Got a pair of closeout Oakley shorts from Chainlove.com last week. They were cheap at $45 USD including shipping, so I gave them a shot. They were that hideous yellow-green color, which to me was a plus. These have a separate liner and outer short held together with buttons and elastic loops. The liner is meshy with a one-piece 3D stretch anti-microbial chamois. As discovered during my first ride wearing these, the chamois is thin and not particularly comfortable. Continue reading ‘Oakley Ballistic 3.7 MTB Shorts’
Tried the next temporary Mountain Dew flavor, the purple “Supernovaâ€. Supposedly is “strawberry/melon†flavor. It’s not as sweet as “Revolutionâ€. There is a muted strawberry soda taste, but the melon part gets lost. Like cheap store-brand strawberry or grape soda, it leaves a bitter chemical aftertaste in the back of the throat. Again, a lot of the experience is olfactory and not taste (pinch your nose and take a sip – you’ll see what I mean). Not bad, but not as good as Revolution, and it still isn’t Dew. One more flavor to go!
Recommended with reservations
“Would our cars still be there when we got back?†I wondered briefly as Ckucke and I bade the three Bud-chugging fellows at the trailhead farewell and headed toward the gate. They had parked their Ford Explorer and busted out the lawn chairs and started a little parking lot party. They were talkative and made eye contact, so from the criminal profiling standpoint, there was a lower chance that they meant to perpetrate a property crime on us. Regardless, as we climbed over the logs, an HPD cruiser came up the street and the gentlemen quickly packed up and took off. Some of the people up the street at the puppy buddy’s house were standing outside, one with a phone in hand. Apparently, something about the three men set off their neighborhood watch radar – maybe their loud conversation, their beer drinking, or their loud music – and they alerted the gendarmerie. Up until that moment, I’d never seen a police blue-and-white patrolling in Waimanalo! Continue reading ‘Sketchy Ride’
Got thirsty at arubaito. Tried the new blue Mountain Dew. It’s the lighter blue one of the current three temporary flavors. Supposedly is “wild berry†flavor. It’s sweet and full of artificial berry goodness. A lot of the experience is olfactory and not taste. Not bad, but it isn’t Dew (and by that I don’t mean the same “isn’t Dew†as Canadian Mountain Dew either). The other two flavors are “Supernova†(purple, strawberry/melon flavor) and “Voltage†(Windex blue, raspberry/citrus flavor).
Recommended with reservations
Okay, so it wasnt really a FEST per se, it wasnt even a main ingredient. But this thing is so weird, it deserves to be in the title. When you cut in to the root, it emits a strong root beer like smell. Its ultimate fate was to be pan fried and served with a Spinach Salad. This was the prelude to Penne with fresh Pesto, and a breaded Mozzarella stuffed chicken on the side.
At lunch time I found myself watching the okole of Death receding into the distance up Tantalus till he turned a corner and was gone. My head felt like it was going to burst along the pattern of vents in my helmet, I couldn’t get a breathe in, my legs were burning and it was bloody hot. Other then that, it was all good. I was dressed in my chicken slaughter shorts and orange t-shirt, which looked pretty ugly, I have to say. At least I had black gloves on.
I had agreed to a Tantalus ride. Partially because I’m trying to get back in cardio shape, and partially because it’s a compromise. Death has been trying to get me to go trail running with him. Now…that’s not something outside the realm of ol’Oni experimenting with, nope. However, when your guide into running trails is an absolute animal, well, that changes things. Let’s just say he likes to suffer a lot more then I do and leave it at that. Continue reading ‘Death rides a black QR’
The P60L from Surefire is an 80-lumen high-output LED replacement lamp assembly that fits any of the 6V Surefire flashlights or weaponlights that take the standard incandescent P60 bulb assembly. The LED unit has the same general size and layout as the standard unit: Outwardly they are almost indistinguishable. The difference lies where you can’t see – inside. In place of the filament bulb is a high-output LED element. Behind it, buried between the reflector and the insulator is a voltage regulator circuit. LED’s generally run at around 3V, so the regulator circuit ensures that the element only receives the required voltage. The regulator allows this unit to also work in some of Surefire’s 9V flashlights also. The aluminum reflector also acts as a heat sink. Continue reading ‘Surefire P60L LED Reflector Assembly’
I was doing a tune-up on a “Next Power Climber†department store bike, and when I got to the loose headset, I got out my trusty 12†Craftsman adjustable wrench to cinch down on the overlocknut. I didn’t even get the satisfaction of hauling off on the handle and locking the nut down – as soon as the wrench touched the nut, it crumbled! Really! I didn’t even get to turn the adjuster pinion to clamp the wrench jaws down on the flats of the nut before it fell to pieces! At first I thought it was made from plastic and it crumbled from degradation from environmental exposure, but closer examination revealed that it was some porous-cast mystery metal.
WTF?!
It’s a $2 USD part, and every Toyota has one. It’s a little elastomeric cushion that goes on a tab on the brake pedal that both deadens the pedal top-out when the brake is released and depresses the pin on the normally-open brake light switch.
My across-the-street neighbor came by as I finished my bike ride on Wednesday to tell me that my lights were on. The headlamps and parking lights were off, but the taillights were on. I almost immediately knew what the problem was. Opening the driver’s door, I saw the two broken pieces of the cushion sitting on the floor mat. With age, the elastomer gets hard and brittle, and eventually the insert point that holds it to the brake pedal breaks, and the cushion head falls off. The pin on the brake light switch now aligns perfectly with the hole where the cushion attaches, and even with no pressure on the pedal, stays open and the lights stay on. If you don’t notice this quickly, the battery runs down and dies. Continue reading ‘90541-06036’
Setting out from home for a little spin on the Mountain/cross, I was almost immediately beset by that which would be the bane of my existence for the remainder of the ride. I didn’t know at the time, but the three people who passed in front of me were just a hint of what was to come. Maybe I had seen them before, maybe not – one younger heavyweight on a department store dually, and a pair of older gents on upright 26-ers. Nothing objectionable – just some friends out for an afternoon ride like me. Everyone had helmets, but the cotton tees and white tennies hinted at “people who owned bicycles†and not “cyclistsâ€. I was coming to a stop and concentrating on trackstanding at the corner of the stop line while vigilantly watching the oncoming white Jetta whose driver didn’t know how to complete a turn without coming into the oncoming traffic lane, so I didn’t wave. We all shared friendly smiles, and they rolled off downhill, and I stood in the pedals and climbed in the opposite direction. Continue reading ‘Blundering Masses’