NorthboundRick

I hope this is the right place for a trip report. Just completed a ~400 Miles big island circle with wayyy to much headwind and too many flats. Who would have thought, the amount of glass on the shoulders is insane. Trip was awesome though, very scenic, dramatic coastline and very challenging, I did expect to be easier to be hones. Trip report below.
Happy riding,
Rick

stardognine

A little long, but still very enjoyable to watch. 👍 Goats, boars, & black sand, how could ya NOT like it. 😁

But you really need to buy some Slime tire liners, as well as their self-healing tubes. You’ll never notice glass again. 🙂

axolotl

How about a written trip report? BTW, I toured on the Big Island with a couple of friends and none of us had a flat tire.

alan s 

Looks gorgeous. I’d like to visit there someday.

djb

gp4000 or 5000's?
If you want to stick to contis, gatorskins are tougher and (maybe) would have had less flat issues. Ive ridden them for years in an urban setting and have a pretty good history flat wise, or no flat wise, with them.
Or with mucho glass like that, you'd have to go with something tougher, but this is the reality of touring, even if you were rather lightweight.
The times I've had to ride through glassfest areas like that, when I know Ive ridden directly over bad looking stuff, I stop and do the finger brush thing, totally worth the 1 min of time to do. You'd be surprised how much this helps, dislodging shards before they can be pushed in farther. Sure, one cant stop all the time, but Ive ridden through areas like this, and stopping once in a while really did help.

but for sure, not going with roadie rubber is a big part of it.

pretty darn nice scenery, and liked the final shot, biking with the box. How far did you have to go with that? At least it looked like a reasonably small one, but still with any gusts of wind it would have been a handful.

NorthboundRick

Appreciate the feedback!

I ride a lot and usually using good quality tires, like continental gatorskins are providing superb protection, but The amount of glass on the shoulders I have seen on Hawaii/big island was extreme. The only guess I have is that some recycling glass truck has lost it’s load. There was a section af about 15 Miles near the volcano national park which was just insane. Otherwise a very enjoyable trip.
Happy Riding, Rick

stardognine

You know, I kinda wondered about that a bit, after I posted, regarding the glass there. Are you talking about naturally made glass, from being so close to the volcanoes? Most of us only ever deal with broken bottles & such, and my brain didn’t put that info into the picture. 😉

I never messed with Slime tubes until I got to Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona, land of the goat heads. These are nasty little thorns, that can flat out a “normal” tube & tire multiple times in a day. 🙁 I think the tire liners do the most good, and weigh very little. They’re like paper thin, but made of something really tough, like Kevlar, and they stop goat heads. 👍 The tubes are pretty cool too, but mostly you want those liners, with good tires. 🙂

BTW, the only place I’ve found them in stock, is Wal-Mart, and that’s not guaranteed. They sell out fast. 😉

NorthboundRick

I have encountered a massive amount of man made glass and I am not talking about vehicle safety glass. See a close up and a second picture to get a feeling for the amount. As mentioned, the should was covered for miles and miles with these glass bits. I then started to ride in the vehicle lane, but everyone was going 90, yelling, honking and in one case stopping and threatening me, not fun ..;-(






you can see this also in the youtube video at 15 minutes and 40 seconds.
Not in my wildest dreams I would have pictured myself ever purchasing bicycle parts at Walmart, but I'll look into this, Thanks for the tip! 😉

NorthboundRick

Next trip will be a written report, I already spent so much time with the youtube video (I am a beginner editor), that I won't sink more time into this. Where I live, spring has arrived after all and I am spending more time on my bike. Thanks for your feedback though..and I also tend to agree to the saying that a picture (or video) says more than a thousand words ;-)

Happy riding!