Riding in the Rain

We spent this weekend mostly on the bikes - by which I mean motorbikes.

This year's rainy season has been persistent, insistent and consistent! Also, as we live at the base of Mt. Fuji, there is tons of fog hovering and obscuring visibility as soon as we get into the mountains; and of course, the mountain roads - though twisty, hilly, slippy, and foggy - are the best place for good riding, as it gets us out of the nasty city traffic. Which, by the way, is pretty intense with many insane drivers.

So, to put it simply, I'm learning to ride in some of the best conditions - conditions that will give me the skill to ride in anything!

The forecast on Saturday was calling for cloudy, with a bit of misty rain. That was not a problem, and looked like a good day to ride. We met our friend, another biker, at 8 a.m. and then went up to Kojiri Pass (see map below) and the Hakone Skyline. Usually the view from this point is gorgeous - Ashinoko lake, mountains, and the sprawling cities of Gotemba and Susono with Mt. Fuji in the background. This day, though, the forecast was (as it so often is) wrong. There was extremely heavy fog (no view) and medium heavy rain.

The plan had been to continue our ride through Hakone around the lake, then down Rt. 1 to Mishima, and home along the fireroad. The weather conditions made us change our mind, and head back down to the city. Brian suggested we go to Numazu and visit some bike shops, so that's what we did.

It was fun - but the return trip involved biking in extremely heavy traffic in extremely heavy rain.


On Sunday morning, I took the motorcycle out by myself just to get some practise and get comfortable with the bike on roads that I was already very familiar with. Of course, I managed to have a peaceful ride in the fog and (gentle) rain!






















After these two days of riding, two more small problems emerged: my speedometer stopped working (likely a broken cable) and my brake like remains engaged even when I'm not braking. Instead of looking online, ordering parts, then doing the work ourselves, I decided to just bring the Estrella (my bike) into a nearby shop called BGM. The guy there said he could get the parts and finish the bike by Friday! I'm looking forward to picking it up.

So, now I know that I can: power up switch-back twists in the mountains, ride in the fog when I can't see 3 metres in front of me, brake quickly on wet pavement, and handle high-speed traffic in the drenching rain. I'm looking forward to my first ride in the dry!