54research

Veteran’s Day and Night Ride

DRESEARCH — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 10:52:03 +0000

was byfar the most epic ride I’ve been on in a while. Veteran’s Day couldn’t have been any better; riding around with a group of friends throughout Hawaii, you can’t possibly ask for more…

Some of the main attractions ridden to: Chinatown/Downtown for lunch in the business district, Pali Lookout, Waikiki Beach for the sunset, Market City in Kaimuki for some grindz at Gina’s Korean BBQ.

pearlridgeXwaikiki Team Sprints

DRESEARCH — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 00:43:59 +0000

event went on yesterday. After a week of rain, the weather actually cleared up just in time for the race. However, the wind never let up, so drafting as a team was key. The task for the race was to get from Pearlridge Shopping Center to the fountain in Waikiki the fastest as a team. The only rule was the entire team of 3 needed to complete the race in order for their finish to count. I rode with Sau and Seth who I have always looked up to for building up my strength to keep up with them during sprints and distance riding. I guess this was my ultimate test to see if I could accomplish what I set out for myself back when I first started riding almost a year ago.

The ride was awesome, we finished 1st at 40:15 on a 14.0 mile course, averaging 20.9mph. I was able to film the course using a GoPro HD camera; however, I didn’t realize the sealed housing was prone to fogging under climate changed.. The lens fogged up halfway through the race. I tried to make the best of the footage, people that haven’t been to Hawaii probably won’t recognize anything in the second half of the video though. I was pretty upset after loading up the video. I know the video says 13.2mi route, but it was really 14.0 miles, I didn’t realize my calculation was off until after I edited the clips. Other than that, it was great to have a friendly competition with a bunch of friends. This is something that needs to be thrown more often.

pearlridgeXwaikiki Team Sprints from dresearch on vimeo.com

Johnny B.

DRESEARCH — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 08:01:02 +0000

is one of my main “homies” that I try to roll with often. His attitude’s always positive, always mashing hard, and never gives up. These key traits make him the ideal cycling partner during group rides and sprints. It seems that we always end up pushing each other to ride harder.

Mash in Motion

DRESEARCH — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 21:26:29 +0000

This is one of the only real riding shots I have of myself during the day. I wish I had more cool shots like this, but it’s just too difficult when you need another rider to pace, hold the camera steady, aim straight, and not crash into something while trying to take the shot. Most of the bike shots I see are always of a bike stationary without the rider using it for its intended purpose. I always wonder who’s the person that owns and rides each frame. Maybe I need to get something going here, a new outlook on photography in the local cycling community, instead of the typical automotive shoots that I do.

Kapolei Industrial Park

DRESEARCH — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 08:46:18 +0000

has an extremely scenic, litter/bum free beach that is hidden by a large hill that blocks off the view from the boat loading dock at the end of the harbor. I admit, again, that living in Hawaii makes you take a lot of things for granted, including the most beautiful beaches and scenery in the world. I was fortunate to find this place while riding around Kapolei with one of my fellow fixed riders, John. His slammed xB was in the Wet ‘N Wild carshow at the time, so we decided to venture out into the industrial sector of Kapolei since I haven’t been out there on bike before. Aside from some putrid smelling areas from waste processing facilities and chemical plants, it turned out to be a rather nice ride in comparison to the busy car-filled streets in the city.

Helluva Rides 3

DRESEARCH — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 08:45:49 +0000

was held today at Wet ‘N Wild waterpark in Kapolei. This marked the final carshow for the Helluva Rides series and also was the largest of the 3. The showing was pretty good, not much new cars, but alot of the same with more improvements. Aaron’s xB is always looking its finest with a perfect fitment and stance to complement everything else that’s so crazy about his car.

