontal slides.


Once comfortable he measures the rig and then produces a comprehensive pdf file for your reference and to adjust your bike to.

The whole process took 3 hrs. The outcome was to raise the saddle significantly (very surprised), move it backwards a touch and drop the bars.

It feels great. Noticeably less weight in my hands and definitely a feeling of more power transfer and control. I am looking forward to my ride tomorrow!

If you are interested Aoyama-san speaks excellent English and his website is http://hiroad.biz/

Pinchers from Hell

On Friday I tried a mid-distance ride with a lot of climbing, leading me to various places previously unconnected by one continuous ride.

As per new riding doctrine, I rode up to Nakayama station on the Yokohama line and took a train out to Hashimoto. This helps me to avoid the boredom of the Tamagawa, the Kan One and other roads ridden so often, so far. It is only 7 - 8 km through Hashimoto and then one is at the Tsukui Ko North route which is a good start for a longer ride.

I decided to give Doshi Mishi a try, it has been a while since I have ridden there with Ludwig and it has this continuous but not too steep climbs which I was looking for in order to improve my performance. And also I wanted to start a new Toagebaka which leads from Mikage crossing on route 413 to the entry of the tunnel on Dochi Michi at it's highest point just before Yamanaka lake.

http://www.mapmyride.com/route/jp/kanagawa%20ken/824124546708879622

I was not very fast. In fact I overtook a hobby rider on his Cannondale bike and was overtaken by him again after 5 kilometers or so. My legs are OK and I have stamina to function on longer rides, but the speed is much too slow. In short, a performance disaster and the wore humiliation since michael and me got (almost) dropped by a one legged rider on Kan One.

So it took me almost 2:40 hours for less than 40 km of distance and 900 meter elevation which is now recorded as Togebaka No. 13. Please try to break this record, it shouldn't be that difficult.

Luckily there is a 7-eleven at Yamanaka lake so I could take a break there, the first one since starting in Hashimoto more than three hours before. I continued to ride along the lake and then rode down in direction Gotemba on road 138. Please take a note:

ROAD 138 - TO BE AVOIDED.

Boring, a lot of traffic leading to the Tomei highway. Moreover, because of the nearby SDF training camp a lot of military vehicles on the road.

My plan was to ride up to Lake Ashino / Moto-Hakone from there and as I still felt OK I gave it a try. Luckily there is road #401 forking off from 138 so I gave it a try. This was a good decision as the road was almost empty and the climb very gentle, hardly more than 5% slope in any location. And so I made it to the top at Nagao something tunnel where I discovered a monument to traffic safety in sorry state.

For some reasons, and we must leave this to future generations of archaeologists and anthroposophs, many traffic safety related monuments have this shape which you can see in the photo below. It seems that there were mass fabricated by an unknown company in the seventies or eighties and distributed in strategic locations where passing car drivers would marvel at their beauty and zen-like composure. The company that made them has probably met the fate of so many previously famous companies (Wedgewood, Karman, Maerklin, Commodore ...) so we cannot ask them for a logical explanation any longer, but for me the symbolism is very clear:
When you are driving your car, autobike or bicycle, you should always be aware that if you act against traffic rules, there is a slight chance that the ground will open next to you and that these pinchers will appear, screaming and shaking in anger and they will grap the sinning you and drag you down to a place deep below the surface of earth where you will be tortured to no end by retired police officers in traffic psychologic training classes. For a first hand experience I recommend the lectures at the Samezu driving licence office.

Anyway, I rode along further, back to road 138 and then to road 75 which should have brought me quickly to the shores of lake Ashino. So a last climb and then I would coast along the lake. Hm, I was already way higher than the lake but I thought, OK, this is the ridge I need to take before coming down to the lake and finally I did. The road there by the way looks like a sign monument to corporate Japan: Nissan, NEC, IBM Japan, Kawsaki Shinko Ginko ... a lot of famous companies seems to have their resort or seminar houses up there. Judging from the state of some of the resorts, it seems to me highly probable that the company itself will be in a similar shape pretty soon. Maybe this would make a good indicator, similar to the idea of the McDonald index for countries.

