Okay, the rubber friction piece on the handlebar mount instantly peeled off between the first use and second use. Contact cement should remedy this. I suggest purchasing a second mount if you plan on moving this light between bikes. There are both identical replacement mounting brackets or a hose-clamp style ones available. I’ve had mixed experiences with both types, so I can’t really recommend one over the other. Continue reading ‘Cateye HL-EL450 Update’
Monthly Archive for March, 2009
Page 2 of 6
On average, I have to say tonight’s ride sucked. The camaraderie was good. About half of the actual riding was fun. Dinner was great. The uphill parts of the riding absolutely sucked. Being wet, sweaty, muddy, and gritty sucked. Losing half of a pair of $45 USD Da Kine gloves sucked. Getting the inside of my FJ80 covered with mud sucked. Spending more time hosing down the bikes than riding time sucked. Dropping my light when cleaning up and breaking it sucked. I’m effing salty about this whole escapade now. When it started raining, I should have just gone the F home. I thought it would be OK, and besides, we hadn’t really gone on a mud ride in a while. I joked at dinner that we had to do one of these once in a while to remind ourselves not to do it. This was before I realized I lost the glove and before I broke the light. Great F I was right! I am so unbelievably pissed right now. Screw this sh*t! Double F! Continue reading ‘Muddy Trudge’
Does anyone see the irony of the Federal Building in Honolulu being landscaped with trees that are all on the State of Hawaii list of invasive or weed species? There’s Fiddlewood (Citharexylum caudatum) near the mauka entrance stairs, Formosa Koa (Acacia confusa) and several manicured Chinese Banyan trees (Ficus microcarpa) on the lawn, and a very heavy presence of Australian Tree Ferns (Sphaeropteris cooperi) along the ‘Ewa side. Heck, there’s probably Wedelia (Wedelia prostrata) somewhere over there too!
Is it also ironic that Kaiser Hospital, Moanalua has a hedge of poisonous Yellow Oleander (Thevetia peruviana)?
Go figure.
Sunday was overcast and windy, but conditions were still prime for a ride. I met Ckucke, Root, JT, and Kevyn in Waimanalo for a spin up the Demon Trail ride. Tracy joined us, but went up on foot instead of on wheels. She pretty much took off and we were constantly playing catch-up! I guess on the Demon Trail, being on foot is more efficient on average.
JT found some dog poop at the beginning of the climb. We went as far as the mango tree, then decided to continue climbing up to the Demon Trail and going in a ways. There were some surveyor’s tapes and stakes along Government Road, with “1/2” pipe, capped” indicated. I wonder what the water will be used for? After a rest at the end of the road, we started up the trail. Ground conditions were very good to begin with, but further in it became moist, giving rise to tire spin and kickouts on roots and slick rocks. The waterfalls along the trail were all wet. We paused at the big one to rinse JT’s tire and watch the little black waterbugs darting about. The streambed through the fairy forest was scoured of moss, indicating some fairly heavy water flow in recent weeks. Here and there was some new sloughing and slumping of the contour cut – new rubble piles littered the inside edges, and a large rootball blocked the trail. We rode as far as the second waterfall past the melaleuca grove, then turned around. JT was hurting from a bail into a rock garden, traction was dropping abruptly, and we had all experienced enough pain and suffering for one day. Continue reading ‘Poop Tire’
The remnants of a late afternoon downpour still darkened the asphalt in spots when I took the bike out for a spin on Friday. I had missed the Thursday Tantalus ride, so felt compelled to get some wheel time in also. Although it had rained moments before I got home, the sun was now dancing amongst the dissipating clouds. My legs were not in top form, but didn’t feel sluggish even though I have been off the bike for most of winter. I kept up an easy spin on the climbs so as not to strain knees already slightly sore from a week of snowboarding.
D = 12.17 km (7.56-miles), Vavr = 17.9 km/h (11.1-mph), Vmax = 39.6 km/h (24.6-mph), T = 41-minutes
It is funny how much media attention is being paid to the newer “slightly more grown-up” version of Dora the Explorer by disgruntled parents and children’s advocates. It’s just a fictional character people! They are all up in arms as if it were a real little kid – almost as if it were their own child being exploited. Heck, since they personalize it so much, shouldn’t they be proud that the dumpy, androgynous daughter that they are so emotionally invested in has grown up pretty? All the press releases have been very specific that the children’s television program will remain unchanged, and that particular character merchandising effort will also go unchanged. The new pre-teen character is a parallel toy marketing scheme aimed at older kids who grew up with the preschool-aged Dora and are now in the same “tweens” demographic. I bet the same people who are going nuts over this fictional character would be the first to speak out about how unhealthy or sick it is for otaku to be obsessing over fictional annie-may characters!
Arrived back, they really need to do something about the Wiki Wiki
shuttle, its really kind of embarassing. thankfully the weather is
cool. Im still on j time, i passed out after lunch, and now after
dinner im wide awake.
Some observations from this trip, bag is a little too big, encourages
taking too much, i didnt use all that i took. Makes it very awkward
when you cant roll it, and there is no side handle. That made it hard
for baggage handlers. Will need to tell Dakine.
Hmm… randon thoughts…
I think I definitely gained weight on this Japan trip. Ususally I lose weight from all the activity (snowboarding, walking all over the place) and generally healthy fare and correct portioning, but the crab dinner and several viking (buffet) meals have added up to extra centimeters around the waistline.
Let’s see… my flight is at 18:30, so I should be at the airport by say 16:00, so I should leave here at 15:00… If I finish packing by 10:00 when the stores open, I should have around 4-hours to hit all the book stores, Mandarake, the big Book-Off , and maybe swing by the toy levels of the two big electronics stores. I don’t think there are any new tankoubon out that I need right now, but there are a couple of figures that I’d like if the packaging fits in my luggage. I saw a Nogizaka Haruka figure at Yodobashi, but the box was a 30cm cube! That’s not going in my suitcase or boardbag!
That reminds me – I have to leave room in the boardbag for canned microbrew beers from the shop at the airport…
Time’s a wasting! Time to pack!
Okay, maybe not hate, but I don’t think I’ll be eating any for a while anyway! A few years back, I got a whole Hanasaki-gani with dinner at an inn in Rausu. It was split between two people, but was still quite a challenge to eat all of it. This time around, in a visit to Kawayu-onsen, the crab dinner came with crab sashimi, crab sunomono, crab nabe, crab miso soup, crab rice, crab tofu, and of course, a platter of whole crabs! There was no way we could possibly eat all of that crab. Even with a valiant effort, we didn’t even get through half of it. Only the dessert didn’t have crab in it! Unfortunately, it was the first day of a multi-legged onsen tour, so we couldn’t bag the unfinished crab and take it home with us. Zannen, desu… Continue reading ‘Journey to the East – I Hate Crab!’
Sorry, Lil! I had the one bottle of Delerium Tremens that was awaiting me here in Japan, but I don’t think I’ll be able to make it by the store today on the way to the airport to buy more to bring home. It was excellent, BTW. Definitely a four out of four! At least I know where I can get it here, so if we can’t find a way to get it in The States I can get it here.
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