Chris had some free time Last Saturday, so the fooligans gathered out at the Ditch for some pedal time. The weather wasn’t ideal – Hurricane Felicia had just passed, bringing some heavier-than-normal rains in her wake – and I was coming off a cold from the weekend before. Since we all hadn’t been riding for an extended period, nobody was averse to an easy Ditch ride. Root, Jeff, Sara, and Chris were already there when I pulled in. The ground was a little on the damp side on the climb up Government Road. There wasn’t a lot of deadfall, attesting to the lack of heavy winds associated with Felicia, but there were a couple of new large broken live branches across the trail – one was along this climb, and another out at the end of the Ditch. I was feeling hot, but considering the humid weather, I didn’t feel that it was unusual. Continue reading ‘Bronchitis Ride’
Archive for the 'bike' Category
Page 17 of 40
WTF?! While working on JT’s Turner Five Spot, I discovered that the screws that hold the derailleur hanger on are SAE – at least the heads don’t fit metric hex keys. 3mm was too big, and 2.5 was almost spinning – 7/64”? It would suck to have to change the hanger on the trail and not have the correct hex key because it isn’t represented on a bike-specific multi tool or metric hex key set.
The weather was crisp and sunny Wednesday afternoon on the Windward side, so I went for a spin. I was considering riding over to Kailua, but I wasn’t sure if there would be adequate daylight time. Instead, I rode up to the high point of Kamehameha Highway and looped thru Mokulele Drive and Namoku Street to K-Bay Drive. I headed toward the waterfront via the spooky tunnel behind the golf course driving range, but there was a sign where the road to Keana fishpond and the STP passes through a right-of-way at the back of the golf course prohibiting entry. Cars were going in and out, but since bikes and golf courses have a traditionally adversarial relationship, I turned around, not wanting to get hassled by the course marshall. Continue reading ‘Kaneohe Perimeter’
Weather was good on Monday afternoon, so I met Ckucke and JT up at St. Louis for some dirt time. I got stuck at work late because the alarm wouldn’t arm since Jeff had stacked his stuff against the wall, blocking an alarm sensor. By the time I got to the top, Ckucke and JT had dropped Upper Dumps and were riding up the road. I gave them a tow up to the parking lot. It was a little more difficult than catching a ride on Root’s Corolla, since the FJ80 was almost a foot wider. It was either run Ckucke off the left into the dirt, or run JT off the right into the roots. It was still early, so we were going to hit Upper Dumps again before Root arrived then go down a third time after he arrived. While I was gearing up, Ckucke regaled me with his tale of being at Nordstrom Rack and being visually oppressed by some mother sitting her toddler on the jeans table and lifting her giant tee-shirt to breastfeed the child, exposing her belly and breasts. Continue reading ‘Yammy Mammy’
Not sure what some people are thinking sometimes.
Like jelly-roll cottage-cheese-thigh uber-woman going slow on her beer-rack-commuter-bike in the left-most lane of King Street, blocking everyone trying to make left turns, wallowing from intersection to intersection, causing the same problem at each junction. What happened to “bikes on the right”? I guess at some point (maybe as far down as University), she has to make a left turn, so she had might as well be in that lane from the get-go. Just like all those people going slow up the left lane of Like Like in Kaneohe because they eventually have to turn left on School.
How about the driver of a white Nissan pickup truck with surfboard loops going up St. Louis drive crossing into the oncoming lanes on the turns because she was too lazy to turn the steering wheel more than a half-turn. She made no concessions to oncoming traffic, forcing them to slow down to accomodate her. What happened to staying in one’s own lane? Too much trouble? Some dumb excuse like it causes excessive wear to the tires and steering parts? Can’t be bothered? So self-centered that she feels that the rights of others pale in comparison to hers? It’s like all those people who pull left into the oncoming lane of traffic when making right turns.
I guess the problem lies in assuming people are actually thinking.
Haven’t gotten much riding in this week. I was going to take a spin this afternoon, but the weather threw a monkey wrench in that plan. It was beautifully sunny on the Windward side around ten, but not an hour later, it was dumping in Biblical proportions. This continued through sunset. Oh well. It’s looking like this may continue all weekend. Kuso!
We hadn’t hit St. Louis in a while, so we went up to play on Monday morning. When Ckucke called me on Sunday night, I briefly tossed around the idea of taking the XC bike, riding up, then coming down. Ckucke was fine with this. Better judgement kicked in, and it was decided that it would be a F/R bike day. I met Ckucke and JT and we did a quick circuit of Upper Dunps while we waited for Root to show up. Root was coming into the park when we reached the road, so we all tried to get a tow up the hill from his Corolla. There wasn’t much to grab onto, and I was on the left, so I was holding on with my right arm with the shoulder separation. Ckucke managed to hold on until the parking lot. Two dudes in a maroon Toyota pickup pulled in just after us. At first, JT and I thought it was Kevyn, since the paint color was the same as Jesus truck – like maybe he was coming by to hassle us. They had gone down once and were shuttling back up. Continue reading ‘Down Time’
Today, I saw something I couldn’t quite figure out. It was a dude on a chrome Bianchi fixie, but he was all decked out in matching tighties and jersey, with an expensive helmet, glasses, and clipless elf shoes like some Tour de France team rider or something. He was pimping the racer steez, but he was on a fixie and had a messenger bag. Huh? It was a fixie bike, but it had those behind-the-seat triathlon bottle cages (not the best match for the messenger bag). What? His bullhorn bars were wrapped so thickly with grip tape, they were about as fat as Red Bull cans. Um… Everything about him and his rig was non-sequiter. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he had aerobars, but I didn’t look. At least his wheels matched… Continue reading ‘I H8 Fixies’
My legs were tired from Sunday’s trail ride, but the weather was nice, so I went out for an easy ride to loosen things up. I kept the gears and effort low. Instead of doing laps, I stayed away from the climbs and just went back and forth up top. My hamstrings and calves were noticeably tight.
D = 11.89 km (7.39-miles), Vavr = 14.5 km/h (9.0-mph), Vmax = 35.4 km/h (22.0-mph), T = 49-minutes
On the drive over to the fountain to meet for the Sunday ride, JT told Ckucke that he needed more friends. This off-the-cuff comment caused a stir in the fabric of the universe, because all sorts of people came out of the woodwork to be our friends. Thanks, JT! Jeff and Sara bailed thinking the weather would be bad, but there was nothing but blue sky in Kailua. Jay and Ckucke were already there when I arrived. As I unloaded my bike, a dude and his son came over to talk story about bikes. After a bit, he wandered over to Ckucke and JT. Something JT said must have lit some kind of fire in the guy, because he went all “intense” and went over the top with his stories. He eventually went away, and Root showed up and we rolled out. Continue reading ‘BFF Ride’