Pescarolo: A former 問題児 fixed again

Another bike project ready to be ridden: The Pescarolo. I bought this one by mistake last winter and parked it at my parents house for occasional rides. Finally I had the time to fix it.


Henri Pescarolo is the name of a French racer.You never heard of him? Well, that is because he used to be a car racer - attending 24 hours of LeMans a record 33 times - and not a bicycle racer. For some reason a bike in the early nineties was named after him. And for some other reasons I thought that this would be a fabulous Italian steel bike. 


Well after having now some experience with bikes I have to confess that this isn't a very good bike. Well it is size 54 cm which doesn't fit me at all. The frame is made out of Vitus 999 tubing, quality wise two notches up the standard of water pipes (say: Reynolds 501 or Columbus Aelle). Non butted, plain gauge. So the bike is pretty heavy with 11.1 kg.  The components are mostly Shimano Exage 300; this is the Nineties equivalent to Sora and Tiagra. From the stamping one can see that the bike was built in 1991. But I like the Biopace chain rings, as I had them on my first Panasonic racing bike and also the old, shining Alesa 913 rims are good looking things. The handle bar is from a now defunct German company called Friko. 


I completely de-assembled the bike with the exception of the headset and the bottom bracket as they were still in good shape, in order to clean the frame. That was one messy and filthy piece of heavy steel and it took me quite some time and massive amounts of brake cleaner to get the job done. The amount of brake cleaner used today has destroyed more of the ozone layers I would guess, that one can ever use this bike to make up for automotive traffic. Never mind. However, below all the filth was rust and it wasn't possible to get rid of that, neither to repaint the frame, so I left it as it was. Now I think that it has some nice patina which resembles the general state of affairs in the city of Bremen.

I then started working on a new handle bar tape (I ran out of orange bar tapes), new brake and shift wires (Jagwire) and replaced the aging brake pads with good Shimano new ones. 
I worked on the drive system and spend another spray can trying to clean the chain but it was impossible. In the end I threw it away and bought a new one. Then I worked on the drive system.

After cleaning the rims and greasing the bearings and trueing, I assembled everything without tires and started to adjust brakes and derailleurs. To give the bike some nice and individual touch, I added red end caps to all wires and one red chain ring screw. 

I had to make some additional purchases at Stadler bike shop in Bremen so I drove there and discovered some cheap tires and a cheap chain or replacement. I also found some nice toe clip straps, originally I had planned to use simple and plain platform pedals, but the original Shimano 600 pedals were still in good shape and with new white straps they look well.

After more cleaning and adjustments the bike was ready at 6 PM today and after making a short test ride, I invited my son to ride around the block.

Both of us are very pleased with the result. Henri however prefers his Giant bike with rapid fire shifters, mainly because he isn't used to use downtube shifters. I told him how to shift but he cannot remove his right hand from the handle bar for fear of falling, so he tried to shift the rear derailleur by using his left hand - which looked incredibly dangerous.

Today I had thousand more important things to do than to fix this bike. I also spend about 90 Euro on the original bike purchase plus another 90 Euro on components plus about 8 hours of time and it is rather unlikely that somebody will buy the bike for more than a 100 Euro in Bremen. But I immensely enjoyed the day, concentrating only on one task, working with my hands and my brain and having a perfect result of a day's work ready in the evening. Within half a year Iearned all this bike mechanic stuff and that is much more than I expected.

If you want to buy it: 200 Euro may be much but you will get a very solid bike with all consumables newly installed. There are also fixation points at the rear and in the front for mudguards, so the bike will bring you through bad weather as well.


It's now a nice bike. But with two Olmos coming back from the paintshop soon, I need some space in the garage to built up the next projects.

Laurent Depus at "Paris to London Bike Ride" Day 1

Laurent has updated me on his first day in the saddle on the Paris to London on bike ride.

"Day 1 - Paris to Beauvais (110kms)

As we got ready to start the Paris-to-London bikeride, the sky in Paris looked very, very dark and the weather forecast called for rain. Last year, we had managed to race the first stage and arrive only minutes before an incredibly fierce storm flooded roads (and houses), but this year it looked like we wouldn't be so lucky.

