Nikon D700 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — ¹/2000 sec, f/2.2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Just Another Day at the Office
would rob us of this experience
— Joshua Levine rides through the countryside of Miyama, Japan —
taken while riding at 9 kph (6 mph)

A week ago, I did a nice long bicycle ride in the mountains north of Kyoto (route and data). Manseki Kanemitsu and I tagged along with Joshua Levine on a route that he does often.

It totaled out at 131km (81 miles), making it my longest ride so far.

Nikon D700 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — ¹/5000 sec, f/1.4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Ready to Roll

The route took us up the mountain toward Hanase Pass (花背峠), a 500m (1,650') climb that holds a special place in my heart as my first real mountain climb, and every time I've done it since I've done it faster than the previous time.

That would not happen this time, as we paused before the pass at a natural spring where I sometimes see folks filling up water jugs.

Nikon D700 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — ¹/1250 sec, f/1.4, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Fill'er Up

Josh mentioned early on that we'd stop here, so I somewhat slacked off the whole climb knowing the pause would kill the time-to-the-top measurement. So later when I checked the data for the climb, I was shocked to realize that had I not stopped, I would have easily broken my record.

Part of the attraction of cycling is the joy of seeing and discovering the countryside at a slower pace, but also part of it is the feeling of accomplishment I get when I make a new PR (personal record) on a section of mountain. It's quite superficial, I know, but I was inept at physical activity for the first 47 years of my life, so I'm simply amazed that I can now do some of these things. If someone else does it, I think “well sure, because they're normal people in good shape and it's natural for them”, but for me, it's like a dog making scrambled eggs: it's not the accomplishment itself so much as who's doing it.

Anyway, we went down the other side of the mountain, past Cowbell, and farther north until eventually we got to a road I'd never been on. It's always nice to ride a road for the first time, and since Joshua was leading, I didn't need to pay attention to the route at all. It was nice.

I finally had to stop and pull the camera out when we passed a rice field being planted completely by hand. I would have loved a lens with more reach, but this is what I got:

Nikon D700 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — ¹/1250 sec, f/6.3, ISO 2200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Rice Planting, Old-School Style

It's a bit hard to see what's going on, but the adults are in the paddy planting rice seedlings one by one, and the kids are penned off under the tent to the right.

Two of the adults have infants strapped to their back.

The road eventually worked its way back up to another climb, this time toward Sasari Pass (佐々里峠).

Nikon D700 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — ¹/1250 sec, f/6.3, ISO 4000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Steep Section
10:14am - taken while riding at 7 kph (4 mph)

Nikon D700 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — ¹/1250 sec, f/6.3, ISO 1800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Flying By

Josh showed me a spot to stop and photograph a wonderful vista, but the photos didn't end up well. I'll just have to go back and try it again.

Cresting the 735m pass earns you a long, lovely downhill. It was a bit dicey at times trying to juggle the camera, brakes, and steering while plummeting down the mountain, but I wanted photos showing the lean of the bike in a curve....

Nikon D700 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — ¹/1250 sec, f/4, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
taken while riding at 24 kph (15 mph)

Nikon D700 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — ¹/1250 sec, f/4, ISO 1800 — map & image data — nearby photos
taken while riding at 30 kph (19 mph)

Nikon D700 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — ¹/1250 sec, f/4, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
taken while riding at 31 kph (19 mph)

Nikon D700 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — ¹/1250 sec, f/4, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Takin' it Easy
taken while riding at 19 kph (12 mph)

Nikon D700 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — ¹/1250 sec, f/4, ISO 900 — map & image data — nearby photos
The Breakaway
10:48am - taken while riding at 35 kph (22 mph)

After the descent the road mostly flattened out for a long while, and Josh stepped on the gas a bit. Manseki noticed this and kept up, refusing to be left behind, drafting just inches behind Josh's rear wheel. I was slow to notice, and even if I had, I wouldn't have been able to keep up.

