So I did the Haleiwa Metric Century this past Sunday and I had a great ride. I used my Quickbeam again as it's the perfect bike for the ride. I'm pretty pleased with how things turned out.
The day was a bit overcast and rain was forecasted for later in day, but the word was that it would be dry during the ride. I'd opted to take the charted bus to the ride as I don't have car to drive there and this year I wasn't going with anyone. I woke up at 3:30 AM (which isn't a big stretch, I'm up at 4:30 AM most days) and had a nice little ride a couple of miles to the pickup point at Kaka'ako Waterfront Park. That at least got my blood moving a bit. Getting on the yellow school buses with our bikes was a lesson in applied geometry. We more or less failed on the way out and did great on the way back. Figures. I hadn't eaten breakfast other than some fatty coffee and I was packing a few hard boiled eggs and string cheese, no carbs today thank you. We arrived at Kaiaka Bay Beach park some time later, the sun was up, and there was a line for the kibos. Seems the restroom were under renovation. Having done a couple of RAGBRAIS this is situation normal. I saw a couple of fun bikes including a new Bike Friday Haul-a-Day, a folding longtail. I own a New World Tourist (and it's been RBW, twice), so that was fun. Mostly the bikes were mix of carbon fiber racy things and more comfortable flat barred bikes, mountain bikes, a couple of fixies, and not another Riv in site. It was time to go and off we went. This ride, like many, was broken in groups, fast first, slow last. I was somewhere in the middle. I left at a good clip, one that felt comfortable and maintainable. The Quickbeam was in good tune, tires just right, nothing much creaking or clicking. I've got two time lapse videos, one out, one back. I took them with a little HTC Re camera on my bars. It's not a great camera by any means, but as I got it for half price it's okay. The time lapses are set for one every five minutes. Out: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mgps-bob/17294741335/in/set-72157652232821875 Back: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mgps-bob/17106979568/in/set-72157652232821875 All Stuff: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mgps-bob/sets/72157652232821875/with/17106979568/ Okay, here's the scoop on my ride. Last time I did this ride, in April of 2013, I probably weighed 260 pounds and I had a bad hip. The hip would be replaced in April of 2014, actually the day after the 2014 version of this ride - though I didn't ride. This Sunday when I rode, I was 197. In 2013 the ride took about 5.5 hours, this time it took just under 4 hours. I really don't think I was putting out more energy, I just didn't have to move as much mass. As long as I'm on the subject, I should note that besides the coffee I didn't eat anything. I rode the first half of the ride non-stop (not something I would normally do, I like to stop and chat, and such when I ride). I ate a couple of hard boiled eggs at the halfway point, but honestly, I wasn't hungry nor did I feel like I was bonking at any point. Then it was time for the ride back. This half was a few minutes slower as the wind had picked up a bit and until I turned the corner from the windward side to the north shore. I did take a pit stop this time about halfway to the finish. After Waimea Bay the weather started socking in a bit and I could see showers in the distance, but it was still very pleasant. I began to watch the clock a bit and saw that there was a chance I'd be in before noon. I figured it was not going to happen, but I kept pedaling. At fifteen minutes to noon I had a feeling I might make it if there was no traffic in Haleiwa. There wasn't. That left just the road to Kaiaka Park...it was longer than I recalled and I was sure I'd missed the mark. Nope, I made it in 2 minutes before noon. That was by far the fastest I've ever done this many miles. Actually I'll take that back, I rode down Haleakala last year, about 36 miles downhill (there is one short, very minor climb, but the rest is down, down down). That was faster. The day wasn't over as it turned out. As I was hydrating a bit and wiping off the salt a woman approached me and said she'd seen me come in. She was pleased, she said, to see me as I was dressed in 'normal' clothes and my bike, the Quickbeam with Albas, fenders, a dynohub, and front and rear olive TrunkSacks, was definitely comfortable looking. Turns out she's read Just Ride. Her bike ethic is pretty similar and she, like me is a daily commuter. We ended up chatting till it was time for the bus, chatted on the bus, and went for coffee when we got back to Honolulu. After a two hour coffee break we rode partway home together till it was time to go our separate ways. Thanks Riv! Many folks have commented on how nice my Quickbeam and my Hunq look, but this was the first time they'd ever gotten me an afternoon coffee and riding date. :-) So that's my 2015 JBK Haleiwa Metric Century. I had a great time. As I said organized rides aren't really my thing but this one was special. Aloha, Bob On Tue, Apr 21, 2015 at 10:41 AM, Robert F. Harrison <rfharri...@gmail.com> wrote: > Here on Oahu it's once again time for our annual JBL Metric Century. This > is a really lovely ride along the north and windward shores of the island. > I've done this a couple of times before, once even encouraging RBW members > to vote on which bike I should use (my Quickbeam won). > > Last year I couldn't do it as I was having a hip replacement (left hip) > the next day. For those who don't know, the replacement was very successful > and I was back on a real bike in six weeks (doc said no earlier though PT > was done on a stationary bike). > > I'm not a huge organized ride fan as I prefer to ride either alone or with > a couple of friends but this ride covers my favorite part of the island. In > fact I did a lot of this road two weeks ago when I went on a 2 night > camping trip two weeks ago. > > I'll be back on my QB this year. There are no real hills on this ride and > I've done it before on the QB (actually this is my preferred bike for this > sort of thing - I use the Hunq when camping with gear). > > I'm also interested to see how well I do at my new, lighter weight. This > is another more or less recent change. With the bad hip I'd really gotten > heavy and at the time of my operation was a hefty 271. Yesterday I weighed > myself at 199.7. Yes, EBDJ played a big part and I'm still headed down. > Most of this weight has come off since November of last year. I took off > only a few pounds between April and November of last year, trying to do it > by restricting calories and exercise. Fail. > > You can see the course here: http://goo.gl/bLoYDm > > > I'll try to take a few photos to prove it happened. > > Aloha, Bob > > > -- > Robert Harrison > Honolulu, HI > rfharri...@gmail.com > statrix.com > Wu Name: Tha Eurythmic King of Nowhere > -- Robert Harrison Honolulu, HI rfharri...@gmail.com statrix.com Wu Name: Tha Eurythmic King of Nowhere -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. 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