Statrix Redux

I tried getting up 15 minutes earlier this morning, not so that I could increase my morning ride, but so that I could get out the door in a more relaxed manner. Didn’t work. I woke up all right, but almost immediately hit the snooze button and passed out for another 10 minutes or so. Tomorrow should be a wee bit easier, but clearly its going to take a few days to adjust.

I am beginning to think I need to get a bit more sleep as well. I’m not quite sure how to do that, save maybe enforcing my nap time – carry a blankie everywhere? 🙂 I generally don’t get home till 9:30 P.M. and normally I’ll watch an hour of TV and go to sleep. I think that hour of TV is going to have to go as well. To get 8 hours of sleep I’d really have to be in bed by 8:00 P.M., but I don’t see that happening.
Again this morning I thought about skipping my ride and taking the moped. That feeling went away as soon as I hit the streets on my bike, but the urge to sleep for another hour was pretty strong.
Hmmm…more sleep.
Aloha!

I think the time has come to stop tracking my mileage. That doesn’t mean I’m going to ride less, hopefully I’ll ride even more. However I’ve noticed a slight tendency on my part to worry more about mileage than about enjoyment. On the other I’m certainly glad I did keep track for as long as I did.

I learned a lot about the dimensions of Honolulu as a city, at least the portion I live in. My boundaries seem to be our downtown district to the west and Diamond Head to the east. On my moped my universe is a bit bigger, though not all that much and I expect as I gain strength I’ll probably start conquering the hilly Kaimuki area which would open up the area from Kaimuki through Hawaii Kai. When I was younger I did this regularly, but that was before several arthroscopies.

My riding today is definitely affected by my right knee. I have a very hard time keeping my foot in the “correct” place on the pedal because it puts pressure on my knee. It seems my foot, in compensation, turns out a bit and doesn’t like being held straight in line. Further, I’ve found that I have to be pedaling with resistance. If, for some reason, I push down and meet no resistance my knee can hurt a bit. With resistance there’s no such problem.
I definitely need different pedals as well. The ones I have are a bit slippery and I need to make sure that my feet don’t slip off. I may, at some point, want clips of some sort, but I’m going to see if I can find something that works for my quirky right knee.
’nuff for now!
Aloha!

All in all it was quite a weekend. I biked all over town more than once and it was great. Today I went down to the Ukulele Festival. Then it was off for Mexican food. Later I ended up downtown and now home. Today I was good – I didn’t obsessively keep track of the distance. 🙂
I also managed to adjust my derailleur, which is admittedly a small thing, but I’m glad to know I can deal with it now.

That’s actually about it except for thanking the fellow who decided to try to turn left into me on as I was riding legally through an intersection for not actually hitting me. We were both at a red light wiating. When it turned green I moved to go forward through the intersection, he wanted to turn left across my path. [This, btw, on a street designated as a bike path.] Since I was paying attention I could clearly see that he saw me, gauged if he make the left before I could go through, went for it, then had to stop. He actually would have made it as I came to a stop short of his turn radius, but seriously folks, I’m on a bicycle. Once you let me through you can go pretty much as fast as you like (provided you don’t mind speeding tickets and arrests for reckless endangerment) so what’s the f’ing hurry?
It really sounds like a case of doesn’t work and play well with others. Here’s a link to an MSNBC article on rising bike accidents in these days of no gas.
Aloha!

I took a nice long ride for coffee this morning and the weather was lovely. The new fenders weren’t needed at all, though I did finally ride through a couple of puddles from sprinklers to test them out. They work great.
I did look around a bit for a bike work stand but I couldn’t find one in my price range. I’m still contemplating the whole issue, but I do need to adjust my front derailleur, so I’m going to have to do something.
I visited Makiki Park twice. Once after my first ride of the day for a bit of brunch, then later in the afternoon after my second journery for a late lunch. It was simply marvelous and I hope they come back to Makiki annually. I’m going to have to write the mayor to let him know.
That’s about it. I’m finally home and contemplating tomorrow when I think I’ll try to take in “The 38th Annual Ukulele Festival.”
Aloha!

