Ride 9: Gujohachiman to Hikone (彦根)

Longest ride of the trip - 115km, 8:15AM - 6:30PM, with 1.5 hours in between fixing the bike. Taking Route 156 in morning, I followed Nagara River (长良川) downstream until Gifu. Both the Yoshida and Kodara rivers flow into the Nagara at Gujo, and at 166km long, it's one of the longer rivers in Japan and is considered a "Class 1" river. The area around Gifu and Nagoya is a preponderance of ring roads and over-passes that makes for uneventful cycling. Mostly flat from Gifu until a climb towards Maibara on Route 21, then a downhill and south turn on Route 8 to Hikone. I stayed at a very friendly Tobaya Ryokan with a nice bath and great food - exactly what I needed after a very long day!

Ryokan Mifuku at departure in the morning and a full breakfast for the day.

Along the Nagara valley. A network of bridges, old and new, span the river connecting the motorway to the two highways on either side of the river. Patchy drizzle but cleared up when I arrived in Gifu just before lunch.

After all the cultural immersion, I had an urge for McDs. This shop in Gifu was the most polite and well presented McDs I've ever visited. Big Mac combo tasted same here as anywhere though.

Looking back at Gifu from one of many overpasses on way towards Maibara.

Many rivers empty into the Pacific Ocean from the basin around Nagoya.

The hill before Maibara, last 30km for the day.

The rear wheel gave out with loud 'bang!' - first time I've ever had a blowout on a bicycle since I started cycling 20 years ago. Even at Kofu, I knew the rear wheel wasn't fully round and had to progressively adjust my brake pads on way to Takayama to match. I suspected that the rim was slightly warped. Turns out it is actually the outer tire which is damaged and with the pressure of fully loaded bike it eventually ruptured. Good news is rim is actually all fine. Originally, I had thought I would go find a bike shop in Kyoto to fix the rim. In hindsight, I'm realising how important it is to spot the difference between a damaged outer and a warped rim - I tried to figure this out along the way but it was surprisingly difficult until I took the wheel off.

The extent of the damage. From the inside of the tire, it is clear that structural damage to the outer was extensive and led to the wheel being progressively 'less round'.

As I only had a spare inner, the only solution was to exchange the front outer with the damaged rear and inflate the front just enough as to not rupture the new inner and bear the load of the bike. When I took off the front wheel, I also realized that the front rack was damaged. Just as well since I couldn't load the front wheel anymore. So here is the improvised solution. Luckily, I was over the Maibara hill already and rode the next 15km very slowly until Hikone.

Dinner at Tobaya Ryokan - a nice finish to a long day!