In December I ordered a new phone, the recently released Google Pixel 6 Pro, to upgrade from my existing Pixel 3. It arrived after the New Year holidays and I had a chance to test it out on a bike ride in west Izu (
162 km on Strava) on Monday (Coming of Age Day).
I drove to Mishima on Tomei expressway, with the Elephant NFE in the back of the car and already enjoyed Mt Fuji views on the way. One can not take that for granted, as Mt Fuji may be completely invisible even from Gotemba. But on this day the viewing conditions were ideal. December and January are really the best season for Izu Mt Fuji viewing.
After a quick stop at a 7-11 near the station and coin parking lot I followed the route of the Matsuzaki course of the AJ Nishi-Tokyo west Izu 200 km brevet that I completed in October, except that I skipped an inland excursion and headed for the coast directly.
I have had rides where I couldn't see Mt Fuji until noon and even days where I only saw it before sunset or not at all. Not on Monday - unless it was obscured by a mountain, Mt Fuji was always present and ready for another shot.
Near the NW corner at Osezaki I bought some local mikan at an unattended vending stall, 100 yen for a bag of mikan.
Then came two climbs, a longer one and a short one, with many views and then a descent to the fishing port of Heda.
The biggest climb was between Heda and Toi, but even that stays below 300 m so there's never any worry about ice. In the morning it was around 8°C but during mid-day it rose to 12-14°C and I was riding in a t-shirt.
Even when I got to Toi there was very little traffic. It felt nothing like a long weekend, convenience store shelves remained well stocked and car parks almost empty.
Are people already staying away because of the 6th wave of Covid-19? It really seems so. I was wearing my KN95 mask whenever I went into a convenience store. I only use KN95 or KF94 now.
The views were fantastic. I stopped many many times and took over 200 pictures. The telephoto lens that differentiates the Pixel 6 Pro from the basic Pixel 6 was extremely useful for this kind of ride.
I was going very slowly, as I had done very little cycling in the past three weeks and definitely lost some endurance.
Near Toi I met a cyclist on a Miyata e-bike. He was touring from Chiba to Kansai, one section at a time (presumably taking it on the train to return and resume each time). The bike has a range of 100-130 km. A full charge takes about 4 hours. If used for climbing then the battery will handle more than 2,000 m of elevation gain in "eco" mode. The spec seems quite good.
Instead of turning around at the ~80 km mark to get my Century distance (160.9 km) by the time I got back, I turned around sooner so I would get back to Heda around sunset because there were some views there that I wanted to get in that evening light.
I timed it perfectly and descended into Heda as the daylight faded. From here it got rather cold and I layered up again.
When I was only 20 km from Mishima, I still needed 60 km for my minimum distance so I headed up the Kano river to Shuzenji, following the earlier part of the brevet course that I had skipped.
It was around 23:00 when I got back to the car. I had to take a half hour nap at a Tomei service area to safely complete the drive back to Tokyo.
I am now at 113 consecutive months of "Century a Month". 7 more months to go to complete 10 years!