At the eventual arrival of the long overdue apocalypse, you may perhaps find me in one of these- pedaling furiously through 20ft seas, looking for Jay’s pleasant little seastead of sweet-potato laden garden rafts in some far flung sheltered cove of ersatz pirates. In the meantime, I suppose I might be content to first finish and prep the Guillemot for such end times. Though, perhaps not.

Canadian endurance athlete Greg Kolodziejzyk is the real-life version of superman. In 2006 he pedaled his custom-made carbon fiber ‘bullet bike’ 650 miles in one day to set a Guinness World record for the most distance covered by human power in 24 hours on land. He’s finished dozens of marathons, 12 Ironman triathlons and qualified for the Ironman World Championships. In September of 2008, Greg won a second Guinness World record, this time for pedaling a boat 152.3 miles in 24 hours - a new record for distance traveled on water by human power.

These days Canada’s superman is preparing to take his powers to the sea by pedaling a boat almost 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean in less than 40 days.

No sooner had I seen this while browsing around the site of the spectacular Wend Magazine, that it also came through in my RSS feeds. Someone is trying to tell me something. There won’t be many posts that I can tag with both ‘boats’ and ‘bikes’.

Tags: Bikes, Boats

May 11-15 is Bike to Work Week. So dust off that old cruiser, and get on it. Here’s a little local shindig we’ve got going…

Download: Bike to School Day Poster

Tags: Bikes, Volcano

I’ve been working on a new project this past week, replacing old rotted deck with new, in Mauna Loa Estates. Fortunately it’s much closer than the last commute at just over 2 miles. Nice easy ride, especially since all of my tools are kept on site. I did have to bring home the last stick of Trex (plastic based composite) decking to rip on my table saw at home, but thanks to the Extracycle’s little load-extender thingy (keeps long stuff out away from the pedal stroke), it was no probelem. Going to ride in again tomorrow, and hopefully bring back some of the old railing slats I salvaged. The 16 foot long 2×4’s in the salvage pile, might be a bit too much. Supposed rain a lot again this weekend too. I’ll try to not be deterred by that.

Oh- and the fact that my truck decided to make scary valve noises this morning had nothing to do with me riding the bike. Really. I’m SURE I would have ridden regardless.

This post brought to you by: “Voice Of Saturn” by Zoroaster

Tags: Bikes, Life, Volcano

Guy Enriques appears to be secretly passing around an online ballot to his pro-development supporters on whether or not the county should suspend payments into the 2% for land fund. I’ve gotten two separate emails about this- the second one with a link to the ballot (via Alan McNarie’s blog). If you are in District 6 and agree with the majority of voters that originally felt the protection of our open spaces is important, go the the ballot and vote NO to preserve the funding. Otherwise, Enriques will get a bunch of yes votes from friends of development to bolster Mayor Kenoi’s misguided plan.

Oddly enough, McNarie just drove by the front of my house as I write this. Perhaps not so odd, since he is a neighbor- and also decidedly not-odd is that he was again driving WAY TOO FAST!

And another funny thing? He kind of looks like Terrence McKenna (see my previous post). Weird.

Tags: Volcano Life

Wrench in the Gears just ricocheted a shot fired through Bikecentric concerning a somewhat old but brilliant and timely video of Terence McKenna doing what he does best. You just have to watch it. That’s all I’m sayin.

Tags: Art

Via Treehugger.

A camera mounted on a trolley as it moves through the streets of Barcelona in 1908 provides a rare glimpse at a city made for walking and cycling, and where cars are a rare nuisance. Watching the fools jumping in and out of the path of the trolley seems to indicate that the filming was a publicly announced event and everyone is out to get themselves in view of the camera. They just knew they would end up on You Tube someday.

Imagine downtown Hilo looking very much like this in the same era- or dream of it in a car-less future. Except without the ladies in giant hats. And in color.

Tags: Sustainability

The infamous Jay Fitzgerald, mentioned here previously, has started up a very nice looking forum on the subject of Big Island sustainability. In around 24 hours, it has over 30 members and 195 posts. I’m already addicted. True to his words, Jay proves that the best way to affect change, is to simply start some shit. Topics range from the effect of honey on raising chicks, to Terra Preta (biochar), to members swapping produce like pirates.    

Plenty of politics too, if you’re into that. Check it out, sign up, and help us grow….

