uphill all the way - biking up haleakala on a fixie
So, last week I biked up haleakala on a fixed gear. for those of you that don't know what haleakala is: it's the biggest mountain in the world. of course, some 30,000 feel of it's elevation is under water and only 10023 feet are above water, but I biked up those 10023 feet. If anyone wants to replicate my task, or just enjoy my suffering - I've logged it here.
A little background:
I was in Hawaii for my long time friend Logan White's wedding. 5 days on O'ahu and 7 days on Maui. Packed (sort of) my converted Bontrager as one of my two pieces of baggage - pretty simply for me: tape the wheels to the frame/cranks and put the seat post/bars/front brake/tools in a small backpack. No bike bag, no box, no BS, no hassle - until they decided to charge me 50 bucks for shipping a bike on Aloha airlines. If my frame/wheels combo is the size of regular checked bags I don't think this is reasonable, of course, they didn't do this for the interisland flight or for the flight back which tends to make me think "arbitrary and capricious" but whatever. it was totally worth having the bike I wanted there. I never rode it once on O'ahu. Would have been nice, but I was at a wedding. The days I wasn't wedding people we did group stuff (body surfing at Sandys, hiking/swimming in canyons on the north shore - near sacred falls, drinking at mcgoos etc.)
When I finally got to Maui I put everything together. Here's what I had:
18" Bontrager with columbus track ends added by Litton
1 pair 36 hold sun rims on a phil wood fixed/free flip/flop hub (spaced 130)
1 old set of English path racer bars (rusty as hell, but drops and with the right sized clamp for the vertical rise stem that fit the bonty's fork (a rigid old steel stumpjumper fork)
1 seat (comfy, comfy, comfy)
1 set old s-works cranks - my favorite mtb cranks, with a 34 tooth chainring
1 12 tooth cog (which I had thought to use on the ride down hill) - not mounted but accessible
1 18 tooth cog (with lockring)
1 24 tooth cog (w/o lockring)
As it turns out I never rode down the hill so I only used the 18 and 24 cogs for the not so steep and the steep and steeper parts of the ride. This made my gear inches 51 and 38, with the option for 76 on the way down. Probably not the ideal combo, but for me, close enough. In retrospect I would have probably gone with a slightly larger chainring.
Here are some pics of the bike as I was waiting to get shuttled to Paia, the starting town:
Since we were staying in the Kahana area, we had a nice early morning view of the mountain on our ride to Paia:
a quick glance at the hill past a 45 mph speed limit sign (they're serious, don't speed there):
At Paia, we stopped at the Shell station to buy gatorade type drinks in addition to the water, gels, bananas, mixed nuts etc. that we had already). Conveniently the Shell station (on Highway 36) is right across the street from the ocean and very much at sea level. 100 yards to the west is highway 390, which heads to the up country to a town called makawao.
Two things of import:
1) At that intersection in Paia is Milagros - where you will eat a burrito and drink a beer after your ride.
2) This is where it starts to go uphill. (it never stops)
The ride to makawao is a gentle incline - I'm guessing 3% grade or some such. Maybe a little under 15 miles long. I used my 18 tooth cog for this part of the ride as well as the part that runs along the up country that follows Makawao.
We actually turned right at the main intersection in Makawao (there is only one) - onto Makawao Avenue, Maybe we shouldn't have. This is subject to some debate. Going straight is a less crowded but narrower road, in poorer condition, but a much prettier ride. It eventually takes you (after one left turn near the polo grounds) onto highway 377 from which you will turn left into the park at about 3000 feet elevation. We instead went to highway 37 (kula highway) which is busier, but wider and with a wide shoulder and smooth pavement. At some point past the post office (on the right) there's a turn off (to the left) for highway 377 (the second one, actually) which will take you to the park entrance in the opposite direction from the polo ground route.
I changed gears at the post office.
From the park entrance turnoff (the park entrance itself isn't for 10 miles) it's pretty much a burly climb for the next 20 miles. The advantage that the climb has is it's cooler than the up country portion of the ride, the disadvantage is it's more than twice the grade on average.
During this portion of the ride you'll see a bunch of fat tourists coasting down the hill on rented bikes. They all look at you like you're nuts.
