A third variety recently available at Marukai, Japan brewery Coedos Ruri. Pours a clear gold, weak head that quickly dissappeared. Carbonation persists as opposed to their previous brew I had. I’m wondering if they suffer from ill handling in the supply chain. Notable hoppy note, fairly bitter and dry, persists for a bit, but quite drinkable. Looking into it, the Ruri is a pils, and I do see the style. As it warms up, there’s a little astringent and touch of sour on the sides of the tongue. Perhaps I’m developing a taste for pils? I find this Ruri pleasant and drinkable, and I had a Wernesgruner earlier with dinner too! But I’m not sure if I’d say its worth the premium price commanded at the store for it. One and a half bottles of these Ruri would pay for the sixer of Wernesgruner, and honestly I think the Wernesgruner has a more complex flavor. So I guess I’d give it three out of four hoppy monkeys, except value wise it looses out.  It’s good, but not good enough to make me want to seek it out at the cost in money and time to find it.
After getting rained out on riding this weekend, we deferred to an attempt at a St. Louis run this afternoon. Although it had rained all night, the morning was clear. Things were looking good. Then around 09:00, the clouds gathered and the rain came dumping down. The whole Town side was socked in grey. Oh well – nothing ventured, nothing lost. Just before noon, the skies cleared and the ground started drying out. Just so long as it stayed sunny and it didn’t rain anymore, we were good. As pau hana time rolled around, the sky was bright and the air was hot. It was a “goâ€. Kevyn met Ckucke, JT, and I at Kanewai, and we shuttled up to the top. Root was stuck in Waikiki at a job site, so he missed the start. After we had dropped the mainline through taco jumps then straight through to the rock drop and the switchback trail to agave. Root called us at this point to say he was at Kanewai, and would ride up to meet us. We climbed back up to the first junction to take the burnout trail to the concrete road where we met Root. In hindsight, we should have told him to drive up to the top and bomb down and meet us. Dinner was at the new Teddy’s Bigger Burgers in Mo’ili’ili.
Pictures here
D = 4.28 km (2.66-miles), Vavr = 13.0 km/h (8.1-mph), Vmax = 38.9 km/h (24.2-mph), T = 20-minutes
Former O’ahu MTB-er and surfer Vince “Akron†Labbe was in town last week for the Hawaii premiere of the film, Out of Place, in which he is a featured athlete for the Honolulu Academy of Arts Third Annual Surf Film Festival. He gave a Q&A session after the film and handed out some tee shirts. Chris and the Missus, Ckucke, and I made it down for the premiere showing. The film was well-done, from both the documentary and sports film standpoints. I came away with that awestruck, inspired feeling that I had as a teen after seeing Endless Summer. It will be showing again on Wednesday, 21 July 2010 at the Doris Duke Theater at 13:00, 16:00, and 19:30. I definitely recommend you go and check it out! For more info, go by the Honolulu Academy of Arts website.
Overheard at potentially the best hotel/restaurant in Majuro:
Guy A: Did you get that rat yet?
Guy B: Which rat?
Guy A: The one running around the kitchen.
Hmm, this cant be good. Then I heard rumours of the staff getting a $5 bonus for each rat dispatched after hours.