Josh just kept going faster, and Manseki just kept staying right with him. Two minutes later they were almost out of sight...

Nikon D700 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — ¹/1250 sec, f/4, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
10:50am - taken while riding at 35 kph (22 mph)

... and half a minute later they went around a curve, and I'd not see them again until they stopped 10 minutes later.

Nikon D700 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — ¹/1250 sec, f/4, ISO 560 — map & image data — nearby photos
Bye-Bye...
10:51am - taken while riding at 34 kph (21 mph)

Nikon D700 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — ¹/1250 sec, f/4, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Cornucopia of Architectural Styles
11:01am - taken while riding at 16 kph (10 mph)

Nikon D700 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — ¹/1250 sec, f/4, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
Friendly Wave
there were a lot of cyclists out that day
11:03am - taken while riding at 32 kph (20 mph)

Nikon D700 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — ¹/1250 sec, f/4, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Fixing a Flat
11:03am - taken while riding at 33 kph (21 mph)

Nikon D700 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — ¹/1250 sec, f/4, ISO 360 — map & image data — nearby photos
Drafting
11:07am - taken while riding at 30 kph (19 mph)

I tried drafting with them for a while, but especially with my long history as a driver (car and motorcycle), I felt uncomfortable with so little time buffer in front. I understand why professionals do it, but I'm not a professional. Perhaps I'll try again after I get a suitable amount of experience (and after I put the camera down 😉 ).

Nikon D700 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — ¹/1250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Miyama Japan

We rode through the quaint village of Miyama (美山), which reminded me of Gokayama and Shirakawago, all three being villages with a lot of old thatched-roof houses.

Nikon D700 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — ¹/1250 sec, f/2.2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Pretty Streetsign

We continued on for another 15 minutes before stopping for food.

Nikon D700 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — ¹/3200 sec, f/2.2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Shortcut
that didn't work out

Nikon D700 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — ¹/8000 sec, f/1.6, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Well-Earned Treat

By this time we'd traveled only 72km (45mi) with only 1,200m (4,000') of climb, but I was wiped out. Bad calorie-intake management (I didn't eat enough) combined with trying to keep up with them left me drained. So I was happy to stop for food, drink, and rest. And ice cream.

It was a good lesson, and it prepared me for the much harder ride that I did a few days later (“A Day of Vertical-Climb Cycling Torture in Western Kyoto”). That ride was harder and on a day with much more heat, but having learned my lesson about making sure to have enough calories throughout the ride, that tougher ride ended up feeling much easier than this one.

Nikon D700 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — ¹/5000 sec, f/1.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Time To Get Going Again

Nikon D700 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — ¹/3200 sec, f/1.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Picturesque Stacking Style
12:11pm - taken while riding at 32 kph (20 mph)

Nikon D700 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — ¹/2500 sec, f/1.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Picturesque Scenery
12:11pm - taken while riding at 33 kph (20 mph)

Nikon D700 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — ¹/5000 sec, f/1.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Really Steep
the uniformity of the farmed trees really exposes how steep the mountain is
12:12pm - taken while riding at 36 kph (22 mph)

Nikon D700 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — ¹/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
More Curves
more butt pictures
12:14pm - taken while riding at 33 kph (21 mph)

Nikon D700 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — ¹/2000 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Taking the Road Less Traveled
12:26pm - taken while riding at 11 kph (7 mph)

We didn't want to go through the tunnel, and did want to have more climb, so we tried an alternate route. It did not disappoint.

Continued here...

My birthday was in April, so in the “Happy Birthday To Me” spirit, I'll consider anything interesting I've acquired in the last few months a birthday present to myself. Much of it is related to cycling, which I've been getting into.

Anyway, here are some mini reviews on some of the stuff, in case others' find any of it useful...

