Author Archive for risu

Page 79 of 95

Go!

Published on May 13, 2008 in bike and car by risu. Closed Tags: .

I was planning on working on the FJ80 a little on Monday after work, but when I got home, the sun was brilliant and the weather exceptional. The bike called out to me. Since Whistler is coming up, I tried ramping up the distance, but there is only so much that I can do in my regular training loop. I’ll probably have to start venturing further a field to get beyond 20 km. Still, the scenery is nice, even if it is repetitive.

D = 19.62 km (12.19-miles), Vavr = 20.4 km/h (12.7 mph), Vmax = 39.4 km/h (24.5 mph), T = 57-minutes

Déjà vu

Published on May 13, 2008 in bike by risu. Closed

Ride againWhat? Not enough torture on Friday night? It was Saturday afternoon, and I found myself stuck in weekend merge traffic on Kalanianaole to meet Jeff, Sara, Doctor Paul, Danny, and Root at Ditch for another ride. There was the brief out-of-context spectacle of kanban-musume hawking Mothers’ Day roses on the roadside by the stables to distract my attention from the impending leg pain and monkey-butt on the upcoming ride. This was the second time we would ride this trail in 24 hours! Continue reading ‘Déjà vu’

Good Intentions

Published on May 13, 2008 in bike by risu. Closed

Ready to rideSince a lot of us had plans over the weekend with Muthas’ Day and all (don’t give me no jibber-jabber, fool!), We came up with the idea of a Friday after-work evening-into-night ride. Jeff and I had talked about just such a ride earlier in the week, and when Chris mentioned plans on both weekend days, the idea came to fruition. The calls and emails went out on Thursday afternoon and on Friday after work we met up in Pohakupu by the fountain. Chris sadly had to back out at the last moment, but Jeff, Sara, JT, and I arrived for the evening torture-fest. JT was sporting new Shimano XT cranks, Hope bottom bracket, and stiff new shoes. I had my new Hope bottom bracket installed too. Root called and said he was running late and suggested we begin without him, but we had already moved the meeting time back half-an-hour to accommodate his quitting time, so by Heck we were going to wait for him! Root showed up around sunset, and we rolled out. The twilight climb up Kalanianaole was a good warm-up for the instant intensity once we turned off the old highway into the trail network. Continue reading ‘Good Intentions’

Hope Technologies UK Bottom Bracket

Published on May 8, 2008 in bike and Review by risu. Closed

Hope BBDesigned for all current Shimano-compatible Hollowtech II outboard-bearing-style cranksets, this new bottom bracket from Hope offers a salient technological upgrade from the factory bearings with a bit of added style. At the heart of the matter are Swiss INA cartridge bearings custom-made for Hope. Offered in conventional hardened stainless steel and ceramic coated, these bearings are a definite step up in quality from the original OEM bearings. The bearings are set in machined aluminum cups, anodized in a variety of colors. The bearings actually sit slightly recessed in the cups and are covered by plastic labyrinth shields that run in grooves cut in the inside edges of the rims of the cups. The center water sleeve is also machined from aluminum, unlike the plastic common to the majority of OEM bottom brackets. The aluminum sleeve is indeed nice, but it is probably heavier than a plastic one. O-rings seal the sleeve as in the OEM Shimano. Sizing conforms to the Shimano standard: After switching this one in for the factory one that came with my XT crankset, no front derailleur adjustment was required. Continue reading ‘Hope Technologies UK Bottom Bracket’

Ronery Ride

Published on May 6, 2008 in bike by risu. Closed

Overcast SundaySaturday was rainy just around ride time, so the ride was called. Of course it cleared up soon thereafter and turned sunny and blue. Sunday was better, but the group was thinned out. Jeff and Sara went surfing, Chris was preparing for Chase’s first year baby luau, Ckucke was off-island, and JT was busy scatolizing. That left Root and me. While I was waiting at the trailhead and playing with a wandering dog, he called. He was already late and I expected him to cancel out or something. He was just running late. I thought I heard him say “we”, which made me think that maybe JT had at the last minute decided to join the ride. It would explain the delay. This of course wasn’t the case: It was just wishful thinking. Continue reading ‘Ronery Ride’

