Dont forget to take the time to remember the thousands that died this day in 1989 fighting for freedom.
Pardon the mess while we reorganize some things, and hopefully make the site pretty. Dont worry though, none of the asinine commentary you’ve come to enjoy will be lost!
The partially cloudy skies and moderate tradewinds on Saturday made for perfect riding conditions. I hadn’t been anywhere near a bike for over two weeks ever since that bout with bad tapioca, so I was a bit worried that I would be in the suffering seat on this ride. The traffic into Waimanalo was typically bad on Kalanianaole at the merge, so I got to the trailhead a little behind schedule. Ckucke and Root were already there, but Jeff and Sara were running late since Sara had forgotten her jersey and didn’t want to ride topless for some reason. Continue reading ‘Back after a Long Absence’
I feel insulted – insulted that I am sitting here writing this instead of doing any of a bunch of things that I really should be doing right now. The shock I had at dinner compels me to share the experience, so here it is. Am I being altruistic or just plain angry? You decide.
I had dinner at the Windward Mall franchise of I Love Country Café. In ages past, I remember going to other franchises of this local chain for wholesome and healthy, albeit expensive (think current Zippy’s prices over 8-years ago), fare. Root will surely remember going there with Vern after evening bike rides from when the first one opened on Pi’ikoi. Breakfast was always at the Kahala one after the Honolulu Marathon Escort duty until that part of the mall disappeared to make way for some mainland store. Of all the places in the Windward Mall food court, this looked like a good place, so I stepped up to the plate. With good past experiences and name recognition – what could possibly go wrong? Read on… Continue reading ‘Vile Fluid’
Being at an impasse with the rear struts on the FX, decided to look at some smaller issues. Sunroof is slugish. I pulled the motor from the previous FX, it was actually new replaced just before I bought it, and also pulled the fuzzy edge trim since current FX doesn’t have it and just has ugly edges. Replaced motor, greased up tracks, put on edge molding. Looks nice, closes. Ugh, doesn’t open! Attempts to, cracks open a bit, and stops. What is going on? I remove the trim and the sunroof opens, still slugishly. It turns out that the fuzzy panel on the sliding roof section has been out of it’s correct track all this time. I pop it back, put the trim back, and the roof slides better than new!
Next up was the driver window. Lately it’s gotten quite, cranky. I figured it was like the original FX and the gears on the toothed crescent shaped thing on regulator was stripping out. 
I pop the door panel off. What the heck is that blue thing? It’s a door lock popper solenoid, assumedly stuck in by the alarm installers. This explains why the action of the lock mechanism was never nice, the throw on the solenoid is adjusted so the mechanism doesn’t click all the way it’s supposed to. I readjust it, not sure if the popper will work correctly, but I’m not concerned with that. The installation is a bit of hack, but with something like this there isn’t really any other way aside from getting the factory power locks. Just wait until I get to the other side though, I’ll find it later, the solenoid doesn’t even match and the sheet metal is hacked up leaving pointy jagged edges worse than the meanest China build your own PC case. Continue reading ‘JDM?’
That’s right, Sunday, at high noon, Ken, Nathan and Reef met up and headed to the Koko Head Park dirt jumps. I actually rode up in the blazing heat to join up with them. I thought they were daft for choosing this time of day, and yet here I was. The one good thing was that there wasn’t anyone else crazy enough to be baking out here. We had the jumps all to ourselves. Â Kinda nice flailing amongst friends, no worries about looking like an ass.
It was bone dry, the upper table jumps were getting eroded, but the middle jumps were packed down and maintained well. The newest one had quite a good kick to it. It actually was quite fun. Nathan was managing to clear the little speed bump doubles, I swear he was getting more air off of those than the big jumps! I know he was working a heck of a lot harder to clear those. As the day went on, a couple of regulars showed, hit some jumps, then went off to ride Kailua. A trio of groms rode through, and at the end of the day, one of the old fart guys came to hit the jumps. We were actually amazed at the lack of riders on this long Memorial weekend day.
It was something different for trials riders, I think we’ll do it more!
So after my blunder with my junyard struts, I’m forced to go junkyard diving again. Called around to other yards and it sounds like they don’t have anything that old. So I find myself at ABC again, I called them and didn’t realize it as they’re listed in yellowpages as something else, and they were the only ones that were hopefull. Actually even before I get through the gate, I see an AE92 Corolla, looks like they’re ready to haul it to scrap metal as its on the bottom of a stack of cars. I measure the struts, and they measure too small, WTF? Am I hallucinating? But right inside of the gates are the new cars, and there’s a ’99 Corolla sedan. I measure the strut case, and it’s the correct size! I take a quick look around for anything else, this Corolla is the only new one. 
Damn, did I luck out? This Corolla is quite clean too, just brought in, suffered rear end damage. It’s so new that after prying the trunk liner free of the crumpled metal, I find the spare tire and jack still there. Choice, I don’t have to go searching and draging some crusty ones from somewhere else in the yard! Continue reading ‘Strutman’
Having spent the evening fruitlessly shooting at the 2008 Honolulu Toro Nagashi, Root and I decide to fight the traffic and re-visit Chibo at the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Centre.
After standing/sitting/kneeling around at Ala Moana Beach Park for the better part of the afternoon / evening, we’re pretty parched. Excellent! Chibo has Yebisu Beer.
Continue reading ‘Okonomiyaki Chibo’
This past Thursday evening dinner choice was Little Village, located on Smith Street, downtown. A mid sized eatery for the area. Chinese food, Fabio was hard pressed to give it a style. When we arrived, it was fairly crowded, a little unexpected as past visits have been pretty quiet. Interior decor is a bit unusual, it seems the thought was to make it feel like you’re eating outside in a “little village”, in the comfort of airconditioning. It does give it a bit of a theme park aura. There’s a little faux oriental style bridge leading to a double door facade seperating the farther dining area. We were half expecting some kung fu fightin to break out and some various martial stunt man to come crashing through the round window.
Anyway, on to the food. As is common for somewhere like this, we go family style and order Monoglian beef, seafood noodle, and the spicy steamed fish. Dave started of by ordering an iced milk tea. Warning, it seems you’ll be batting 50/50 on this. His first instance, he ordered a milk coffee, and found himself with a milk tea. He enjoyed it so much he orders that exclusively now, but now it seems half the time gets iced coffee, which is what he found himself with this time. The ticket from their computerized POS system even prints it out, go figure. 
 Continue reading ‘Spontaneous Orgasm’
So as we take this long weekend to remember our heros, I found myself at the veterans cemetery visiting with some deceased relatives. it looked like there was a plan to plant numerous flags at grave markers again this year. I started to think about how great it is for these kids to be volunteering to do this, but I got distracted when my eyes wandered to a nearby trash bin, when my heart nearly stopped.
There we noticed 4 slightly tattered flags sitting helpless in a heap with misc garbage.
WTF! This is totally unacceptable! And even more shameful at the veterans cemetery!
We rescued them from this travesty and put them back where they belong, and for the one that was beyond usable service, it will see a proper end.