Apple iPhone 6+ My old iPhone 4s was feeling old. I replaced the battery in March, but it still couldn't hold a charge, so I thought it was a good time to upgrade. The 6+ has been really useful on bike rides, with a screen big enough to actually see maps, a battery big enough to last most of the day, and a barometric barometer (that is as of yet, unfortunately, underutilized by trail-logging apps). I'm pleased with the size, and it feels good in the hand. I just wish that the sleep/awake button didn't have buttons opposing it on the other side of the phone, since that makes it hard to squeeze with one hand (I keep also squeezing the volume buttons). Apple Pay isn't used in Japan, so I don't get any benefit from that. The unlock-with-your-thumb thing is amazingly useful, much more so than I expected (I registered both thumbs), and now I find that I keep trying to unlock my iPad that way. The camera sucks, though. I've cracked the screen only once so far.

Aukey AIPower 20Ah USB Power Brick I wanted to be able to charge my phone, iPad, and other devices like GPS units while on a long bike ride or long flight. This thing is amazing... I charged it once when I got it a month or so ago, and have not needed to charge it again yet. It turns out that the iPhone 6+'s battery is sufficiently good that it'll last all day on a long bike ride if I don't need the screen too much (e.g. if I don't need to continuously display the map), but I did need the map for most of the time on my first 100km+ ride and this power brick was indispensable.

Andy Weir's The Martian I can't say enough about how good this book was. It's a novel with a compelling story told very, very well. It's probably listed under “science fiction”, but while it's fiction and it's got a lot of science, it's not “science fiction” at all. I put this on my Kindle to give me something to do while waiting in line or the like, and it just grabbed me and didn't let go. Fantastic, fantastic book. I just peeked at IMDB and found that Matt Damon will play the protagonist in the movie version, and my first reaction was disappointment (a “star” in a role tends to draw attention to their celebrity, taking away from the character they're supposed to be playing), but upon reflection I can totally hear the opening monologue in Matt Damon's voice, so I'm looking forward to it.

3M Clear Security Glasses SF201AF I originally got these clear glasses (and another pair with dark lenses) for when riding on my scooter... I never want to ride with my eyes unprotected, and especially in the hot summer it's more comfortable to leave the visor up, so I thought these simple clear glasses with really flexible temples might be nice. They're great. But it turns out that I use the clear ones on my bicycle more than the scooter. When descending a mountain shaded by trees, it's too dark for normal sunglasses, but without some eye protection I risk a bug in the eye at 50kph, and the wind just makes my eyes water anyway. These solve both problems. They do scuff easily, but that's not a major problem for how I use them.

Mio Fuse heart-rate monitor This watch-like device detects your pulse and sends it via bluetooth to your phone. I use it on bike rides to record my pulse, which turns out to be pretty uninteresting because it doesn't get all that high, even when climbing steep hills. (I think this is less a statement about how strong my heart is, and more one about how weak my willpower is: I tend to give up mentally before physically.) Update: after having some mild rashes from wearing this, I contacted the company to ask for suggestions. They gave me some, and unilaterally said that they'd accept a return if the suggestions didn't work out, even if it was out of warranty. I thought that was nice. I didn't want to have to, but kept getting the rashes, so I did return it.

Doppleganger Saddle Cover DSC74-BK This is a cushy gel-filled cover for a bicycle seat, and it's fantastic. On my first long bike ride earlier this year, besides tuckering myself out, my rear hurt quite a bit from all the time on the saddle. “Real” cyclists wear pants that have cushions built into the crotch area. On one hand, this is convenient because they provide padding whether on the bike or sitting on the ground taking a break, but on the other hand, they're expensive and can be described, at best, as making you look like you're wearing diapers. (But it can get much worse, as a Google Image search shows.) I suppose I don't look like a real cyclist if I don't have these kind of shorts, but if you've seen my blog lately, you know I don't have much style sense. These days when I ride, or go to the gym, I tend to be decked out in stuff from Under Armour, which as I've written before, I'm enamored with to the point that I bought their stock. I visited their “Brand Store” in Osaka the other day, and it was nice to find a huge selection of stuff in my size, but the prices there were full retail, which is too pricey for me, so I didn't buy much.