After the opening ceremony, introductory speeches and photo sessions with the nearly 250 riders, twelve teams + the group of one-day riders who would only do the Paris-Beauvais stage left in separate waves.

During the speeches, our collection got a special mention: we have raised over 55,000 euros so far out of a total 280,000 euros for the approximately 230 participants who raised funds. I was asked to say a few words and pointed out that we're still far from over: there are still donations on their way and there will also be the auction of the much-admired, beautiful NeilPryde Alize bike dressed in SG and Japan colours. "

For the full story head on over to my blog here.

It's not too late to donate and you can donate directly to Laurent here:

http://2011.paristolondonbikeride.com/laurentdepus2011

Rememberthe bike will be auctioned off at the end of the ride to raise more money for this amazing cause. For more information on the bike head here.

The Hoffsicle

Del Monte created a Hasselhoff-shaped popsicle for National Ice Cream Month. It’s called the Hoffsicle.

"Truly, we live in an age of wonders." via Neatorama

The Lost Weekend and Transharz V

The Lost Weekend is not only the title of an old Hollywood movie from the Forties that I never saw AND the title of a LP by the Monochrome Set that I never liked (because it was so much inferior to the predecessor "Eligible Bachelors") but also it wasn't a weekend that I lost: to be precise,  the last one. In total I rode more than 390 km on my bike.

89KM

Thursday was a national holiday "Ascension Day" in Germany, also known as "Father's Day". A more appropriate name would be "Tube Puncture Day" or "Father Annihilation Day", but I come to the point shortly. To understand the full context, I have to  first inform the readers of this international blog that do not know the customs of Northern Germany in detail.  Unlike people from other nations who gather in solid buildings that provide solid shelter, to drink substantial amounts of alcohol, people from Bremen prefer to walk through the countryside and drink beer, in particular during winter time. This custom is known as "Kohlfahrt" and large amounts of beer are required to endure the view of the rather dull countryside. Consequently, laked amounts of beer need to be transported and that is done by means of hand carts. A typical example of a hand cart is shown below.

The hand cart also functions as some kind of broom wagon in case one or more of the particpants lost their ability to walk during the process of the Kohlfahrt. In that unfortunate but rather common case, they can be stowed in the cart. So whether consumed already or not, the beer doesn't leave the hand cart for longer periods during the event.
 
During Father's Day large groups of Bremen's male population gather with or without hand carts at the embankment of the Wümme river and stroll along as far as they can get (about 37 meters). Unfortunately that was also the road I had selected for my Thursday ride. Within 17 meters riding on the road there my front tire exploded with a loud bang. I do not recall the number of glass shards I had to remove from the Schwalbe Ultremo ZYX tire, but the work was similar to that of a surgeon that removed the shrapnels of a hand grenade from the body of an injured soldier. Moreover the exchange tube that I had so thoughtful packed in my gear was pre-punctured so I rode back on my bike to my home rather slowly.

As it was already late, I didn't want to exchange the tube again, so I swapped my white Swiss DT front wheel with my high flanged Maillard hubs wheel from the Seventies, a rather odd choice for my modern looking Faggin bike. But which turned out to be fine.

And then I headed out again to the river Wümme, this time joining the embankment further up North hoping to bypass the mobile party. After passing a brawl that ended in some bloody noses, encountering a fair share of broken bottles along the road and seeing many drunks on bikes, with a beer bottle in one hand and a cigarette in the other, I finally arrived at a "normal" street with "normal" traffic. But before that I was offered a beating when I called one drunken guy that passed the road without looking an "Asshole" and two random bystanders took offense as they thought (and liked to thought as well) that I was talking to them. The mood was hot.

From there onwards riding was fun again. I made the usual tour through Wormswede, but I stayed in the 140 HRM range in order to built up some stamina. Unfortunately some fathers do not only think that getting drunk is a good idea, but also believe that driving home afterwards is an even better one. I almost witnessed a traffic accident just in front of me when one car overtook another one on the open road and the overtaken car suddenly decided to make a left turn (we ride on the right side of the road in Germany). Squeaking tires, the smell of burned rubber...but luckily nothing serious happened.

Anyway, that was a good and solid ride.

