These guys work crammed into a warehouse space on Ilaniwai Street (Tyke street off of Ward Ave) and seem to be the go to guys for hard to find parts for imports. Been trying to find replacement heater hoses for the FX16, and no one including Toyota has them or were willing to try and order them, except for Napa in Hawaii Kai. But actually Hawaii Kai is not convenient for me during the work week. Ended up finally at Hawaii Import Parts and right off the bat they knew it would be something that would be a little challenge. But he told me he could order them and they would take about two weeks, so the order is in, for two sets. The “store front” is a tiny space in front of the counter crammed full of parts and stuff cluttering the area, but these guys know their stuff. He found the radiator fan thermo switch too, $40 is much better than the OEM $150. I need to find a fan that will fit first though, so I passed on that, but I know they have it. They get all manner of chemicals too, bunch of euro stuff, and every color of RTV sealant that I didn’t know there was! Oh, and check out the “Costco” sized oil eater box if you’re there, called The Tanker at 16 quarts!
This is how they quarry for aggregate in the Marshall Islands. I’m pretty sure this is why good things turn into scrap metal almost immediately here. On the long road, there are numerous Cat and other excavator carcasses lying about.
OK, back at the begining of September (9/11!) I first met the seller of the latest FX16 and took a look at it. My initial inspection revealed some things. While clean, it was rougher than the advertised pictures revealed. It was actually a month later, prodded by the insane amount of fun rally-cross was, that I actually bought it. In the month since then there have been more revelations.
A few weeks ago, in the gravel lot next door to the work office, I noticed a new lunch wagon opened up. I popped over to check it out, it was gourmet grill cheese sandwiches, called Melt. At the time I was looking for something to supplement food I had brought from home and this didn’t sound like it would go too well. I figured to try it at a later date. Earlier this week I purposely did not bring home lunch planning to try it, only to find no one at the truck. Heynow, what the heck?! Tried again today. Dunno if this is supposed to add to the hipster vibe or what, it seemed half the clientel were being mod and dare I say looked like they should have fixie friends. The concept feels mainland city, like LA or NY. Continue reading ‘Melting’
I should probably explain the title of my earlier post. Through those convoluted paths that conversations often take, we found ourselves outside that earlier review Mexitlan Grill wondering about the composition of the Japanese word “benpi” and the “ben”. Benpi is constipation in Japanese.
We figured it was the same “ben” as in “benjou”. I looked it up in the dictionary on my iPhone, and much to our surprise, it came up with the kanji compounds as “convenience” and “secret”. So it turns out the “ben” is also the same as in “benri”. We found this pretty odd. It turns out this same kanji also can mean feces. That makes complete sense, but two have these two very different meanings for the same kanji seemed pretty wierd. I’m used to seeing a word that sounds the same but having different meanings and different kanji, but not this way around. Anyway, now you know!
More heavy rains during the week made prospects for a weekend ride abysmal at best, but after a bleak Saturday, the sun rose Sunday in a clear sky. Everyone bailed on the ride except Taro and I, so we just turned in the normal Ditch ride in the cool afternoon. With all the rain, I was expecting at least a bit of dampness, but one would be hard pressed to spot any signs of the week’s precipitation. The leaves filling the runoff grooves along Government Road were undisturbed, and the places that accumulate water after the rains were bone dry. The only observable effects of the rains were a significant reduction in dust compared to the week before. The trail was mostly deserted, save for some people we heard but didn’t see when we were in the side loop and a couple with three dogs along the terminal extent of the Ditch. On the way out, we saw a pair of ownerless tan dogs that were gone by the time we came back along the trail. For post-ride food, we bypassed he normal pub and hit up El Mariachi in Kaneohe for some good Mexican food.
Pictures here
D = 12.5 km (7.77-miles), Vavr = 12.4 km/h (7.7-mph), Vmax = 33.2 km/h (20.6-mph), T = 1-hour (total trail time about an hour and three quarters)
Update: it’s been closed for a few months now, that didn’t last very long….
Tucked away in that odd cubbyhole space off of 11th avenue behind the strip of shops that holds Big City Diner on Waialae, on our way to Himalayan Kitchen, we saw a new Mexican place show up. A few weeks later, we decided to try it out. Its a small, intersting space. I’m thinking some of it is holdovers from when it was a Japanese restaurant, Bozu. We spent some time hemming and hawwing outside deciding if we wanted to do it, looking at the menu posted didn’t help, it was in microprint that all us old fart hyperopic eyes couldn’t deal with. I went in to grab a printed menu and that sucked us in. As soon as we we headed inside to a table, I had to arch an eyebrow at the bottles of Tabasco on the tables. That already raised a question mark in my brain. Continue reading ‘Convenient Secret? Mexitlan Grill’
This altbier from Kyoto’s Machiya Brewery has the eponymous qualities that distinguish alts – a bitter, ale-like flavor and matching color. When poured, there is a finger-thick head, which quickly dissipates. Although the head is not persistent, the carbonation is actually reasonably high for a Japanese craft beer: From beginning to end, the bubbling can be felt on the tongue and lips, and each tip of the glass excites new outgassing from solution. The initial flavor is bitter with no flowery or sweet hop note. The bitterness moderates in the middle, allowing a light flowery aromatic to bloom before the bitter fully fades to reveal a maltiness that subsides into a clean, even finish. The color is a light reddish brown, somewhere between a pale ale and a red ale. Compared to the Onuma Alt reviewed here earlier, this one has more carbonation and a stronger bitter. Continue reading ‘Beer is Good – Machiya Brewery Hanamachi Beer Jibiiru’
After seeing one of these on a Redline pro BMX at McBike, I had Jarrel bring one in for me. It arrived just before I went to Japan, so I had to wait until I got back to install it. When I took it out of the box, it didn’t feel particularly light, that is until I dropped the CroMo fork out of my bike and compared the two. There was a significant weight difference! Installation was a bit of a bee-yotch. The crown race seat was a bit rough, long, and possibly slightly oversized. This made getting the probably slightly undersized Race Face crown race on a PITA. The supplied preload lag bolt had a larger diameter shaft than the fully-threaded bolt supplied with the Race Face top cap, so a bit of reaming was required to allow the bolt to pass through the cap hole. Lastly, the safety tabs on the fork dropouts were too close in to accommodate the giant axle bolt washers on my Atomlab hubs, so some grinding with a rotary tool was required to relieve them about a millimeter so the washers would sit flush. All the sweat and blood was made worthwhile the first time I took the bike for a spin. The vibration damping qualities of the fork are excellent. No longer do my hands get blasted off the grips when I land hard off a jump or bunny hop. Of course no sooner do I get this does Answer release the even lighter Dagger fork. Dammit!
About $275 USD MSRP/ $200 street
Recommended
Three out of four BMX monkeys
Not quite sure if these are new, or just new to McBike, but I found two new flavors of GU energy gel the other day. I bought one of each to try and tested them on this Sunday’s ride. The Jet Blackberry with double caffeine had a nice, rich berry flavor that didn’t taste like “chemical berries†or some kind of cough medicine. The double caffeine didn’t hurt. I’d buy that again. It didn’t quite give me a euphoric sense of well-being, but the berry flavor gave me a momentary bit of happiness during the grueling, humid ride. Continue reading ‘New GU Flavors’