BM Works SLIM3 bicycle iPhone Holder I wanted a way to securely hold my iPhone on my bicycle handle bars, and this product certainly does that, but I found it to be a disappointment. The biggest problem is that its “clear” cover is highly reflective, so in bright daylight it often makes it completely impossible to see the screen until you get the tilt just right, not something fun while trying to check a map in traffic. It also makes the buttons on the side of the phone difficult to press, and disables the iPhone's unlock-with-your-thumb thing. I no longer use it, though I may pull it out if ever faced with a long ride in the rain for which I don't know the route.

TiGRA Sport Bicycle Mount This is how I mount my phone on my bicycle now, and it's absolutely fantastic. The phone is fully accessible, super easy to take on and off. (I can even take it off one-handed while riding, to snap photos like this one). How great is it? It's so great that I shattered the screen of my iPhone while using it, yet I still use it. Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 40mm — 1/160 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos Oops When checking out mountain roads on my scooter, in preparation for last Wednesday's torturous(and tortuous) bike ride, I used the TiGRA mount to affix the phone to my scooter. While driving around, I would take photos of vending machines as a way to record their location (I geoencode all my photos), so that I could have a map of all available sources of water on the ride. At one point while whipping the camera around for a photo of a vending machine I was passing, I was dismayed to notice my iPhone 6+ bouncing on the ground beside me, trying, but failing, to keep up with the scooter. I have no idea how it happened, but I can only imagine that I simply forgot to actually snap the phone into the holder. It holds the phone very securely, so it's inconceivable to me that it somehow got jiggled loose. It's also inconceivable that I somehow bumped it loose with the camera... I imagine that any impact strong enough to force it out of the holder would shatter the plastic and the phone before separating the phone from the holder. I have such faith in how well made this product is that the only plausible explanation is that I really really really screwed up, such as laid it sort of into the holder and then got distracted, and so never finally put it in. (My sister once put both contact lenses in the same eye after being distracted in between, so I know such distraction is possible.) Apple charges about $150 to replace the screen, or, if the screen isn't the only damage, about $430 to replace the whole unit. I went to the Apple store in Osaka the next day, and am glad I arrived 20 minutes before they opened... I was about 10th in line. Ten minutes later, there must have been 30 people. At first they noted some microscopic dimple in the housing of the phone, and said that the whole thing would have to be replaced. I preferred to pay the lower amount, so pushed and asked them to at least try replacing only the screen. They said okay, and told me to come back in 90 minutes. I popped over to the Nikon Service Center to have a little plastic protective cover on my D4 replaced... I'd cracked that too somehow some months before. It was $15. Back at Apple, they indeed could replace just the screen, so I was happy to save almost $300. I paid my $150, and declined an invitation for an immediate session with an Apple Watch. (I knew that I wasn't really interested in an Apple Watch, but surprised myself at how quickly I said no.) I then headed over to the Under Armour store, which was nearby, to spend some of my “savings” on a hat, socks, and windbreaker, all in “high-visibility yellow” (the same color seen here, and in all these photos). Back home, I snapped the phone into the TiGRA mount and indeed could not believe that the phone could possibly come out accidentally, so I chalked this up to fate and my own stupidity. I used it on Wednesday's long mountainous bumpy ride and it performed flawlessly, offering 0% worry. My only reservation about this product is the packaging it came in, which was a clear plastic box built like a tank. It seems to be gratuitous overkill, a monumental waste of plastic, and a huge hassle to open.

