The Problem with Single Speeds and 29ers

Brian has had his Gary Fisher Rig for a year and eight months, while I’ve had mine for a year and two months. Since buying our Rigs, we’ve sold our other cross-country (fully geared, 26”) bikes, and are in the process of selling off our downhill bikes, too. We’ve become dedicated singlespeeders and 29” riders, and we love the little niche we’ve discovered. There is nothing more precious than the silence of a bike cutting through the mountains without shifters slipping and gears gnashing; nothing more beautiful than the simplicity of a handlebar uncluttered by shifter cables…

So then, what’s the problem? Well, since we’ve had our bikes, there’s really been nothing to buy for them. In the old days, we used to buy newer/better/lighter cranks, chain rings, rear cassettes, chains…all those things that suffer wear and tear from constant shifting. We would also frequently buy new tires, either because ours were worn out or the tires were on sale – now we are in such a small niche that 29” tires are a)rarely on sale, and b)hard to come by.

Our bikes are simply perfect. Simply. Perfect. There is nothing we need for them – our happy hours of browsing the bike shops has come to an end. My last purchase was a little bit of luxury – a Thomson Elite stem. Now, there is nothing I need. Nothing that Brian needs. Sometimes perfection can be painful. Brian has had his Gary Fisher Rig for a year and eight months, while I’ve had mine for a year and two months. Since buying our Rigs, we’ve sold our other cross-country (fully geared, 26”) bikes, and are in the process of selling off our downhill bikes, too. We’ve become dedicated singlespeeders and 29” riders, and we love the little niche we’ve discovered. There is nothing more precious than the silence of a bike cutting through the mountains without shifters slipping and gears gnashing; nothing more beautiful than the simplicity of a handlebar uncluttered by shifter cables…

So then, what’s the problem? Well, since we’ve had our bikes, there’s really been nothing to buy for them. In the old days, we used to buy newer/better/lighter cranks, chain rings, rear cassettes, chains…all those things that suffer wear and tear from constant shifting. We would also frequently buy new tires, either because ours were worn out or the tires were on sale – now we are in such a small niche that 29” tires are a)rarely on sale, and b)hard to come by.

Our bikes are simply perfect. Simply. Perfect. There is nothing we need for them – our happy hours of browsing the bike shops has come to an end. My last purchase was a little bit of luxury – a Thomson Elite stem. Now, there is nothing I need. Nothing that Brian needs. Sometimes perfection can be painful.

Better Blogging

Nearly a week has passed since our last post – we’ve been bad bloggers! Not that we have nothing to say, just too busy to say it.

And, um…ok, we also have nothing to say.

We’ve been extremely busy at work recently, while continuing to enjoy our remaining free time riding and going to the gym. I even found a new yoga studio just down the road from me (I’ve been once, and it’s pretty nice, though small).

We went for a great ride yesterday morning – the first and last ride of the weekend. We took our Rigs up to “the fireroad”, one of our favourite places to ride. The fireroad runs from Gotemba to Mishima along a ridge, horizontally between us and Hakone. It is not a main road at all; in fact, it’s not even much of a backroad. People going anywhere between Gotemba and Mishima (Susono is about mid-way) use any number of other, more direct and non-mountainous roads (the 246, the 394, etc). The fireroad has nothing to offer – no convenience stores, no gas stations, no towns, no homes, and a whole lot of curves. It’s very scenic, but it’s also the very long way around – so we very rarely see a car on this road.

To get there, we ride up the mountain until our “up the mountain” road meets with the fireroad; the ride up takes between 38 and 43 minutes usually, depending on our fitness that day. When we get to the top, we have the option of going left (toward Gotemba) or right (toward Mishima). With either choice, there are a lot of very fun options for coming back down to Susono, some of which are tricky trails complete with roots, rocks, slippery clay and over-large spiders.

Our ride yesterday was made more exciting by the bear warning sign that we rode past – the sign is new and looks temporary, so someone must have seen a bear around the area recently. The sign warned people to make noise, listen to their radios, and talk to each other a lot, and to contact the Susono City Hall if they saw a bear. Naturally, Brian and I remained whisper quiet on our single speeds, hoping for a sight of any wildlife at all. We were disappointed in such hopes, but we’ll venture into “bear country” again – maybe on a night ride this time!

Re-Reading Austen

I read. If it has letters, words - I voraciously digest it. Sometimes repeatedly.

I occasionally re-read several of my favourite books; but I regularly re-read two of my favourite authors - Ayn Rand and Jane Austen.

This week, I am spending my free minutes re-reading (for perhaps the 50th time), Pride and Prejudice. I made a purchase at Amazon.co.jp last week, and decided to throw into the order a new copy of the book, as the one that is sitting on my shelf is so well-thumbed as to be, well, unreadable!

Not that I am a traditionalist, but...I am a traditionalist. I haven't yet seen the 2005 movie (with Keira Knightly) of Pride and Prejudice; I may rent it sometime, but very few movie adaptations of my favourite novels have succeeded in my eyes (the BBC Pride and Prejudice I loved!).

Pride and Prejudice, as all of Austen's 6 full-length novels (which I also occasionally re-read), operates on many levels - social commentary, position of women in society, etc.; but when I re-read this favourite novel, I just love to laugh at the irony and to lose myself in the blissful ignorance of happy endings. I read the novel for the sheer pleasure of the story, and that is what I am enjoying now.

