With the weekends before the Whistler trip dwindling, we have not one but two tropical cyclones on the way to ruin the prospects for riding this coming weekend. At this time, it looks like Iselle will pass to the South, and in a couple of days, Julio will pass to the North. Iselle hasn’t made landfall on the Big Island just yet, but it was just downgraded to a tropical storm. Julio was upgraded to a category 3, but is expected to weaken to tropical storm strength before skirting the state. Genevieve that gave us bad weather a couple of weeks ago when it passed far South of us as a tropical depression is currently heading toward Japan as a category 5 super typhoon.
Archive for the 'bike' Category
Page 4 of 40
Monday, 04 August 2014
I was pretty beat down from Sunday and had no intention of riding today, so I didn’t really do anything proactive recovery-wise yesterday in anticipation of getting on a bike today. The weather wasn’t perfect when I got home, but there appeared to be little chance of rain. This and the probability of deteriorating conditions starting midweek from approaching hurricanes motivated me to climb back aboard the pain machine. Needless to say, the ischial arches were sore from yesterday’s extended saddle time, and the pedaling muscle groups caught the burn almost instantly, but putting on distance loosened things up.
D = 9.19 km, Vavr = 15.7 km/h, Vmax = 36.0 km/h, T = 35-minutes, A/D = 135 m
Sunday, 03 August 2014
Only Root and I were open for a trail ride on Sunday, so we headed out to Sunset Hills to take advantage of the good weather. The ride started out somewhat normally, climbing up to the agricultural facility, dropping down to Lilikoi Junction, then climbing up to the plateau to drop Deadwood to the bunker. Then things got a little convoluted. Continue reading ‘Sunset Mystery Tour’
Been working out various things for action camera filming and one was improving on the pole. Started with one of those ultra compact telescoping chrome steel poles. It worked as a pole, but the only thing it really had going for it was that it collapsed down small enough to stuff into a cargo pocket for the lift ride up. Being steel it wasn’t particularly light for its size, but worse yet was it relied on friction fit to hold the segments which makes it wiggly.
I then got a pair of Leki carbon hiking poles and adapted it to mount a camera to its tip. The pole is very light. It’s great as hiking poles. However it had some issues for use an action camera pole. It has a 1/4×20 camera mount adapter, but that was quickly abandoned as it is too flimsy for action use. I then created a Frankenstein adapter for the tip, which I think I’ve blogged about in the past. That worked. The collapsed size is a bit long, too long to fit inside my riding backpack, not a major issue. The biggest issue was that it used twist lock to hold the segments. This was a problem in that using it with a camera mounted to the end, the segments would unscrew allowing the camera to flop around. You could try and screw the lock really tight, but it would present a challenge of aligning the camera the way I wanted consistently, and when I wanted to collapse it to stow for transport or lift ride it was a pain.
I guess the usage of “extreme” has not died yet as NW insists on using it for their top of the line cycling shoes. I got a pair of these MTB older models on closeout for a great price. Non-clown/superhero color of black. They feature a carbon sole and a top ratchet strap and lower “winch” lace system. It’s not BOA, which I find interesting since they use actual BOA brand closures on a coupe of their other shoes. I’m hoping this will give me a more secure fit that the Velcro strap closures on my current Scotts can’t.
I think Kuliouou is Hawaiian for eternally sucks on a mountain bike. This Sunday when ride plans fell apart, I found myself awake and ready to ride before 8:00 in the morning. I decided to go do Kuliouou although its universally hated among us. I figured the rain showers overnight had pretty much missed this area so it had a good chance of not being a muddy mess. 
By the time I decided and rode out from the house, I got to the trailhead a bit past 9:00. The street was already lined with cars and a number of hikers heading up. Yes, it was hot already, and getting hotter.
Wednesday, 30 July 2014
OK, there was a one-day gap there, so maybe it doesn’t count, but hey – that’s still 32 km this week! I dropped the fork pressure a bit since I still wasn’t getting full travel.
D = 11.0 km, Vavr = 15.8 km/h, Vmax = 33.3 km/h, T = 42-minutes, A/D = 149 m
Monday, 28 July 2014
Weather was great, so even though I rode yesterday, I took an afternoon spin. With the unstable weather, I figured I should get in as much riding time as possible when I could get it.
D = 8.78 km, Vavr = 16.1 km/h, Vmax = 34.0 km/h, T = 33-minutes, A/D = 136 m
Sunday, 27 July 2014
There was a plan brewing for a weekend ride on Friday, but nothing fell together. I’ll shoulder the blame for that one. I was dead tired on Friday night, so I went to sleep shortly after getting home and showering. Chris and Root were up for something, but because I was out of touch, no plans were made, so we missed a chance to get some trail riding in on Saturday morning. Our subsequent planning discussion started too late and any possibility of a group endeavor on either weekend day fell apart. Still, I had to get out and do something, so I took a neighborhood spin on Sunday afternoon.
D = 12.7 km, Vavr = 15.2 km/h, Vmax = 35.6 km/h, T = 50-minutes, A/D = 179 m
Wednesday, 23 July 2014
Oh well. When I got home, the weather looked unhapy, even though everything was fine and sunny less than an hour before on the traffic cameras. I still wanted to at least get a spin on the modded Moment “A2” to see how everything felt, so I went out for my normal neighborhood spin. Not unexpectedly of course, within about 10 minutes it started to drizzle, so I returned home. I did get in the whole loop, but didn’t get to do any sprints or climbing interval laps. Continue reading ‘Turned Back by Rain’