Archive for the 'bike' Category

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Faeries, Ghosts, and Geisha Girls

Published on June 16, 2008 in bike by risu. Closed

I pushed the mountain today, and the mountain pushed back. On the loose descent from the concrete block hill, I met the Earth on a deep, personal basis.

StartI met Root, JT, and Ckucke out at Ditch for an afternoon spin. The air was still and the skies overcast. The humidity was almost unbearable. We duplicated the now normal Government Road, side loop, Ditch, upper trail, cardiac climb, concrete block, shoulder knocker, big tree, fat guy, inner loop, and out circuit that has been the standard for the past several rides. This week felt good. The heat was oppressive, but I didn’t feel worked like last week. Must be an “every other” ride thing – I felt fine two rides ago. Continue reading ‘Faeries, Ghosts, and Geisha Girls’

Skinny

Published on June 16, 2008 in bike by risu. Closed

Friday afternoon was sunny, so I went out for a spin on the Bridgestone. Getting out on a lightweight fully rigid bike felt good for a change. All pedal input immediately manifested as a surge of forward momentum, and, for better or worse, all the subtle and not so subtle nuances of the riding surface were transmitted directly up through the pedals, seat, and bars. The drop position for some reason made me automatically ride fast. “Mellow” had no place when the hands gripped the curves of the drops and the body was forced forward into a racing position. The skinny high-pressure tires spun up to speed immediately and I was quickly out of gears. The bike was put together with leftover parts – It really deserved something bigger than the 42t outer chainring and a cassette with an 11t in it. The climbs felt the most natural standing while gripping the handlebar ends. The heat quickly made me deplete my one bottle, so I did one last lap and headed home through the park. The perimeter running trail that was so smooth on the Ellsworth was a jarring tooth-rattler on the MB-1. Shaking around with my neck craned all the way out probably did no good for the sore neck that has been bothering me for a while.

D = 15.67 km (9.74-miles), Vavr = 20.6 km/h (12.8 mph), Vmax = 41.8 km/h (26.0 mph), T = 46-minutes

Natsu no Tomodachi

Published on June 10, 2008 in bike by risu. Closed

Mizutamari heiki jitensha de ikou yo
Natsu ga isoideru ano niji no masshita he…

Unconcerned by puddles, let’s ride our bikes
Summer’s hurrying by right below this rainbow…

As I reversed out of the driveway, the stereo finished indexing the USB drive and resumed playing CoCo’s “Natsu on Tomodachi”. I didn’t really pay attention to the lyrics before, but they caught my ear this time around. The weather report on Thursday was ominous with heavy showers predicted for the weekend, but they never fully materialized. There was a brief heavy downpour on Friday night, but Saturday morning was sunny and clear. If it did rain out at the trail, maybe there would be a few damp spots here and there, but I was unconcerned. Continue reading ‘Natsu no Tomodachi’

“returns must be accompanied by a receipt…”

Published on June 10, 2008 in bike and rant by oni. Closed

Fatherhood has changed me in some profound ways; ‘cute’ is now part of my vocabulary and I use it on a regular basis. I talk to people with babies. And like it. Other people come up to me and talk to me about “The Kid” and their kids and what not. On Sunday at Costco I had an oba-san walk alongside of me, coo’ing at “The Kid” to get him back to sleep as I tried to hide from the horde. I have developed more empathy for kids and parents and hot moms.

Am I lost? Was what made ‘me’ me gone? So you have to imagine my glee when I felt the return of the hate the other night at the shop. Know that feeling when you first step barefoot into mud? The hate is sorta like that wet, squishy sensation that makes a lot of sucking noises that you grow to like once you realize it’s warm and it’ll get all over everything and it’ll hide you from the Predator monster till you can gather your strength to go mano y mano with it. Continue reading ‘“returns must be accompanied by a receipt…”’

the wool blanket ride

Published on June 5, 2008 in bike by oni. Closed

Madam Pele had swathed O’ahu in a thick blanket of itchy vog. Throats scratched, heads hurt, and sinuses throbbed. The days were gray, albeit with some interesting light patterns as the vog diffused the sunlight. Occasionally, as the sun reached out for the horizon, it looked like an flaming orange. Sadly, it would quickly hide behind the impenetrable vog.

