Now that’s a mouthful, and my retention of German from high school consists of the word “pavian”. So what is the title about? It’s a mountain bike tire. Schwalbe, the company, explains that Hans Dampf is German for what we call Jack of all Trades, so this tire is supposed to be their good all arounder. I was in need of new tires and with the new bike decided to try out the tubless thing. I actually got my old Panaracer Fire FR’s to work tubeless, but the “new” one I put on was in storage so long that the rubber was cracked. The Fire FR is the tire that I’ve been running for w while so a lot of this review will be in comparison. The Hans Dampf version I got was the high zoot, tubeless ready, lighter sidewall version, harder wearing and faster rolling compound. 26×2.35 size.
Author Archive for taro
Page 29 of 88
Picked 
up this ridiculously expensive beer at liquor collection a couple months ago and been saving it for my B-day. Cracked it open tonight to see what it’s about. Pours opaque black with barely any head. The moment I cracked open the cap the smokey casky aroma is detectable. It carries over into a smooth almost like bittersweet chocolate flavor and picks up some of the whiskey peat. Interestingly I find it to be pretty balanced and even on the bitterness, but then I’m a dark chocolate lover. Fairly thick mouthfeel. This is no “session” beer at 8% ABV, it’s one to be savored, but I find it surprisingly easy drinking if you are a fan of dark beers.
Worth the price of admission as a treat for my birthday, 4 out of 4 oily monkeys.
Final selection from their current variety pack, the Belgian Session pours a clear medium amber with a medium head. Floral and fruit aromas but not overpowering. Even bitterness that stays even throughout with a slight nuttiness in the finish. Medium mouthfeel that is lightened by crisp carbonation and astringency. And in keeping with the latest beer buzzword of being a “session” beer, it has a fairly low ABV in the 4% range. It does have considerably more complexity than a “session” water beer like Coors or the bit nicer “sessioner” Speights.
I’ll give this a 3 out 4 session monkeys.
Been working out various things for action camera filming and one was improving on the pole. Started with one of those ultra compact telescoping chrome steel poles. It worked as a pole, but the only thing it really had going for it was that it collapsed down small enough to stuff into a cargo pocket for the lift ride up. Being steel it wasn’t particularly light for its size, but worse yet was it relied on friction fit to hold the segments which makes it wiggly.
I then got a pair of Leki carbon hiking poles and adapted it to mount a camera to its tip. The pole is very light. It’s great as hiking poles. However it had some issues for use an action camera pole. It has a 1/4×20 camera mount adapter, but that was quickly abandoned as it is too flimsy for action use. I then created a Frankenstein adapter for the tip, which I think I’ve blogged about in the past. That worked. The collapsed size is a bit long, too long to fit inside my riding backpack, not a major issue. The biggest issue was that it used twist lock to hold the segments. This was a problem in that using it with a camera mounted to the end, the segments would unscrew allowing the camera to flop around. You could try and screw the lock really tight, but it would present a challenge of aligning the camera the way I wanted consistently, and when I wanted to collapse it to stow for transport or lift ride it was a pain.
I guess the usage of “extreme” has not died yet as NW insists on using it for their top of the line cycling shoes. I got a pair of these MTB older models on closeout for a great price. Non-clown/superhero color of black. They feature a carbon sole and a top ratchet strap and lower “winch” lace system. It’s not BOA, which I find interesting since they use actual BOA brand closures on a coupe of their other shoes. I’m hoping this will give me a more secure fit that the Velcro strap closures on my current Scotts can’t.
I think Kuliouou is Hawaiian for eternally sucks on a mountain bike. This Sunday when ride plans fell apart, I found myself awake and ready to ride before 8:00 in the morning. I decided to go do Kuliouou although its universally hated among us. I figured the rain showers overnight had pretty much missed this area so it had a good chance of not being a muddy mess. 
By the time I decided and rode out from the house, I got to the trailhead a bit past 9:00. The street was already lined with cars and a number of hikers heading up. Yes, it was hot already, and getting hotter.
In case you don’t know, today is this year’s unagi day. In Japan it’s a day when you’re supposed to eat unagi to fight the dog days of summer. Unagi is regarded as filled with nutrients to fill you with vigor and power, so to honor that tradition I made this unagi kabayaki don for dinner, and while I waited for the rice to cook, I went for a ride. Worked out just right as the new “smart” cooker takes almost an hour. OK, the asparagus with mayo isn’t very traditional, but hey, the mayo is Kewpie! I’m actually happy I got to do this as I was supposed to be at a restaurant first day tonight, but it got postponed. Everyone get your unagi on?
Another selection from their current Summer variety pack. Pours a cloudy light gold, light head. Citrus in the initial flavor and aroma, spice mid notes, hint of grain, medium mouth feel. Nice beer for those who like spiced Weiss, but is not as strong on the coriander as Hoegarten.
A solid 3 out 4 Weiss monkeys.
Current seasonal, pours a clear bright yellow with small head. Not very strong floral aromas, not a whole lot of aromas period. Barest hint of the honey, a little bit of grain. Light on the bitter, clean tasting, medium mouthfeel. Easy drinking and retains a beer character. While not outstanding, its a solid drinkable beer.
I’ll give it a 3 out 4 summer monkeys.
With the spate of rainy days we’ve been having this season, many of our Tuesday evening ride have turned into road slogs up tantalus. Last week I had my St. Louis dh bike and equipment but we got rained out again. Ckucky flatted so after I gave him my spare skiny tube I motored on ahead. I ended up beating them to the top and the following week smack talk ensued.
Chris wasn’t taking my smack talk sitting down today and put the hammer down from the start. Hit my weak spot, I’m not good at the start. Actually I’m not so strong in the middle, or finish, hah. By the time we got to the straights in eucalyptus he was barely in sight.
Oh, and I wasn’t hallucinating when i saw roadie with face guard helmet on lunalilo a few weeks ago, saw two coming down as we were going up. One was a woman with Giro helmet with lots of vents.
Caugh one glimpse of Chris on the last turn before the one lane bridge.
He did push me to cut almost two minutes of my time on the climb, actually made it up in less then 40 minutes, what a blazing pace!
We only got a couple light sprinkles and the heat eased once we gained some elevation and the sun got lower, so it turned into a fairly nice evening.
As Chris said as he was loading up after the ride, it’s kinda nice having the upcoming Whistler trip giving us incentive to ride more. It’s easy to get lazy, but once you get on the bike you realize how good it feels to be out on it.