71 KM

Friday was a normal workday, so the remains of fathers were already removed from the roads when I started to ride around noon. Again the weather was beautiful and warm. This time I rode to Fischerhude first, then to Quellkhorn and in direction Worpswede before I made a left turn in direction Timmersloh. In the meantime I had repair my DT Swiss front wheel and I told Kaipi that I would join his spontaneous Harz Tour the next day. So I took it very easy again and returned via Timmersloh and through the fields and pastures to Fischerhude and Bremen. On one of the small agricultural roads towards Bremen, I encountered the larger version of the "Handwagen". That is a moving pub pulled by a tractor for those groups that expect that everybody will get drunk and nobody will be left to pull the hand cart. Two girls on horses where riding behind the trailer as well, as they were not able to overtake it.

But at one point, where the road was not fenced off on both sides, they took the opportunity, put spurs to their horses and galloped on the green sidestrip, overtaking trailer and tractor. The earth was shaking under the hooves of their horses. That was really impressive. Again I was home early after a much enjoyable ride.

170 KM

The next day I woke up early and met Kai at Bremen Station to catch the train to Hannover and Goslar at 7:19 AM. Since I haven't ridden in Japan for quite a while it was the first time that I got up that early for a bike tour. Germany is blessed in summer with daylight until 9:30 PM and later. I had met Kai the first time when we rode the Bremen Bike Marathon 210 km in May this year. He was able to hang out with the lead group until the end while I had to give up after about 130-140 km. He had posted on the clubs forum one day before, looking for riders to join his trip to the "Harz" and I had spontaneously said yes. Some hours later, when thinking the whole thing over, I realized that a) the Harz inlcudes some mountains and b) that I have sold my Cervelo bike some time ago and that I do only posses the Faggin bike for competitive riding (I have a large amount of bikes for non-competitive riding hidden in my garage as well). The Faggin bike however, has no front derailleur and only one chainring. Needless to say that it is not a compact crank but a standard one equipped with a 52 chain ring. Perfect for Bremen. Not so perfect for mountains. But as I had said yes already and I thought: "Hm, this will get hard but afterwards you can write a lot of nice stories about your stupidity" I decided to go along and join the Harz tour.

The most famous people I ever met were Günther Netzer (He was sitting in the seat in front of me in a Lufthansa plane) and Calle del Haye, a former soccer player of my home town club. In 1986 I was eating with my friend Peter and his girlfriend Kirsten at a restaurant in Aachen. We were placed with other guests along a long table and they were sitting on the other side of the table. Peter handed my a piece of paper on which he had written:

<----- CALLE DEL HAYE

I have to explain that Peter always made strange jokes, so I thought that would be another one. So after reading the note I said loudly "What's that fucking shit about this asshole Del Haye (at this time del Haye was playing for Fortuna Düsseldorf. He was the black sheep in a very poor team that was relegated at the end of the season)?" Peters eyes led me to my direct neighbor on the left. Needless to say, it was Calle del Haye and his wife.

Apart from that I almost met Verona Feldbusch in Japan after she visited the school of my kids.

But this is nothing against the kind of people that Kai was able to met in his life so far. Please have a close look at the below photo that was taken in 1983 during the blockade of the Mutlangen US base during the protests against nuclear weapon armament in Germany. 

Yes, this were the good old times during the cold war, where we had clear ideas who our enemies (US army) and who our friends (US army) were. Here we can see the late 1972 nobel laureate Heinrich Böll on the very left and later German prime minister candidate Oskar Lafontaine in typicial Rodin thinking posture. And guess who that good looking guy in white Addidas sport shorts in the background is? Right, this is Kai with his friends Peter, Andi and Siggi. Wow, that is something.

Kai used to grow up and live in Stuttgart but had moved to Bremen 20 years ago. Within this time period he was able to fairly adapt to the lifestyle and humour of Northern Germany, which provides a shining example of what I am supposed to do.

We jumped on the train that was fairly on time and we were joined by a group of young Nazi skinheads that were probably on their way to a different training camp in the area.(club name: "steel tempest").

