Does it belong to George?

A perfect discovery for Halloween.

Happy Halloween everybody.

scub and kimba

River Community

I paused for a moment on the small bridge over the Nogawa River. (Gawa means river, so it really should be called, "No River" or Nogawa. But, hey, what can I do?)
The view was nice, the sun was setting and the air cool and refreshing.

Bridge over Nogawa

Custom

Here's a closer view of the Custom parked near Kimba. The windscreen for the Custom comes with a hard shell cover. It's a bit too much cover for my tastes. Plus, I think they wisely did not offer it for the round headlight Cubs, since the style is clearly more akin to a sharp lined bike.

scub

I Park. They Park.

I visited a nearby, well nearby on a Cub that is, a nearby department store to pick up some things. When I pulled in, mine was the only bike.
I came out not even 10 minutes later, and lo and behold, two other Cubs had pulled in right next to me. The nearest has been fashioned for delivery with the ubiquitious pendulum attached. The top springs are covered with a plastic bag. You can see how high the whole contraption sticks up into the air!

It's a fairly new model, judging by the emblem placement, probably not more than 1 or 2 years old. The third one, is a "Custom". Honda offers a slightly different model, with square headlights/blinkers, squared off fenders, different speedo gauge, fuel gauge. I think it might come with a 4 speed transmission, as well.

scub

Everyday site

You can't get far without seeing Hondas used for deliveries. Here, you can see two bikes. The one on the left is a Yamaha "Town Mate". While the other is a Super Cub 50.

scub

More errands

The Yakimo guy is prowling the neighborhood, announcing his product. Yakimo, or sweet potato.

Time to hit the streets and pay some bills. Ouch.
Sun is shining, and the fall weather awaits.
So, without further ado...

I'll bring along the Canon to capture images of any Cub that crosses my path!

supercublogger

pic quality

Hello Everybody.

Please excuse the grainy quality of the photos, particularly those of other bikes. They were taken w/ a keitai (cell phone) camera at very low light conditions or a Canon FV200 DV video camera with limited low light capabilities.

I don't want to alter the photos in any way. I will try to bring up the gamma a bit sometimes, but that's all. And only when it's too dark to see what I'm talking about. Keep in mind that the brighter I bring up the images, the more grainy they become.

I won't use a software program to alter the photos. I prefer the real "street" look. Sorry for those photoshop fans out there.

In my other life, I use very high quality, very expensive pro imaging software for film and digital video. You know the names. This blog will be a departure from such machinations.

Enjoy.
supercublogger

little cub = smaller wheel diameter

You can see the smaller wheel size here compared w/ kimba in the background. This bike had less than 800km on it, but was covered in small stickers. Funny.

3 Cubs

I spotted these 3 at a conbini tonight. The red is a Cubra, and the yellow is a Little Cub.
The Little Cub has a smaller wheel/tire diameter, smaller indicator lights, smaller, rounded leg guards than the Super Cub.
Kimba is on the left.

scub

little cub

pendulum

You can see the level position of carrier tray, compared with the sharp angle of the parked cub. Neat. I wonder what it would be like to sit on that thing, as a seasoned driver takes a turn at 35kph!

supercublogger

42,916kms

that's a lot of noodles!

Not a drop!

Here's a cub used for delivery. You can see the spring mounted pendulum device mounted on the rear carrier. The tray, when loaded, holds huge square aluminum boxes with stacks of bowls of noodles inside. And not a drop is spilled.

Typhoon 23

This one was bad.

So far, 31 dead, 39 missing.
I can't remember one this bad in all the years I've been in this country.

Many were buried alive in their homes when mudslides brought down nearby slopes of trees, rocks, and dirt. Houses and people disappeared under the earthen blankets.

Others, were swept away while trying to secure sea walls during the storm. Others trying to rescue them, also perished.

Passengers were stuck in a tourist bus on a highway as the water blocked passage on the roadway. Seeing the walls of water coming at them, they scrambled to the roof of the bus, as the water rose quickly to almost cover the roof as well. Cars nearby were completely submerged.

