Author: Bob Harrison

My friend Jason passed this along to me and I had to laugh. It seems all too typical.

One of my favorite patches of road in Honolulu has got to be a short section of Young St. behind the Kaiser Permanente building. There are lovely wide bike paths painted down both sides of the road, but if you are headed Ewa you’ll most likely be out of luck. It seems the trucks for Goodwill are almost always in the path during the day and at night, when the trucks have gone, you can see shards of broken glass everywhere in the path. I will note that the other side of the street, heading Diamond Head is usually just fine.
Aloha!

Actually it doesn't matter much. I generally stare the irritating talkers into submission.

No, I’m not aware of any connection between baseball and Mr. O’Brien. However, after watching a wonderful UH game tonight I came home and found out one my favorite artists had been on Folk Alley (check ’em out) and left this…

Tonight we won the game without much hitting. In fact none of our runs had anything to do with a hit. Two walks, a sacrifice, a fielder’s choice to load the bases, an out to undo the bases loaded situation followed by another walk, and then a two run error to tie the game. Wow!
But it wasn’t over. A wild pitch followed giving us the lead. But it still wasn’t over.
The Lions came back and with two men on base the rains came down for 35 minutes. Josh Slaats then threw a strike over the batter’s head by hitting his bat. Go figure. They tried an unsuccessful double steal losing their lead runner. Finally to end the game Slaats struck out the last batter.
You can find a better description of it all on the UH Athletics website.
To end the evening the rains returned and I got absolutely soaked riding home. Oh well. The good news is my Obenauf’s Heaving Duty LP is on the way. I need to waterproof that saddle!
Aloha!

I’m not a fan of the phrase, “I bought the bag.” I here it quite a bit and it never fails to grate on me a bit, but hey, it’s a lot better than some other things one could say I guess.
So why am I mentioning this? Mostly because I bought the bag.
Of course I’m not saying I agree with anything or subscribed to a concept as is usually meant by that statement. No, I actually bought the bag.
It’s a Sackville Large Saddlebag sold by Rivendell Bicycle Works. It’s a big friggin bag!

According to Rivendell it’s:

Approximately 17.25″ wide, 8.5″ tall and 13″ deep.

If I lose a few pounds I can probably live in it. 🙂
So it’s been quite a busy couple of days shopping-wise. I’ve ordered the trailer for my Bike Friday TravelCase and now a big honking bag. I agonized over both purchases for an appropriate amount of time so I’m unlikely to suffer much buyer’s remorse. At least I hope that’s the case.
Aloha!

I had nice evening listening to Joe McNally, a brilliant photographer whose work you’ve seen even if you don’t know it, at the University of Hawaii’s Pacific New Media Program.
The program was billed as:

Small Lights Big Flash with Joe McNally
Thursday, March 12 at 7pm
Art Building Auditorium

But to be completely honest, that wasn’t exactly what it was. Joe does use a lot of lighting in his work – and very effectively I might add. But this was really a walk through his work over the decades more than a talk specifically focusing on small lights. Still I don’t regret going a bit.
I would have bought his book The Moment in Clicks, but I didn’t have $45.00 on me. He has another one coming out as well, but he didn’t have it with him.
In any case he’s a big talent wrapped up in a pretty friendly guy. Go Joe!
Note: I’d put one of his photos here for you to look at, but that’s his job. Go check out his blog.
Aloha!

The only real souvenir I bought in the Bay Area isn’t really a souvenir at all. No, instead of Ghirardelli Chocolate I bought myself a new saddle, the Brooks B17 Standard.

I had been thinking of a different saddle, the Brooks B67, which is sprung and intended for those of us with a fairly upright riding position. The thing is, I tried the B17 at Rivendell Bicycle Works and…well..I had to have one. I was trying their Bombadil and it had a B17 on it. The rest, as they say, is history. Here’s the bike I tried.

The B17 is wider than a racing or road saddle so it’s comfortable. It’s been around a while too…

The B17 is our flagship model, ideal for long distance sportive touring, trekking and atb use. It has been on the market for over 100 years, being featured in as early as the 1898 catalogue . The model is available for gents and ladies (B17 S) in different versions: the B17 and B17 S Standard feature black steel rails, the B17 Special features copper plated steel metalwork, and the B17 Titanium … Both the B17 Special and the Titanium also feature hand hammered copper rivets.

I still have to adjust a wee bit, though I did pretty good on my first try. I need to angle the nose up just slightly more than it is now and maybe, but just maybe, adjust the height a touch. Still, as it is, not yet broken in and not quite placed right, it’s more comfortable than the saddle I was using which I’d adjusted as well as I could.
And now that I’m home for a bit, I’ve gone ahead and order the Bike Friday Travel Trailer. I didn’t really need it till recently as my trips have required going to places where I had no intention of biking from the airport. Now though, with some inter-island journey’s planned, it’s just the Tikit, um I mean ticket. I don’t own a Tikit yet. 🙂
Now about that bag at Rivendell…sigh.
Aloha!

I’m back from the Bay Area and am I glad I went. My conference was fine, but the real highlight of the trip was the biking.
Bay Area folks are very respectful of cyclists, we, in Hawaii, could learn a lot from them. As far as I could tell there’s not a bad egg among them.
A quick recap of my biking…

• Wednesday
  I took the BART out to Walnut Creek on the day of my arrival and biked a bit of the Iron Horse Trail, at least until I got too wet to enjoy the ride. Then I checked out Rivendell Bicycle Works. I bought a new Brooks B-17 saddle, though I haven’t had time to put it on a bike yet.
• Thursday
  I ferried to Fisherman’s Wharf from Oakland and biked over the Golden Gate Bridge and out to Tiburon. Wow! That’s about all there is to say about it. Wow!
• Friday
  My conference started so I didn’t have much time for riding. I did ride from my hotel, the Marriott City Center, over to Lake Merritt and around it a couple times.
• Saturday
  I had even less time for biking, but at lunch I biked down to Jack London Square, had some crab, then around Lake Merritt again.
• Sunday
  This was my long ride, from Dublin south till I realized I was going south! Then I turned around and went north up the Iron Horse Trail to Concord. Ooops…then south again to get back to the BART. In all it was probably 35 miles on what should have been a 27 miles ride. No worries though, I enjoyed it all.
• Monday
  No riding I’m afraid. I woke up late and had to go back home.

It was a wonderful trip and I look forward to going back sometime to do more riding. What fabulous place to bike.

Aloha!

My conference is winding down. In two hours it will be over till next year when we will do it all again.
This turn of events does, however, leave me free to bike this afternoon. The plan, such as it is, involves heading back out on the BART and trying a bit more of the Iron Horse Trail.
I’d like to make the 20 miles or so between Dublin and Concord. I’ve got to check and make sure I’ve got the BART stations right of course, but it sounds like a nice flat (important for me) ride. 🙂

Dear Diary, I did the coolest thing today….
I rode across the Golden Gate Bridge. Now it’s not like I’m the only person to do it – lots of people do daily. But today was my day. And it was a blast.
I came across from Oakland on the 9:00 am ferry and landed at Pier 39 and Fisherman’s Wharf. Cheesy as it may be, it was nice to be back after, hmmm, 35 years?
Then it was off to the bridge. Here’s shot of me on the bridge, and you can see more on my Flickr page. Just click the photo.