When we arrived in Goslar memories from the cold war popped up in my head again. The area there used to be right on the border to former East Germany. In order to stop a possible rapid advance of Warsaw Pact tanks, the NATO decided in the fifties to built a formidable obstacle along the border line in form of an artificial mountain range that was codenamed "HARZ", an abbreviation for "Heartland Armed Resistance Zentre".  This shouldn't be mixed up with an obstacle against good taste called "Peter Hartz".

The construction activities continued for almost 40 years. Some of the obstacles were rather small in scale.

But others were rather big, so big that they were called "Großer Brocken" (eg. "Big Chunk") and reached 1.140 elevation meters.

Construction activities were stopped in 1990 after German reunification and what remains today of the whole area are the closest "mountains" to Bremen (only 2 hours or more away) and a population that is mostly drunk and enjoys mining tunnels.

Kai and me rode all days through the Harz. We rode up, he with his compact crank and me with the 52/28 setup. We rode down on long descents, reaching more than 70 km/hr. We rode on roads and we rode on gravel roads. We had some cakes in a cafe and some more food at a gas stand but otherwise we didn't took any long breaks and rode our bikes. It was very intense. I had about one hour more riding time than Kai at the end of the day as he had to wait fequently on top of the mountains for me to arrive. I didn't gave up on any climbs but it was hard to turn the crank. So I crunched my way up on the slopes by brute force.

Kai and me in front of the traditional Harz photo spot (since 2011)

In order to spread fear and respect in the Harz area I decided to wear my original Japanese Champion 2008 jersey from the JCRC. At least I was much impressed by myself.
But I doubt that any of the many, many motorbike riders noticed anything. They are so annoying, a real pest.

I tried to expain to Kai that my bike has a gold chain, gold jockey wheels, gold chain ring screws and other gold accessories as a homage to Rene Weller, one of the coolest guys in the universe.

1 Rene Weller, also known as "Handsome Rene", wasn't only a very successful boxer, pimp, and con artist. No he was also a fantastic singer almost as good as David Hasselhoff. And he has once said something really cool and intelligent, something that is so beautiful in style that i can only be said in German:

"Ich bin immer oben. Und wenn ich unten bin ist unten oben."


170 km and more than 2.200 levation meter later we were back in the train to Bremen where we arrived after a long day at 10:30 PM. Out of the 15:30 hrs we had spend more than 5 hours in the train, about 8 hrs on the bike and the rest was breaks and waiting. Proving the weather is good, we will do it again next weekend.

61 KM

On Sunday after receiving Harz V I could hardly move and I wasn't at all in the mood to ride my bike. However, I had an appointment with my former girlfriend MFG0006. Just like the musical pieces of Johann Sebastian Bach are numbered from BWV0001 to BWV1128 (Bach Works Register) I decided to code former girlfriends by MFG numbers (My Former Girlfriend). As MFG0014 became my wife, the usage of three leading zeros seems to be a bit optimistic. But hey, one has to be prepared for the exciting things that might happen in one's life. Look at Lemmy from Motorhead for example.

After separating 26 years ago in Düsseldorf, MFG0006, also known as "Jutta" has decided to settle, among all place, in Bramstedt, which is somewhat close to Bremen. To be precise it is between Bassum and Syke. She had invited my for strawberry tart so I rode the 30 km down to Bramstedt in the heat. It was almost too hot to sit outside.  5 hours later I was on the road again riding home with the additional weight of strawberries in my stomach.
Time for a nice Rollo, I thought. This was really a very intensive weekend that was made possible by my family deciding to stay in Berlin and focus on figure skating. One more time and I shall be on good shape for the Transalp. So watch out for Transharz VI.

NYC rider ticketed for Riding Not in the Bike Lane

Enjoyed this video ... and wish we had some bike lanes in Tokyo so that it was even an option to ride in the bike lane ....

Monster Ride

Near Fujino, after Bijotani

Well, on Saturday I stayed close to town as planned, and rode Onekansen, N. side of Tsukui, then climbed Bijotani, the Uenohara golf course hills, up to Kobu Tunnel, down the Akigawa and home again.  145 km and about 1750 meters of elevation.  The GPS is here.

The weather was gorgeous, even a bit on the hot side.

My legs were tired from the start -- probably the result of commuting on the Powercranks last week.  They really do make my commute into a bit of a training exercise, even without trying much to push the pace.