Okay, now that I’m back from the shop I thought I’d take a quick pick of it all and put it up. Here’s my bike, a Giant Sedona with a rack truck and one of my panniers. They aren’t really attached tightly so I’m not quite ready to ride off into the sunset, but it wouldn’t take much. 🙂

I’ll be honest, I’m tempted to blow off the thing in the park and take a ride downtown this evening.
With the money I saved on the fenders (I was ready to go $50+ if necessary) I think I may go ahead and get some more road oriented tires. Hmm…this is turning into a hole in the road I can throw money into. 🙂
And oh…I raised the seat another half inch to see if that helps with my right foot placement a bit. My right knee is rotten with arthritis and while I can bike, my foot is turned out a bit.
Aloha!

Tonight is the first day of the Rediscover Makiki Sunset in the Park celebration. I, of course, do not need to rediscover Makiki as I currently live there, have been to school there, and attend all sorts of events there already. I was once even a minor politico for Makiki…who knew? 🙂
Some of the stuff going on…

Rediscover Makiki: Sunset in the Park takes place from 4 pm to 10 pm on Friday, July 25; and from 10 am to 10 pm on Saturday, July 26. Makiki District Park is located at Keeaumoku and Wilder streets.
Free movies include “Evan Almighty,” on Friday at 7:30 pm; and “Bee Movie,” on Saturday at 7:30 pm.

As for me, I guess I’ll just have to attend some of it, but I do plan on doing a few other things first. I think I’m going to ditch the long ride home and instead go to “The Bike Shop” down the street to see if they have any decent fenders. I almost bought some at Nashbar this morning (20% off till noon), but demurred because I couldn’t quite tell if they’d fit.

I’m hoping I can find something that fits, it seems a shame to run around damp and dirty all the time when it doesn’t have to be. Eventually I’ll figure something out.
And I did…
After work, instead of taking a long ride, I simply went down to McCully Bike, where I got my beast. They had nothing that would work on my bike. That didn’t work out so got ugly and whined, felt sorry for myself, and probably moaned too boot. They called the shop and asked if anyone there could do anything.
As it turns out…I love these guys.
My bike now has decent full fenders by Planet Bike. Instead of the full set of SpeedEZ above I’ve got the front of the SpeedEZ set and a regular full basic fender in the back. The best part, aside from having them, is that fully installed the entire cost was $20. New. Installed. Go figure.
I’m guessing they are trying to win my loyalty or, more likely, wanted to get rid of me quickly. I highly recommend these guys! Go McCully Bike!!!
Aloha!

Today was dry…


…which made the morning commute a breeze. While I’m certainly not going for speed I noticed that I did it about 5 minutes faster than I have in the past. Part of that is probably the fact it was dry and therefore not as worrying a ride. Part of it is probably that I’m marginally better at this now.
I’m hoping I’ll be able to rent a bicycle in Mexico DF for the duration. Apparently there is a new bike sharing program close to where I’ll be staying. I wonder if it’ll be around when I get there? As far as I can tell there are three stations for the bikes, 2 about 1.5 miles from me, the other just slightly further. I’d rather rent something for the duration, or even…gasp…buy a junker which I can donate to someone when I leave, but I guess we’ll have to see.

As for the rest of the day, I have to get to my volunteer gig after work so I won’t be doing my “big commute” home, opting instead for a straight shot home (almost) followed by a ride to and from the offices I volunteer at. Then tonight I’ll have to take the trusty moped out for a spin. It’s been a couple of days and I don’t want it to feel neglected. 🙂
I also seemed to have pinched something in my back as bending over is problematic. However it didn’t keep me from riding, I sit up straight enough that it wasn’t a problem. That sort of surprised me as I was ready to cancel and get to work in another fashion, but it was fine – locking the bike was a bit iffy though.
And finally, I’ve changed themes on my blog for now. It seems that WordPress 2.6 and the K2 theme do not get along at all. The SBM (side bar manager) seems to be broken and it’s unclear to me exactly what I need to do to get it all working again. Unfortunately I use K2 on another site and am loathe to change it was readily as I was willing to do here because the other site isn’t personal. I’m sure something will become available soon enough, but till then I’m crossing my fingers.
Aloha!

Actually I guess I should have said, “almost day.” It’s still dark out, though the Sun was going to make an appearance pretty quickly. In any case everything cooperated this morning except the weather which was filled with light sprinkles – not enough for me to change my plans, but enough to make me extra careful on slippery pavement.
Today I had no flat. I also bolted down my seat just a wee bit higher than it had been and found it to be a quite an improvement. Stopping away from a curb is just a bit iffy, standing on tippy-toes and such, but my legs are more comfortable (though they weren’t bad before).
I rode the same morning ride as I did on 7/21…

More later!
And later I did my circuit around Kapiolani Park on my way home. This time I didn’t stop for coffee, but I did run into a friend and spent a few minutes talking. All in all it was good time. In the evening I rode off on an errand and added a few more miles. All in all it was a 21+ mile day – a weekday to boot! Someone even accused me of getting skinny – but they were only being polite because it isn’t happening yet (or maybe even ever).
Aloha!

