Ever since the demise of my Camelbak Better Bottle, I’ve been waiting expectantly for the release of Nalgene’s entry into the straw-bottle market. The prototype began appearing online on gear blogs at the end of last year and trade shows at the beginning of the year, with the production model supposedly hitting the shelves by mid-year. For a long time they were vaporware and didn’t even appear as line items on order sheets. Only now are they starting to trickle into retailers. The bottle itself doesn’t even appear on Nalgene’s site at the time of this post! McBike just got their first shipment in, so here’s a brief rundown from a cursory inspection. The bottle itself is 600ml (20-ounce), and is about the same height as the standard 1-liter bottle, but has a reduced diameter. The mouth is the standard Nalgene “wide mouthâ€. The BPA-free plastic bottle is made in The USA. Continue reading ‘Nalgene Outdoor Multi Drink Bottle’
Author Archive for risu
Page 34 of 95
WTF?! Pearl Highlands has their holiday decorations up already. I took this picture on the 6th of October!
Whoa! What do I see here?
On one of the several weekly stops I made to Lion Coffee’s ‘Iwilei cafe and factory, I spotted something different in the premium rack. The apparently managed to get their hands on some rare Jamaican Blue Mountain beans, and peaberries (single bean per berry) no less! The vast majority of this production goes straight to the Japanese market, so it is rare to see it outside of Jamaica or Japan. I’ve had Blue Mountain blends in Japan before, but being blends, they were unremarkable and indistinct. Here was some 100% stuff, so now was the chance to taste what the fuss was all about.
Grinding a serving and brewing up a cup, the flavor was fantastically smooth but still richly full-bodied with a clean finish that left a hint of a chocolatey taste from the abundant oils. Even simply handling the beans leaves a lingering dark chocolate aroma on your fingers.  The medium roast that was selected was perfect, bringing out the best flavor without any hint of bitterness or burnt taste. Wow. I’ll have to do a side-by-side with some Kona peaberry, but if my flavor memory serves me correctly, the Blue Mountain brings more flavor to the table while carrying less bitter baggage. They’re both good, but they are different. Now to find some Kopi Luwak… Continue reading ‘Lion Coffee 100% Jamaican Blue Mountain Peaberry’
Chikusho! Kuso! WTF?! This is the worst Napoleon’s Apple Napple I’ve ever had! POS! MF-er! There is no apple filling, but there is this sweet, white, grainy stuff inside that tastes suspiciously like coconut… Darned part-timers!
(0)Sunday, 26 September 2010
I got back from Japan on the morning of Saturday the 25th, so after getting the laundry going, I ate and turned in early. The weather on Sunday was nice and breezy, so I met up with Jeff, Sara, Danny, and Paul out at the Ditch for a spin. There was a rental Ford parked sideways in the gravel parking area. Jeff said that when he arrived, a tall-ish Caucasian dude with tiny running shorts and a tank top was getting out of the car. Jeff briefly thought that it was Chris in an unfamiliar car dressed funny, but the guy went running into the trail. Darned trail runners! I thought only triathletes didn’t know how to ride, drive, and park. Continue reading ‘Hit the Ground Rolling’
Well, it’s Silver Week again, and I see all the shiny-skirted, tall-shoed JDM gals and white-tee-shirted JT-wannabe guys around town.
(0)
Epic conditions demanded a Sunday ride. Everyone besides Root and I were otherwise occupied or out of action, so it was just the two of us on a Ditch ride on probably the best conditions of the entire summer thusfar. We did the normal side loop, Ditch, cardiac hill, leaning trees, ironwood hill descent run, but after returning to Government Road, we still felt prime and there was adequate daylight remaining, so we took another lap on the side loop. Climbing the second time warm was a lot easier than going up cold off the start. There were a lot of people out on the trail today, from runners and trail pedestrians to horse-walking lady and flatland horse guy to a surprising number of bike riders.
Pictures here
D = 14.02 km (8.71-miles), Vavr = 11.7 km/h (7.3-mph), Vmax = 34.4 km/h (21.4-mph), T = 1-hour, 11-minutes (actual trail time about two-and-a-half hours)
I got home early enough this afternoon to get some bike time in before it got dark. The weather was overcast with a light breeze, but it was still rather hot. I was hoping that getting back into the normal riding routine would possibly help me shake the bronchial spasms that have been bugging me after I got over a cold. Other than a few coughing fits and a touch of a runny nose, my standard training loop went normally. My “seat contact areas†were still sore from this past Sunday’s ride, but I felt back on the game breathing and power-wise. The herd was out today, and again blocked up the works. They were a whirlpool of random movement across the whole width of the roadway. As I passed them head on, riding on the right side of the road as per the standard practices of road traffic in the United States of America, one bikecow just rode toward me on the wrong side of the road with a blank look on her face. Like a deer caught in the headlights, she didn’t yield back onto her side of the road and just stayed directly in front of me, even when I was about a bike length from hitting her head-on. I had to move slightly toward the center of the road to avoid colliding with her. Right-of-way or not, I avoided her as a matter of self-preservation: A collision with her would have definitely resulted in damage to my bike and person. Idiots.
D = 13.15 km (8.17=miles), Vavr = 17.5 km/h (10.9-mph), Vmax = 38.0 km/h (23.6-mph), T = 45-minutes
As a bonus for working on a bike for one of Chris’ friends, I scored 6 German domestic market Heineken pilsener beers. Although carrying the same pils appellation as the green-bottle Heineken sold on the USDM, this brown-bottle Heineken is noticeably different. Instead of the flowery sweet hopping that I expected, there is more of a bitter initial flavor with just a hint of honey before the flavor of malt takes over. The malty middle fades seamlessly into a very clean finish. The color is a clear amber. The carbonation is light, forming a 1cm head on decanting that dissipates quickly. This is much more drinkable! This definitely is different than the brown-bottle Heineken Special Dark Lager sold on the USDM – it is quite obviously a pils. It is less bitter than Wernesgruener, but similarly refreshingly easy to drink. I’m sold. Now I understand why they go through the trouble of bringing it back from Europe! Continue reading ‘Beer is Good – GDM Heineken Pilsener’
Sunday morning was damp from overnight rains, so the patchy sunlight from mid-morning through the early afternoon cooked up a thick humidity that sat and stewed because of the lack of wind. Chris arrived soon after I did, being anxious to ride. I was a bit surprised to see Paul show up with Jeff, Sara, and Danny, considering this was the loop that had broken him once. With Ckucke rolling in, the group was complete and we geared up for the grueling ride. I got laid out with a cold the week after out last Luana ride, so I was operating with some lingering chest issues, and legs that hadn’t been on a bike for nearly three weeks. With restricted oxygen uptake, my body gave up quickly on the climbs. Once we left the pavement, I was pretty much off the back. As much as I wanted to stay on the bike and just spin a low gear on the climb from the mud bog up to the big tree, I just didn’t have it in me. I was considering turning back, but I figured if I could make it to the top of Government road, I could probably make the rest of the ride. Although I had to stop numerous times along the climb, I made the top. Continue reading ‘Still Dragging’