Anyway, so I finally descended to the lake and was looking forward to a short ride to Moto Hakone. But what was that? The road made a 180 degree turn and led me up to the ridge again! From there it was a constant up and down and down and up until I have finally reached known ground at route one.

ROAD 75 IS A BLOODY ELEVATION-METER VAMPIRE !

I ten took a final break in Moto Hakone, please take a close look at the attached Mapmyride link to check WHERE exactly I have made the break.

http://www.mapmyride.com/route/jp/kanagawa-ken/854124546795029058

So finally I decided to take route 20 down to Atami. Of course it was wonderful, route 20 is so beautiful, so nice and gentle, it seems one can ride there forever at 40 - 50 km/hr an hour and never brake. The bike moves perfectly through all the curves, rarely disturbed by traffic and it feels like moving your hand slowly down the spine of your girlfriend a long time ago.
Sorry, couldn't come up with any more actual example.
But all this comes to an end at Atami Toge where the final kilometers to Atami have to be conquered in almost free fall fashion. I am still lacking power and grip in my left hand so it was a real torture.

The beauty for me is that the Shinkansen takes me home from Atami to Shin-Yokohama in 30 minutes and then I assemble the bike an ride home which is perhaps another 30 minutes.
So I just made it in time for the dinner.

Looking forward to the Sunday ride now.

Weekend Rides

Saturday20th
As you may know, Jerome and I are training for the Transalp. We will take our last training ride (really, honestly, this is the last one) leaving my house at 5AM Saturday -- heading toward Matsuhime (South approach) or Kazahari (front/East approach) pass, route to be confirmed after departure. Let us know if you want to join at the beginning or somewhere en route. Stephen C. -- hope we will see you later, coming from Oume direction?

Sunday21st
James, Dominic and Michael are meeting at Ebisu stn at 6:30am for a ride of about 130km(ish), 6hrs (ish) on Sunday morning. Usual routes, unless we become inspired and brave enough to go somewhere new. Thinking Tank rollers, reverse Otarumi, front Wada, Route 20 and river home. Yawn? Let us know if you want to join at the beginning or somewhere en route.

Ask Dr. Evil

Dear Readers, the following piece of correspondence from a desperate fellow rider has reach my desk in the afternoon (obviously it has been written during work):

Sate, I was plodding up Wada last Sunday (on my own) and realized again, as I slowly turned the wheels up the hill, that my big dura ace 52 crank is not designed for me! I bought my bike 8 years ago and so it only has a cassette of 9 gears on the back so I am very behind the times.
So, I am wondering what to do without buying a whole new bike (which is delayed until my wife thinks there is no chance of me being laid off at work).

• Option 1. Buy a new dura ace compact crank only. If I do this, will all the other dura ace bits on the bike work with this new crank without me buying anything else?
  
  
• Option 2. Do option 1 and also buy a nice new 10 gear cassette. If so, will I need to change gear levers and all?? (If so, this is probably not cost effective for one more gear.)

Any thoughts much appreciated. Good to hear that you are back cycling again.

First I would like to write that I am glad that your problem are not punctured rear tires because I should be considered the last person on earth to give advise on this problem. Now, I think you have given the answer to your problem already. As any decent 40 year plus amateur rider from Positivo Espresso will tell you, you need a new bike, preferably with Shimano Dura Ace Di2 and an investment cost close to the defense budget of Mozambique. It should have however one small flaw on which you can blame any lack in performance, for example that the handle bar tape is not matching with the saddle leather. But this is probably not the answer you would like to hear.

Also, the other reasonable advice, that you should leave everything on your bike just as it is and get up your butt, finally do more training and loose some weight so you can fly up Wada like a mini car driven by two gays would only be honored by your lovely wife and not by your good self.

OK, let's try something unreasonable :

It would be my educated guess that you can combine Dura Ace 9 speed components only with other Shimano 9 speed components, such as Ultegra and 105.

You can probably not combine them with any components from the newer Dura Ace with 10 speed (7800 series) (different chain width) and also not with the new 2009 Dura Ace (7900 series) (one way chain). The same is true for the newer 10 speed Ultegra and 105.

