I haven't done a whole lot of riding since last fall, and in particular over the last month or so have been beset on and off by a persistent throat infection, so I probably bit off more than I could chew with a 300km ride with Gorm, but while he's in town I want to take the opportunity for such epic adventures.

The ostensible goal of the ride was to visit a mountain area of Gifu Prefecture known as "Machu Picchu of Gifu", due to a view of it that calls to mind the famous Machu Picchu of Peru.

(I [...]

I've been testing a new cycling computer, a Bryton Rider 450. I was shocked to find out some information about its satellite-positioning features that isn't covered in the manual, so I'm sharing that info here.

As a bit of background, folks often use the "GPS" as a generic term for "satellite positioning system", but in reality, GPS is the specific satellite positioning system built and deployed (and offered as a gift to the world) by the United States of America. It used to be the only one, but now there are several. Russia has its unrelated GLONASS system, the European [...]

Today's post is a continuation of "SUPER FUN!! Cycling in Supertyphoon Jebi" and its followup, "Surveying Supertyphoon Jebi’s Damage North of Kyoto, Part 1".

At the end of the previous post, we'd come across a fallen utility pole, as we had a few times earlier....

The photo above is looking back toward where we'd come from, and in it there's a farmer leaning against a truck in front of his house. He'd told me that the road was not passable even by foot, but I'd dismissed it as an exaggeration. I shouldn't have.

What follows are a bunch of photos [...]

In my previous post, "SUPER FUN!! Cycling in Supertyphoon Jebi (2018 Typhoon #21)", I wrote about cycling while the biggest typhoon in 25 years approached Kyoto. The next day, with fine summer weather, I set off with Joshua Levine and John Chen to see how some of the mountain roads had fared.

Our concern was well founded, as seen in the incredible devastation by a typhoon a year ago ("2017’s Typhoon #21, Lan, was Quite the Doozy").

We headed out toward Kyomi Pass, on the same road that I'd been on the previous day as the typhoon approached....

This is [...]

Having grown up in Ohio with its summer thunderstorms, I like "dynamic" weather. I enjoy riding my bike in the rain, even if the rain is hard and the wind is blustery, so long as it's warm. If I know it's going to rain, I know I'll get wet and so I'll prepare accordingly, and I'll embrace the rain instead of try to avoid it.

This lack of fear of getting wet is apparently sufficiently rare that it makes me appear to be "crazy" in the eyes of many. Whatever. I enjoy it.

A "supertyphoon" was forecast to pass near [...]