The Self Defence Force, Japan's military component, came to the rescue with helicopters and "zodiac" water craft, rescuing all of the bus passengers.

All in all, a tough night for many here in Japan.

I'm about to head out over here and take a look at the Typhoon damage in my area. I usually do this after each hard storm. And when I do, I'm always amazed when look about at the fallen trees, the risen water heights of the rivers, the broken houses, twisted umbrellas, and swirled patterns of dust and dirt the wind designed for her own amusement.

When I see these things, I stand in awe of what Mother Nature can do.
And I know Man's piddling intentions are no match for her sublime direction.

supercublogger

Tokyo, hold together!

Typhoon 23 is moving in on Tokyo You can see the outer circle which encloses the rain sphere. The inner red circle is the area of intense rain and wind.
There have already been several deaths, and many evacuations attributed to the typhoon. Landslides and flooding occurred in the southern area of Shikoku and Hyogo prefecture.
You can see the speed of the typhoon is around 60km/hour.
Let's hope Tokyo can hold together.

supercublogger

from the balcony

update: Typhoon is right over Shikoku island. Lot's of people are being evacuated. Up here in Tokyo, the airports are flooded with people stuck from flight delays. The typhoon should reach Tokyo by 8 or 9pm.
Yup. The cub is covered.

Typhoon's path

This image shows the predicted path of Typhoon 23.



On the chart there are three important pieces of data. The first is the past typhoon track, which is shown as a solid line.

The second is its current position, which includes central pressure, maximum sustained winds and gusts, current movement, and size and intensity.

The third is the forecasted movement for the typhoon. The forecasted track not only shows the expected movement of the typhoon, but also shows a circle. The winds within this circle are at speeds of 25 m/s or greater.

Anything that falls within this circle has at least a 60% chance of experiencing these winds.

(information courtesy of TBS)

Typhoon 23

Looks like there will be no riding today. The Super Cub stays under the cover. Typhoon 23 is making its way across the islands of Japan. Today, Wednesday, we'll get the worst of it here in Tokyo.

a quick stop off at the Koganei Post Office

speedo2

speedo2, originally uploaded by supercublogger.

Not too many creature comforts on this bike. No extras. Plain and simple, hands on riding. Speedometer that goes to 60kph, odometer, some "redline" indicators for the 3 gears, a "N" designating when in neutral (only possible when the bike is stopped on new models), and a turn signal indicator (hard for me to notice blinking away when wearing a full face helmet).

Odometer-wise, that's 242km on there. That's 242km more than was on the bike when I got it on October 2nd. There would be a lot more, had we better weather.

We've been hit with a string of typhoons here in Japan, so I haven't been able to ride as much as I'd like. That's for sure. So, without a doubt, that "mileage" reading would be much higher had there not been so much rain.

And since, I'm a new rider, and don't have the riding chops for rain riding yet, it's probably a good thing.

supercublogger

The Purchase

I finally did it. I bought a cub. No, not a bear. Not a lion. But a Honda. A Honda Super Cub. Those ubiquitous little motorbikes that populate the streets, alleys, and yes, sometimes sidewalks of Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe, and practically everywhere else in Japan.

What I'm going to do here, in this blog, is chronicle the daily, weekly, and monthly exploits of the Super Cub named Kimba. The name comes from the Kimba the White Lion. A cartoon I watched as a child, along with others like Speed Racer, Gigantor, Robot 8, and Johnny Quest. Kimba, along with many others, was made by animation pioneer Tezuka, of Atom Boy fame.

I'm not an animation freak, by any means. I just happen to enjoy some of those old ones. Kimba stood out for me. It was remade into The Lion King with Disney not giving credit to Tezuka for the inspiration to their huge money maker. Shame on you, Disney.

Anyway, back to the cub...

Check back here often and feel free to post.

Let the adventure begin.

Sincerely,
supercublogger (aka "scub") and kimba