Roswheel Rear-Carrier Bag This is the bag seen on the back of my bicycle in recent photos, such as this one. It's a piece of crap, but for $15, I shouldn't complain. It's intended to hold on to the rear carrier via Velcro, but the design is so bad that if there's anything in the bag besides air, the weight jiggling back and forth while riding wants to pull the bag off the side of the carrier. Plus, the sides are not firm at all, adding to the tendency for the thing to want to drip over one side or the other. I went to the hardware store and got some firm metal strips to brace the thing. I bolted them to the carrier facing up, and made holes in the bottom of the bag so that the bag can slip into the strips and be held very firmly in place. It's invisible when the bag is on the bike, but makes the bike look super dorky when the bag is not there. But it works.

Knog Blinder Front Light This is an LED light for the front of a bicycle (its light is white, as opposed to red for a rear light). The LEDs are very bright to look at, and I got this to augment the red Knog Blinder that I already had rear. For safety, especially in tunnels, I want a light so that I can be seen, and that's what this light does, even in daylight. It's really really bright. I leave it flashing on the front of my bike as a matter of policy, all day. If it's a really long ride, I may have to recharge it with the power brick noted above, but I've had to do that only once so far when I'd forgotten to fully charge it before heading out for the day.

And since this post is ostensibly about my birthday, let me share a birthday story that my sister sent recently, about her husband Marty's birthday:

Hah! I ordered some stuff through her account during my recent vacation in The States, and had apparently left the gloves in the shopping cart. How convenient for me! I use them on every ride now.

Thanks Marci!

The problem with adding a new hobby is that it takes time away from other things. I've been cycling a fair amount lately, but still must devote time to family and my Lightroom work, so what falls behind is my blogging. 🙁

Yesterday I led a 100km extreme-mountain cycle ride with some friends from Cycling Kyoto. I was the slowest/weakest of the five guys, so “lead” was only in the map sense, but I purposefully made a route in the mountains of western Kyoto with as much vertical climb as I could fit in.

It ended up being a hot, brutal day. (Cyclists apparently love to use words like “brutal” and “hard”.)

iPhone 6 Plus + iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at an effective 29mm — ¹/550 sec, f/2.2, ISO 32 — map & image data — nearby photos
Starting Out
7:43am - taken while moving at 26 kph (16 mph)

Because I knew it was going to be a tough day, I didn't bring my heavy camera... just my phone... so I don't have any good photos.

I didn't even think I'd actually do much of the ride because I had cold symptoms from the previous day, and I would have bailed on the whole thing had I not been the leader. As it turned out, the hard effort seems to have pushed the cold aside, and I got through the whole day.

We started with a warm-up 160m (525') climb, then moved on to Koshioyama (小塩山) and the 570m (1,870') to its top....

iPhone 6 Plus + iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at an effective 29mm — ¹/3600 sec, f/2.2, ISO 32 — map & image data — nearby photos
Not From the Top
from 415m (of 600m) up Koshioyama (小塩山)
9:14am - taken while moving at 2 kph (1 mph)

iPhone 6 Plus + iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at an effective 29mm — ¹/120 sec, f/2.2, ISO 32 — map & image data — nearby photos
The Top
Salvo Manino, Thomas Busch, Gorm Kippenberg, Manseki Kanemitsu

We were quite the international group, with folks from Italy, Germany, Norway, Japan, and America.

The road to the top is a dead end, so we headed back down the way we came, moved to the next mountain road to the south, and headed up it. On the way I noticed a monkey in a tree, only the second time I recall seeing a monkey in the wild. It just sat there not giving me much though, so I had time to take a picture, but of course the iPhone camera doesn't do a good job so you can barely differentiate it from the branches....

iPhone 6 Plus + iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at an effective 29mm — ¹/320 sec, f/2.2, ISO 32 — map & image data — nearby photos
Manseki and Monkey
the monkey is in the far upper right

The second big climb had a pause halfway through at the Konzo Temple (金蔵寺), which I posted about six years ago, and also here and here. A the time I wrote those, never in a million years would I believe I could ride a bicycle there, but there I was...

iPhone 6 + iPhone 6 back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at an effective 29mm — ¹/60 sec, f/2.2, ISO 32 — map & image data — nearby photos
Pause at the Konzoji Temple (金蔵寺)
photo by Thomas Busch

