Author Archive for risu

Page 82 of 95

Headset Set

Published on April 3, 2008 in bike by risu. Closed

The weather was downright beautiful on the Windward side on Wednesday afternoon, so I took the Ellsworth out for a spin to settle in the new Cane Creek Solos Headset. It didn’t really go in smoothly on Tuesday, so I was considering uninstalling it and resetting it, but the nice weather compelled me to take the bike on a shakedown ride. Initially, there was a noticeable amount of resistance on small amplitude movements. After the ride, the resistance was gone, but there was some aluminum dust appearing at the junction of the upper bearing cup and the top cap. There may be some kind of interference contact that has to be dealt with. I’ll take it out on Thursday and see what’s up. Monday’s ride was mostly seated climbs, so I did standing climbs to mix it up a bit.

D = 15.04 km (9.35-miles), Vavr = 18.3 km/h 36.4 km/h (11.4 mph), Vmax = (22.6 mph), T = 49-minutes

Quiet

Published on April 2, 2008 in rant by risu. Closed

I noticed this morning it was very quiet without the roar of morning 737-200 traffic.

Sayonara 101.1?

Published on April 2, 2008 in Culture and rant by risu. Closed

As of Tuesday, 01  April 2008, there is no daytime Japanese-language programming on 101.1 FM.  The 101hawaii.net website is still up, as is the DJ blog, both with entries up to last weekend, but there is nothing but bad jazz on the air.

Did their contract expire at the end of last month?

Chasing Chickens in the Dark

Published on April 1, 2008 in bike by risu. Closed

The Monday night St. Louis ride pared down to Root and me, with Ckucke away in Lost Wages, and Chris and JT having prior commitments.  Just about 16:00, the skies over Honolulu went black and squalls of heavy rain fell.  Although momentary, the grey over the mountaintops promised more of the same, and if nothing else the trail was going to be panko.  

I called Root and told him I was going home, but if the weather was good on the windward side, we could still do some secret training.  The weather was indeed nice, so I geared up with the light, anticipating a longer-than-usual ride if Root showed up.  I did my regular run over to WCC and rode laps.  The sky went from blue to twilight orange, then descended into darkness.  Taro called and got my voicejail and said that he got stuck late at work, so couldn’t make it.  A white veil of rain crossed the valley, so after a couple of laps in t he rain, I decided to dig.

D = 16.17 km (10.05-miles), Vavr = 18.2 km/h (11.3 mph), Vmax = 37.3 km/h (23.2 mph), T = 53-minutes

Cracker Ride

Published on April 1, 2008 in bike by risu. Closed

Met Jeff and Sara out at Ditch Trail on Sunday afternoon. Chris had fun planned with the family and JT was on the side.  It was breezy and a little overcast, but no rain all week promised good trail conditions.  We climbed Government Road and turned onto the Ditch trail.  On the ride two weekends before, we discovered that the road had been groomed.  The trail itself had been groomed since that time.  Most of the cut grass was still on the trail, so the turns were a bit sketchy.  Continue reading ‘Cracker Ride’

Leap Year Ride

Published on April 1, 2008 in bike by risu. Closed

Nobody really wrote anything about this, but Root, JT, and I went on a CroMo hardtails-only ride on Sunday, 02 March 2008 at Ditch.  Root showed up with his 10th Anniversary Fat Chance, JT had his Bridgestone XO-1, and I had my drop-handlebar Bridgestone MB-1.  The climbs were so nice on bent-over, lightweight bikes, but the horsey-print trail surface made for some punishing conditions with no suspension and skinny, high-pressure tires.  Aside from the inevitable monkey-butt, there was some good neckache from craning to look ahead, and vibro-itch on the jiggly parts of the arms.  We rode out to the end of Ditch then came back and did the inner loop.  We actually rode all the steeps, but didn’t do much of the stuff in the rock garden. Continue reading ‘Leap Year Ride’

Gasoline

Published on March 28, 2008 in car and rant by risu. Closed

Over 100 bucks!Wow!  I managed to break $100 while filling the tank in the work van today!  Glad it’s not me paying the bill!

Kuhio Day Ride

Published on March 28, 2008 in bike by risu. Closed

Windward side was sunny on Wednesday, and being a holiday there was little traffic, so I got home fairly early. Surprisingly enough, people weren’t driving like total fools (which is the norm for a holiday). I rode the regular training loop including the Chicken Trail. Almost cleaned the entire rooty climb in one go – maybe next time. I saw the two chicken families. All the little hyoko are now ugly, scraggly fledglings. One family is down to less than half-a-dozen, but the other is still at full strength. I did a little exploring at the top to see if any of the old singletrack is still rideable, but the old top traverse has some homeless structure built on it, so I couldn’t connect it to the old lower trail to the orphaned part of Kapunahala. There are a lot of surveying ribbons and pins up there – something is going to happen with that land soon. I turned in a few more laps than normal since the sun was out, then backtracked up the Chicken Trail. I cleaned the reverse climb.

D = 16.72 km (10.11-miles), Vavr = 16.4 km/h (10.2 mph), Vmax = 40.7 km/h (25.3 mph), T = 59-minutes

Bloody Eye of Death

Published on March 20, 2008 in rant by risu. Closed

Bloody Eye of DeathThis was quite unnerving to awaken to.  No sensation.  No vision-related issues.  No prior trauma that would have caused it.  Capillary just decided to break.  Dropped by the Doc’s office, and he said it was OK and that the color would go away in a week or two.  In the meantime I look like some anime vampire…

Sunakku Pisutashio

Published on March 19, 2008 in Food by risu. Closed

Sunakku PisutashiolabelFind these.  Eat these.  Really.  Maybe Wholesale Unlimited, Marukai, or Don Quixote.  They’re green, but not “wasabi” flavored – they are sort-of like iso-peanuts but with a pistachio inside. Yes, Velcro, they’re shelled first.  A buyer at an account gave some to me this morning.