So if you are looking for an economic solution which would give you more choices on steep climbs my advise would be to upgrade with older 9 speed dura ace components, which are still plentiful available as they were replaced only in 2004.

CRANK

Obviously you would like to exchange your standard crank with a compact one. Perhaps there are also other options in the market, not only from Shimano. Check also the crank length; all lengths in 2.5 mm steps from 165 mm to 180 mm are available. I am using a 175 mm crank, so perhaps a 172.5 or 170 mm should work well for you.

Of course you can also consider a very uncool triple in the front, not sure if there is one with dura ace specs although.

REAR CASSETTE

I do not know what you are using now, my guess would be 11/23 or 12/25? If you just change the standard crank into a compact one I don't think you will need a new rear cassette if the biggest sprocket is 25 or bigger. Anyway, the biggest one available from Shimano for road bikes is 27. But I believe that in order not to loose too much on your maximum speed in the flats or downhills, the smallest sprocket should be 12; 11would be better.

12/21, 12/23, 12/25 and 12/27 9 speed cassettes are available here.
The alternative would be 11/21 or 11/23, but that's nonsense for climbs.

Don't laugh, my first pro bike had a default 10/21 9 speed - I was suffering in the mountains and I had no idea why.

If you have a standard crank and a 11/21 rear cassette mounted on your bike, I would guess that just changing the rear cassette to 12/27 would be good enough.

I am not convinced that a 10 speed offers so much more advantage over a 9 speed system. In most cases it seems to me that the smallest and biggest sprocket mounted are the same, so you have more variety in between with a 10 speed system. But you also need to do more shifting when you want to move from a climb in a low gear to a downhill stretch in a fast gear.

If you desperately want to move to 10 speed, my suggestion would be to change to Shimano 105. In this case you would need no control levers, new front derailleur, new crank, new chain and a new rear cassette. With 105 compared to dura ace this is somewhat affordable and I don't believe that this will have any substantial impact on the performance of your bike. Except for the weight, perhaps 300 gram more. So take less coins with you in your wallet if you decide for this solution.

If you have tons of time, you can also take a look on what the authority is saying:

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/dura-ace.html

Tsurumigawa

Nagai-san has repaired my Cervelo and I could take a short spin along the Tsurumigawa close to my house. I was feeling pretty good, although I still could not brake with my left hand. After 20 kilometers or so something happened: Another flat rear tire.

I didn't even curse. This has by now become such a regular experience that I just resign to my fate, go down to business, exchange the tube and repair the punctured one later at home. Is this some kind of divine intervention, giving me some hidden hints that I should stop riding my bike?

At least this time the cause was clear. A metal shard in the tire which I luckily found before exchanging the tube. Even a Continental GP7000 tire is not perfect

Yabitsu Curry Chicken

On Sunday, before the official remounting permission came from the hospital, I decided to try Yabitsu Toge with my bad boy.

I had some objectives, first I decided to ride to the next station on the Yokohama line, Nakayama and take the train out to Hashimoto. That went relatively easily, however bad boy is pretty heavy and difficult to carry around.

New Train Company poster clamping down an illegal mama-chari riders in trains.

In Hashimoto I found out that I still need to ride 7 km around town before arriving at the Tuskui Ko North route which was silent and beautiful as ever. I proceeded to Miyagase Ko, but before I took a short break at a Family Mart.

Yes, you have read right, I was making purchases on a ride out at a Family Mart and not in the traditional 7-Eleven and I have to apologize profoundly as I am caught now red-handed in an orgy of evil.

However, in my defense I need to tell you, that Family Mart is not only selling the new COCA COLA PLUS with green tea whatever, but they also have launched a product line extension to their very tasty musubi line which is "Curry Chicken Onigiri". That is in fact the best onigiri I have ever eaten and it gives awful power and stamina to bicycle riders.

Actually I could have never gotten up to Yabitsu Pass, if I wouldn't have eaten Curry Chicken Onigiri and it was still in my mouth when I reached the top.Now, the Togebaka Time was not so impressive, around 67 minutes compared to my best of 51 to 52 minutes, but hey breathing is not so easy if one kilogram of sticky rice is slowly disintegrating into your breathing system.

