Night Ride to Nakano and Back

Time in motion: 37′ 17″

Average speed: 12.1 mph

Max speed: 22.1 mph

It was another overcast night, but no rain at all tonight. Temps were not as cool as other nights, but still very comfortable. No wind to speak of. I set out to find a land route to Nakano where I teach on Friday evenings so that I could ride to class this upcoming Friday. As expected, it wasn’t that hard to find a route, and even with getting stuck at infinite, annoying, small red light intersections, I could still roll there in about 13 minutes. That’s a few minutes less door-to-door than by the walking/train combo method. I don’t think I’ll make it a regular habit of riding to that lesson though as taking the train to and from that lesson has become highly ritualized.

After discovering the land route to Nakano, I took up the greatest search: long, uninterrupted road on which I can lower my head and just grind. … I did find a few very minor stretches that allowed me to reach the new record max speed of 22.1 mph listed above, but still I have to worry every quarter of a mile or so about an intersection or even come to a dead stop at a red light.

Other than these exploits, I wondered through a very congested and winding neighborhood, and I think I discovered the building I looked at an apartment in 4 years ago when I first tried looking for apartments in Shinjuku. It was nice inside, and had nice kind of ivy like plants growing on the outside, but it was too expensive for me at the time and had no view to speak of. I ended up choosing another place.

On my short list of place to ride to next are back to Yoyogi Park at night to check it out properly (could see all kinds of freaky stuff there), to cruise down the paved with gold streets of Ginza, and maybe a good spot is around the Imperial Palace, which just popped into my mind.

The next piece of gear I will get are a pair of clear lens glasses to wear on night rides.

RELATED POSTS:

• Last night time Palace laps?
• Mello ride around the Imperial Palace in a light rain
• Brief cycling for Shinjuku night photos
• 3 Imperial Laps in a Haze
• Cycling–average speed record SMASHED!!