And, I’ll have to admit, after biking the Oregon coast and bits and pieces of Portland and the Bay Area I was okay with a wee bit of time off my bike. I’ve had a hip injury for the past couple of months and, while it doesn’t really hurt when I ride, I’ve tried to rest it when I can.

Still today I hopped on my bike and made it work. Felt fine. Glad I did it. Why wasn’t I riding all week? Don’t know.

Anyway, here’s what’s left of the Honolulu Bike to Work schedule for the week…

May 18 | Bike 2 Work
Thomas Square 6-8am, 4-6pm The Bike Shop snacks & bike adjustments
May 19 | Ride of Silence
State Capitol at 4 p.m
May 20 | Bike to the Zoo
Honolulu Zoo 9am-2pm

Did I mention I bought a new bike? Nope?

While I was in the Bay Area I had to visit Rivendell Bicycle Works, where I finally got to meet Grant Petersen in person, and…yep…purchased a Hunqapillar. It won’t be here till July so I’m not going to write too much about it now, but I’m certainly looking forward to a regular bike that isn’t a single-speed. I’m not giving up my single-speeds mind you, but there are times when I like being able to shift.

It’s going to look more or less like this…

But that isn’t really the point of this note. Grant did an NPR interview for Bike to Work day which you can find through this link.

As for the trip, Erich and I managed to hit a bad week of Oregon weather. The week before we arrived the weather was nice, the week following was the same. Our week looked a lot like this, in fact, exactly like this:

Of course the entire nine days wasn’t that wet, though I think we hit some rain pretty much every day. Indeed there were two days that it rained so hard we couldn’t ride safely at all. Those days we decided to take a local bus to the next town. Both times visibility on the road was bad enough that, while we were disappointed in missing the ride, we applauded ourselves for making the right choice.

There’ll be a lot more for me to say about the trip, but you can read more about it on ‘crazyguyonabike’ here: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/oregonpie2012

I’ve got to finish up the journal, but most of the ride is documented, if not illustrated.

Here’s the final shot of the ride (though not of the vacation)…

Aloha!

The biggest complaint I have has to do their construction. Because they have been designed to sit as close to the crank as possible they require the use of an Allen wrench to attach. Unfortunately it seems that the material isn’t metal and is some sort of plastic. I managed to come close to stripping one of the pedals. Indeed I may have done that and if so I’m going to have some real trouble when I try to take another trip. That’s not happening for a bit and I’ve had other things on my mind so I’ve left well enough alone, but I’m going to have to look into it in the next month or two. It’s always something.

Jeff from Ergon commented on that post noting that:

The pedals install using a 8mm Allen key on the pedal axle not the plastic cap on the outside of the pedal.

See page 23:
http://www.ergon-bike.com/us/en/files/files/view/1988/ERG_PC2_Manual_110113_Web.pdf

I still didn’t get it. Boy I can be dumb.

Jeff is, of course, completely right.

I’d had no reason to disassemble my NWT till today. I’m preparing for an upcoming Oregon coast ride so naturally I needed to get my pedals off.

I finally got it. You work from the other side of the pedal. Instead of using a 15mm wrench on the outside of the crank, you use an 8mm hex from the inside of the crank.

Dumb, dumb, dumb.

I retract all earlier stupidity, though I’ll have to own to the fact that I said it. Sigh.

In any case, I love the pedals. I’ve been riding them for 6 months now and they are great. I slip a lot less than I did on the MKS pedals I was using before and the comfort level is super. I’m looking forward to 400 miles of comfort as I pedal south along the coast.

Thanks Jeff. Thanks Ergon. Now if only they had them in colors – like pumpkin orange (and English racing green).

Mea culpa.

Aloha!

The good news is that everyone seems to be recovering. Whew.

As for me, I’ve done no photography lately, have had to miss most of the Rainbow baseball season since I last mentioned it, and have done almost no bicycling save for the odd bit of commuting. Believe me when I say I’d trade it all for everyone’s health. I’m not complaining, just noting.

Now for the complaining…

My Oregon coast trip is still on and starts pretty darn quickly. Sadly I’m completely out of shape. It’s going to be…um…painful. We don’t have any super-hard or long days so I’m not too concerned. Last time I checked, which was recently my resting heart rate was still excellent for a someone my age and weight. I still bike daily when I’m on the island and if I haven’t been putting in the miles neither have I completely forgotten how to ride a bike.

In any case I’m really looking forward to the trip, even the suffering. There’s been a lot of stress in my life lately and I’m looking forward to burning it all off.

I plan on documenting things here a bit better now that my trip is nigh. I’m also planning on making a ton of images (how much do pixels weight anyway?) on my trip.

So think of this post as an aspiration, if not a promise.

Aloha!

Steve Jacksa, the CMU coach, went over to first and argued the call with the umpire who’d made the call. I’ve got no problem with that. It’s part of baseball. A good argument can be fun. More power to you coach.

But here’s the rub. After failing to persuade the umpire of his case, and when was the last time you saw a coach win one of these, Coach Jacksa stalked a back across the field from 1st to 3rd going right over the pitcher’s mound. And he didn’t just walk across it accidentally. He clearly knew what he was doing and did it, as far as I can tell, to show his contempt for the umpires and for our team.

Look, I get being mad at an umpire. I get mad at them all the time. But it was an incredible show of bad sportsmanship to stalk across the mound and show up our pitcher like that. There isn’t any rule against it. But after A-Rod did it to Braden back in 2010 and ignited a controversy, there’s no way to interpret it as just a way to cross the field anymore.

Coach, your team is welcome back here anytime. I’d love to see them. They are a good baseball team. Your fans are welcome back anytime, they are a great group. Your assistant coaches are welcome back; I watched one toss a ball to group of keiki after the game – good show.

But you sir, you are not welcome back, at least not until you learn to handle your unhappiness. If you must direct it somewhere go after the umpires, but don’t disrespect our team, our fans, or our ball park. That was ugliest display I have ever seen from a college level baseball coach. You knew what you were doing and you knew what the reaction would be. Grow up coach or take your ball and go home. Please.

Here he is folks, my new role model, #22…Steve Jacksa…

To his credit he did pick up a bit of trash that probably wouldn’t have made it onto the playing surface and seemed fine doing it. And, looking at his record and the number of players signed or drafted during his tenure he is a good coach.

I’m just sorry that during his 300th win, and he did win today, he managed to turn something that should have been a fun afternoon in the sun into a sorry spectacle of bad sportsmanship.