227 km day trip on my Bike Friday

[joewein]

My longest ride on the Bike Friday yet - 235 km in a day, across the mountains west of Tokyo during the cherry blossom (sakura) season.

Sakura (cherry blossoms) on route 413:


It took me about 16 hours, of which 14 hours were moving time. I had left home at 05:20 and was back in Tokyo at 21:20 (9:20pm). My Pocket Rocket has a Shimano hub dynamo and a Lumotec IQ Cyo headlamp which provided plenty of light on the last stretch after sunset.

Here is my route.

I started from my house in Tokyo after sunrise and cycled out to the mountains some 40 km away, then following Route 413 up a mountain valley and over a pass over 1100 m (3600 ft) high. Yes, that's climbing from virtually sea level (45 m / 150 ft) to 1.1 km high I was cycling almost continually uphill for the first 96 km (60 miles). After 7 hours (including brief stops for food and rest) I reached the highest pass.

More sakura:


I always want to see the remaining distance:






The exit of the tunnel at the end of The Longest Climb: It's all downhill from here... NOT!

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The shores of Lake Yamanaka at the foot of Mt Fuji, over 900 m (3000 ft) above sea level:



It can be surprizingly difficult to sea Mt Fuji (3776 m high) from just a few km away because of its frequent cloud cover. I cycled 235 km and all I saw of Fuji is this (its foot):



Almost home - at the top of the Mt Takao pass:



The humble Bike Friday Pocket Rocket:



and its crazy rider:



There is nothing superhuman about cycling long distances. The key is eating and drinking sufficiently. Most people who first try long distances become exhausted not because of insufficient training but because they eat and drink too little. You need to consume about 200-300 kcal per hour and sufficient liquid. I carried water in two bottle holders, which I refilled whenever I could. Throughout the day I ate: 7 bananas, 6 raisin bread rolls, 360g of yoghurt, a slice of pizza, several other pieces of bread. I drank about 4 litres of water, orange juice, cocoa, yoghurt drink and sports drink. Don't worry too much about putting on weight while burning 6500 kcal I'm 10 kg (22 lbs) lighter now than I was the year before I got the bike.

Stick to a speed you can sustain. I am not a fast rider, doing mostly 23-25 km/h on the flat (about 15 mph), with down to as little as 9 km/h (6 mph) on steep climbs, but that doesn't stop me from going out to see nature, lots of it.

I did this 235 km ride a little over half a year after getting the Pocket Rocket, my first road bike in over 30 years. In less than three weeks my 300 km brevet ride will be coming up. Wish me luck