The Beauty of the Solo Ride

As surely you all know, we both ride single-speed mountain bikes, and have been for several years now. Even in this mountainous terrain, I have not yearned for gears (well, okay, perhaps in my weakest moments while slogging up a 15% hill...).

The single-speed is simple and pure. There are no complications, no noise of a dérailleur rattling, no jumping chain. And the look, too, is pure and purely beautiful - no excess cables, no mess of wires. I even had Joel (from Clockwork Bikes) provide internal routing on my custom frame...

Check-out the internal routing:


The only thing more beautiful and pure than riding a single-speed is riding it alone. Two mornings in a row I got out for a solo ride, up into the mountains around Susono*.

On both rides, I realized that I may have lost my 'riding legs', since getting up a once-easy hill was agony. I also remembered what it was to be alone with the bike.

• You can get off and push the bike whenever you want to


• You don't have to stop for a break if you don't want to


• You hear the wind in the trees and your own heavy breathing, not that of your riding partner


• At the top of the hill, you are free to enjoy the victory, a solo victory, in peace and contentment


• Best of all, you just get to be. Just Be.

*Note: The kanji for Susono - ??- actually translates to "skirt" or "foothill" of the mountain. We are the foothill of Mt. Fuji.

Under Construction

January is the coldest month in Shizuoka prefecture, but so far we've had downright springy weather. The days are getting longer of course, but that phenomenon is usually masked by clouds, cold and rain; this year the lengthening is obvious because of the dry sunny weather and the warmer temps. In Japanese custom, our doors and windows are thrown open for the morning hours to allow the exchange of air and to let in the warming sunlight no matter how cold it is outside, and so far we haven't cheated at all, allowing accurate notice of each sunrise.

Last weekend's visit to the local shrine yielded my own photo of the lantern, which I hoped to show an extended dynamic range using a program called Photomatix (from a single RAW exposure). The forest is still green, and this is almost 500 meters above sea level:




















After that visit we took a tight rocky track up the mountain and over to the next prefecture's border (Kanagawa). Tracy was driving and had some fun driving her jeep in 4wd-low range, creeping over ruts and rocks the whole way. The waterfall we found halfway up was beautiful, but it didn't photograph well, so I won't share it here; maybe Tracy caught a better pic.

I have been resting my legs, particularly my knee, after self-diagnosing anserine bursitis:




















I think I seized the holiday break's riding opportunities too hard, and really overdid it. It's been three weeks without riding and two of barely leaving the house (because of the 3 flights of stairs!), but it is getting better now. Inspiration to heal completely before trying again came in the form of an update from the builder making my custom bike frame... a few pix of the progress, this shot revealing the breezer-style rear dropouts (original patent held by the Wright Brothers) and the internal cable routing on the top tube:















I don't know the ETA yet, but I plan to be 'ready to ride' when it does!