Aloha, I am Bigbill.

[bigbill]

I lurk over in RBR and heard good things about this forum and decided to register. I live on the island of Oahu and have been actively riding since 1986. I commute to work 5-6 days a week and have a 26 mile round trip. My commuting bike is a Soma Smoothie ES that is full blown fred with fenders, HID headlight, rack, bag, and a bell with a compass. I drove a car to work six times last year. Three times when my hand was cut open and three times when I had the flu. I am on a local raceteam and for that endeavor I ride a Pegoretti Fina Estampa with 2003 Record (now would be considered Chorus). I usually carry a camera when I commute and sometimes when I do team rides. I like to post the pictures over in RBR, but I can capture an image or two for here as well. Spreading a little aloha spirit to you snowbound mainlanders.

[dsimon]

Hello bill welcome to the board a little late on sending sunshine to the states i have already done that and acording to dave t, thats bad juju :argue:

[Climb01742]

welcome, bigbill. maybe post a photo of your fina. there are quite a few dario fans here. last night it was below zero here. can't decide to be blue with cold or green with envy of your weather. ;)

[Kevin]

Welcome to the forum. I am sure you will enjoy it.

Kevin

[Kevan]

already our friendship will have to work past a good deal of envy on my part. The frost covering my den's window makes it impossible to see outside. I can tell you it's a bit colder here in my parts of the country than what you got going there. Somehow you and I will manage. Welcome to the forum; I look forward to being warmed by those tropical pictures.

[Smiley]

Bill do you also surf or sail and when can you schedule a ride for us forumites :)

[Len J]

conservative leanings.......LOL

Welcome big guy!

Len

PS...His bike is beautiful

[Too Tall]

Nice thoughts BigBill and yes by all means share some sunshine. I have one question. Why in the world would you need a compass on an island?

[bigbill]

Thanks for all the warm responses. I am leaving to meet the race team in about thirty minutes. It is 6:30am here. We are riding from Kapolei to Yokohoma Bay to check out the TT course for next Sunday. That part of the island is usually skipped by tourists, kind of like visiting Los Angeles and taking the Watts tour, but it is beautiful on the Western shore and Yokohoma is probably the best surfing on the island as long as you don't leave anything of value in your car. I am taking the camera. BTW, the bell/compass was the same price as a plain bell, gotta have bling when you ding.

[rnhood]

"Bigbill", lets see pictures of your Soma rig when get a chance also.

[bironi]

Would love to see some pics of a warm clime right now. Have at er.

[Bill Bove]

If you're Bigbill does that make me Smallbill? I hate it when I'm called small.

"Who you going to satisfy with that?"

ME :banana: :banana:

[Tailwinds]

Welcome, bigbill. If you'll host a forum gathering in Hawaii, I'll host one in Denver. Between us, we have the best of both worlds. Cheers.

[Kahuna]

Eh Brah! Alohas from the valley isle. I've met some of your fellow Oahu cyclists who come over to Maui for the Cycle to the Sun each year and also at a few races on the Big Island.

I've been meaning to do the D*ck Evans race one of these years but as you know, flying inter-island with da kine can get expensive! :)

Shoots!

I lurk over in RBR and heard good things about this forum and decided to register. I live on the island of Oahu and have been actively riding since 1986. I commute to work 5-6 days a week and have a 26 mile round trip. My commuting bike is a Soma Smoothie ES that is full blown fred with fenders, HID headlight, rack, bag, and a bell with a compass. I drove a car to work six times last year. Three times when my hand was cut open and three times when I had the flu. I am on a local raceteam and for that endeavor I ride a Pegoretti Fina Estampa with 2003 Record (now would be considered Chorus). I usually carry a camera when I commute and sometimes when I do team rides. I like to post the pictures over in RBR, but I can capture an image or two for here as well. Spreading a little aloha spirit to you snowbound mainlanders.

[bigbill]

I tried to upload some pictures from this morning, I don't know that it worked. Today's ride was out to the end of the road on the leeward side of Oahu. Next Sunday is an 11 mile time trial from Makaha to the end of Farrington Highway and back. I did get one scare when a rock fell from one of the shear cliff faces and hit the ground about five feet away. I pelted with a little gravel, but I was in time trial mode and everything hurt anyway. I will have to figure out the picture thing, it works for me on RBR.