Tsukui-ko, North Shore -- lots of green in June

The golf course hills -- I last stopped here with Jerome and Didier in winter

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Sunday I caught the very early train to Enzan, was on the bicycle a little after 8AM, and climbed!

I made a rookie mistake while waiting to change trains at Nagatsuda, and drank a bottle of "Lemon Water" from the vending machine, different than what I normally drink when I ride.  I compounded the error by getting some food I usually don't eat at the 7-11 en route to the base of the climb in Enzan.  Something did not agree with my stomach, and the next few hours were not comfortable, and my time was noticeably slower than when I did this with MOB in 2009. 

Still, other than a toilet break at the public facilities at the Crystal Line turn off for Yakiyama, at least I did not have any problem climbing, and made it without a "foot down".  Odarumi itself is only 36 km from Enzan, but 1950 meters elevation gain -- about like the Stelvio, but with some flat sections that allow you to catch your breath. The Stelvio is relentless. Odarumi relents, a bit, with the dip in the road at the dam on the Kotogawa, around 1500 meters elev just befroe the Cyrstal Line turn off, and again for a long stretch through a highland at between 1700-1800 meters elev.)

At Odarumi, with two of the waiting taxi drivers (a third took the photo).  They ferry the hikers up and back from Enzan station.  The road opened to traffic on June 1 this year.

 I saw one group of 5 or 6 road cyclists who were descending as I climbed.  And on the lower slopes I blew by two riders, on a hybrid and a folding bike, ... but otherwise, no roadies at all on Odarumi (or pretty much anywhere else on Sunday).

At the top, I had vegetable curry at the Odarumi Hut -- a little way up the hill from the pass, close enough so I could wheel my bike there.  When I finished, the sky was ominous.  As I left the parking lot for the descent (with vest and arm covers on now), I could see what looked like rain clouds BELOW me.  With no real rain gear, I feared a cold, wet descent and an early train ride home.

Fortunately, when I got to the Yakiyama/Crystal Line turn off, no rain had fallen and it was a lot warmer, 800 or 900 meters lower, and my stomach was no longer churning, so I pushed on.

The Crystal Line -- mile after mile of roads like this -- high enough to be cool in summer ...

I climbed up to Yakiyama Pass, then up to quite nice Otome Kogen (Otome Highland), back up over 1700 meters, then descended to about 1150 meters, where the road crosses a river called the Arakawa (... which seems to be flowing South toward Kofu, and so cannot be THE Arakawa).  On the descent, I was in haze, almost mist, and low clouds, with Gunma-like rock formations visible across a gulch.

View from the Crystal Line -- a Gunma-like crag

Then it was another climb back up to 1700 meters, to Tokusa Pass, then down again toward the road to Shiokawa Dam ... but at 1325 meters elevation, I veered away from the downhill and stayed on the Crystal Line, climbed again, up to 1525 meteres, to the entrance to the hike to Kanayama Kogen.  There was a nice cafe/restaurant, with hikers sitting outside on a deck, and I consulted a waiting bus driver briefly about distances and elevations.

... then I pressed on.  I had been riding for 7 hours, but only covered 80 km (about 50 miles).  Then again, I had climbed over 3000 meters - about 10,000 feet.

Finally, Nagano -- fast stretch ahead

So it was down again, 300 meters, fast on a wide clear road, then a climb up to Shinshu Pass, almost 300 meters up, then down into Kawakami mura.  We had passed there on last October's Brevet -- I remember hearing more Chinese than Japanese spoken at the supermarket, reflecting the many migrant or immigrant farm workers.

I hit 75 kph without trying on the straightaway descent into Kawakami mura and, lacking maps, dipped too far down into the town and so added another 125 meter climb up to Route 140, then followed Rte 2  and Rte 140 to Sakudaira for the train home.  As with Tokyo-Itoigawa, at least I felt like I had some left "in the tank" on the last stretch.  Over 3550 meters climbing in a 145 km ride.  Not quite as much as the monster I had hoped for, but perfect all things considered.  GPS is here.


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Beautiful weather predicted for this weekend, partly sunny, highs in the mid 20s (C).  And still 3 weeks left before Transalp, so time to go all out climbing ... all out, that is, subject to family and work. 

