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’
Author Archive for risu
Page 50 of 95
Unlike “Oyster stouts†which generally don’t contain oysters, but were meant to be quaffed with oysters, milk stouts – also known as sweet stouts – are actually brewed with the adjunct of lactose, a sugar derived from milk. This sugar is indigestible by the brewing yeast, so it remains intact in the brew after fermentation, retaining its added flavor and nutritional value. The lactose generally imparts a mild sweetness to the stout, and adds a moderating smoothness to the flavor. This sweet stout from Kiuchi Brewery in Ibaraki Prefecture in central Eastern Honshuu, Japan, is a fine example of this relatively unusual variety. On opening, there is very little carbonation – only enough to generate a moderate but short lived head. The color is a deep, opaque, coffee brown. There is a distinct sweet aroma. The initial taste is lightly bitter. The lactose imparts a smoothness to the middle, moderating the bitter and smokiness from the dark malt. The malt is present, but moreso as an aroma rather than a flavor. It isn’t sugary sweet, but the combination of the roasted malt flavor and the lactose, yields a taste almost reminiscent of coffee with cream, especially in the finish and aftertaste. The mouthfeel isn’t thick, but it is smooth. This is a warm, flavorful, and smooth beer. Excellent. I look forward to trying their other offerings. Continue reading ‘Beer Is Good – Hitachino Nest Beer Sweet Stout’
I saw this the last time I rode my bike to Foodland for Wernesgruener. I forgot about it until I saw it pop up in the Foodland sale ad today, so I did a little online research. The official Speight’s NZ site indicated it was not sold on the USDM because of some issue with registering the name. Was Hawaii not part of the USA again? It was a twelve pack, which worried me a little – if it was just a six pack and it sucked, it wouldn’t be too bad to finish – suffering through twelve bad beers would bite! My apprehension stemmed from having tasted Steinlager, the only other beer from Aotearoa available here that I know of. The weather was terrible when I came through the Wilson Tunnel, so I headed straight over to Foodland to grab some. Continue reading ‘Beer Is Good – Speight’s Gold Medal Ale’
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’
Hmm… Just thought of something – the cirrus clouds today are an indicator of an apporaching weather front. I hope it doesn’t get all rainy and spoil the Sunday ride.
(0)Some jerseys and shots that I ordered from Chainlove came in today, so I rocked some new threads on my after work cruise ride. The weather was fair on the windward side in the morning, and exceptional midday when I passed through during work – all blue skies save for some high-altitude cirrus. The clouds had gathered near the mountains when I came through the Wilson tunnel, and there had been a light afternoon drizzle, but conditions were still prime for some saddle time. I did my laps to the nostalgic accompaniment of roar of the Marine F/A-18’s practice landing at MCBH.
D = 12.44 km (7.73-miles), Vavr = 18.2 km/h (11.3-mph), Vmax = 47.3 km/h (29.4-mph), T = 41-minutes
Root, Fabio, and I dropped by Raraya tonight for some noodles.  Root and I saw a menu item that we had never seen before – Hiyashi gomadare ramen. The summer heat made something cold sound very attractive, so we both tried it. Volumetrically, it is similar to having the Tsukemen. The goma (sesame seed) sauce is creamy, and slightly sweet. The loosely wrinkled noodles were topped with cooked spinach, corn, char-siu, wakame, three pieces of nori, and half of a seasoned egg. I got it as a rice set, which added a chawan of rice and a plate of kimchi for $2 USD on top of the base $10 USD. The flavor was interesting. The sweetness threw me off a little at first, but I enjoyed it. The value meter needle hangs a little low on this – It was a little light for the money. As a postscript, I ended up having a slight histamine reaction in the bronchial area, usually an indication of the presence of MSG. I hope they’re not starting to cut corners…
Give it a try
Two-and-a-half grinning dining monkeys out of four
Chris and I have had a long running, “today I saw a Fixie doing [insert foolish act here],†tirade going for several years now. We gripe about them riding up alongside cars at a traffic signal only to be re-overtaken when the light changes because they can’t sprint off the start with their one gear. We rant about their freakish parts selection, like a carbon spoke wheel on the front but a traditionally laced wheel on the rear because the carbon wheel company doesn’t make a matching rear track version, but the bike owner just has to have those wheels. Most of the time the things that make us laugh are due to their slavish devotion to the fad just for the sake of being different, standing out, thumbing their noses at society, swimming upstream, or simply cutting off their noses to spite their own faces. Then there are those times when they transcend fashion and cross the line into stupidity. I saw something today that pretty much takes the cake for that – chainstay wrap. Huh? What? It’s a fixed-gear, single-speed bike with horizontal dropouts and no derailleur or tensioner. If his chain is so loose that he has chainslap issues, he has much larger issues to worry about! Time to put that bike on the rack and climb on board the short bus, dude!
If you watched Kannagi and liked it enough to want the USDM DVD release, your wait is over. Bandai Entertainment USA has just released the first DVD with the first 7 episodes. The second DVD with the remaining 7 episodes will be released in September with a T-shirt (whee). Right now, you can order it directly from Bandai or TRSI through the Amazon Marketplace portal, or directly through TRSI. It’s about $26 USD and change plus under $3 USD for shipping. If you’re patient and don’t really care about the T-shirt, the complete series set will be out in retail at the beginning of next year.