Monthly Archive for April, 2008

Hide-chan

So this monday everyone pulls out crotchety old man excuses to not do a St. Louis freeride downhill, even though the weather is great. So what do we do instead, we go eat! In fact when the event’s eating, the group becomes even bigger, with six of us converging on McCully Bicycle. The plan is to head to Hide-chan down the street for dinner. CKucky and myself have been there a few times already, and Scat is a well known regular. So much so that he gets showered with bonus freebies from Hide himself. We decide to walk, which is just as well since it’s ridiculously close by, and parking is small.

Hide-chan is located on the corner of S. King and Isenberg, right across from the Moilili Star market, with an unassuming appearance. Tug hard on the door, the spring is strong. Inside is small and bright, seating for around 30 people. A genuine familly run shop, Hide cooks, wife works the front, along with one other guy and occasionally the daughter. Goya TempuraThey’re from Okinawa so the menu is Japanese with a number of Okinawa dishes, most obviously the goya (bittermelon). You’re started with a simple salad of iceberg and some carrot slivers with a shoyu dressing that I find quite yummy. Then you can proceed onto the main course. Many Japanese standards on the menu, along with specials posted up on the walls. You know when people ask, what’s good, and you answer everything? Well, so far everything I’ve tried really has been good that it’s hard to pick. So far I’ve had the eggplant stuffed with pork and katsu styled, the menchi (hamburger) katsu, goya champuru, half-eaten kisu-tempura teishokuand this time around the special of kisu tempura. The food quality and preparation has been great every time. The tempura is wonderfully light and crisp. Really, if you were served the same thing in dim light, with candles, fancy booths, piped in koto bg music, in laquer boxes, you wouldn’t know the difference. Instead you’ll get a skillfully prepared honest family style Japanese meal at a great price.

Really gets the maximum gleeful monkeys from me. Perhaps the only slight negative would be it’s small, so I wouldn’t be in a rush. As far as I can tell, it’s Hide doing the cooking, and that’s it. Ask Scat, he always pokes his head into the kitchen to say hi. There’s also a sign on wall saying No Alcohol, haven’t asked to mean none at all or it’s BYOB. Would be nice to enjoy a good beer with meal, but it’s no problem going without, the great food more than makes up for that. They close fairly early, 8:30 Mon – Thursday, later on Fri-Sat, and closed on Sunday I believe. Definitely recommended.

Now That’s Service!

box-o-glassI called Clyde at Toyota Parts on Thursday.  He said the order would go into Toyota Motor Sales USA for a part pull from the mainland warehouse on Friday.  He figured the part would be in on Wednesday.  He called me on Monday saying the window had arrived!  I picked ut up today.

Sweaty Ride (aka, Poopy Ride)

JT was out sick and Chris was “baking brownies” (is that some kind of euphemism for something?), so they missed this Sunday’s ride. Considering the heavy sweating they had to endure on last week’s ride, this one would have put them over the top. The skies were overcast, and the forecast return of the Easterlies did not come to pass. Dr. Paul joined Jeff, Sara, Ckucke, Root, and me for the humid torment. The Albizia trees were still going off, so my allergies fired up immediately. We did the enhanced loop like last week, but futzed around a little more on the upper Kalanianaole side – mostly climbing up to the view points and backtracking. Nobody wanted to go “down” anything because of the prospect of climbing back up. The cardiac arrest climb was as heinous as usual, but it didn’t feel like I was literally going to die at the top like last time. Root got a service call from his job while we were recovering at the tree. It was that kaiten sushi chain asking, “how come we can’t print?” We dropped back down to the ditch via the flailing fat guy singletrack, and did the inner loop and side loop. Continue reading ‘Sweaty Ride (aka, Poopy Ride)’

Bloody Finger of Death

Bloody Finger of DeathUnlike the insides of a PC where all the raw sheetmetal edges are like razor blades, the metal strap that holds the scissors jack into the rear quarter panel of a Chevrolet 3500 van is actually smooth and rounded with a rolled bead on the edge.  The plastic wingnut that holds the strap in place however, has a molding flash that easily and quickly shaves the skin off your finger like a wood plane – curled-up ribbon of skin and all!  People really freak out when blood is dripping from your hand.

Kracker

Kowarechatta!Really –  I don’t know what happened.  I came back from deliveries at 10:00 or so and it was OK.  At noon when we went to get lunch, the window was fully cracked.  My only guess is built-up stress (it is nearly 18-years old).  If it was caused by someone or by an object, the glass would have come apart and be all over the carpet inside the cabin in little pieces.

I called Clyde at Toyota Parts, and a new one is on the way – probably next Wednesday…  In the meantime, there are 4-plies of packing tape holding the tiny crystals together and keeping rain out.

Sniffy Ride

SniffyIt was overcast on Wednesday, but not threatening rain like on Monday, so I went out for a spin.  The eye-candy level was higher than average.  The two weeks off the bike when the weather was bad made last Saturday’s ride punishing, so I wanted to turn in some distance during the week to bring the conditioning back up.  I would have kept on riding if I had clear lenses.  The Rampage tires climbed slip-free up the Chicken Trail backwards.  No problems on the loose leaves or rolly branches.  Some kids have put up some pallets in the moonscape area as an airsoft battlefield.  I hope I can ride again on Friday…

D = 17.48 km (10.86-miles), Vavr = 18.3 km/h (11.3 mph), Vmax = 42.6 km/h (26.5 mph), T = 57-minutes

Solos Headset Test

Yup – it’s a headset. It steered smoothly on the swoopy level sections at Ditch trail, and survived all the impacts and sideloads in the rock garden without going out of adjustment and without creaking or popping. Other than the initial binding issues stemming from handling issues, it has been solid and trouble-free. It feels more drag-free than the King it replaces, probably due to the lower preload required by the properly-designed colletted top cap.

Stay tuned for future updates.

Rampage Trail Test

Panaracer Rampage 26×2.3Saturday’s Ditch ride was a good test for the new Panaracer Rampage tires on the Moment. On the last training ride I took on the bike, the greatest difference I noticed was in the lower rolling resistance. On the hardpack doubletrack and singletrack, the lower rolling resistance benefits could be felt also. The cornering was as good if not better than the Mountain A/T’s. This was probably due to the higher side and edge knob density, and the lower, stiffer knobs. There was a noticeable deficit on standing climbs and clawing performance up rooty sections or over rolly branch pieces on the trail. Moisture aggravated this. Exploring an apparent side trail, I tried riding up an angled one-foot step-up with a rooty surface. The ground was damp and the back tire went into immediate spin-out. Continue reading ‘Rampage Trail Test’

Allergy Ride

DitchThe unstable weather was teetering on the balance between sunny blue and rain on Saturday afternoon, so we met for a afternoon ride out at Ditch. Ckucke was nappy boy, but Root, Jeff, JT, and Chris managed to break away for some trail time. There was some new hardware to trail-test. JT was sporting his new Foes, so was itching to take it on the dirt and see how it performed. Root had switched out the heinous Marzocchi Bomber on the ToddBike to the Psylo off the Straight 6. I had those new Panaracer Rampage tires to try on the dirt. Continue reading ‘Allergy Ride’

Hane-nezumi wa Mada Ikiteru

Tweet tweetAs I was leaving work Thursday Afternoon, I heard the familiar pathetic little whistles of the little invader dove. He was perched alone on the power lines outside the warehouse door looking rather forlorn. He’s still alive…