Nope, he managed to purchase himself a Bike Friday Pocket Rocket Pro.

There is, of course, a wee bit of a story to go along with this.

Erich and I met at RAGBRAI 2011 this past summer. We were neighbors in tent city, and as he says, “Bob stuck his head out of the tent at the wrong moment.” Turns out we keep about the same schedule riding (he is a strong rider than I, but doesn’t mind my dogging it) and have pretty much the same goals on a ride: maximize fun, minimize pain, eat whenever pickings are good.

Thus was born our Christmas journey. Erich and his sister rented a place on the North Shore across from Shark’s Cove for the evening. She would take the bus and Erich and I would ride around the island. You can see our journey here…

It was quite a ride. The wind here has been rather brisk of late so the first part of our journey, into the wind was, well slow is a word that comes to mind. Still riding a bike is a blast pretty much anytime, so there you are. The toughest hill for Erich as the road up to Makapuu (for me the gulch at Castle junction seems more painful – we are entitled to our opinions). In any case he made it in fine form, ahead of me too boot:

It really was a great ride. I’ve ridden that way many time so I got to play tour guide and Erich, who has been to Hawaii several time but never ridden out this way, got to soak it all in. Luckily the wind was strong enough that he probably couldn’t hear my inane commentary along the way, but he did say he was grateful for my pointing out broken glass and potholes almost quickly enough for him to avoid them.

We finally pulled up at Shark’s Cove and sure enough, there was his sister waving and making sure we didn’t ride on by. We stayed in a converted home that’s now let out for vacationers.

It was a nice place, clean and well kept. We had a bit of a mix-up over a couple of things, but it worked out in the end. I’d stay there again, but I’d be sure communications were clear. I’m pretty sure Christmas stress gets to everyone. Enough. Go there, enjoy.

We had dinner at Shark’s Cove Grill which is a little place with a great view. It doesn’t seem like much more than a glorified lunch wagon but the boy is the food ono. I had steak and shrimp skewers dizzled with curry over brown rice and it was exactly what I needed after a long ride.

Early to bed with the order of the evening, after a trip to the very busy Pupukea Foodland for morning supplies.

The next day after puttering around a bit, getting coffee for myself, a paper for Linda, and a walk for Erich, we were off into a somewhat blustery morning. It was lovely and wet by turns as we made our way back the way we’d come the day before.

Now let’s be clear, it wasn’t a rainy day. It’s simply that every so often a rain cloud would be blown in from the ocean and let go with a shower. Then it would be over and things would be fine. Indeed it really wasn’t worth putting on a jacket as it was more refreshing than anything else. Once we pulled over to put the rain covers on some of our bags and naturally by the time we’d done that it’s had stopped raining. Go figure.

As we went past the Polynesian Cultural Center we stopped for a couple of photos we some friendly Tikis.

We kept at it, mostly into the wind which had helped us the day before. At one point we actually had to shift down to an easier gear while going downhill. That’s some wind.

When we got to Kaaawa at Uncle Bobo’s. I just love the place. I try to get there pretty much anytime I’m cycling past. Sometimes I regret eating so much, but I never regret the flavors. Ono.

Then it was off down the road again. Full. Very full.

We made it as far as the Hygenic Store in Kahaluu before I had to call it quits. If you ever meet Erich he’ll say he was done and wanted to quit, but in truth my legs were a little too tight to want to ride all the hills coming up. I’d ridden 36 miles on Sunday, 65 on Monday, and now another 30. That isn’t really so much, but I’ve only been commuting lately, not training for long rides. Discretion is the better part of valor or so I’m told, but hey, bike riding should be fun. And again kudos to the TheBus, all our buses on Oahu have bike racks and they work well. Yeah.

And the kicker? After a few hours ride, a big lunch, and a lot of dilly-dallying who should be on the bus but Linda – Erich’s sister. Go figure. The ride was a lot more fun with her along, though this wasn’t, in fact, the first time Erich and I had been on a bus together – think across Iowa.

We got of the bus downtown so I could show Erich our Chinatown and give him a tour of our waterfront. Weather on this side of the island was almost perfect – still too much wind. Naturally we had to get the classic bike and Diamond Head shot.

And that, as they say, was that.

We’ve more things planned later in the week, but our big ride was a smashing success, even if I insisted we cut it just we bit short. Listen to nothing Erich says about calling it quits unless he agrees with me.

Aloha!