This show was also the first feature I have done using only a point-and-shoot camera. Lets see if you notice a difference. It was hilarious walking around snapping shots with such a small camera; if only people knew…

ACCESS // dohcresearch.com/features/helluvarides3

Massive Part Outs

DRESEARCH — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 23:35:09 +0000

are always fun when you have high-end desirable parts.. When you skip all the cheap/common/fake crap, you pay more for it, but also get more back easily instead of being stuck with stuff in the end. The list above was early into the part out, which didn’t include the bigger items such as the rear air setup, full coilover suspension, and custom retrofitted HID bi-xenon headlights. It was about time to part out the xB after losing interest in the automotive scene and the fact that a lot of my friends could put the parts to better use. Also got rid of a bunch of my spare fixed gear bicycle parts to add to the savings account.

The xB was definitely a fun build and a great deviation from tuning a car just for speed and handling. I’m hoping this will mark the end of my heavy builds so I can focus on bigger things in life.

Heartbreak

DRESEARCH — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 11:02:27 +0000

is one of the rather more “intimidating” hills in Hawaii, but really isn’t much compared to Pineapple Hill and the Pali. It was fun blazing past “roadies” who were downshifting to their lower gears on this hill during the 100-mile 2010 Honolulu Century that I rode on a couple weeks ago. I revisited the hill on a nice windy day before meeting up with a bunch of coworkers for a Saturday UH game BBQ in Hawaii Kai.

Picture was shot with my new “point-and-shoot” Canon Powershot S95 camera that conveniently fits into my cycling pouch. This camera does wonders, it’s amazing how much punch this little thing packs. I’m almost confident that I could do full blown automotive feature with this camera and no one would be able to tell the difference when compared with a real DSLR.

I also plan to update my blog more often in the near future as there are big events/changes that will occur very soon in my life that I can’t yet disclose here. More details later..

Cycling Junky

DRESEARCH — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 09:40:58 +0000

is a term that probably best describes my current status for the past 9-months. Although it hasn’t been a year since I’ve began riding bikes again, this is one of the best experiences in my life, in terms of friendships, fitness, and self-accomplishments that I have obtained through my time riding in Hawaii. Since my last post a couple months ago, I decided to continue with a 3rd build with a frame that I purchased in LA months before, but was contemplating to build. I had a vision from the first day I saw the Affinity Lo Pro frame for sale, and I’m glad I kept the frame instead of selling it, to make my vision a reality. This will probably be my last build (if not, for a very long time) since it’s everything I could possibly have wanted in a track bike, from the custom teal powdercoat to the smooth drivetrain setup. RIDEABIKE!

Island Unstoppable II

DRESEARCH — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 07:47:06 +0000

occurred on 6/20/10, and the title was literally what the ride was all about. Around 7:30AM, we headed out from Coffee Talk on top of Waialae Ave. in a pack of 20+ fixed gear riders. It’s amazing riding around the island with a group that large. There were many hills that were very intimidating, which tested every ounce of your strength and stamina throughout the ride:

1. From Hanauma Bay to Makapu’u lighthouse, which was the turnaround point for some people.
2. Going up Pali to head towards Kaneohe.
3. Pineapple Hill, the mother of all hills, 4-miles and consistent uphill climbing out of Haleiwa.
4. Wahiawa into Mililani Town
5. Mililani Town into Waipio
6. Aloha Stadium climb up to Target near Foster Village.

Pineapple Hill was the main test of the entire ride. People talked about it from before as if it was the worst thing they’ve encountered in their life, and I understood why while climbing it… We finished the 100+ mile ride around 4:30 at Kakaako Waterfront Park for a nice BBQ on the coast. It was a grueling ride that I’m very happy that I accomplished. It really put things into perspective for me as to what I can accomplish when I put my mind and heart into something. 10+ mile sprint rides feel like nothing now that I know how my body reacts to different scenarios. Same goes for my attitude towards my job and life in general.

If you feel compelled to find yourself or test yourself physically and mentally, I highly encourage you to try and ride around the island or do something comparable. It really changes everything.