Dave tells me that the day after Valentine’s is Black Day in Korea. It supposed to be a day for singles, but I think its a total different meaning for the poor bloke we came across on the trail up St. Louis. Literally. Late this afternoon met up with Kevyn and Scat and shuttled up to the park. We were figuring on two runs, so cut to the right outside of mainline and took the nice little tight track. It was quite dry and conditions were getting a little sketchy, my back tire was getting quite skittish, but it was fun! We pop out in the middle of the jump zone, just before “Lawsuit”. Scat says something and then comes to a stop. I catch something white in my eye, then see it’s someone on the ground as I cruise by. I come to a stop as I hear the words “broken collar bone”. Uh oh. I see middle ageish caucasian dude is on the ground. I didn’t even realize that I had ridden between where his bike had stopped and where he landed. It’s a dually, he’s not set up for hardcore DH, he is with his young son. He’s quite coherent, knows what’s going on, and is quite calm. Which is good, for everyone, and I think really helps his young son, being all of seven years old. Continue reading ‘Black Day?’
Archive for the 'bike' Category
Page 14 of 40
Earlier last week, Chris let us know that Vince “Akron” was in town on a surfing trip with his friend, so we put together a ride this Sunday afternoon. The word went out, and surprisingly, everybody showed up. 10 riders! That’s the biggest turnout we’ve had in a while. After gearing up, we headed up Government Road and did the side loop. Ckucke and Akron immediately got into their classic banter as if no time had elapsed since the last time they had seen each other. Akron got to ride Chris’ long forgotten Planet X freeride hardtail. There were no problems as he adapted readily to it and kept the pace with the group. Continue reading ‘The Return of Akron’
JT’s frantic calls for a St. Louis ride were finally realized this past Thursday when we met at Kanewai Park to shuttle up to the top for a run. Kevyn had some neck pain, so he bowed out of the ride, but he graciously volunteered to shuttle us up. Twice! After he dropped us off at the top, we hit mainline to the concrete road and gave him a call. He met us at the park and gave us a ride back up. Cool! We took dumps on the second run, heading straight out the lowest trail at agave. I hadn’t been this way in a while, and was pleasantly surprised at the nice grooming at the beginning. This unfortunately got me up to a speed a little too high when the groomed dirt ran out and the frantic back-to-back rock jumps and drops began. I kept it together somehow and stayed with JT who was leading at dust-cloud-making speed. Ckucke and I traded bikes at the concrete road. He got a reminder of the true horror of riding a hardtail down St. Louis. His dual-squishy was sofa-comfortable, especially the Fox 36 up front which was way more supple than my Sherman even with 20mm less travel. Dammit! I need a new St. Louis bike!
Pictures here
D = 6.74 km (4.19-miles), Vavr = 16.4 km/h (10.2-mph), Vmax = 38.1 km/h (23.7-mph), T = 25-minutes
The blue-tinted grey sky stretched cloudless above the sprawling loose canopy of the albizia tree expanding above me. The muffled clicks of the DT hub grew slower and slower, drawing to a halting stop with one final delayed tick, like the heartbeat of a dying organism. Around me, the disturbed grass and shrubs settled back to their resting state as the dust settled. The sun cast dancing beams of light through the thickly hazy air below the swaying treetop like something out of a renaissance biblical painting. Was I dead? Had I passed into the next world and was being drawn toward the light?
Met up with Ckucke, Scat & Kevyn at St. Louis after work Thursday for a quickie downhill run. Weather was good, hit it while there’s a chance! By the time I met up with them at the jumps, the sun was getting low, so we headed down. Through Taco jumps, over to the twistys and down the ant hill drops, at the exit of agave, then out through the lower trail to exit at the water tank, where Ckucke promptly pinch flatted. Sun was setting, chased the sun out to the road, jumped in Ckucke’s ride and collected vehicles, then went for grub at Azteca. It was a quickie, but nice to be out!
More pics in gallery.
Chris had free time on Saturday, and the weather was outstanding, so he and I met Root and Ckucke out at the Ditch. Jeff and Sara were out on the water, and JT was working, so it was just the four of us. Although the sky was perfectly blue, the ground was still damp from rains on New Year’s Eve. We figured our best bet would be to stay up high, so we climbed Government Road and took the Demon Trail all the way to Pube Tree. Demon Trail was slightly damp, but no worse than usual. The further extent was a little grown in with invasive weeds. Continue reading ‘First Dirt of 2010’
Hit St. Louis after work with Ckucke, JT, and Root before heading to McBike. The weather was clear, but being a few days away from the shortest day of the year, we had little ride time before the twilight overtook the daylight and sent us into darkness. Nice to be out on the trails after such a long absence!
Pictures here
D = 5.23 km (3.25-miles), Vavr = 13.7 km/h (8.5-mph), Vmax = 42.6 km/h (26.5-mph), T = 23-minutes
Weird. Alexi from the old MTB XC racing days dropped by McBike on Tuesday. I knew he moved back to the Bay Area years back, but he’s been intermittently returning to the islands. This time, he returned with his >2-year-old daughter.
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I set the alarm for 01:30, but didn’t get up until 02:20. That didn’t give me much time before rolling out, but I at least ate some yogurt before heading over to Kaimuki. In anticipation of something like this, I had my kit all prepped from the night before. Food wouldn’t be a problem, since I had some bars and gels, and there would be a lot of idle downtime before start time. The sky was clear, but it was only starting to cool off from Saturday’s heat. There was very little outbound traffic, but the potential of HPD action kept me at the speed limit. The freeway was clear so my timing worked out about right. Chris and Mitch were already there at the KCC parking lot, and Ckucke and Root rolled in soon after. Quite amazing – everyone showed up for the 2009 Honolulu Marathon wheelchair division escort! Continue reading ‘Why the Heck Am I up so Early?’
The Honolulu Marathon is coming up, so tonight was the pre-event meeting for the wheelchair division bicycle escorts. The meeting was at the usual Church of the Croosroads, but the person who was supposed to open up the meeting room for us forgot, so we had the meeting out on the lawn. We were all returnees, and pretty much had the routine down, so Laura just gave us a brief on what minor changes there were and distributed the official vests. Ckucke, Root, and I had ridden down from Ckucke’s house, so we stopped in at Hide-chan for dinner then rode back home. Mitch was supposed to meet us, but he couldn’t find parking.
D = 7.31 km (4.54-miles), Vavr = 14.5 km/h (9.0-mph), Vmax = 27.5 km/h (17.1-mph), T = 30-minutes