My road bike, a Rose X-Lite CRS 3100 Di2 that I got 2½ years ago, suffered a fatal case of death on a ride the other day, when the derailleur came off the bike, ripping part of the frame with it.

In that moment, the frame was rendered completely useless. A carbon frame is difficult to repair in the best of times, but damage like this, in this location, means the end of the frame. It could never be ridden again.

No real idea why it would suddenly just give way. It could happen, I suppose, if a stick or something got caught in the chain, but that wasn't the case. It was at the start of the first steep hill of the day, so it was when I put in a fair bit of power through the drivechain.

It could have been a slowly-growing crack finally gave way, or that it got damaged during a recent flight. Perhaps most likely is that during a moment of inattentiveness 15 minutes earlier during a stop, I'd let the bike tip over and flop to the ground... perhaps that caused some damage? We'll never know.

My riding partners, who had a lot more experience with on-the-road repairs, set things up so that I could at least push the bike along. Luckily, I wasn't too far from a train station, so I walked the 2½km there (thank goodness for cleat covers). The train company wouldn't let me on the train with the bike, so I left it at the station and took the train home myself, switching to a car to return to pick up the bike.

I left the next day on a trip to The States, so I didn't have time to do anything further. I'll have to get another frame, a new bike.... or maybe both! 🙂

Doh!

I was supposed to leave tomorrow on a flight to America, but 22 hours before I was set to walk out the door, I got an alert from Delta Airlines, which I mentioned last month in “Delta Airlines: Gauging the Quality of Your Customer-Service Representatives, Done Right”. It turns out that one of my flights tomorrow is suddenly scheduled for three hours later, and that destroys the whole itinerary.

Their web site said "We haven't yet found flights to reschedule you on, but don't worry, we'll get you where you need to go with as little disruption as possible." This had the opposite effect; I worried.

I called Delta in The States, and the wait time to talk to a human was “greater than two hours”. Geez!

I hung up and called their number in Japan, and when I selected “English”, I was connected immediately with someone. Judging from the accent, it was likely a call center in the Philippines. The first thing he asked after bringing up my ticket was how he should address me. I answered “Well, Jeffrey is fine”, to which he replied “Very well, Mr. Jeffrey, how can I help you?”. 🙂

The itinerary had been really good (airport-to-airport in just 17½ hours; the previous best had been 18⅓ hours, but often it was 19~21 hours), so I asked about just taking the same set of flights the next day....

“You are lucky Mr. Jeffrey”, seats were available on everything, so that's what we did. I just hope that the flight that got pushed back (Delta 120 on 08MAR) doesn't get pushed back again on 09MAR.

I then had to update my reservations for the airport shuttle here, and a rent-a-car in America, and tell everyone about it. As it stands now, the dust has settled again. Keeping fingers crossed that it stays that way.

As I mentioned in “My Ride to Okinawa”, I'm in Okinawa for a few days of visiting and riding. It's been a blast, but no time to blog, so for today just a quick note.

And that was just the first day.

Continued here...

As I wrote the other day in “Test Ride to Osaka Airport”, I planned to ride to the airport for a trip to Okinawa. I'm happy to say that I made it without mishap.

Then it was time to step into a bathroom to transform myself from stinky cyclist, to something minimally-appropriate for flight.

At the security station prior to checkin, where they X-ray checked luggage, the lady manning the station wasn't sure what to do with such a large thing as the bikebag. She asked whether there was only a bike, and I said that there was also my stinky clothes, and we unzipped the bag a bit to reveal a plastic bag with some of the clothes. She asked, sheepishly, whether I had any air cylinders, and sort of seemed unsure what to do. I said it'd be fine to put through the X-ray machine, but she worried it would damage something, so finally she asked whether it would be okay to X-ray the bag of stinky clothes. She did, we put it back into the bikebag and zipped it up, and they slapped a security sticker on the whole thing.

During checkin, the only question I was asked was whether, if the bag had to be laid on its side, which side would be better. They never asked about what was in it, to see any form of ID, etc. It was as if I was getting onto a bus, a nice change from the Security Theater that is the American air system.

On the way through security toward the gates, I did have to take the computer out of the backpack, and pass it and my bottle of tea separately. That's it.

Because everything went smoothly, I had a couple of hours before my flight, so I grabbed a cup of coffee and got some work done with the computer.

I was the last to board because I was in row 26, and they'd neglected to change the “Row 30 and after” on the display. I guess most people ignore that, at least in preference to the announcements, which I guess I ignored.

Here are the activities of the day:

We all did a very nice ride the next day (yesterday) and today, but I haven't even looked at those photos yet, but I'll certainly blog about them, eventually.

Continued here...

I haven't done much cycling this winter, so I've become slow and lazy and fat, but I'm hoping to kickstart a recovery by heading next week to warmer climates, to Okinawa (the southernmost prefecture of Japan), to spend a few days riding with Jason Eisenmenger. Jason was up in Kyoto earlier in the month (seen here), but a cold kept me from joining him for any rides.

If I were to bring my bicycle on an international flight, I'd have to get a special built-like-a-tank hard case that the disassembled bike could fit in. It's a huge hassle, but at least then the bike would arrive undamaged.

But for a domestic Japan flight, where everyone who touches your luggage along the way is Japanese raised with a sense of basic manners and consideration, I can just put the whole bike into a light zippered bag that I pull out of my pocket, and hand that over to the airline. So that's what I'll do. I'll bring on the trip only what I can carry in a backpack, ride to the airport, hop on the plane, and when I arrive, ride from the airport to Jason's house.

So, I made a test ride to the airport, to check out the route and the timing. The most-direct route is about 47km (29mi) of city riding, so instead I took a longer route (61km / 38mi) so I could enjoy some mountains...

I took about two hours forty mostly-leisurely minutes to make the trip.

I got off the bike right outside the entrance, walked in, and immediately found a couple of Japan Airlines staff, and asked a few questions about how to handle the bike for check-in.

I'll carry everything for the trip in a backpack, including “fresh wipes”, street clothes, and street shoes, all of which I'll use to transform from a stinky lycra-wearing cyclist to a normal hopefully-non-stinky airline passenger....

After having scoped out a place to get cleaned up and change, I was done at the airport, so thought I'd take a spin around its edge.

Continuing on to the side of the airport property opposite the terminal, I was hoping to ride through the lovely airplane-viewing park they've made there, as seen seven years ago in “Itami Sky Park, Next to Osaka Airport”, but it turns out that bicycles are not allowed. )-:

There's a dirt road running across near the start of the runway, and landing planes pass very closely overhead. In the photo above, with the runway out of frame to the left and a large ditch to the right, the concrete construction and bridge are in line with the center of the runway, and are part of the landing-lights system.

Having gotten all sweaty on the mountain ride there, I quickly got chilly just standing around outside, so I moved away after the first plane to the side a bit, for the next one:

Once I got back to the airport, I headed home on the most-direct (but least fun) city route, which is what I'll take on my return from Okinawa so that I can get home before dark.

Today I washed the bike and prepared my luggage. I leave on Monday.

Continued here...