Second Down

Published on February 7, 2010 in bike by risu. Closed

JT’s frantic calls for a St. Louis ride were finally realized this past Thursday when we met at Kanewai Park to shuttle up to the top for a run. Kevyn had some neck pain, so he bowed out of the ride, but he graciously volunteered to shuttle us up. Twice! After he dropped us off at the top, we hit mainline to the concrete road and gave him a call. He met us at the park and gave us a ride back up. Cool! We took dumps on the second run, heading straight out the lowest trail at agave. I hadn’t been this way in a while, and was pleasantly surprised at the nice grooming at the beginning. This unfortunately got me up to a speed a little too high when the groomed dirt ran out and the frantic back-to-back rock jumps and drops began. I kept it together somehow and stayed with JT who was leading at dust-cloud-making speed. Ckucke and I traded bikes at the concrete road. He got a reminder of the true horror of riding a hardtail down St. Louis. His dual-squishy was sofa-comfortable, especially the Fox 36 up front which was way more supple than my Sherman even with 20mm less travel. Dammit! I need a new St. Louis bike!

Pictures here

D = 6.74 km (4.19-miles), Vavr = 16.4 km/h (10.2-mph), Vmax = 38.1 km/h (23.7-mph), T = 25-minutes

Two for the Dirt

Published on February 7, 2010 in bike by risu. Closed

The blue-tinted grey sky stretched cloudless above the sprawling loose canopy of the albizia tree expanding above me. The muffled clicks of the DT hub grew slower and slower, drawing to a halting stop with one final delayed tick, like the heartbeat of a dying organism. Around me, the disturbed grass and shrubs settled back to their resting state as the dust settled. The sun cast dancing beams of light through the thickly hazy air below the swaying treetop like something out of a renaissance biblical painting. Was I dead? Had I passed into the next world and was being drawn toward the light?

No. Continue reading ‘Two for the Dirt’

Grease Monkeys

Published on February 3, 2010 in car by taro. Closed

IMG_0874Since Scat was in the neighborhood after his stint of standing on the side of the road in the pouring rain, we decided to grease up his sled. I bought one of those starter air tool kits, and the kind of odd tools that they threw into the set was the air grease gun. Unless you’re a garage working on cars everyday, grease guns aren’t something you use very often, so I only have the manual hand pumped one. Having an air powered one seemed a little silly, but Scat’s old school ride was a perfect opportunity! Up front I think it’s got at least 8 grease fitting joints on each side, and there were a few that he couldn’t get with a hand pump. Continue reading ‘Grease Monkeys’

Removing My Crack

Published on January 30, 2010 in car by taro. Closed Tags: .

P1010591Finally got to removing the FX16 windscreen. If you recall, it started leaking and then I created a crack removing the trim. Got this tool a little while ago, but the snowboard trip happened, and the annoying cough. By all accounts, this is the way to go, forget the wire saw that they sell at all the local parts stores. Dug up some internet videos of various windshield removals, and barring the hi-tech inductive heater remover, this tool seems the best.

Continue reading ‘Removing My Crack’

Jan. 7, First DH of 2010, Chasing the Sun

Published on January 24, 2010 in bike by taro. Closed

Met up with Ckucke, Scat & Kevyn at St. Louis after work Thursday for a quickie downhill run. Weather was good, hit it while there’s a chance! By the time I met up with them at the jumps, the sun was getting low, so we headed down. Through Taco jumps, over to the twistys and down the ant hill drops, at the exit of agave, then out through the lower trail to exit at the water tank, where Ckucke promptly pinch flatted. Sun was setting, chased the sun out to the road, jumped in Ckucke’s ride and collected vehicles, then went for grub at Azteca. It was a quickie, but nice to be out!

More pics in gallery.

Saigo no Yuki no Hi

Published on January 16, 2010 in rant, Snow and Travel by risu. Closed

Today was our last snowboarding day in Whistler for this trip.  We were up early to queue up or the Whisler gondola, but there was still a long line.  All the American long-weekenders, fair weather Canadian snow hounds, and local Vancouverites displaced by the closing of two of the town mountains to preserve the snow for the Olympics were represented in vast numbers.  Avalanche conrol was sill bombing the mountain when we got up top, but the peak chair was running, so that was a good sign that they were opening the alpine areas.  We took a warm-up run  down green, but everything was amazingly chopped up, even though it was early.  The lift queue was nuts! Continue reading ‘Saigo no Yuki no Hi’

Repel Boarders!

Published on January 15, 2010 in rant, Snow and Travel by risu. Closed

The powder poaching pirates were denied their booty!

Continuous overnight snows laid arond 50cm of new snow on top of what was already there, with another 15cm or so predicted to fall during the day until the system passes around noon.  We headed out to make the lift opening at 08:30, slogging through the slush laden village mall to queue up in the crazy Whistler gondola line.  All the lights on the status indicator were at standby or closed, and the gondola was not moving.  Some time after lift opening time, the Blackcomb gondola started moving, but not loading.  Over an hour after lift opening time, a liftie came out and said that there was a tree across the upper gondola line, and this in conjunction with bad weather, meant that Whistler would be only open from base to midstation, and it would be almost an hour until the gondola would actually open. Continue reading ‘Repel Boarders!’

Snowed Out!

Published on January 15, 2010 in rant and Snow by taro. Closed

Guess there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Were not bothering with trying to get onto Whistler-Blackocomb mountains today, too much snow! 50cm+ and still going.

Snow in the Village

Published on January 14, 2010 in Snow and Travel by risu. Closed

That’s a good sign!  I don’t think the freezing level was forecast to be this low, but during the walk to dinner, the drizzle in Whistler Village turned to a light flurry.  The temperature has dropped a little more, and the falling snow is piling up instead of melting away.  This portents well for riding conditions tomorrow!  Woo hoo!

Welcome to the White Room

Published on January 14, 2010 in Snow and Travel by risu. Closed

Symphony lift opened today after avalanche control made Flute Bowl safe.  An arriving weather system brought continuous snowfall all day, but it also came with whipping winds and lower temperatures.  The 1000-meter freezing level made for snowfall for most of the mountains from around halfway up to the midstation.  When we reached the top of the Whistler gondola, winds were pretty high and visibility quite poor.  The lights were green, so we began traversing over to the Harmony lift and rode it up through the blizzard conditions to the top, where the winds were biting, and the visibility down to below 50-meters.  We’ve dropped into Harmony bowl on many an occasion in marginal weather, but this pretty much beat all previous “poor judgement” descents.  Turning from the first pitch onto the second, the visibility dropped to the point that it was riding by inertial guidance only, tracking from one course marker dot to the next. Continue reading ‘Welcome to the White Room’