I should point out that at this point (probably 4500 or 5000 feet) I flipped the bars upside down to get a more upright riding position - the Bonty is just too small for standard road ride for so long, even with the stem raising the bar so high.
It's also worth noting that elevation markers are intermittant, which can be discouraging (several times I thought to myself "have I really not climbed 1000 feet by now?" only to realize they skipped a marker).
at about 7000 you hit the park entrance. 5 bucks for bikes (I'm a national park member so I didn't have to pay, but don't forget your card or your five bucks if you're not. 1 mile past the entrace is the first visitor center - water replenishing is available here for the first time in 10-15 miles with one randomly opened store as an exception. For the climb between 5000 feet and 10000 feet there's not a lot of anything but monotony of scenerey - this is not a bad thing of course, and there's a shift from green grassy fields to rockier hillscape at maybe 6750, but you will have ample opportunity to stop and check out the view unless you're racing (which my fat ass was not).
Here are some pics from inside the park boundaries - this area is my favorite as you're above the clouds you just biked though and it's pretty sureal looking to look down on the tops of clouds.
For me, once I hit the visitor's center I knew I was gonna make it the whole way, but for a bit between 6K and 7K I thought I'd stop when I got there.
The second visitor center is at 9800 or so. if you want to drive though the parking lot go for it, but really, just keep going, the steep part is just beyond it. The last 750 yards are steep - I zig zagged to cut down the grade. And in the afternoon, windy as hell (worse than the grade actually). But as long as you can get enough oxygen into your system you'll do fine there. The top feels good. My girlfriend Mary and Logan's wife (of 5 days at that point) Melissa were at the top when I got there (about an hour after Logan, who had lots of gears to choose from, and is in better shape). I opted for a ride down the hill because I didn't want to spin that much on the way down - the fact that I had only one brake was dumb in retrospect. I may have given it a shot if I had two and they were well positioned for decent.
I have sort of lied - there are two spots where you actually go downhill on the way there - one's about 100 yards downhill, the other 250 or so. both of them made me realize I needed better brake positions.
Here are pics at the top:
feel free to ask me if you have any questions. I can honestly say this ride is doable for most people assuming you pick the right gear ratios and can spend some time in the saddle. I started at 7:40AM and ended at 4:40. Nine Hours. Probably could have done it in 8, probably would have taken me 10 and a half to spin back down with the gears and brakes I had.
A little background:
I was in Hawaii for my long time friend Logan White's wedding. 5 days on O'ahu and 7 days on Maui. Packed (sort of) my converted Bontrager as one of my two pieces of baggage - pretty simply for me: tape the wheels to the frame/cranks and put the seat post/bars/front brake/tools in a small backpack. No bike bag, no box, no BS, no hassle - until they decided to charge me 50 bucks for shipping a bike on Aloha airlines. If my frame/wheels combo is the size of regular checked bags I don't think this is reasonable, of course, they didn't do this for the interisland flight or for the flight back which tends to make me think "arbitrary and capricious" but whatever. it was totally worth having the bike I wanted there. I never rode it once on O'ahu. Would have been nice, but I was at a wedding. The days I wasn't wedding people we did group stuff (body surfing at Sandys, hiking/swimming in canyons on the north shore - near sacred falls, drinking at mcgoos etc.)
When I finally got to Maui I put everything together. Here's what I had:
18" Bontrager with columbus track ends added by Litton
1 pair 36 hold sun rims on a phil wood fixed/free flip/flop hub (spaced 130)
1 old set of English path racer bars (rusty as hell, but drops and with the right sized clamp for the vertical rise stem that fit the bonty's fork (a rigid old steel stumpjumper fork)
1 seat (comfy, comfy, comfy)
1 set old s-works cranks - my favorite mtb cranks, with a 34 tooth chainring
1 12 tooth cog (which I had thought to use on the ride down hill) - not mounted but accessible
1 18 tooth cog (with lockring)
1 24 tooth cog (w/o lockring)
As it turns out I never rode down the hill so I only used the 18 and 24 cogs for the not so steep and the steep and steeper parts of the ride. This made my gear inches 51 and 38, with the option for 76 on the way down. Probably not the ideal combo, but for me, close enough. In retrospect I would have probably gone with a slightly larger chainring.