We then continued up the mountain, which includes a couple of short (350m long) segments of extreme slope... not as bad as the 21% slope that I posted about the other day, but almost as bad. We plowed through them, then mostly down for a long enjoyable ride through scenic countryside...

iPhone 6 Plus + iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at an effective 29mm — ¹/2800 sec, f/2.2, ISO 32 — map & image data — nearby photos
Mountain Countryside

Somewhere along the way I broke one of my spokes. Luckily Manseki had a Band Aid with him, so we used it like a piece of tape to hold the spoke inside the wheel, to keep it out of the way and unmangled...

iPhone 6 Plus + iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at an effective 29mm — ¹/120 sec, f/2.2, ISO 32 — map & image data — nearby photos
Bicycle First Aid

We eventually came into the mountains of northern Takatsuki City, and took a detour to the Honzanji Temple (本山寺). This involved a 350m (1,150') climb over 3,100m (2mi) of road, giving an average slope of more than 11%, but it was the final 730m (half mile) that set this segment apart... it had a fairly-consistent, average slope of almost 19%.

iPhone 6 Plus + iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at an effective 29mm — ¹/40 sec, f/2.2, ISO 32 — map & image data — nearby photos
Manseki Going Straight Up

The photo above of course doesn't show the slope well, they never do, but it was ridiculous. When taking the photo above, I was standing still, having stopped on a big climb for the first time since a month earlier (after which completing climbs without stopping became a specific goal). Manseki also stopped for a moment, the first time I'd ever seen him stop on a climb. It was tough.

But we all made it.... eventually.

iPhone 6 Plus + iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at an effective 29mm — ¹/120 sec, f/2.2, ISO 50 — map & image data — nearby photos
Resting at the Top
Honzanji Temple (本山寺）
Takatsuki, Japan

iPhone 6 Plus + iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at an effective 29mm — ¹/120 sec, f/2.2, ISO 40 — map & image data — nearby photos

iPhone 6 Plus + iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at an effective 29mm — ¹/640 sec, f/2.2, ISO 32 — map & image data — nearby photos
Cooling Down
Manseki douses himself with water

In Japan, convenience stores and drink vending machines seem to be ubiquitous, so one gets used to relying on them. But on this course, there were long sections without drink vending machines, and most of the course without a convenience store, so those who didn't heed my warnings about lack of services got tuckered out for lack of energy.

So after finally making our way down the mountain and into Nagaokakyo City, we could stock up on food for the first time since the early morning. I ate a lot, and drank even more.

So with bloated stomachs, we made our way to the toughest climb of the day, up to the Yoshiminedera Temple, and then beyond.

Overall the route we took entailed 420m (1,400') of vertical climb over 4,400m (2.75mi) of distance, yielding an average slope of 9.5%, but this includes a long section of relatively-mild leadup. Some sections of road were considerably more steep.

We paused at the entrance to the temple. We didn't go inside, but I've posted it about it many times before, including here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

As I mentioned before, photos never seem to show the steepness well.... the section of road leading up (on the right) was really Really REALLY steep....

iPhone 6 Plus + iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at an effective 29mm — ¹/140 sec, f/2.2, ISO 32 — map & image data — nearby photos
Looks So Flat
but was anything but
parking entrance to Yoshiminedera Temple (善峯寺)

The particularly tough thing about this section of road was that it wasn't the end... the next sections would be even worse.

iPhone 6 Plus + iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at an effective 29mm — ¹/15 sec, f/2.2, ISO 32 — map & image data — nearby photos
Looking With Trepidation

iPhone 6 Plus + iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at an effective 29mm — ¹/60 sec, f/2.2, ISO 40 — map & image data — nearby photos
Cooling Off
Dipping a towel into the river

I headed up first, and stopped part way up ostensibly to make sure no one took a wrong turn at an intersection I'd forgotten to explain, but mostly that was just an excuse to stop. It was tough.

