Since I destroyed my old HiFi in Japan this past March, I’ve been in need of a replacement. My old one was around a hundred USD from Island Snow Hawaii back when they sold snowboarding gear. I probably could have gotten it for less online, but I was buying locally where I could actually try the product on. Since the sizing was already taken care of, and there is no comprehensive local source for retail snowboarding gear anymore, I waited for a good deal online. The season is winding down and a lot of good stuff is going on sale. Besides, a hundred bucks intuitively is way too much to pay for what is essentially a piece of EPS from the PRC. I was looking last season, but I never managed to find a nice color in the proper size for a good price. This season there was a nice camo finish, and when it went on sale for 25% off at Backcountry I was tempted. Since the riding season is essentially over for me this year, I thought I’d give it a little while longer to see if the price would drop. The overall stock amount and size run looked good, so there was no rush. Continue reading ‘2008/09 Burton Red HiFi Helmet’
Thursday morning was so socked in rainy on the Windward side that when stopped at a traffic light, I couldn’t even see the next intersection. When I got over the mountain, town-side was all blue skies and sunrise. It looked like good weather for a ride. Of course, by mid morning, the clouds had worked their way over the Ko’olau summit and were raining down all kinds of evil from Pacific Palisades to way past ‘Ainakoa. Things were suddenly looking grim. Thankfully, the trades continued to blow, and the clouds exhausted their precipitable moisture, so by noon, the rains were tapering and the clouds were dissipating. When work was done, the blue skies had returned, and the remaining clouds were calm and non-threatening. Continue reading ‘A Change in Weather’
Sorry dude, I couldn’t take it, couple nights ago came across a good six incher scuttling around my doorway. I squished it. Centipedes creep me out. Should be a good incentive for me to continue cleaning out my room. Been slowly chipping away at that, and had kind of lost steam, but I better continue. We’ll see if I find any more ant nests. Those ants like video tapes, and after I cleaned that one up, they decided to move into a hardrive shipping box.
Just finished taking a second shower and popping open a St. Pauli Girl. After finishing my form 1040, it was around 22:30 and I wasn’t feeling sleepy, so I went outside and fixed the leaky heater hoses on the FJ80. Essentially, the ends of hte hoses that go to the thermostat neck and water pump were deformed from age and reaction to various fluids and had started to leak. The OEM Toyota wire-style hose clamps were deeply cut into the rubber and not providing enough squeeze. I undid the clamps, pried the ends of the hoses off the barb fittings with a flat screwdriver, cut a couple of centimeters off the ends with EMT shears, cleaned the fittings with a kitchen scouring pad, and reassembled the hose ends. Thankfully, there was enough excess play in the hoses to allow for this. After tightening everything up and refilling the radiator and reservoir, I ran it up to operating temperature and everything seemed to be holding. Damn, I’m tired now… Continue reading ‘Midnight Leak Repair’
Thinking the weather was going to be bad, I didn’t bring my ride kit to work with me on Monday morning. Instead, I went home and took the Ellsworth for a spin around the neighborhood. Moments after I left work, I had the epiphany that I should have taken my ‘cross home and ridden that, but it was too late to go back. It was overcast and a tough humid on the Windward side, so even an easy ride was inspiration enough to elicit a sweat. I tried a standing climb, but my shoulder was unwilling to take the weight. When I got home, I saw a puddle under the front of the FJ80 – one of the heater hoses sprung a leak at the water pump. Krap! I have to fill out my Federal tax forms tonight, and I’ll have McBike arubaito tomorrow, so repair will have to wait until Wednesday. Wonder how the St. Louis ride went…
D = 11.39 km (7.08-miles), Vavr = 17.5 km/h (10.9-mph), Vmax = 36.2 km/h (22.5-mph), T = 39-minutes
Chris wrapped up his family vacation with a trail ride out at the Ditch with the gang. Kevyn was there when I arrived, but the parking area was rather full, so I parked up the street a bit, by the Grosser sidecut. Taro arrived and took the last normal parking space below the gate. There was some dude we didn’t know parked above the gate getting his bike prepped. As Ckucke and JT came up the street, JT saw Root and assumed everyone present was our group. He waved at Root and Kevyn, and thinking the third person was Chris, flipped him off! With shock and embarrassment, he realized it wasn’t the case. After Ckucke parked above me, JT walked down the street to apologize to the guy and explain. The guy was cool about it. Chris arrived, and with the group complete, we headed up the trail. Continue reading ‘Death in the Morning’
You really don’t have to read this post… Continue reading ‘I am the Spam Magnet’
Where the heck did the vast throngs of roadies from last week go? Did the event they were training for pass already? There were maybe half-a-dozen other cyclists out today when Chris joined Scat, Root, Ckucke, and me for a Thursday afternoon grind up Tantalus. This time up, Tantalus Drive had been repaved all the way down to the junction with Makiki Heights Drive. This made the tough part of the climb up to Euco much nicer, but the new pavement was already littered with twigs, leaves, and other junk along the edges. JT, Ckucke, and Chris dropped me just after the last house, and were out of sight by the top of Euco. My back hurt as usual, but I was feeling pretty good, and my legs were able to push a little harder. I did a lot more standing climbing in the steeper sections. I made the top a little over a minute faster. JT had apparently even dropped Chris and Ckucke! Chris had ridden up on Wednesday, so we let him choose the way down. He had backtracked down yesterday, so we chose to drop down Roundtop Drive. This was a slightly longer route, but the long straights allowed for a higher top speed, so we made the circuit in exactly the same time as last week. Continue reading ‘Post-Apocalypse Road Ride’
Chinatown Boardroom will be hosting a group art show by local artists featuring various turns on the traditional ‘ukulele  opening at 18:00 tonight. Fabio and I will head down after work to check it out. Included will be artists Cade Roster, Jason Teraoka, Tracy Gunn (Mrs. JT), Kris Higa, Kandi Everett, and many more! Hope to see y’all down there. The show will run from tonight through the 25th. Gallery hours are normally Thursday through Saturday, 11:00-16:00.
Here are some pictures from opening night
Monday was warm, dry and sunny, unlike last week. Chris arrived back in Honolulu after a trip to the Pacific Northwest around noon and joined us for a St. Louis ride after doing a couple loads of laundry. There was not a cloud in the sky, contrary to the National Weather Service forecast that called for a 70% chance of rain. The winds were blowing strongly, though. We had loads of fun – even after Chris’ dumb-side crank came off. The climb back up to the parking lot was heinous as usual, but since there was no weekend ride, I was able to make most of the ascent pedaling rather than pushing. Continue reading ‘Spring Sun’