The gathering clouds on Friday were a portent that the ride scheduled for Sunday would not materialize. At least I managed to get in a few km’s after work. Those Rubber Queens are still feeling draggy…
D = 11.91 km (7.40-miles), Vavr = 18.5 km/h (11.5-mph), Vmax = 36.4 km/h (22.6-mph), T = 38-minutes
I picked these up last year when I was picking up a Snow Peak Spork for Chris at the Snow Peak store in Japan. I personally strongly dislike sporks, so I got the SCT-001 three-piece utensil set instead. I see the utility of having utensils stashed in the EDC bag, since sometimes the krappy low-bidder PRC fork that comes with your Grace’s Inn chicken katsu plate lunch shatters into plastic shrapnel, the disposable spoon that comes with your convenience store ice cream is just not up to the task, or whoever picked up lunch at Yama’s Fish Market only got forks and your #3 plate has poi. I have in the year that I’ve owned this set used for exactly these things and then some. I have so far not used the knife. Continue reading ‘Snow Peak Titanium 3-piece Utensil Set’
I’ve had a Bencmade Model 7 Rescue Cutter for many years. I went out and purchased it and attached it to my snowboard pack shoulder strap immediately after seeing some video footage of a kid slipping out of a chairlift and ending up suspended by his helmet strap. Being able to cut out of a situation like that one handed definitely seemed like a good idea, and not getting impaled by a sharp instrument when subsequently hitting the ground seemed like an even better idea (if you’ve seen Will Smith in I Am Legend, you know what I mean). Conceivably, one could toss a conventional knife after cutting loose, but the reality of the situation is that when you’re falling after being suspended by your pack straps or helmet straps, all intentions aside, you’re more likely to unconsciously clench your fist and hold onto the knife rather than ditch it when that falling sensation kicks in. Thusly, I chose a safety cutter. The Model 7 is a great tool, but it is not cheap, so when Dave at Power Edge told me a less expensive polymer version was coming out, I was intrigued. Continue reading ‘Benchmade 9CB Strap Cutter, Carabiner’
The weather was overcast yesterday, but it wasn’t raining, so there was no excuse to get out and pedal around a bit. Chris called me just as I was getting the bike ready to roll, but there was still a lot of daylight left after our lengthy discussion of matters tactical. This was a good opportunity to evaluate the performance of the Conti Rubber Queens that I had just switched to. On the first outing at the Ditch, they felt slower, but this was offset by the better traction and ride. On the pavement, I could definitely feel the increase in rolling resistance from the size, weight, pattern, and compound differences between these and the Michelins they replaced. Climbing was hellaciously sluggish. At speed, they tended to want to stay in motion, but accelerating them up to speed was harder. Once at speed, there was a more noticeable gyroscopic effect in turns, where they resisted the steer into hard corners. There may also have been a little change in steering feel from the slight geometry change the larger diameter imparted, but I really doubt I can feel something that slight. They are still new with molding hairs all over, so I’ll give them more time to settle in before I make any judgments. Heck, from the computer data, they were faster than my last ride on Michelins!
D = 11.67 km (7.25-miles), Vavr = 19.5 km/h (12.1-mph), Vmax = 39.4 km/h (24.5-mph), T = 36-minutes
Monday, 05 July 2010
As predicted, the luck ran out, and the weather deteriorated over the long Independence Day weekend. The overnight rain on Sunday dissipated, leaving hot sun and blue clouds on Monday morning, but as ride time neared, the rain clouds slowly built, dumping localized downpours in random areas. Jeff, Sara, and the rest of the surf crew were off-island, and Ckucke and JT had other commitments, so that left Chris, Root and me. Driving out to Waimanalo, the Keolu area was socked in under an evil grey cloud. A light drizzle fell as I passed the stable. The trailhead was dry, but another evil could was on approach from the sea to the East. There was blue sky directly windward of the trail, so we lucked out and the rain missed us. Continue reading ‘In The Spot’
So whats the status of the AE86 Corolla? I’ve actually been driving it, kidney bouncingly it every day. Here’s the story behind that. Last I mentioned the AE86, I believe it was running and autocrossing. Was having rear end traction issues, so it was in my plan to work on the suspension. Debating piecing together a cut and weld kind of arrangement, but found a complete coilover system just released from Stance. The rear is not really a coilover, but is still adjustable. That was ordered, along with a complete Prothane polyurethane bushing kit. Suspension was taken apart, old bushings removed, cleaned up, 
and repainted with POR-15. That POR-15 is tenacious stuff, even taking a torch to a piece we needed to extract a metal bushing from didn’t mess up that paint much. The rickety mystery Chine hydraulic press once again came into use. Got the job done, but it doesn’t instill much confidence! The bushing replacement was pretty straighforward and easy. Only the rear panhard presented some challange as it had metal bushing/sleeve that needed to be extracted, and one side had a wasp waist single piece bushing that required the press, liberal lubrication, and some worrisome looks at how much the bushing was squishing and squirming jamming it into place. Continue reading ‘Auto Progress – AE86’