Here's Thomas coming up after me...

iPhone 6 Plus + iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at an effective 29mm — ¹/30 sec, f/2.2, ISO 40 — map & image data — nearby photos
He's Down There
toward the right

iPhone 6 Plus + iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at an effective 29mm — ¹/30 sec, f/2.2, ISO 40 — map & image data — nearby photos
Still Going

Despite these steep climbs, it only got worse.

Eventually we all made it to the top...

iPhone 6 Plus + iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at an effective 29mm — ¹/350 sec, f/2.2, ISO 32 — map & image data — nearby photos
Happy at the Top
Manseki wearing Gorm's sunglasses, which Gorm had dropped along the way and Manseki had found

When I arrived at the top to find Gorm waiting with a worried look, he asked me whether I'd seen his sunglasses. I had not. The look on Gorm's face said everything.... "I really want my glasses, but I even less want to go down looking for them if that means having to claw myself back up here."

Luckily, Manseki had found them so there was no need to go back down.

The original plan allowed for one more steep climb, but we were all exhausted, so we called it a day and headed back into the city.

I processed my ride data (as per “The Voodoo of Elevation Gain and Strava”) and uploaded the correct data to Strava, yielding this report. All in all it was 99km of distance, but the real number is the 2,500m (8,300') of vertical climb. By a little bit, it's the most I'd ever done in a day.

I slept well.

Nikon D700 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — ¹/1250 sec, f/3.5, ISO 560 — map & image data — nearby photos
This Hill is Not Steep
It's Nasty Steep
photo by Manseki Kanemitsu

距離125mで高度上昇26m、21％の坂を頑張りました。

I went out for a long bike in the mountains of northern Kyoto on Saturday, and after 120km (75mi) of tough ups and pleasant downs with friends (that I'll write about separately: here and here), I made an attempt at a hill so steep that its name on Strava is “Nasty”.

It's so steep that they have a mirror over the road, pointing down, so that folks coming from below can see whether the road is clear up over the lip.

Nikon D700 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — ¹/4000 sec, f/2.2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Car Heading Down
note the mirror facing down

The hill rises about 26m over a distance of 125m (85' over 410'), which puts the overall steepness at 21%, which is exactly what Kyoto City labels the road at. That's about the same slope from the ground to the top of a 6-story building over the course of a football field.

I was tired after eight hours of hard riding, but had heard about this hill the other day and wanted to try it. Manseki kindly used my camera to snap some shots.

Nikon D700 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — ¹/1250 sec, f/3.5, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
I'm Down There Somewhere

Nikon D700 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — ¹/1250 sec, f/3.5, ISO 360 — map & image data — nearby photos
Chugging Up
the sliver of smooth surface that's not a death trap for bicycles

Nikon D700 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — ¹/1250 sec, f/3.5, ISO 1400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Grinding It Out

Nikon D700 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — ¹/1600 sec, f/3.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
I Survived

It took me 51 seconds.

I had to make a new segment on Strava (here) because the one that was already there is way off from reality, putting the ending point well beyond the end of the hill instead of at the end of the hill, so after you're done with the climb, unless you move an unnaturally-far distance from the end of the hill before stopping to recover your breath, the stop is counted in your climb time. Just stupid and sloppy.

Lots of segments in Strava are like this because people who create them are sloppy, and Strava doesn't give any way to provide feedback or to even see who made it. So I have to end up making new (carefully-measured, seemingly-redundant) segments. But Strava also doesn't give any way to describe a segment beyond the title, so these carefully-measured segments aren't presented as such to folks who come across them, so perhaps they get lost in the slew of crap.

UPDATE: The new segment as seen at Strava is not without its problems. An easy road almost parallels the difficult climb, and they're close enough that Strava counts the easy passage as an attempt at the difficult climb, so you see ridiculously-unrealistic times for the climb, such as “7 seconds”.