Sensibile Simplicity Forum: Discussing Sustainability

Tags: Garden, Sustainability, Volcano Life

So I bought a big old diesel Chevy (85 Custom Deluxe 4×4) pickup a little while ago to add to the biodiesel fleet, and it turned out to have enough corrosion in all of it’s parts to cause approximately one component per week to fail. Exhaust pipes, clutch slave cylinder, brake cylinder, etc. The radiator was of course one of the first to reveal a leak, but I’d put off buying the $400 replacement by carrying lots of water with me and topping off as necessary. Late last week it went from a slow drip to a fast drip to a near steady stream, so- it was time. Picked up the radiator and things went smoothly with the swap until I tried to reconnect the last oil cooler line and found that corrosion had taken its toll there too- as soon as I started the engine up, oil started squirting out of a little hole next to the flare nut, into the fan, and all over tarnation, including my face. Late on Sunday, I was past the parts store cutoff so I had no choice but to abandon for the day.

But today, Monday- I still had to make it to work, so with no truck to haul myself and my tools, I had to call upon the might of the cargo bike. The current configuration is a mid 90’s Barracuda frame with an Xtracycle attachment- not ideal, especially with the long travel fork up front as a load becomes very wobbly when standing up to pedal. It’s also in sore need of a tune-up (again) as the front derailleur wouldn’t give me an low gears- a bit of a problem on the bigger hills. And no back brakes. Still- it was a great ride, and of course I tell myself I need to do this more often. It’s totally doable as long as I don’t have to bring a table saw. It was right at 5 miles one way, from my house to the back end of Volcano Village and I had maybe 50 lbs of tools- one bag of hand tools, cordless drill kit, and a circular saw. I knew I was going to be doing mostly some simple plumbing and trench digging, so I didn’t need to bring much. Took about 35 minutes each way, and I’m sure I can trim that down by 5 or 10 minutes if I keep riding and get in better bike shape. It felt great to have a carbon neutral commute- motivation to get on the bike is tough this time of year, as it is cold (down to low 40’s in recent nights) and getting caught in cold rain is VERY likely. I don’t care so much for me, but I don’t really have very good protection for tools on the Xtracycle yet- other thatn trash bags. But maybe that will just have to do. It matters to me- I really do not want to drive cars any more unless absolutely necessary and I’ve fallen off the wagon lately. I’ll be taking the bus to my shop in Hilo tomorrow to fix the radiator on the truck, but I’m really hoping I’ll have the resolve to just leave it parked in the barn when I go back to the jobsite on Wednesday, and just have another great 10 mile bike ride.

The Xtracycle enabled Barracuda pauses with Mauna Loa looming in the distance.

Tags: Bikes, Volcano Life

In recent years, the National Park Service, through their own independent studies and through smart lobbying by groups like IMBA, have expressed a willingness to open more trails to mountain bikes. It is now pretty well known by most, except a few fringe hiker groups that are already a threat to national security*, that bikes have a very similar impact on trails as hikers (proof here), and quite a bit less than horses which are usually allowed more access than bikes so that they can post-hole their way through the wilderness to spread the seeds of invasive species in their poop. It is also well known that mountain bikes do not poop. (I realize that the riders might, but they being, usually, exceptionally slight of build and having highly efficient metabolisms, don’t produce much waste beyond the dump they took before they left the house. Hikers, on the other hand, may well be equally efficient in their processing, but having to take days to cover the same distance of a casual bike ride, would be digging a small hole and filling it with…but I digress…)

Our own Volcanoes National Park has stepped forward to invite mountain bikers on special rides in the past with IMBA reps, and there are miles of trails that are grueling multi-day hikes for only a few brave souls, but would simply be a lovely days ride on a mountain bike.

Anyway, there is a bill, sitting on the steps of Capitol Hill, which would allow individual national parks to make their own damn decisions about trail use without the stacks of federal applications, years of waiting, and miles of red tape that currently inhibit such decision making. YOU can help by voicing your support, and I recommend doing it through IMBA who, while clearly being a bunch of your usually scruffy mountain bikers, also are passionate about preserving the outdoor experience for all. I’m proud to count myself as one of them. Consider joining if you haven’t already.

I filled out this form in the first go ’round and I’m about to do it again. I saw the plea come in via email again recently, but then lost it in the shuffle of my overloaded inbox- thanks to Stevil, another scruffy and passionate bike guy, for posting up a reminder.

PLEASE DO IT! (sorry for shouting…) Here’s where you make your voice heard.

IMBA video:

*I may have made this up.

Tags: Bikes