Going to see Mt Fuji with my brother

It's the first time anyone in my family has come to Japan and the first and probably last time any of them would ride on the back of a motorcycle with me.  Since it was a once in a lifetime opportunity I decided to take my brother to go see Mt Fuji.

It was really cold so I gave him my winter gear and rode to where I park my van to go and get my leathers, which are significantly warmer than my summer gear I'm wearing at first.

For someone who is 5'7" with a 6'1 passenger I think I did a good job handling the bike.  It was much different than my usual 5'1"(156cm) passenger, but as long as he didn't move too much it was more or less the same.  Occasionally at stop lights he rocked the whole bike which was very annoying.

We stopped by a local festival, not really sure what was going on but for about 15 miles straight there were people walking the streets and tons of food stalls set up.  We ate some pretty tasty yakitory (chicken kebabs more or less) and yakisoba (fried soba noodles).  We got off to a late start so we were pretty happy to finally eat something.

About 3/4 of the way there he was miserable, freezing, and grumpy. I managed to capture his excitement while standing by a freezing cold stream.

We finally got to Lake Yamanaka where you can see the base of Mt. Fuji on the left.  Usually you can see a lot more, but Fuji was pretty cloudy this time....

So I caught my brother in a pic with just the base.  He was too cold at this point to try and get any closer, so we called it a day and headed back home.

Then when we got home my girlfriend decided to try on my leathers ^^  Slowly trying to get her to learn how to ride.  She looks pretty happy here so maybe it's working? :-D

GoPro fail

My friend let me test out his KTM Duke 690 and obviously in exchange he rode my D-tracker.  I attached the GoPro to my front fork thinking I would get some solid footage of me on the 690 beast but instead all I got was a lot of trees, feet, and asphalt....

Thanks Pete

Survival reactions

I learned first hand about Keith Code's survival reactions on my trip to the Izu Peninsula.

Survival reactions encountered : entering a turn whose radius was sharper than expected.  Misjudging my speed as 'too fast', looking a little towards to edge of the road panicking about gravel (which wasn't actual gravel but just a different color road), and giving the brakes a light squeeze.

Was out on Nishi Izu Skyline and hit the brakes lightly while leaned over pretty far.  Felt the front stutter and slide a bit, but was able to remember all the advice I've read and seen videos about.

So I let go of the brakes, looked further into the turn, leaned over more, and gave it throttle.  You'll be surprised what a bike can do.

A scary moment, but learning safe riding even while off the road has really paid off in helping my decision making.

Yamanshi Sly and late night brake maintenance

Before heading to the track I stopped my Pete's place and he showed me how to:

Clean the brake callipers and pistons
Bleed the brake fluid
Change the brake pads

We were there until about 3am, when I finally finished in time to get a bit of rest before the next day's track sessions.

I was really able to improve my speed and get my knee down a couple more times. Only the right knee though since my left side is still a bit lacking and there is only one real left turn on the course.

I got tons of advice from Kawaguchi-san, Sam, Keith, and Pete.

A really fun weekend, and I learned a lot.

[Video coming soon]

I was really tired but took the long way home rather than the highway and hit up the mountain twisties in the dark.  Not the smartest idea and I sure did regret it a little bit when I got home exhausted.