As of Sep 2015, the fastest actual climb is this 29-second effort that Strava lists as #57. It should be #1. Second place should be this 30-second effort, and third should be my own 33-second effort (quite an improvement over my 51-second first try!).

But even within the limited world of Strava data, the above rankings are an approximation because true efforts are hidden for folks who happened to have ridden the parallel road some other time. Each person can appear in the rankings only once, so, for example, this incorrectly ascribed 16-second ride by one of Kyoto's fastest riders hides any time he made on the actual climb. It's quite likely this guy has done the actual climb in 25 seconds, but to find out we'd have to dig through his hundreds of Strava activities to look.

Strava could easily fix this by allowing people to remove a specific segment from their ride, but they have shown no interest in providing useful features like this.

It's been three months to the day since I posted “Photo-Development Challenge: Inspire Me and Others With Your Artistic Interpretation”, and I'm mortified that it's only the second set of results that I'm finally getting around to sharing (the first having been “Hillside Temple Buildings” 2½ months ago). In retrospect, it was irresponsible of me to post the challenge right before a long family vacation. Sorry.

In any case, to recap what's going on, I posted some raw photos and asked others to develop them to their taste, and here I'll share what those different interpretations looked like.

First, today's subject in its unprocessed, straight-from-the-camera (via default Lightroom settings) originalness...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/640 sec, f/1.4, ISO 250 — image data
The Unprocessed Original

This is from the delightfully whimsical Otaginenbutsuji Temple (愛宕念仏寺) in northwestern Kyoto, which I've not nearly posted enough about.

As before, I'll present the results in the order I received them, starting with my own processing that I did at the time...

My Version

I put an almost-daylight white balance to match the splashes of sun, and created a bit more visual range by increasing contrast and making highlights brighter while making shadows darker. I think this leaves a slight spotlight effect where there are splashes of light. I also added a slight vignette.

processing by
Werner Gansz

Werner comments:

My Reaction: Well, now mine feels dark and muddy.

processed by:
Niels Volkmann

Niels comments:

My Reaction: Nicely done. It looks like you cropped it to just fit the four in front, which feels more balanced. The focus is indeed on the rightmost statue, but perhaps a bit too brightly for my taste, but still much better than mine.

— processing by anonymous —
Contemplation
Contentment in the crowd

My Reaction: This uses the crop instead of brightness to put the focus on the four main statues, and so it can actually lose contrast buts still work well. This is really interesting to me.

processing by Herve
Fear and Serenity

My Reaction: Juuuust a bit too-strongly implemented, but an interesting idea to focus on the emotions and juxtapose two opposites.

processinb by
Ben Willmore

Ben's comments:

My Reaction: This crop really identifies the heart of the photo. It's how I should have cropped with my feet at the time. Maybe because I read Ben's comments before looking at the result, I ended up focusing too much on the desaturation on in the background and wish it were a little more lightly applied.

One person, nnkka, submitted three versions...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/640 sec, f/1.4, ISO 250 — image data
— processing by nnkka —
“Iced”

— processing by nnkka —
“Magenta”

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/640 sec, f/1.4, ISO 250 — image data
— processing by nnkka —
“Pseudo B&W”

nnkka's comments:

My Reaction: A progression from muddy (a blue version of mine) to crisp. Having seen the bright area in the back cropped out in the first two, it's distracting to see it in the third, which just goes to show that it was the right move to crop it out.

processing by anonymous

My Reaction: This is a nice balance between Werner's and “Contemplation” (showing that all three are in a nice ballpark).

image data
processing by
Tom in SF

comments:

My Reaction: LAVA! (or, given the posture of the guy in question, “Hell”)

processing by
Amit C

comments:

My Reaction: A very nice balance, and, oddly, the most “3D” looking one to me.

It was fun to see the repeating themes (particularly the crop) and unique takes. I just must apologize again for taking so long.