So what’s this about Oregon? Yep, my friend Erich, with whom I journeyed across Iowa, and I are planning a new trip. This time it looks like we are going to ride the Oregon coast from Astoria in the NW corner to the California border. It certainly looks beautiful.

You can find a PDF route map on the Oregon government site here or embedded below.

I’m not quite sure when we’ll go, but it’s definitely on for next year during one of the one of the off-season months. We are both experienced riders but we’d prefer to minimize our exposure to badly driven rental RVS.

The route is only about 370 miles compared to the almost 500 of RAGBRAI, but the amount of climing is pretty much equivalent, about 20,000 ft. We discussed how much time we wanted to take and agreed that while we could ride it in seven days, we’d rather take eight and have the option of a either day off or two light days. Logistics to be worked out.

That’s the plan.

Erich will be coming out to visit his sister this winter and we plan on an overnight, though not really an SO24, we’ll be hitting a hotel and living in style…assuming of course we can get a reservation. That has yet to be seen.

The way I’ve been describing the journey (which I thoroughly enjoyed lest you think I’m complaining) is simple.

Everyday was hot, but fortunately the humidity pretty much took our minds off the heat. And, in truth, the humidity was easy to deal with because the hills took ours minds off the humidity. Nothing, however, took our minds off the hills.

Am I glad to be back in Hawaii (whose climate is described here)? Absolutely. Would I do RAGBRAI again? Absolutely. Still I’m thinking next year is probably a good year to be in Oregon. Or, if I really, really need the heat, Thailand or Indonesia. All places I’d like to bike.

Aloha

Luckily my training plan called for a light week when I got back of only 75 miles. It’s really not all that much. Still, because of my schedule, I had to do most of it early in the week because, as always, I just don’t have time later in the week, at least not until the weekend.

The past two weeks I’ve been attending classes at work on a reporting tool we use and it’s mucked up my schedule but good. Instead of going to the gym in the morning I’ve had to be at my desk as I’ve still got to do my regular job even with 6 hours of class a day. It’s doable as my boss lightened my load and didn’t give me any new requests, but there’s still the recurring jobs I handle and a few other things. Still it all worked out and I’m sort of back to normal this week.

Of course all this meant I had to cram in 110 miles last week. Most of my miles came on Sun-Tues and then it was just regular commuting for the rest of the week. I had to do that because this past Saturday I was very busy with some obligations and that meant limited riding.

This week is…um…even worse, though it’s not because of work. I’ll be heading to the Big Island (where I do have a bike) but I’ve got to get in 120 miles and won’t be able to ride my normal steed nor routes. That meant I had to do a nice long ride yesterday, Makiki to Kailua and back. It’s not particularly difficult but on a single speed it’s a bit more challenging than on my geared BikeFriday.

Out…

And back…

Please be aware that the times listed include breaks, sitting around, rests, coffee, and such. I’m slow but not quite that slow.

And finally today…hopefully my BikeFriday will be back from the shop with a new main frame. It’s been out in Waipio for the last 10 days (I dropped it off in Honolulu the Friday before last). I’m really looking forward to training on the bike I’ll actually be riding again and, dare I say it, having gears again. I’ve gotten pretty strong on my single speed (or so I’m told), but it’ll be nice to spin a bit instead of grind. My middle aged knees are throwing a party.

So…that’s about it. I’ve been crazy busy but still getting in the miles. Hopefully I can manage all of the miles on the training plan even though I’m squeezed for time. In truth I’m 239 miles ahead of the plan at the moment. I’ve ridden 919 miles in the last 8 weeks and the plan called for 680. Still I don’t want to slack because I suspect I’ll be paying for it later on.

Aloha!

I wasn’t there for vacationing though, I had two days of meetings to attend so I was pretty busy. Still I did a bit of looking around and what struck me is how few bicycles I saw. I didn’t see any roadies. The only bikes I saw were neighborhood MTBs in various states of disrepair. I also noted that while the shoulders on the main road are signed as a bicycle route they look awfully narrow from the vantage point of my rental car. That doesn’t necessarily mean they aren’t safe and from experience I know they’d look a lot wider from the saddle, but still…

There are some planned routes and some open routes though. I found this out through the Kauai Path site. They are actively creating bike routes and I’m hopeful that soon it will be great bike destination. I was on the east shore and this is the map I found on the site for the area:

Maybe next time I get to Kauai I’ll bring my Friday!

Aloha