Big Wheels on the Big Island

My Maui ride was not the end of my time on a bike in Hawaii. Staying just outside Kona itself was just too tempting to ignore the chance to ride again. My time was more limited and the bike shop was harder to find.

On an industrial estate on the edge of Kona, Bike Workswas hidden away, and perhaps a little more focussed on the road and triathlon side of things than mountain bikes. This makes sense as it's famously the nearest bike shop to the start of the Ironman triathlon route that challenges the fittest of the fit to a race that takes them beyond endurance in the Pacific heat.

This did mean the shop were less helpful than the Maui one had been, and the only trail recommendation I could get was a shortish loop on the mountain behind the town. I rented a Specialized Camber (with no rack this time), threw it in the back of the (luckily) huge car I had for this leg. I drove up the hill, got changed and rolled up the road.

This ride was not as full or satisfying as the last one, but still offered some fun. The ride smashed up a road climb, switched to a brutally steep trail then turned left and down over roots and through rainforest on some very decent singletrack. The trail reached a junction and the lack of help from the shop left me unsure of where to go. I went with the wide track left, and was rewarded with a fast clatter down a track that dropped off lava and through deep forest. Here I was vindicated in my thoughts in the past as I once again found the 29” wheels flexing rather than tracking over rocks, confirming that my choice of bike to buy at home was right. I am far happier on 650b wheels than on the larger hoops.

Another left and a flow through more humid forest to the car around a bunch of dog walkers. Feeling unsatisfied I went out to do it all again faster.

There must be more riding to be had on the Big Island, and maybe I could have found it with more time and a better shop to advise me, but this would have to have been my fix. I loaded the car again, discovered the dogs had contributed more to the ride than I thought and headed back to the shop to be sent to the local dive shop to use their hosepipe to clean the crap off the downtube.

So, I rode around all of those places that contributed to the Canadian bike brand I love, form Kona itself, to Kula, and on volcanoes and through rainforest and I want to go back and do more, with more proper kit and more planning, there'sso much more of the islands that look like it could be explored, even within the law.

While I'm at it I had one more tease as checked baggage and failing to keep track of the day, and so finding a bike shop shut on a Sunday meant that I couldn't ride just outside Los Angeles on the way home. I tortured myself with a trip up to Topanga to look at what could have been. I want to go back there as well to hit the beautiful mountains and canyons that opened up in front of me from the car. Must be time for a trans-Atlantic riding holiday, surely?

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