Well, back to the book - I wonder what's gonna happen next?

Shouben Kozou (小便小僧）

When you've been living somewhere for so long, you become acclimated - not just to the weather, of course, but to the environment as a whole. You cease to notice things sometimes...but every now and then, you DO notice, and life is good!

When we were riding the train through Hamamatsu-cho in Tokyo a few weeks ago, we just had to get a photo of the little "pissing boy" statue.



Apparently, the shouben kozou (pissing boy or cupid) is based on the famous statue in Brussels called the Manneken Pis. Either way, it's a pretty cute little statue and he turns up in unusual places...

Last weekend, on our way home from off-roading around Mt. Fuji, we had the good luck to make a wrong turn and find this tiny local fire-house, complete with a shouben kozou painted on the garage door:




I'm just thankful that the kozou is around to shouben on the fire!

Whose Space?

Space is really at a premium in Japan, where the cities (even a small one like Susono) are somewhat overcrowded and land is too costly to own. So it is really a little luxury to have a whole chunk of space just for oneself - and I am very happy to have it!

I've furnished "my space" with a little floor chair and small table, decorated with plants, and made it in all ways the perfect place to tune out the world and read a good book:

Autumn Driving

This weekend, we took my Mini exploring and off-roading around Mt. Fuji, before driving up to the Shin-Go-Go-Me (New Fifth Station), the trail head for climbing.

The Mini off-road:



Shizuoka prefecture, for the most part, is too mild to have the vibrant autumn colours. However, by driving a few hundred metres up the side of Mt. Fuji, we found some great coloration:

Autumn trees on Mt. Fuji:


Today, just a few hops from home, we also enjoyed the lovely scenes of harvested rice, drying in the autumn sun:

Photshop Elements 5.0

It’s here!

At the end of September, Adobe released its spiffy new Photoshop Elements version 5.0! I love my current version of Elements; I had tried using “big” Photoshop, which is the super powerful program used by professionals, but found it quite a bit over my head – so I spent most of my time with “little brother” PS Elements 4.0 instead. Elements has all the tools and creative capabilities that I need, and as I’ve become more familiar with it I’ve fallen more in love with this little powerhouse of a program. And now I’ve managed to get my very own copy of PSE 5.0!

I’ve only had about an hour of “play time” with it, but so far it rocks.

Some of the first differences I’ve noticed between version 4.0 and 5.0:

• The editing workspace seems to have more space dedicated to the photo and less to the toolbars – which is a real concern when you are working on a laptop!
• I also like that you can now drag a photo from the photo bin and place it into the active photo in the editing window, which is much handier if you are making a collage or pasting multiple photos into one document. This is especially useful for me, as I prefer to work in a single window and not the tiled layout.
• One of the more obvious differences is the wider range of creative options – like “themes” for photo layouts, which let the user make a very simple but elegant layout with just the click of the mouse.

Here is a little layout that I did in about two minutes:

• There are also more options for web galleries, and the ability to place your photos on a map.
  

I’m looking forward to spending more time getting to know my Elements five-point-oh!

BBQ Party

Monday’s BBQ was a great success! The day dawned warm and sunny with blue skies and a clear view of Mount Fuji. Our friends and neighbors gathered at Brian’s place to share beer and burgers and comfortable conversation. A nice way to wind up the long weekend, and a good substitute celebration for Thanksgiving (which was on Sunday in Canada).

A Week of Updates

We didn't do much last week except work and watch our auctions. Brian's Manitou fork sold well, but neither of our bikes received bids - so we're going to repost next week or so. Last week was a week of rain - every day, rain. Hard rain, soft rain, misty rain - always rain.

This weekend was a complete turnaround for the weather - clear skies and warm sunshine! We rode hard on Saturday, finally getting a view of the city and coast line (summer is too hazy for such a view):




We continued our ride, and investigated some trails we'd never tried before. Luckily, we were on bikes, not in an incapable van:



We did more riding on Sunday, checking out the progress of construction that destroyed one of our trails, and finding a way around it:




And the first clear view of Mt. Fuji in a while, too:




Apart from all the riding, we also caught up on household tasks and other things, including preparing for a BBQ party that's happening today!

Praying Mantis part deux

Just another update from the Beautiful Buggy Balcony of Brian and Tracy:



I luckily happened to catch this little Praydator late last night.

End of an Era - Farewell Downhill...

The downhill season has just about ended. Sad to say, neither Brian nor I have so much as tried on our downhill helmets or gear...

Busy weeks and busier weekends, combined with our desire to get our 29" single-speeds (our beautiful Gary Fisher Rigs) into the mountains left very little time to pack up our downhill gear and make the long (traffic-laden) trek Nagano.

So we made a difficult decision - we have just placed our downhill bikes (my red Santa Cruz Bullit (my Skype name) and Brian's GT DHi) on the Japan Yahoo Auction.

They're not exactly new bikes, but we hope to make a sale just the same.

Brian is also selling a Manitou Sherman Slider fork. Our auctions can be seen here:

My Santa Cruz Bullit:
http://page5.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/e62372415

Brian's GT DHi:
http://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/90802268

Brian's Fork:
http://page8.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/h40601688

With my newish interest in "digital scrapbooking"(an admittedly nerdy hobby) , I put this little memorial together: