Trust me on this.
I been thinking that I need a mountain bike.
Which is not good for I just got rid of my mountain bike early this year.
I found it sort of difficult to actually ride on a mountain.
Geographically remember, these here islands are volcanic in origin.
All the mountains we got are old volcanoes, not exactly trail material.
These islands, in Earth time are also fairly young, maybe a couple of million years old.
Wind, rain and weather all do their thing to make the islands look like well, what they look like now.
Which is sort of different from places that are not islands.
First of all, we got the side of the island I live on.
These are the what the mountains for the most part, look like:
If I remember my geography correctly, it's because this whole windward area was formed when a big ole volcano collapsed forming what is now Kaneohe Bay and all that's left are the remnants of the crater.
So instead of mountains, we got more like volcanic walls.
Cliffs.
That makes this side of the island look sort of different from the other side:
If you squint your eyeballs and look beyond the boats, you can see the drastic difference.
On the Honolulu side, the mountains, okay hills to some of you folks, look like well, hills.
That's because the volcanoes here are shield volcanoes, not tall peaked ones say like St. Helen's was or is.
Even though we got Mauna Kea on the Big Island, which is like 14,000 feet above sea level, the incline is not really drastic:
Squint your eyeballs really hard and you might see some world class telescopes up there.
Okay, not really.
I mean you probably can't see them, but they're there.
Getting back to this island, O'ahu, you can sort of see why having a mountain bike is not really for riding on any mountains.
For one thing, all the nice lands are occupied by houses, and all the nice trails are mostly hiking only.
You cannot really bicycle anyways, for it's mostly like rain forest, overhead canopy. It's also mostly watershed, so the ground stays wet and is susceptible to damage from overuse.
In short, I don't live in mountain bike country.
Okay, there are some trails here, in fact one within riding distance from Flat Tire Central, but it's not one you want to do when it's wet.
Which is all the time since it rains in them thar hills almost every day.
Which is why I got rid of my mountain bike and got a road bike.
Except now I sort of miss my mountain bike.
Even though we don't really have any mountains with trails.
Still, I been thinking.
Which is not always a good thing.
If you know what I mean.
5 comments:
i see a nice pair of hiking boots in your future... i'm just sayin'
A Surly Moonlander. I think this would be an awesome bike for the beach.
First getting rid of the CIOCC and now talk of a mountain bike - these are things I find really unsettling....!!
I think 'johnnytrashbike' has it in one...just buy yourself a decent pair of hiking boots and get this madness out of your system.
-Trevor
jtb, boy, I haven't been hiking in years! Not intentionally anyways.
Mark, maybe.
Trevor, it's madness I tell yah!
Madness!
That's too bad about all the trails being for hikers only...I've never been to Hawai'i, but I assume flat tire central is because of the rock? I tend to go through phases with my flats, I'll go forever without one, and then I'll get 3 or 4 in a month. It's been generally easier to deal with though, since I recently changed the skewers to this new kind of bicycle quick release that makes it easier to get the wheel on and off.
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