Today dawned bright and clear, with Fujisan showing off the first snow of the season. I had the day off work, so it was a great chance to wash up Kuroko following the post-typhoon ride and to have a look at the front derailleur issue.

The clean-up was very straightforward. I made use of all the bike cleaning brushes I bought recently, and I cleaned and oiled the chain. Then I checked the shifting, and all seemed fine. I inspected the front derailleur and had a close look at the shifter cables where they run under the bottom bracket (and had been choked with mud during Monday’s ride). All normal.

Finally I pulled back the hood on the shift lever to inspect the cable head for fraying. The cable is in fine shape, but I found that the little plastic cover over the pulley to which the cable attaches had worked loose. It just took me a moment with the screwdriver to tighten it up again. It’s possible that this was getting in the way of the shift lever moving.

Once that was done, I wanted to have a ride to make sure all was in order. I didn’t have a lot of time — I could have done one of my two 60-65km routes, but that would be pushing the deadline as I had someplace to be this evening. So I set out on the Tokyo Landmarks ride with a shortcut in mind that would lop at least half the distance off.

The emperor’s enthronement ceremony finished yesterday, but there were still policemen on every corner. At one stoplight I was choking in the fumes of three armored blue buses idling along the curb (and a VW minibus right ahead of me). I know the coppers had their minds on security more than anything, but I still took care to obey all the traffic laws and — as far as possible — avoid drawing attention to myself.

I was traveling light. I’d taken off the saddlebag and tire pump to clean Kuroko and hadn’t put them back on. I was also carrying only one water bottle. That probably adds up to about 1.5kg at most (including the spare innertube and bike lock that I carry in the saddlebag) so it doesn’t make a huge difference in performance. But Kuroko did feel more nimble and unencumbered with those bits left out.

Usually when I go this route, after passing the Imperial Palace I turn off through the financial district and head southeast to Tsukiji and Tokyo Big Sight. Today I just kept on the street that follows the palace moat until I got to Kudanzaka and Budokan.

No mechanicals!

After the cleaning up and tightening of the little cover under the shifter hood, Kuroko behaved beautifully. Once or twice the shift lever stuck for a moment, but I just gave it a stronger flick and over it went. I’ll have another look to make sure there’s nothing binding.

I also remembered to put on sunscreen today. I was only out for two hours, but the sunshine was very bright. I recently got some heavy-duty lotion and cream from the US, and I used that on my face and neck today (with my usual local stuff on my arms and legs). It seems to have done the job as I arrived back home as pale as when I set out, and I didn’t use my mask at all.