If I can get to sleep early tonight, I'll ride early both days, plan for a two-thirds day Saturday, a full day on Sunday, and go alone unless anyone wants to tag along (just let me know).  Jerome is planning to do another 600 km Brevet in Kansai with Yutaka -- spectacular course around Wakayama and Mie Prefectues, the Kii Peninsula, Ise, etc.
On Saturday I will stick relatively close to town -- one or more of Wada Pass, Kobu Tunnel, Tsuru Pass and/or Kazahari Pass, Imagawa Pass -- not all of them but at least some combination.

On Sunday, I need to get onto bigger hills.  If I can get a very early start and hop the train from Tachikawa to Otsuki or Sasago, then I might try this: 

-Sasago Pass,
-Kamihikawa Pass,
-Odarumi Pass, lower half (to Yakiyama Pass),
-then new territory for me, another pass along or near the "Crystal Line" over to Shiokawa Dam,
-then up over Shinshu Pass, down into Kawakami
- ... then I would be in the middle of nowhere and head North down the valley to Sakudaira to hop the Nagano shinkansen home,

Or, after Kawakami, I could add Umagoe Pass (Nagano Rte 2) before the long descent down to Sakudaira.

Or loop back South over through Nobeyama and Kiyosato and down toward Kofu for the train home from there. 

Or maybe I can skip Sasago and/or Kamihikawa, and instead get all the way up to the top of Odarumi, or  tack something else onto the end (Mugikusa Pass via Rte 299)?

The possibilities are almost endless. 

A return from Sakudaira via shinkansen is probably faster than return from Kofu via Chuo Line.

Reconstruction - Miyagi

A rainy weekend in Tokyo, the usual rainy season plus a typhoon thrown into the mix, moving up the Pacific coast of Honshu from the West and expected to pass just South of the tip of Izu on Monday morning.  (No Memorial Day or bank holiday here in Japan -- work as usual on Monday).


That pile of junk in the foreground represents the fruits of our labor -- cleared from a wide area and ready to be hauled away.


At least the weather forecast (now proving accurate, for once) meant that I would not miss much of a cycling opportunity by joining one of my office's volunteer trips to Tohoku.

Watari-cho: North of Soma,
South of Iwanuma,
Route 6 runs through it

Our group left from central Tokyo around midnight Friday, went by bus to Watari-cho in Miyagi Prefecture -- a farming town about 80-90 km North of the troubled, leaky Fukushima nukes.

Watari-cho is on the wide, flat plain to the East and South of Sendai.  Here the tsunami did not have the drama of some hilly valleys to the North where it built up to 30+ meters as it entered a bay like water into a funnel and destroyed everything in its path.  Rather, the waves spilled out over the vast plain, coming inland much farther than anyone would have thought possible, over 2 kilometers here, and destroyed mostly houses, cars, smaller buildings, and green houses, leaving massive garbage piles in its wake.

We arrived very early in Miyagi.  The center that manages volunteers does not open until 8AM, so after a break at a (fully stocked and functioning) Seven Eleven convenience store our bus driver swung around and drove through some of the nearby tsunami-damaged area, though we stayed about one kilometer inland.  I felt a bit like a "disaster area tourist". 

A vast plain, mostly farmland, strewn with lots and lots of junk.

Houses survive -- no damage on the second floor, but the ground floor must be completely rebuilt.

A former convenience store, stripped of its branding, and just about everything else, down to the bones.
Note the huge pile of junk that has been gathered to the left rear, 4-5 meters tall and wide as a football field.

A real mix -- some houses look like new again, but many are not yet restored or even cleared.

After the bus tour, it was still well before 7AM when we got to the center.  At least in Tohoku Saturday morning was still dry and cool, but not cold, so I could use my Brevet survival skills, get out of the bus and lie down on a flat hard surface near the entrance to a building with my rucksack as a pillow and sleep for awhile.  This was much more comfortable than sleeping in a bus full of people.

