Spent all morning climbing up some mountains, and then on the descent into Ebino disaster finally struck me down, in a callous blow of bad civil engineering.. What Ive been later told is referred to as a gai-jin trap. As you can see from photo at left, I had the choice of riding on a dangerous elevated road with no shoulder, or a leaf strewn disused service road that hairpinned down the mountain. I thought I had taken the safer option, but oblivious to the impending danger, I plowed down the service road straight into a ditch that was concealed beneath piles of fallen leaves. I made it out relatively unscathed, the bike was however not so resilient to the impact. There was obvious damage to the handlebars, and after remvoing the frame bag I found kinks in the frame tubing that made the front wheel hit the down tube. It was basically un-ridable and I had to walk for around an hour to Ebino train station where I forced my way onto the train despite lack of regulation bicycle bag. Repair efforts in Kagoshima failed, and a new frame was sourced in Fukuoka, well outside my dwindling budget at around $1500. Insurance policy on bike covered only damage whilst in transit, ie on a transport service such as plane or rail so I had to finish the ride in Ebino, but will definately return to Japan in the near future, with a stronger bike. GAI-JIN PIT TRAP REVEALED!
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