And of course I had again a flat tire on the way up which needed to be fixed. The air was coming out only slowly and I had my small hand pump was me, so I thought I give it a try and press on. When I reached the top there was still enough air inside, so I pumped it up again before riding down.

I wanted to test another theory, which is that my bad boy is the better, safer and stable choice for going downhill. I was a little bit worried about the rear tire so I tried to play it safe in curves but right fast on straight stretches.

And indeed I was going over 70 km on the last straight stretch which leads into the first villages on the Southern approach to Yabitsu. The bad boy felt great, no bumps with the dampened front fork and going very straight and very stable.

The drawback is of course the nano-crank which doesn't allow you to accelerate fast after braking in curves, so everything depends of gravity and momentum.

I took the train home from Hadano where I shopped at the Odakyu market which I guess is OK as I have seen other Positivo Espresso Riders doing so as well.

Swedish Chichibu Midsummer Matsuri

Is there anything more beautiful and charming in the world than a traditional Swedish Midsummer Festival? Well, after watching an imitation in the cafeteria of the IKEA Kohoku store while trying to blog, at least 42 things come to my mind immediately, including complete silence in a Japanese Zen Buddhism temple, Marunouchi Japan Post Office Building and firing live shells from an automatic rifle at a shooting range in Northern China.

Really, it is hard to blog seriously if by chance one has chosen to sit just in front of a live performance aimed at four year old and their mothers, imitating Swedish ducks and porks which according to the IKEA instructors, make different noises than their Japanese counterparts. But as I have chosen to have my weekly round of roast beef at IKEA and test my new HP subnote I have no choice but to stand and deliver.

By the way, I also have nothing against Sweden and the Swedish. IKEA is a great Swedish invention and when I was a student I always felt comfortable when visiting the apartments of other students as they had exactly the same IKEA furniture as myself (BILLY cupboards and TED chairs mainly). My definition of "making money" was equal to "when I will buy furniture that is not from IKEA". Unfortunately just as myself, IKEA also matured, making better quality furniture so I am still stucked with them.

I also know one sentence in Swedish:

"SÖMEBÖDY HAS STÖLEN MY VÖLVÖ"

[I hope that you can see the special characters on your screen, otherwise, I am afraid, it will be not funny at all].

Now, where was I? Oh yes, I wanted to write about my first longer ride into Chichibu after the accident. So after converting my racing bike unintentionally into a single speed, I took my jinxed bad boy for the first time on a longer trip. The wastelands of Yokohama were as boring as usual and the same is true for the stretch on the Tamagawa which led me from Tamagawaharabashi to Ome and, who would have guessed, to Aurore bakery and the 7-Eleven in front of the station. What a bore! I was glad to be back on my bike, but I was really really bored by riding through Yokohama and along the Tamagawa for the n-st time of my life. I decided spontaneously not to do that any longer. The risks of an accident are just to high and it is no fun. From now on, I thought, I will rely on the service of my bike bag and the good office of Japanese train companies.

So I started again from Ome station and crossed over the Ome line railway and through the tunnel into Chichibu land. What a relief, every time I pass from the valley of Ome into the neighboring Chichibu, I am amazed by the beauty and timelessness of Chichibu. It is like riding into a different country, a Japan almost untouched by the craziness of our modern civilization. I am sure that I have written this many times already on the blog, but I just cannot stop it to write it again and again.

I noticed also that the bad boy is pretty heavy and I am still very untrained so the climbs were becoming much harder and slower than before. But luckily I have still stamina, so I am slow but I will never ever dismount my bike on a climb. Ever.

But then, on the downhills the bad boy is just wonderful. With it's very stiff frame, heavy wheels, dampened front fork, hydraulic disc brakes and wide handle it is much easier to steer through the curves and it stays in the line like a bullet on a string. Perfect, I was almost as fast down as David is normally. I mean, I was not as fast as these guys, but going well over 60 km/hr on the first downhill after Ome and not feeling unsafe at all. Sadly, the bad boy does not have a standard crank, nor a compact crank. I don't know exactly what it is, but feeling-wise I would describe it as a "nano crank". So there is no way that one can gain additional speed by pedaling downhill.

