Author Archive for risu

Page 38 of 95

Ride Denied

Published on May 30, 2010 in bike by risu. Closed

The long Memorial Day weekend demanded a ride. We were all set for a Saturday outing, but then I remembered that I had something to do on Saturday, so after a flurry of emails, the ride was moved to Sunday. The weather was iffy on Friday with heavy downpours, but Saturday was clear and breezy. The good weather lasted through to Sunday, so we were set for a full Luana loop.

Almost like clockwork, Chris called before the ride and said something had gone horribly wrong at his folks’ place. Last week it was a plumbing main leak. This week it was all electricity. The main service line had gone dead sometime during the week, so the ‘fridge had gone into meltdown and released its contents as a foul liquid. Yet again he was denied a ride. Jeff’s back was tired, so he opted out of the ride, and JT was off gallivanting in Texas, so it was just Ckucke, Root, and me. Continue reading ‘Ride Denied’

CMC Rescue Survivor 8

Published on May 23, 2010 in Gear and Review by risu. Closed

CMC_CMICMC_rescue_8Here’s another goodie I picked up when Fabio ordered from Rescue Direct – CMC Rescue’s Survivor 8 descender. Far smaller and lighter than my CMI Rescue Figure-8, this micro version is designed for personal emergency escape. Forged from aluminum, it is machined to shape and given a mil-spec hard-anodized finish. In conjunction with a lightweight carabiner and a rigger’s belt, a very unobtrusive escape rig can be put together without a massive weight penalty. The figure-8 and a lightweight carabiner can be easily pocketed or stashed in something like a double handcuff case or exam glove pouch on your rigger’s belt. I haven’t had the opportunity to test it out yet on a descent, but put it on some rope to see how it would function. It is designed for smaller 9mm ropes. I tried running some ½” Army green line through it, and it sort-of fits, but the rope will probably rub in the middle, even under tension when this twisted rope thins down. It’s not a good idea to run line this big – better keeping it below 11mm. The 7.5mm rope I ran thorough it looked a lot better. It appears that here would be enough room to run that size doubled, or to even pass it knotted. Continue reading ‘CMC Rescue Survivor 8’

Through the Pinhole

Published on May 22, 2010 in bike by risu. Closed

We got a pretty good crew together for a Ditch ride on May 22nd. Although the ride was at Chris’ instigation, he called the morning before the ride to say that he had gone up to his folks’ place, and discovered a big wet spot on the side of the house where a little pinhole leak in the water main had been spraying. He would be spending the rest of the day waiting for the plumber to come and splice in a new section of copper pipe. The rest of the crew met out at the Ditch, and we did the normal climb, side loop, rode out along the Ditch, doubled back on the inner loop, then repeated the outbound leg to the end. Jeff, Sara, JT, and Danny took the trail out to the street, but Root and I took advantage of the good weather and blasted back along the trail for some additional dirt time. The weather was warm and sunny, but a fairly constant breeze kept it cool, even under the tree cover. Continue reading ‘Through the Pinhole’

Allergy Stank

Published on May 13, 2010 in rant and SUAR by risu. Closed

Driving home the other day, I detected the faint sickly-sweet smell of something blooming along the highway. It was dark, so I couldn’t quite see if the albizia trees were starting to go off. Yesterday, I headed home while there was still daylight out, and lo, it was not the albizia but instead the Formosa koa to blame. Mango is over, avocado is finishing, and now it is the Formosa koa. Happy allergies!

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Surprise SAE

Published on May 13, 2010 in bike and rant by risu. Closed

Weird. I was killing time before an appointment today, so spun by City Mill for some miscellaneous stuff I needed, amongst them, a replacement setscrew pedal pin for one of my sets of Atomlab pedals. Being an American BMX/FR company, I automatically assumed the pedal screws and pins would be SAE (I remember back to the days of being pissed to discover that Crupi stuff was not metric), but after digging through the various inch-measure setscrews and finding they didn’t match up to my sample setscrew, I checked the metric ones and discovered they were indeed M4! Hooray! Go metric!

Your Yarisn’t a Vit’z a Belta

Published on April 26, 2010 in car, rant and SUAR by risu. Closed

Saw a 4-door Toyota Yaris sedan today with the “Yaris” nameplate on the low liftover bootlid replaced with a “Vitz” nameplate. Fool JDM tuner wannabe n00b! 30-seconds of web time would tell you that you sedan is called the Belta on the JDM, and the Vitz is only the five-door hatchback! The JDM doesn’t even have the 3-door hatch, so technically there is no such thing as a three-door Vitz. The three-door is only available in North America and in Europe as a Yaris.

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Out of the Woodwork

Published on April 24, 2010 in bike by risu. Closed

Got out for a ride on Saturday, 24 April with Chris and Root. This was the first ride since Akron was in town. The weather had been extremely uncooperative, with sunny weeks and rainy weekends for a while, and schedules just didn’t seem to work out either. Finally we were on the dirt once again. With mixed sun and clouds, we headed up Government Road, managing the ascent to the side loop entrance with a lot less pain and suffering than expected. We were actually jaw-jacking the whole way, albeit riding in a lower gear than normal, probably. The ground was perfectly moist and grippy where it wasn’t covered with leaves through disuse. Continue reading ‘Out of the Woodwork’

I Can’t Accomplish Anything Because…

Published on April 22, 2010 in Culture, rant and SUAR by risu. Closed

It’s funny how Auntie Linda’s weekly radio address has degenerated from gratuitous self-back-patting for the rare, phantasmically intangible, or elusive gains and accomplishments that she percieved that herself or her cronies were responsible for, to whining partisan political blame-laying and finger-pointing as to why she can’t accomplish anything.  Waiter, this lame duck is salty and bitter, please take it back to the kitchen.

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Vested Interest

Published on March 24, 2010 in rant and SUAR by risu. Closed

Auntie Linda’s personal vendetta against the Honolulu rail system has gone too far with the wasting of State funds on hiring an investigator to look into the project in a time when the State coffers are already strapped for funds and legitimate employees are being laid-off or furloughed.

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Poketto no Otoshimono

Published on March 7, 2010 in rant, Snow, SUAR and Travel by risu. Closed

Kuso!  POS!  F!  I dropped my Niseko lift pass somewhere between the hotel room and the ticket window, so I couldn’t get my 1,000-yen deposit back!

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