Once you get beyond the tsunami damage -- everything
looks normal -- except for the energy conservation efforts

The Watari-cho volunteer center is a fairly impressive and large clean-up operation, with very large supplies of wheelbarrows, shovels, pitch forks, metal rakes, boots, gloves, goggles, etc. being checked out, mostly to smaller groups of 4-5 volunteers -- sometimes several couples together, sometimes groups of friends from a workplace or neighborhood -- and with license plates from Omiya and Tsuchiura (Saitama), Yamanashi, Utsunomiya (Tochigi) and elsewhere.  It was buzzing with purposeful activity by 8:15AM, and again when we passed through around 4PM. I did not see any other groups of 20 or more (at least none arriving by bus) here, but saw others at the rest areas on the expressway, heading to other towns.

Next door was a large building where food and other supplies were being stored for people who had lost their houses -- stacked up almost like a Costco.  And across the street, almost unnoticed behind a high chain link fence, was a large parking lot where row upon row of beige temporary housing (ka-setsu jutaku) had been built.   This temporary housing was right in the middle of town, right across from the supplies and close to friends and neighbors for anyone from the area -- and so does not obviously suffer from the problems that have been reported in the media -- temporary housing build in inconvenient locations, far away from the refuge centers where elderly get support from their longtime friends and neighbors, support that disappears if they win the "lottery" and move to temporary housing.

While there was, inevitably, some waiting around for the volunteer center to open, and more waiting at the end of the day for someone to come pick up the tools at our work site, there was no extra speechifying, no briefing or other nonsense.  We quickly loaded our tools into a minivan and our bus followed the minivan and driver to our work locations, half our group to work at one house, the rest of us going to a second.   We worked on site from 9AM until around 3:30, with a break for lunch.

My group was assigned to work at a farm house where the "new" house was still standing while the "old" house had been totaled/destroyed by the tsunami.  The other group finished their job quickly and walked over to join us for lunch and the afternoon session.

The cleaned up foundation on the right half of the photo, the fields being cleaned up beyond and toward the left.  Water logged once-and-future rice patties both to the far right and way back were far beyond our efforts, the bog hiding more of all kinds of ... junk.

We were to clean up the ground around the foundation of the "old" house and the adjacent fields.  There was all kinds of junk, on the surface and buried 15-30 centimeters or more.  We cleared broken roof ceramic tiles (kawara), cement blocks, lots and lots of glass of all sizes, random pieces of metal, plastic, lots of wood, deteriorating clothing, and all kinds of other stuff -- I found one cellphone, a few intact water glasses, some pots and pans, even some greeting cards.  The master farmer (age 60) said that they had been at home during the earthquake and saw the tsunami warning on TV.  He had thought "we should be okay this far inland", but his elderly mom insisted, 「逃げろ」 ("let's flee") so they hopped in the car and drove to visit friends on higher ground.  (Their other 4 vehicles were lost to the waters, along with the "old" house).  They said that just about every nearby house older than 15 years had been carried away, and the only the newer ones remained -- each of which had flood damage up to a level at least 2 or 2.5 meters above the ground.


Before

The family were very appreciative of our efforts.  By the end of the day, the farmer's wife asked us if any of my younger, Japanese colleagues were single, and started talking up the charms of her 29-year old daughter (who was not around, perhaps off living in the city like their son who, I was told, once did a homestay in Delaware).  I almost wanted to give a speech about America being a "tomodachi" of Japan.

Then it was back to the volunteer center, a quick stop at a day-trip hot spring to clean up and soak the muscles a bit, before getting back on the Tohoku Expressway, another quick stop for dinner, and back to Tokyo around 11PM.




After - the junk is gone



More after - we pack up to head out.

There is still a lot of work to do, but Watari-cho is well on its way to recovery.  And even though there may be another big tsunami here in 10, 50, or 500 years, I really don't see any reason why people would not rebuild and keep on farming the same land.  This plain is perfect for the lower density mix of farm and communities -- rice patties, strawberry, vegetable and potato fields.  And given the warning systems, and the ample time to escape for those who pay heed, the risk of a tsunami here should not be so different than the risk of floods suffered by communities near the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers in the U.S.A.  At least that will be the case until everyone who remembers the tsunami of 2011 passes away, and their descendants again assume "we should be okay this far inland".

Still more work to be done ...

Cycle Blog of the Year

Loving the bike dot com has started the vote for the best cycling blogs in 2011, the 2011 crank honors. 