Revenge of the Glass

Published on May 6, 2008 in car by risu. Closed

Broken glassI was pretty tired on Saturday, so I didn’t get started on replacing the broken window on the FJ80 until after lunch. Following the instructions in the FSM, I removed the carpet support, the inner trim panel, the D-pillar garnish, and the vent trim. The vent trim was affixed with a 5mm threaded stud and a nut, and 2 plastic inserts. The inserts were pretty much stuck fast, and there is no access to their backsides, so prying from the outside was the only option. Needless to say, the plastic ears that hold the insert chips to the back of the trim snapped off. A combination of 17-year-old brittle plastic and barely-adequate structure of the ears conspired to make this trim piece a one-time-use part. Continue reading ‘Revenge of the Glass’

SK Tools 90216 3-Prong Adjustable Oil Filter Wrench

Published on May 1, 2008 in car, rant and Review by risu. Closed

New and olddifferent outside diameters, but same thread and gasket diameterToyota went and screwed me! Since the time of the first F-series engine, the Land Cruiser oil filter has always been the gigantic Foster’s Lager can-sized 15600-41010, but this year, they discontinued that filter and introduced a new smaller 90915-YZZD3 filter that fits the same threaded spud. The original filter extended in diameter at least a centimeter past the seating o-ring, but the new one ends at the o-ring, so it is significantly smaller. The new filter has all the same quality touches, like the anti-backflow flapper that keeps oil primed in the upper system and super-fine filtering material, but it requires a new SST. I asked Clyde at Toyota Parts, and he said there was no new official Toyota SST. My old filter wrench was an official Toyota part, 09228-44011. I figured that since the new filter was common to all gasoline Land Cruisers and a bunch of larger Toyotas including the V8 models, finding a third-party cap-style wrench would be no problem. Continue reading ‘SK Tools 90216 3-Prong Adjustable Oil Filter Wrench’

Train for Pain

Published on May 1, 2008 in bike by risu. Closed Tags: .

I’ve been getting some decent distance on my training rides, but I haven’t really been working on intensity recently.  I did a lot of power training and cardiac/pulmonary training before the Whistler MTB trip, and I also ramp up the training before every snowboard season.  The climbs on the past few Ditch rides have been kicking my ass, so I decided to throw in some sprints yesterday.  I sprinted from one end of WCC to the other, then recovered on the way back.  Lather, rinse, repeat.  Pain.  Pegged heartrate.  Woo-hoo!  I did that until failure then cruised home to change my oil.

D = 16.51 km (10.26-miles), Vavr = 20.0 km/h (12.4 mph), Vmax = 41.8 km/h (26.0 mph), T = 49-minutes

Now That’s Service!

Published on April 29, 2008 in car by risu. Closed

box-o-glassI called Clyde at Toyota Parts on Thursday.  He said the order would go into Toyota Motor Sales USA for a part pull from the mainland warehouse on Friday.  He figured the part would be in on Wednesday.  He called me on Monday saying the window had arrived!  I picked ut up today.

Sweaty Ride (aka, Poopy Ride)

Published on April 28, 2008 in bike and rant by risu. Closed Tags: .

JT was out sick and Chris was “baking brownies” (is that some kind of euphemism for something?), so they missed this Sunday’s ride. Considering the heavy sweating they had to endure on last week’s ride, this one would have put them over the top. The skies were overcast, and the forecast return of the Easterlies did not come to pass. Dr. Paul joined Jeff, Sara, Ckucke, Root, and me for the humid torment. The Albizia trees were still going off, so my allergies fired up immediately. We did the enhanced loop like last week, but futzed around a little more on the upper Kalanianaole side – mostly climbing up to the view points and backtracking. Nobody wanted to go “down” anything because of the prospect of climbing back up. The cardiac arrest climb was as heinous as usual, but it didn’t feel like I was literally going to die at the top like last time. Root got a service call from his job while we were recovering at the tree. It was that kaiten sushi chain asking, “how come we can’t print?” We dropped back down to the ditch via the flailing fat guy singletrack, and did the inner loop and side loop. Continue reading ‘Sweaty Ride (aka, Poopy Ride)’