The Crankee Blog

Bang King 2010

The Bang King 2010 track cycling competition took place last weekend in Kanazawa City. I couldn’t attend this year, but by all accounts it seems like it was a Banging success! The event is sponsored by Circles and several Nagoya based businesses and is a great excuse to burn rubber in a real outdoor velodrome and drink copious amounts of liquid refreshments with fellow cyclist. You can see more photos of the event on Neco’s Flickr page here.

This is going to hurt a little

Girls getting ready to race

Circles Riding Club

Girls Top Winners

Men's Top Winners

Top loosers

No cycling news today, just a short video clip of some friends at our favorite swimming spot in Gifu Japan. Enjoy.

Free Falling in Gifu Japan from Tony Torres on Vimeo.

With Nagoya City showing no signs of cooling off, I packed some clean undies and drove up to the Hakuba, a popular ski town in the winter located in Nagano Prefecture. I was hoping to find a little relief from the heat and maybe get some cycling done. I stayed at the Santana B&B owned by serious cyclist and sometime champ Albert Kikstra and his lovely wife Fumika. I found some great cycling paths along side the main road into town. I last stayed in Hakuba during my Coast to Coast trip back in June. Back then I also discovered some great roads on the western side of Lake Kisaki and Lake Aoki. They view of the lakes were worth some of the trouble we encountered on patches of unpaved road. I didn’t get to do much cycling this time, but I promised Albert that I would return (likely with a group of friends) to put to test some of our mountain cycling skills. Hakuba is a great place for road and mountain biking. Albert recommends contacting local semi pro mountain biker Karey of Sweetriders (located just down the street from Santana B&B). Karey offers early morning clinics to help beginners learn how to ride some of the down hill paths. If you’re interested in joining us for a weekend mountain biking tour of Hakuba sometime in October, drop me a line. Hopefully the f**king Heat will have subsided.

I may have mentioned before that I rode across the Japanese alps last month with two other friends. We met up with a Japanese TV crew and they proceeded to interview us. Our segment was cut down to only a few seconds, but hey, it was my brush with Japanese fame. I’ve edited the show down to 2 minutes. Our part is towards the end. Enjoy.

The beautiful Yuki (featured in the Nagoya Love Wheels Calendar as Miss. January) recently picked up her new ride at Circles Bike Shop. The frame is a standard Omnium track frame by Giant. The crank set is a SRAM Omnium. Shin Tanaka of Circles did the custom paint job himself. A nice two tone purple paint job with masking tape. It really changes the whole look of the bike and you can tell from Yuki’s smile that she just loves it. Yuki plans to race her new bike in next month’s Bang King track race at the Ishikawa Uchinada Velodrome. Good luck Purple Mama!

The Circles Bike shop is fast becoming a way station for touring cyclists passing through Nagoya City. Over the last few months I’ve met several there, and today I had the pleasure of bumping into Tama5 (pronounced “Tamago” which means “egg” in Japanese). He kicked off his two month tour a few days ago in Chiba prefecture near Tokyo and plans to cycle down to Osaka, around the Kyushu island, up the coast of the Sea of Japan until he reaches Toyama prefecture before making his way down to Matsumoto then over to Tokyo. Quite an impressive task when you consider that’s he’s doing it on a fixed gear bike. He’s outfitted his Surly Steamroller with a touring trailer where he hauls his essential, tent and a supply of bike stickers bearing his unusual logo which looks like a guy with his head up his ass. See for yourself.

Tama5 seemed like a fun and easygoing character. He represents what I consider to be a trend in cycling and lifestyle in Japan. More young people are opting to work and save many to allow them time off for these types of excursions. This is a positive development and I welcome it. No cross-country cycling tour would be complete without a blog, and Tama5 has got one too. If you’re in any of the cities on his itinerary, be sure to give him a hearty welcome.

For all my readers who think I’m a sell-out and just another over-rated bearded bike blogger, here is the confirmation you’ve been waiting for. Yours truly is currently featured in Simple Bicycle Style #4. (a popular Japanese cycling fashion magazine for people who insist on making the iron donkey a fashion statement) You can see me demonstrating the awesomeness of my BBQ bike as well as modeling my stained cycling hood. Look out for my nude spread in the next issue of Saddle Sore Quarterly.

Every Vogue

Last Tuesday afternoon, myself, Lowell and Mark, packed our bikes into our portable carry bags, gave a last glance at the gray blue palette of Itoigawa city and sat quietly waiting for our train back to Nagoya City. The week-long trek through the majestic Alps of Japan was now just a series of images captured in our cameras, blips of memories in our minds and a collection of bruises, stains and tall-tales which the three of us will no doubt reflect on over the coming months. As I recount the distance we traveled and the mountains we scaled, I am beginning to think that this trip was the oddest display of a mid-life crisis if ever there was one. I can only hope I have many more “crisis” in the years to come.

One theme that underscored the whole trip was WATER. Wherever we cycled, you could hear the presence of rushing streams and rivers. It reminded me how blessed Japan is with this very basic human necessity. Whether it was a trickling brook, a crashing waterfall or a supine glacial river cutting a swath through a valley, water served as a reminder of why I really undertook this trip; to raise money for the construction of water wells in poor Cambodian villages. To that end, the three of us were able to raise over ¥600,000. This is enough to help about 20 families obtain needed water for their crops and living. In doing so, we also help them become self-sufficient. Damn, that feels good.

So, what now? It doesn’t end here. If you would like to donate there is still plenty of time to do so. Just drop me an email and let me know. We’re already planning a Short version of the Japan Coast to Coast this fall. Most likely the route will start in Nagoya bay and end in Tsuruga bay about 120 kilometers away. We’re planning to make it a short two-day trip with open registration. So if you’re interested in joining us let me know. The big Coast2Coast across the Alps will likely happen again in September 2011. We’re thinking of forming corporate teams and so far one company has already committed a team.

Things are shaping up. What started as a simple challenge/tour is slowly turning into a platform for the promotion of a healthier lifestyle, a way to discover Japan and most importantly a vehicle to help our friends in need of a better life.

Woke up in Kamikochi today to a flat tire. Actually it was only flat
on the bottom. Luckily I brought a spare innertube. 15 minutes later
we were on our way to Hakuba. Rubber rules.

Picture pefect morning in the highlands of Norikura Japan. A popular
ski resort in Nagano. It's off season so we had the whole lodge to
ourselves. After. Hearty breakfast we'll set pedals for Kamikochi in
time for their annual Walter Weston Festival.