So I rode at slow speed up to the holy fountain at the beginning of the climb to Yamabushi and Shomaru Toge and I was starting to feel better. Of course, the dump trucks at the beginning of Chichibu are a real drag but otherwise there was very little traffic and the roads were quite and silent.

All right, Yamabushi Toge was approaching and I thought that I will give it a try and check my time. When I made it to the top, I counted 28 minutes, which is about 8 minutes more than my best time - wow that is really bad! I guess that about 10 - 15% is due to the bad boy (as compared to my Cervelo), another 10 - 15% to my training level and the remain to fate, weather and general jinx. But I made it and I felt OK so I continued to scale Shomaru Toge where I took a very brief break and rode down in direction road #299.
Then I decided to scale Karibazaka Toge which I did and my speed dropped into single digit levels. The climb lasted for almost 43 minutes, I am lucky that this one is still not recorded as an official Togebaka climb.
By the way, the wooden shed on the top of Karibazaka is gone now and replaced by a gravel field. Hope it will never rain there.And from there I rode over Ono Toge, Shiraishi Toge to Sadamine Toge where the local Soba shop was closed, perhaps mother and her daughter are still in Hawaii.

It was beautiful to be back on the bike again and I was glad that I selected Chichibu for the first trip. There was zero traffic on the roads and one could hear the sound of birds and other animals in the woods. Some stretches of the road were still damp and wet from the rain the previous day and there was a strong aromatic flavour from the flowers and trees in the air.

On the way up to Karibazaka I encountered two roe deers that didn't hear me coming. And on the way down in direction Chichibu from Sadamine Toge, I met a monkey on the road. This was only the second time in Japan (the first time on the road down from Matsuhime in direction route 20).The remaining ride through Chichibu city was less fun. All in all I did 120 km and app. 1.600 meters of climbing in 6 1/2 hours. This is not fast, but I did take only one longer break at Ome, went up Yamabushi, Shomaru and Karibazaka in almost one go and all of this on the bad boy. I was really happy to be back on the bike, although my left hand was hurting and I would never have made it without dampened front fork and hydro brakes.

120 km, thereof 54 boring kilometers to Ome and 8 inside Chichibu city, so roughly half of the distance. That mustbe improved in the future.

Anyway the confidence is back and I went to the post office today and filed an entry application for the Hitachi Naka Race in two weeks. Four hours individual endurance. Definitely not on the bad boy.

[... to be continued ...]

Murphy Days

Finally after more than four weeks of a forced break I was able to get on my bicycle again and do some shorter rides. Excellent, otherwise I would have died pf boredom or buttock soreness because of my home trainer. But I was not really lucky somehow. The following blog entries are describing some of the things that have happened.

JUNE 8 TH

The cast on the left hand is history now. But I have still no power to grab something, so simple and frequent tasks like holding a glass of beer can only be performed by my right hand. On the racing bike that means that I cannot shift or brake with the left hand. So I should be faster, right? Left: Riding with the traffic is a little bit risky so I take a spin along the Tsurumigawa close to my house and my favourite super short ride training ground. I am still a little bit shaky, but at least a start is made. I am slow as well.

JUNE 9TH

After trying yesterday I feel comfortable enough to make a mid-range ride into the beloved Chichibu territory. But first the wastelands have Yokohama have to be travelled. There's a lot of time available, I do not have a "mongen", nor an ambitious plan. So when I saw some excavators which are disguised as environmental friendly excavators I stopped and took a photo.
The gear shifting on my bike wasn't smooth at all but I am not that worried. From the main road I took a turn to the right where there is a small road with 10% plus of slope leading me to the local vegetable wholesale market. I got out of the saddle and started to put power on the crank. The next thing I heard is a noise like a tank is driving over my Cervelo bike - it cuted right through my heart.