Here are some pics of the bike as I was waiting to get shuttled to Paia, the starting town:
Since we were staying in the Kahana area, we had a nice early morning view of the mountain on our ride to Paia:
a quick glance at the hill past a 45 mph speed limit sign (they're serious, don't speed there):
At Paia, we stopped at the Shell station to buy gatorade type drinks in addition to the water, gels, bananas, mixed nuts etc. that we had already). Conveniently the Shell station (on Highway 36) is right across the street from the ocean and very much at sea level. 100 yards to the west is highway 390, which heads to the up country to a town called makawao.
Two things of import:
1) At that intersection in Paia is Milagros - where you will eat a burrito and drink a beer after your ride.
2) This is where it starts to go uphill. (it never stops)
The ride to makawao is a gentle incline - I'm guessing 3% grade or some such. Maybe a little under 15 miles long. I used my 18 tooth cog for this part of the ride as well as the part that runs along the up country that follows Makawao.
We actually turned right at the main intersection in Makawao (there is only one) - onto Makawao Avenue, Maybe we shouldn't have. This is subject to some debate. Going straight is a less crowded but narrower road, in poorer condition, but a much prettier ride. It eventually takes you (after one left turn near the polo grounds) onto highway 377 from which you will turn left into the park at about 3000 feet elevation. We instead went to highway 37 (kula highway) which is busier, but wider and with a wide shoulder and smooth pavement. At some point past the post office (on the right) there's a turn off (to the left) for highway 377 (the second one, actually) which will take you to the park entrance in the opposite direction from the polo ground route.
I changed gears at the post office.
From the park entrance turnoff (the park entrance itself isn't for 10 miles) it's pretty much a burly climb for the next 20 miles. The advantage that the climb has is it's cooler than the up country portion of the ride, the disadvantage is it's more than twice the grade on average.
During this portion of the ride you'll see a bunch of fat tourists coasting down the hill on rented bikes. They all look at you like you're nuts.
I should point out that at this point (probably 4500 or 5000 feet) I flipped the bars upside down to get a more upright riding position - the Bonty is just too small for standard road ride for so long, even with the stem raising the bar so high.
It's also worth noting that elevation markers are intermittant, which can be discouraging (several times I thought to myself "have I really not climbed 1000 feet by now?" only to realize they skipped a marker).
at about 7000 you hit the park entrance. 5 bucks for bikes (I'm a national park member so I didn't have to pay, but don't forget your card or your five bucks if you're not. 1 mile past the entrace is the first visitor center - water replenishing is available here for the first time in 10-15 miles with one randomly opened store as an exception. For the climb between 5000 feet and 10000 feet there's not a lot of anything but monotony of scenerey - this is not a bad thing of course, and there's a shift from green grassy fields to rockier hillscape at maybe 6750, but you will have ample opportunity to stop and check out the view unless you're racing (which my fat ass was not).
Here are some pics from inside the park boundaries - this area is my favorite as you're above the clouds you just biked though and it's pretty sureal looking to look down on the tops of clouds.
For me, once I hit the visitor's center I knew I was gonna make it the whole way, but for a bit between 6K and 7K I thought I'd stop when I got there.
The second visitor center is at 9800 or so. if you want to drive though the parking lot go for it, but really, just keep going, the steep part is just beyond it. The last 750 yards are steep - I zig zagged to cut down the grade. And in the afternoon, windy as hell (worse than the grade actually). But as long as you can get enough oxygen into your system you'll do fine there. The top feels good. My girlfriend Mary and Logan's wife (of 5 days at that point) Melissa were at the top when I got there (about an hour after Logan, who had lots of gears to choose from, and is in better shape). I opted for a ride down the hill because I didn't want to spin that much on the way down - the fact that I had only one brake was dumb in retrospect. I may have given it a shot if I had two and they were well positioned for decent.
I have sort of lied - there are two spots where you actually go downhill on the way there - one's about 100 yards downhill, the other 250 or so. both of them made me realize I needed better brake positions.
Here are pics at the top:
feel free to ask me if you have any questions. I can honestly say this ride is doable for most people assuming you pick the right gear ratios and can spend some time in the saddle. I started at 7:40AM and ended at 4:40. Nine Hours. Probably could have done it in 8, probably would have taken me 10 and a half to spin back down with the gears and brakes I had.
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