The legend of Steve Bauer is alive and well in Japan
Once again, we will stay put with the hope of getting some constructive help with Barry’s trike. Trek Bikes is a Shimano dealer, so we’ll start there. The roads were very quiet this morning for our ride. The guys at Trek felt that Barry’s difficulties with his motor required a different mechanic, so we went to Charinkoworks. And what a contrast. Trek is shiny and modern while Charinkoworks is oldschool, with the owner mechanic out on the street fixing a customer’s bike, young fellows-avid cyclists hang out there. We could see that he was an ace mechanic. His wife was determined to help (in Japanese) and there was us trying with smiles, pointing, using our translator to help them understand. Their kindness and sense of humour saved the day. A highlight was when the mechanic understood we were from Canada, his eyes lit up and he excitedly said, Steve Bauer, Tour de France with 2 fingers held up. A connection was made. A bit of background…Steve Bauer rode in the Tour de France 11 times between 1985 and 1995. In 1990 he wore the yellow jersey 9 times (meaning he won those stages) but in 1984 he won a silver medal at the LA Summer Olympics. Few Canadians at that time (and since) have had this kind of success on the world stage of cycle racing. It was exciting for Barry to connect with this mechanic who shared appreciation of someone they both admire. And this was done with no conversation…just the mention of Canada and his eyes lit up. They connected Barry’s electrical system to their computer and ran a firmware update. It showed that his cycle computer was low in charge but they had no way to fix that. Perhaps the cable leading to the computer from the motor also needs replacing. We left the shop with the motor working well….yippee. However, we know that there are still problems, so we cross our fingers that it will work.
Three cheers for Charinko!
The owner/mechanic, his wife and their son/grandson? doing the update on B’s electrical system.
The team and friends of Charinkoworks. Left to right: Kuni, the wife, wearing the same helmet as us, Hiro..the “hero” of the day, Barry, Kimi (perhaps the son or grandson of the couple, Take (friend and speaks excellent English thanks to a teacher at school who is from Newfoundland) and Kaisei.
Kimi is an aspiring pro cyclist. He trains hard, lifts weights and is keen to find his place in the cycling world. Here he proudly shows his racing bike. A lovely young man. He and his friend Take took turns going for rides with us to test Barry’s motor.
We rode away in jubilant spirits due to the incredible experience we had with these people at Charinko. It is an experience that we will never forget. We were there for hours and they would not accept any payment so we shared with them a few things we brought from Canada. We hope Barry’s motor continues to work.
We will spend the rest of the day going to the island of Sakurajima, the site of the volcano. We don’t have time to go up the volcano, but we will spend time at the thermal hot springs foot bath for some R&R.
It’s funny, we live on an island and we are always drawn to these island communities when we travel.
Sakurajima is known to have large colonies of cats who live wild but are very affectionate to strangers. The legend is that if you come here and see cats, they will sing to you.
We have had a truly magical day. We met some of the best people you could imagine at the bike shop and then our day culminates in a ferry ride home from the magical island of Sakurajima.