What happened? I demounted from my bike and the sight is just plain terrible. when I shifted at the start of the slope into the lowest gear, the chain got stucked between the biggest rear sprocket and the spokes of the wheel. As the wheel still turned it dragged the rear derailleur from the adaptor plate which bended and broke. Then the rear derailleur moved further on and ended up entangled in the spokes of the rear wheel. It looked like this after I got it out from the wheel.
My first single speed bike, obviously. OK, so no Chichibu today.I decided to take the bike to Nagai-San in the evening and ride with my Bad Boy hybrid to Bic Camera in Yokohama to check out the new subnote lap tops. The Bad Boy is also a good bike for me right now: The hydraulic disc brakes do not require any power and the dampened front fork, which can be switched on and off, is giving relief to my left hand. The road from my house to Shin-yokohama is just spectacular.

No, this isn't a joke. It is possible to ride from my house to Shin Yokohama always entirely using low density roads along the rivers in the area. There is one particular part where the weeds on the road are almost a meter high but still there is a good trail of compacted earth in the middle to ride. And in the background one can see the UFO like shape of the Nissan Stadium.Heiko introduced me once to this road and it became my favourite trail in the area. From there on it takes me only another 30 minutes to Yokohama. The subnotes are great and I decide to buy one the next day at Yodobashi Camera in Shin Yokohama as they have the better sales staff.

It has been a while since I have been to the Yokohama centre and since I am now a citizen of this town, I decided to ride around a little bit and explore the area. There is a nice canal with Yattai wooden boxes lined up on the side of the road parallel to it. I decided to go there with friends when I have a chance next week.

Note : I went back the following week with Tina who is supposed to leave Japan after staying here eight years. I own a lot to Tina as she took me with her to many punk rock concerts in Tokyo where I saw fantastic bands such as Penpals, Potshots and Mad Three. I forgot my age and pogoed with the masses, sticking out from the audience like a light tower in the mob of 16 year old girls, approximate average height below 1.5 meter. My wife never understood why I had so much lipstick smears on the back of my t-shirts.
Conclusion : Every single of this Yattai is selling Oden. I like Oden ("Oden to the people") and also did you know that Japan is levying 1571% import tariffs on Konnyaku? One can get rich with Konnyaku smuggling I guess. But it is not the right food to say goodbye.

Then it happened: a flat rear tire. Of course I have nothing with me to repair the mess. So I must ride home by subway and return in the evening instead of handing my Cervelo to Nagai-San. Another spoiled evening, really unlucky to have two mechanicals in one day.

In the evening I returned with my bicycle repair kit (for the importance of bicycle repair kits I suggest you take a look at James in Japan). I have only one cartridge with me, a proud Positivo Espresso tradition which was invented last year in Izu. Of course there is a leak when I attach the cartridge to the adaptor and I have barely enough CO2 to fill into the tube. Somehow I make it home. Then I realize that I have another rear wheel tire. I check both tubes, find the holes (pinch flats) and repair them with a pro repair kit. After inflating them again, I find out that there are even more holes, also pinch flats at other locations of the tube. Why is that?

Anyway. Nagai-San has his weekly day off on Wednesday. I visit him on Thursday morning. Actually I thought that this could become an excellent opportunity to upgrade my bike to the new Shimano Ultegra. Do I need the new Ultegra : Yes definitely. I mean, just as Campagnolo, both wires from the levers are now hidden underneath the handle bar tape - an important advantage in terms of aerodynamics.

But then Nagai-San tells me the bad news: The sales for the new Ultegra only starts in mid July. Also I do not need only new levers and a rear derailleur, but also a new front derailleur, a new chain and a new crank set as the new Ultegra is not a standard compatible with everything else in this world.

So I ask him to buy me a 105 rear derailleur for the time being and fix the bike so I can ride at least for the time being.

Note : So I called him today (Monday). The rear derailleur is there but it will still take until Thursday to fix my bike. This is so frustrating.

After returning from Nagai San I take my Bad boy for another spin in direction Shin Yokohama. I arrive at the river and have another flat. What is wrong with my bike? Why do I have flat tires every 5 kilometers?

