10 Second Anime - Long Riders! - Episode 6

Ami revisits the site of her failed climb. The girls decide on a design and name for their club jerseys.

Episode 6 - "Fortuna"

Heh.

Revenge! Conquer that hill!

All her friends knew it was about revenge too!

Ami remembered the exact spot she laid on the side of the road. This is a known thing with cyclists.

Saki and Hinako were happy with Ami's progress as a cyclist. She's in better shape now too, so climbing the whole Yabitsu Pass was not just about being on a lighter bike.

They got their own reasons for being happy, though. Funny how they don't seem to worry about Aoi at all. Aoi is in the mid-range cycling craziness. Not wearing a real jersey with pockets and still wearing some kind of puffy running shorts over her compression shorts. Well, we'll call it "my pace," as the Japanese say.

Good! Ami actually has some real talent in doing something other than being the clumsy genki girl with a concerned younger sister. She's a real fashion designer.

I'm going to stop worrying about the inconsistent faces. Obviously, it's a feature instead of a bug going forward and I'll just content myself with the CGI bikes.

Saki's jersey says, "Demoness Believers Cycling Club." There's got to be an otaku related story mixed up in there.

Nice little curveball from Hinako denying Ami a chance to wear their team jersey at the Fleche next year. Yes to the jersey, no to the ride because she has to be 20 years old to enter it. She and Aoi will have to wait.

The whole scene with figuring out a name for their little club was pure Cute-Girls-Do-Cute-Things anime.

Look how Hinako's "Sweet Angel" is really a picture of herself.

Ha! Aoi's Team Amigo. It still has Ami's name in it!

Yayoi the gear head. Literally.

Fortuna wields the Wheel of Fortune! Nobody mentioned that Saki just used the Latin form of her name too? Saki means "good luck" or "fortune" you know.

Cycling Porn.

This week, we got some nice shots of Ami's Focus, bikes leaned up against things, marking the spot of failure on a climb, eating a gel and cycling club jersey stuff.

The deal with a group of friends designing and ordering their own custom kit was pretty much dead on. It used to be a much bigger hassle before e-commerce and high-speed textile manufacturing.

It's a known thing for cyclists to remember exactly where they were on the ground instead of an their bike during a ride. I've got a nice memory of puking on the side of a road on a local mile long climb when I was rebuilding from inactivity after an injury.

Weirdly enough, I can't figure out my failure sites if I'm going the other direction. So much memory of the failure is based on the other senses besides sight. Recently, I climbed up a road where I had crashed heavily years before, but I couldn't figure out where exactly it was. It was a right proper crash too. Flipped over handlebars, broken helmet, separated shoulder, scrapes and blood on knuckles, knees and butt cheek. But I couldn't recognize the blind right hand curve going up it turning left. Oh, and since the bike was okay, I still rode home 30 miles after that.

Ponta-kun is like the house pet and Ami's Focus has to sleep outside... Floor mounts for bikes are extremely varied with interesting design choices. This particular one looks like the bike could also be mounted rubber side down. Ami hasn't named the Focus yet either. So cold...

I've never seen this little ritual where the girls offer Ami little congratulation gifts of their cycling nutrition. Then again, when I ride with a bunch of dudes, our response to a guy making it over a climb for the first time is a wry, "You finally made it." It's said kindly, though...

I'm with Yayoi. I could look at her, ah, cassettes and sprockets all day. I notice that most of her pictures show an 11-Speed group, but there was an old 9-Speed cassette in there too. I'm older school in this regard. My bike originally came with 9 cogs but I upgraded to 10 about 7 years ago. For the last two years, Shimano hasn't made a 10-Speed Dura Ace chain, my preferred equipment, so I've had to go back down to Ultegra. My experience with Ultegra chains is that they just don't last as long as Dura Ace, but I switched when I was still a low cadence masher. Perhaps my higher cadence smoothness will match the old Dura Ace longevity.