I got up extra early this morning to make sure I could get in a nice morning ride before work. It was, of course, still dark. I set off with the intention of repeating my ride from yesterday morning, but with perhaps a wee bit more.
‘Twas not to be.

I made it as far as our local police station when…phftttt…flat. I’d come, I later discovered, 1.63 miles which was just barely enough to get my blood moving. Luckily it was only about a mile to work from there, it could have been much worse.
Fortunately a week or so ago I purchased a spare tube and the tools I’d need to change a flat on the go. Unfortunately when it happened it was still pitch black outside. I had to walk to work with the bike just to get enough light to make the repair.
I was surprised by how smoothly the actual repair went, it seemed to take longer to take off the rear wheel. Putting it back on will probably be just as annoying. I’m going to have to look around for tips on doing that easily. Speaking of tips, though I’d changed tubes before – some twenty years ago, I did quick Google search just to be sure I had decent instructions while I did the job (at my desk where there’s lots of light). I found some very clear instructions on Bicycle South’s website. They are a store in Decataur, Georgia that it seems likely I’ll never visit. Thanks guys, you’ve got a great site!
The culprit, turns out, was a tiny piece of glass. This image isn’t from Honolulu, but sometimes I think it could be. 🙁

I’ve been good about going over my tires after every ride so I most likely picked it up this morning, in the dark. I guess that’s one of the disadvantages to such early mornings. I don’t suppose there is much I could have done differently, so I won’t!
The hardest part of the whole mess, besides walking, was replacing the back wheel. I’d somehow gotten it off without much trouble, though now I wonder how. Getting it on was actually easy too, but getting the brake in place took some doing and some remembering how they actually worked. Still it was five minutes work and led to a quick test around the parking lot – a reasonable break from work. It wasn’t, however, the nice early morning ride I’d planned. I can, however, take solace in the fact that I get to visit the bike store on my way home.
And so it was…
I bought 2 tubes this time, not just one. I suspect next I’ll work on a patch kit, but for now swapping out the tubes seems simpler, faster, cleaner, and probably safer. I also bought a bolt for the seat so I could take the quick release off. Last I checked I hadn’t grown so I’m not likely to want to adjust the seat regularly and I’m not big on carrying it around everywhere. I may change my mind on that though. We’ll see.
Aloha!

Tomorrow is laundry day and I’ve told my family that I will try to go out to Hawaii Kai for a birthday dinner for one of my sisters. I’m not yet up to the ride out there. I’ve no doubt I could do it, but the length of time it would take me will make it impossible. I’m staying slow. The overall distance out there is about 15 miles and at my pace I wouldn’t make it there till after dinner if I do my laundry. If didn’t do my laundry it would be okay, but that opens a completely different Can-O-Worms.
I’ll still bike to work in the morning and home in the afternoon, but instead of trying to overextend myself, I use my gas guzzling moped for the trip out there. I should note, for the sake of the folks I bought my moped from, and who continuing to do a great job keeping it up, that my moped doesn’t really guzzle gas. It’s just that now that I bike so much I’m down from 2 fill-ups a week (about 2 gallons) to just 1 fill-up. 🙂
In any case I’m going to add a couple of miles to my ride home today, since I’ve nothing planned and the weather is, well like it usually is here in Honolulu, quite nice. The ride home I’m thinking of will finish the oceanfront ride I started this morning with a duplication of Ala Moana Beach Park so that I can be back into the mood.

Here’s the route I think I’ll be taking….

I’ll probably stop for a cold drink around the halfway mark so I won’t be going fast, but I can’t imagine getting home much past 4:30 P.M. That just proves I’m not in this for the speed – heck, a good walker might actually go faster than that. 🙂
…and ride I did…
I was home before 4:30 and even had time for a 30 minute break for an iced coffee while I waited out some rain. It seems I picked the perfect route because it was raining near my place when I left work and I was headed away from it. When I got through the park I could see the rain behind me and again when I made through Waikiki. I never got wet. 🙂
All in all it was great dry time.
Now for tomorrow’s commute…
Aloha!
Aloha!