PROBLEM: My Cannondale Bad Boy Hybrid Bike [2005 version] has nice set of heavy Mavic wheels with many, many spokes. The fork is quite massive and it also has disc brakes attached at the front and at the rear. But the tires are just like racing tires, 700 x 23C. The idea is too use them in the city and to have another set of wheels with thick tires for exchange when going out into the country side. Both wheel types should fit with the same fork.

I normally ride it only in the city for shorter distances. It is too heavy for the mountains and the easting position and handle width is not comfortable for longer rides. But for the city it is fantastic. Good braking power, front fork with damper so it is easy to ride up and down the cobblestones.

I had no problem with the bike for almost four years. Then, about half year ago I changed both tires as they were pretty much run down. The front wheel is still doing fine, but I have one flat tire after the other on the rear wheel. Normally I ride with app. 6 bars. When I check the tubes they are all pinch flats, sometimes even in more than one location.

I bought another tire for the rear wheel. I exchanged the rim tape inside the rear wheel and checked for sharp edges at the rims. I exchange many tubes. Still, more punctures.

Why is that?

Is there any logical explanation, accept that I hate Mavic in return their wheels hate me? That the bike is jinxed? That I am just plain unlucky?

[to be continued]

Jumbo Mountain Training

"Yatta!" Jerome and David L. celebrate their successful climb to Odarumi Pass, Elevation 2361 meters (approx 7750 feet) on the border between Yamanashi and Nagano Prefectures -- the highest mountain pass in Japan accessible by paved road.


Many Positivo Espresso riders and fans will remember past last August's "Odarumi attack" event, a two-day ride, with the first day involving a ridiculous series of climbs in blistering heat (Wada, Uenohara hills, Tawa, Tsuru, Imagawa and Yanagisawa Passes) with riders dropping like flies along the way (I turned back at the top of Wada and barely made it home, Michael K. turned back after Imagawa), a hot bath, plenty of food and a good night's sleep at a ryokan in Enzan, and then the main event, a climb of Odarumi Pass (with an almost completely different group of riders, other than Tom).

Did I mention that Jerome and I are training for the Transalp Tour? With only two weeks left, my training is pretty much done, for better or worse, and at least I have boosted my mileage and climbing significantly this year, even if I am still carrying a heavier body up the hills than I would like.

In a break from the past, Jerome has decided to actually train for this event -- I guess at age 42, it is no longer possible to just launch into a multi-day event or run a marathon with NO preparation. Jerome's training consisted primarily of (1) our ride over Sasago Pass and Yanagisawa Pass 3 weeks ago, and (2) whatever he does this weekend. Next weekend we will be in recovery mode (cheese and wine included). So we needed one big ride, and he proposed a day of "Jumbo Mountain Training," at least as tough as the toughest day on Transalp, Stage 6. To head off an anticipated comment, let me note that "Jumbo" refers to the size of the mountains, not the size of the riders!

We left home shortly after 4AM. I really, really could have used another hour or two of sleep, but agreed to the ridiculously early start, pulled in by Jerome's enthusiasm -- what are training partners for, if not to inspire one to train and brush aside excuses -- to get up when it would be easier to just turn off the alarm, roll over and go back to sleep? ... which, come to think of it, is exactly what Jerome had done. He awoke with his alarm at 3:30, despite having had a big office party with plenty to eat and drink, ... but promptly went back to bed. My 4:10 call to his mobile remedied the situation. And his delayed start meant that I was able to ride at a very relaxed pace until he caught up to me at the Seven Eleven near Y's about 20 km upriver.

We pressed on, taking the near-deserted roads, met Stephen Coady at 6:30 or so, just off of Yoshino-Kaido near the Ikusabata bridge over the Tamagawa, about 5~10 km west of Oume.

The long climb to Yanagisawa was uneventful, Tabayama-mura remarkable for the dense green of its hillsides at this time of year. The most frustrating part of this climb is the long stretch after Okutama-ko where, despite many little hills, almost no vertical progress is made. At 70 km into the ride, we had reached Okutama-ko and were at 530 meters elevation. At 90 km into the ride, we had attacked many little (30, 50, 75 meter elevation) hills, gone well up the river valley toward Yanagisawa Pass ... and were at 658 km elevation. Every little hill seemed followed by an equal descent. These hills are not "rollers". They turn upward suddenly, with an 8 or 10% (or 12%) grade for a short while. Jerome and I had suffered over these in the opposite direction, into a headwind, 3 weeks earlier.

