Biking to Gifu

Well, it's Monday again and that means back to work for Brian and me (and as luck would have it, it is a gorgeous day - clear, blue skies and hot, summer temperatures!).

But! We had good weather and did some good riding to and around Okuhida in Gifu Prefecture.

We packed up our saddlebags, made sure the bikes were in good shape, and left for Okuhida at about 10 a.m. on Thursday morning. We had mapped out our route on all local and back roads, figuring that would be quieter and more scenic - and we were right! The ride was simply beautiful nearly all the way there.

I say 'nearly' because for the last 50km or so, we were riding in the cold, pouring rain. The weather started great in Shizuoka in the morning, but it was raining in the late afternoon in Gifu. Luckily, we were in tunnels for much of the time it was raining. The last 14km from the last tunnel to our minshuku was the worst rain of all - and of course it slowed to all but a trickle right after we checked in, soaking wet!

We spent the first night at a small minshuku that was rather out of town called Minami-so. It wasn't a bad place - we were happy just to have shelter from the rain, a hot bath and good dinner. However, it wasn't great either - we arrived much later than we expected to due to our late start and wandering route, and were given a musty, over-bug-sprayed room in a building separate from the main house. Enjoying the natural hotspring bath meant venturing out of our little building, in the rain, to the main building. And - they did not have a vending machine (though we did get two beers on the house!).


View To Gifu and back in a larger map

The town of Okuhida itself is a very nice onsen town with good scenery and nice baths, and after riding so much on Thursday, we decided to stay a second night in town. We got a tourist map, and called a couple of other local minshuku, and ended up staying at the Takada minshuku, right in the heart of Tochio town and within easy walking distance of the rushing river and public outdoor bath and foot-bath.

The Takada was more in line with what we've become accustomed to in terms of accommodation, and of course the food was great, too.

After enjoying some easy motorbiking around Gifu, and lots of relaxation, on Friday, we decided to head back to Susono early Saturday morning. We pulled out right after breakfast, and were on the road by 8 a.m. We planned to take the same route back, with the exception that we would take a mountain road instead of the long tunnel, since the weather was great, and later, we would take the Chuo expressway, to save time and cut through the traffic between Matsumoto and Suwa-Minami, in Nagano prefecture.

We did indeed take this route - but not without a few problems.... my motorcycle decided on that very morning to develop some kind of problem, probably in the carburetor somewhere, and it stalled whenever I stopped, and we couldn't get it started again.

We stopped at a lookout only 20km into our return journey, and then the bike simply wouldn't start again. Some fellow motorbikers also pulled over here, and soon were involved in trying to help us get the bike going. These Harley riders took apart my carb, and spent at least two hours trying to diagnose the problem. They finally just push started the bike, and declared that it was perhaps the altitude.


Once the bike was going, I had to make sure to keep the throttle open and the revs up, otherwise the bike would stall and not start again.

Many kilometers later, finally on the Chuo, we hit bumper to bumper traffic. As long as my bike was moving, it was fine, but idling was a big ordeal and tough to do, so imagine my misery, sitting at a stand-still in a long narrow tunnel on the expressway, revving my engine for all it was worth, praying that the bike wouldn't stall here, as there would be no way for me to push-start it in the middle of the friggin' tunnel!

Once out of the tunnel, I had to pull over, and of course, I stalled. Brian push-started for me, then we got back on the road, riding on the shoulder for a lot of the way in order to keep the bike moving.

I was thrilled to finally get off the freeway! At least on the local roads, if I had a break-down, I was in civilization - near enough to gas stations, restaurants, hotels and train stations!

Luckily, these were not necessary, and in fact, once we made it past Kofu, there was no traffic to speak of and we just raced on home, with the only 'danger' area of stalling being back in Susono when I had to stop for red lights.

Needless to say, we made it home in one piece, none the worse for wear!

(Some tuning and test riding yesterday tells me that there is something still very wrong with the bike, and I will take it to the shop tonight!).