[Louis]

I wish all these Hawaii folks had chosen some other weekend to start chatting about how much fun they are are having riding... (Just kididng, guys :) )

However, FYI, it is frkn freezing up here.... However, this looks like the end of the super-cold stuff.

[bigbill]

I have done winters in North Chicago and upstate NY. I can look anyone in the eye and "Yup, that sure sounds cold". That being said, I never want to live in either place again. Before being transferred to Hawaii, I was in Va Beach, Va for four years. The winters were not that bad. The only "down side" to living here is figuring out when your off-season is. With the great weather year round you could maintain a high level of fitness. The bad part is you can overtrain without realizing it. Commuting to work everyday usually means that I only ride one day on the weekend. Commuting is not 5 round trips, it is 10 short rides with only 8-10 hours of recovery between them. Still wouldn't want to live in the midwest although we have some friends and employment opportunities in KC when I retire.

[mzagorski]

If it makes you feel any better, it isn't ALWAYS nice here... Today, part of my ride was over the mountains on Pali Hwy and the rain was insane. Some parts of the island had 3.5" - 5" of rain in 1 hour.

[William]

Welcome to the forum gents. :beer:

Just understand that I am the only sane person on this forum....everyone else is off their rocker some way, esp Sandy and Kevan. ;)



William


PS: Rhea Basset says:

BaaWoo!
BaaWoo!
(Which loosely translated means: "Hey, I wish I was in Hawaii soaking up some rays with a cute Whippet right now but instead I'm curled up next to a warm radiator in Rhode Island and not looking forward to going out into 5 degree temps to do my thing...but hey, welcome to the forum."

Or something to that effect?) ;)

[Lifelover]

Welcome to the forum Bigbill! There is no question that you will have a lot to add to the discussion. I think you will find the crowd somewhat similar to the commuting/touring crowd without the pictures. Maybe you can swing MB1 this way.

Just watch what you say about "boutique bikes" ;)

[Too Tall]

BigBill and Kahuna - Keep your eyes peeled for my transplanted teammate Tony Lang. He sports a red DCVELO team kit and he is FAST! We were always chasing him uphill and down...which is really quite amazing because he only weights 100 lbs soaked!

[Samster]

If it makes you feel any better, it isn't ALWAYS nice here... Today, part of my ride was over the mountains on Pali Hwy and the rain was insane. Some parts of the island had 3.5" - 5" of rain in 1 hour.

Hey, no rain = no rainbows. Still no sympathy from us ice-bricks in MO (it was 6 F when I woke up on Saturday morning... nuthin like monosyllabic temperature readouts to get the day going.)

Nice to meet you Bill. My wife and I are frequenters (though infrequently) of the garden isle... Love your state! :D Wish it were mine. ;)

[EdK]

Hey Too Tall, we know Tony very well. I think he actually lost some weight. We now have to pleasure of chasing him around these days. He is still quite strong and if he dosen't win the time trial BigBill described we will be surprised..... Mr. Zagorski is correct about the rain but he forgot to mention the wind.. I know I know 30 MPH wind and 1 inch an hour rain is still OK when it's 80!

[Serpico]

Hi Bill, welcome to the forum--look forward to your posts

[Too Tall]

EdK - haha play a trick on him and hand him a Red Bull and say that Josh Simonds says cheers ;) That'll freak him out. Lost weight, omg. It is intervention time.

[bigbill]

Tony Lang joined up with us last year to do the D*ck Evans Road Race. He was riding unattached before that. I haven't checked to see where he renewed this year. About a month ago he was doing Tantalus on his fixed. He mostly trains alone and I wouldn't be suprised to see him riding with Boca since they seem to be building up a strong 1,2 team. As far as the time trial next weekend, it is tailor made for Tony, a couple of rollers to break your cadence and probably some nice trade winds in your face on the way back.

[Too Tall]

That's great news to hear about a teammate so far away. Thanks.

[bigbill]

I got the picture thing to work. Most of my pictures are just a little too large for posting. I worked on three to post over in images. If you want to see my rides and a scenery shot they are there. We are having a tropical storm tonight so I expect a rough commute in the morning. Lots of debris and thorns.