Finally, the road turns upward for good, the gorge narrowing, the road passing through several tunnels, hugging a steep edge, and then switch-backing to get out the top of the gorge where it steepens (photo). Jerome had stayed back with Stephen at Okutama-ko, so I pushed on alone and was first to the top, with an excellent Touge Baka time of approximately 2:20 (approximate because I used a timer that paused when I stopped once for this photo and to scarf down a Winder gel, so I am assuming a 3 minute stop. I will list it at 2:22.12 on the Touge Baka records, just behind MOB's presumably accurate 2:22.11). In any event, this was the easiest climb up Yanagisawa I've ever done, and I recommend trying this long, dry climb early, before the midday heat.

Jerome joined me at the top for a serving of curried rice, followed eventually by Stephen. I was still in need of that extra hour or two of sleep, and put my head on the table. Soon after Jerome rolled in, a special surprise guest stopped by -- Tom S., having followed us (at his usual much faster pace) up to Yanagisawa. He still had many passes to go and was planning a route he could complete without taking the train home, also as usual, training for the Utsukushigahara hill climb. Nevertheless, he agreed to act as our guide to take us to the bottom of the climb to Odarumi Pass, as neither Jerome nor I had ever been there.

Stephen headed back for Oume, and Tom, Jerome and I descended to Enzan and the heat of the "Fruit Bowl" area. Tom led us up another slope out of town, and pointed out two roads -- the alternate routes up the first half of Odarumi. I chose the longer route and headed that way without waiting for debate, on the assumption it was less steep and based on Tom's assurance that it had some cold drink vending machines, etc., whereas the other route did not. This approach offered several advantages for Jerome, most importantly that he could blame me for the miserable heat and lack of shade on the lower stretches, as well as the nasty steep stretch (14% grade warning on the sign) just after the route turned into a forest road around 800~900 meters elevation, while at the same time getting the advantages of a less steep climb in the beastly heat of the lower stretches, and benefiting from the kindness of the motherly old lady who gave us snacks, route advice and let us rest in the shade outside her store as we consumed cold drinks from the store's vending machines. And of course, after we reached Yakeyama-Touge (burnt mountain pass!) and needed to DESCEND from 1535 to 1485 meters elevation to join the other route to the top, I had to admit the longer route did have that disadvantage, making us climb that 50 meters twice ... at least I admitted it until I saw on the descent that the shorter route ALSO involved one area where there was a dip/descent of nearly the same length (at the dam/lake around ~1400/1500 meters.

In any event, Jerome suffered on the lower slopes of the forest road section, and again briefly near the top. I suffered on the upper stretches, saved by a nearly flat section of a few kilometers around 1700-1800 meters elevation and a 10 minute eyes shut rest on the grassy shoulder of the road near the end of that section. Thereafter, the road turned up for a steady climb of 7-9% grade the last 600 meters of elevation gain. The cicadas (crickets?) were deafening and small butterflies (moths?) were everywhere up to around 1500 meters (maybe it was the butterflies/moths chirping away that made all the noise?). Then the woods became much quieter.

Helpful signposts told us how far we had left, and let me calculate that we had an approximate 7% grade on the remaining section. The view from near the top was spectacular, as the mountains near the pass are a craggy, looming presence. The weather on top part of the climb was perfect -- a cool breeze to refresh, but no need for extra clothing until we were ready for the descent. We each stepped off the paved road and over the border into Nagano Prefecture (for the Monday office talk "I rode to Nagano" sounds better than "I rode to Yamanashi").

The descent was ... fun! Not overly technical, with an excellent road surface, plenty of curves, very little traffic (I counted only 4 cars coming up the hill at us over the first 15 kms of the descent). And by the time we got to Enzan station for the train home, we had ridden almost 200 km and climbed at least 3800~3900 meters, and were done with our jumbo mountain training.