Despite the dire warnings of the well gelled talking hair on the evening news, the call went out for a ride on Friday night.

Slightly different group this time, Foes was off island, looking at the cool cars. Home Grown was in, as was Svelte Turner and Mr. Moment and Mrs. Ventana. Rounding out the group was the Yeti, able to be out and play for the evening. The other Mr. Moment was at home, listening to the anal rendition of Elton John’s ‘Rocket Man’. Bad news indeed. Continue reading ‘the wool blanket ride’

Back after a Long Absence

Published on June 2, 2008 in bike by risu. Closed

Ckucke the climbing machineThe partially cloudy skies and moderate tradewinds on Saturday made for perfect riding conditions. I hadn’t been anywhere near a bike for over two weeks ever since that bout with bad tapioca, so I was a bit worried that I would be in the suffering seat on this ride. The traffic into Waimanalo was typically bad on Kalanianaole at the merge, so I got to the trailhead a little behind schedule. Ckucke and Root were already there, but Jeff and Sara were running late since Sara had forgotten her jersey and didn’t want to ride topless for some reason. Continue reading ‘Back after a Long Absence’

Trials boys go… dirt jumping?

Published on May 29, 2008 in bike by taro. Closed Tags: .

That’s right, Sunday, at high noon, Ken, Nathan and Reef met up and headed to the Koko Head Park dirt jumps. I actually rode up in the blazing heat to join up with them. I thought they were daft for choosing this time of day, and yet here I was. The one good thing was that there wasn’t anyone else crazy enough to be baking out here. We had the jumps all to ourselves.  Kinda nice flailing amongst friends, no worries about looking like an ass.

It was bone dry, the upper table jumps were getting eroded, but the middle jumps were packed down and maintained well. The newest one had quite a good kick to it. It actually was quite fun. Nathan was managing to clear the little speed bump doubles, I swear he was getting more air off of those than the big jumps! I know he was working a heck of a lot harder to clear those. As the day went on, a couple of regulars showed, hit some jumps, then went off to ride Kailua. A trio of groms rode through, and at the end of the day, one of the old fart guys came to hit the jumps. We were actually amazed at the lack of riders on this long Memorial weekend day.

It was something different for trials riders, I think we’ll do it more!

More pics here.

Fat Bastard

Published on May 21, 2008 in bike by risu. Closed Tags: .

It’s Wednesday afternoon and it’s raining on the windward side.  Looks like no riding today.  Boo.

I miked myself on the scale the other day – I lost 4.5 kg (10 lbs.) from the gastroenteritis!  That’s over a kilogram a day!  Too bad losing that much weight in 3 days in that manner sucked so much.

Monkey Lite

Published on May 20, 2008 in bike and Review by risu. Closed

Whoo-hoo!

Monkey LightInstalledScored an Easton Monkey Lite  DH freeride/downhill carbon fiber riser handlebar for dirt cheap.  It’s one of the last non-PRC-made Easton handlebars (hecho en Mexico), and is, of course, in the discontinued-for-2008 25.4mm (1″ standard) stem clamp size.  At around 225 grams, it is only about 25 grams lighter than the EA70 Monkeybar it replaces, but it should offer a better ride and more turning stiffness.  The orange center section almost exactly matches the color of my Chase frame!  Score!

It was cheaper than the $75 USD quarter window vent trim for my FJ80.

Hammer Girl

Published on May 19, 2008 in bike by taro. Closed

Friday, May 16, vog haze is super strong, to me it looks worse then past weeks strong vog. Anyway, the weather aside from that has been clear so the Friday night ride is on! This time I scram from work on time. 5PM on a friday, I expect the traffic getting onto the freeway from the Lunalilo to be a mess, but instead its moving. In fact once on freeway it’s flowing right along and I cruise along to Pali. Dang, it takes me only about 25 minutes to get to the Castle fountain and park! Jeff, Sara, and Chris are here, and Jeff rubs his eyes in disbelief that I’m so early. Continue reading ‘Hammer Girl’