Can we vote en masse to promote the Positivo Espresso blog perhaps? You can vote once a day until June 1st. Check the "Vote for best ROAD cycling box and write "Positivo Epresso" in the box at the very end. We deserve it.

Before the endomorp;hins kicked in...

I also checked out the nominated blogs from all categories. Some of them I know like Fat Cyclist (not what it used to be), Bike Snob NYC (surprinsingly no surprises), La Gazetta della Bici (oily) and Fyxotomatosis (for the asthetics). One I didn't know and which I find outstanding is:


 THE SECRET DIARY OF AN APPRENTICE CYCLING RACER


The first thing I read when the apprentice wrote about racing on the weekend was:


"Another day, another disappointment.  There’s not much use in over-analysing it here, the answer comes down to three simple words: Not. Good. Enough.

Unfortunately it’s now abundantly clear that cycle racing can join the long list of sports (football, snooker, cricket, squash, tennis, skateboarding) in which I’ve mined a shallow seam of mediocrity before reverting inexorably to clunking ineptitude."

I haven`t stopped laughing since.. He provides a viewpoint of cycle races attendance I have always looked for (nihilistic) with an excellent writing style. Somebody who writes....


"It quickly became clear that my mind had written a cheque that my legs couldn’t possibly cash…my speed dropped to 27…then 25…then 23…then the first rider from the bunch headed me as we neared the spectator area. "

.... can't be a bad guy. So please vote for him if you don't for PE.

NeilPryde sponsor Laurent Depus at "Paris to London Bike Ride"

After the Earthquake and Tsunami that devastated the North East of the country back on March 11th, 2011, like many people I felt frustrated and helpless after the event and really wanted to do something that would make a difference. I got involved with JEARS (Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support) and adopted a 3 year old beagle, I got involved with the group Second Harvest but still I wanted to do more.

When I found out that my friend Laurent was raising money and awareness for the victims of the Earthquake by riding the Paris – London Bike Ride I decided I would do what I could to help, having lost my job recently monetary donations were out of the question, I had basically become a victim myself as the company I worked for collapsed due to the loss of revenue.

So I decided I would do the next best thing.... use my network in the cycling industry to see if they could help.

I sent out individual mails and literally within 5 minutes Mike Pryde of NeilPryde bikes came back asking what he could do to help and support Laurent.

So I’m very proud to announce the NeilPryde sponsorship of Laurent Depus at the "Paris to London Bike Ride" charity event, which is a sporting and charity challenge organized by Société Générale, Laurent will be sponsored with an Alize frameset.

The event will take place from 16 June to 18 June in 3 stages:
16 June: La Défense - Beauvais (88km / 55 miles)
17 June: Beauvais - Dieppe (108km / 68 miles), Dieppe - Newhaven in ferry - Night in Newhaven
18 June: Newhaven - London (109km / 68 miles)

With 305 km to ride, the Paris to London is a sporting challenge, but also a solidarity event: each participant agrees to raise at least 750 € of online donations to help fund the CARE programs for access to education in Bangladesh and, in Laurent's case, for the victims of the terrible earthquake in Japan.

Please follow the link to read Mike Pryde’s very touching response as to why he is sponsoring Laurent and the people of Japan, here.



The frame will be auctioned off atthe end of the ride!



Haute Route Launches 2011

I just got an email invitation for another Cyclo Sportive -- the Haute Route -- 7 days from Geneve to Nice.  It is a first time event in 2011.

It looks like "Transalp Lite" --  17000 meters climbing and 730 km.  So about 2500 meters elevation and 200 km distance less than Transalp this year.

Then again, Day 4 is an uphill TT -- so that explains some of the shorter length. ... maybe "Transalp Lite" is a bit harsh.

A much snazzier website, and they offer a "comfort package" and a "premium package" for accommodations.  But no "Camp" option!  No breakfast included in the price.

No pasta parties. ...  Wait a minute, yes, there are pasta parties, just like Transalp.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

And looks like it conflicts with Paris-Brest-Paris this year.

But perhaps worth trying some year?  Maybe when we are too old for Transalp.  Too weak for Transalp.  When we no longer ride among the hard men of cycling.

Then we can try the "Haute Route" and stay in some nice hotels?