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07-21-02, 11:04 PM
i was lucky enough to travel to Hawai'i last week as a vacation with the family. after a few days on Oahu, we traveled to Maui where i soon learned that there was a 10,000 ft volcano...with a road to the summit :) muhahaha. i came across several "bike down the volcano" organizations that supply bmx bikes and let you ride down the climb following one of their leaders...screw that! not only did i wanna ride UP it, but i would rather race down it myself as well :)
......soooo, lucky for me a few miles down the road from the place i was staying at was a nice bike shop that rented road bikes. i rented a decent cannondale R600 for a few days. i explained to the shop guy i wanted to ride up the volcano...at which he smerked and knew i was sort of a serious rider, haha! he explained the climb is about 31 miles long...all uphill except for like 100 yards, and is an avg gradient of 5-6% with the last 1/2 mile ramping to 12-14% at the summit! and the climb lieterally starts at sea level and rises to 10,023 ft!!! i knew i HAD to do it :)
so last thursday morning i started off right when the road tilts up and began the long climb...WOW...this thing was AWESOME! never in my life had i been thru so many switchbacks and sweeping turns. it was amazing to see the elevation markers click by as you climb thru the clouds and pop out above and look down on the ones you just rode through!!! those 30 miles i did in just about 3.5 hours, which wasn't too bad considering i was taking it easy, and only had a t-shirt, board shorts, back pack, and crappy sneakers with toe-straps to ride with. for the bottom slopesof the climb i used a 39x25, and then a 39x27 for the rest.
the coolest part of the climb was seeing all the people coming down starting at me like "WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUU$#%!!! what on earth is he thinking!" there was road construction on the way up and it was cool that the workers were cheering me on! haha. i almost got a little emotional at the summit realizing that was definately the coolest ride i had ever done...phew :)
and the way down...CRAZY!
just had to share my experience with some other riders...if you guys ever make it to Maui, definately ride this climb!
......soooo, lucky for me a few miles down the road from the place i was staying at was a nice bike shop that rented road bikes. i rented a decent cannondale R600 for a few days. i explained to the shop guy i wanted to ride up the volcano...at which he smerked and knew i was sort of a serious rider, haha! he explained the climb is about 31 miles long...all uphill except for like 100 yards, and is an avg gradient of 5-6% with the last 1/2 mile ramping to 12-14% at the summit! and the climb lieterally starts at sea level and rises to 10,023 ft!!! i knew i HAD to do it :)
so last thursday morning i started off right when the road tilts up and began the long climb...WOW...this thing was AWESOME! never in my life had i been thru so many switchbacks and sweeping turns. it was amazing to see the elevation markers click by as you climb thru the clouds and pop out above and look down on the ones you just rode through!!! those 30 miles i did in just about 3.5 hours, which wasn't too bad considering i was taking it easy, and only had a t-shirt, board shorts, back pack, and crappy sneakers with toe-straps to ride with. for the bottom slopesof the climb i used a 39x25, and then a 39x27 for the rest.
the coolest part of the climb was seeing all the people coming down starting at me like "WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUU$#%!!! what on earth is he thinking!" there was road construction on the way up and it was cool that the workers were cheering me on! haha. i almost got a little emotional at the summit realizing that was definately the coolest ride i had ever done...phew :)
and the way down...CRAZY!
just had to share my experience with some other riders...if you guys ever make it to Maui, definately ride this climb!