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Day: July 22, 2009

Fox 32 F100 RLC Fork and Tools

Published July 22, 2009

Not long ago I secured purchase of a new fork for my bike, a slightly-used 2008 Fox Racing Shox 32 F100 RLC air spring fork. This should be quite an upgrade from the RockShox Dart 3 coil spring fork that came on my bike. Since I am going to have the steering bits of the bike apart, I also decided to replace the headset at the same time. After some reserach I went with a Cane Creek S-3, which is just one below their very well regarded extra-sealed S-8. The only difference between the two is the bearings, where the S-3 has steel bearings which are slightly harder than the S-8’s stainless bearings. Also acquired (and shown above) are some Price Point-brand carbon fiber headset spacers, purchased just in case they were needed.

In order to install all these parts some rather specialized tool are needed. I’d been contemplating fashioning them out of PVC pipe, threaded rod, nuts, and washers, but a friend offered to loan me his bike tools, so I took him up on the offer. As a result I’ve got a nice selection of American-made Park Tool-brand bicycle tools here. Specifically, I was loaned a HHP-2 Bearing Cup Press, CRS-1 Crown Race Setting System, CRP-1 Universal Crown Race Puller, and RT-1 Head Cup Remover.

With all of these tools I should have no problem removing the old head cups, popping off the old crown race, seating the new race, and seating the new head cups. I’m just going to wait on doing it until after Saturday’s bike race, as it would be unwise to change such a crucial part of a bike around right before needing to depend on it.

If you’re interested, here’s a few more photos of this bike stuff:

· Cane Creek S3 Headset and Price Point-brand carbon fiber headset spacers. (Note the terribly ugly logos.)
· Slight damage to the left leg of the slightly-used F100RLC fork.
· Slight scuff on the right leg of the new fork.

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Bob’s Pickle Pops: A Tasting / Review

Published July 22, 2009

After hearing about Bob’s Pickle Pops somewhere online I decided that I had to try them and ordered up a 14-pack, half regular and have with jalapeño. Being pouches of frozen pickle (gherkin, in the UK) slurry I would alternate between expecting them to be surprisingly good (ala deep fried pickles), or a terrible bastardization like Mamma Mia! Pizza Beer.

Less than a week after ordering, the tightly-packed Priority Mail box of Pickle Pops this weekend so in the freezer went two sample pieces. Today I felt that I was ready to give them a try; ready to deal with any potential sour stomach that may arise.

Due to the high salt content, these popsicles don’t freeze as solidly as other similarly packaged fruit / sugar products, so much that the first just-out-of-the-freezer bite has the same flaky, icy texture of an almost-melted Fla-Vor-Ice. Having grown up regularly eating these cheap, extra sweet frozen ice treats I was also expecting something a bit sweet, even though I should have known better. Being mostly salty, eating my way through them, I was repeatedly reminded of trying to eat a Vero Mango chili powder coated mango sucker / lollipop brought back to me from Mexico. Try as I might, I just couldn’t find myself enjoying it. The flavor was not bad, and it did not disgust me, but I simply could not enjoy it. It was exactly like eating a large pouch of frozen, lower quality pickle relish.

I want to say something else and perhaps better about the Jalapeño version, but it really wasn’t that much different. Sure, there was a bit of pickled chili flavor, and maybe a few more solids, but that’s really about it. It may have been a bit spicy, but not enough for me to tell. I did also try them with a glass of cheap fizzy yellow beer (Trader Joe’s Simple Times Lager, more on this later) because I figured the two may go well, and while it didn’t hurt, it really didn’t make the pickle pops any better.

All said, if you are the type of person who really, really likes pickles, or maybe the sort who enjoys salty Mexican-type candy, you may want to order some of these and give them a try. Or, if you are handed one by a friend, definitely try it for a new and interesting experience. However, if you are hoping that freezing will somehow transform standard pickles into a magical, surprising, and wonderful snack, you may want to pass these by.

(I must admit, I do feel a bit bad saying that I don’t like these after watching this clip from the Food Network show Unwrapped featuring Bob’s Pickle Pops, but I really don’t think I like these.

Also, it’s pretty obvious why the name was changed from Pickle Sickle. I can see the visual pairing of the -LE at the end of the logo that they were going for, but the name both sounds offputting and is not properly pronouncable in the subtitle of “POPSICKLES”. Pop-Sick-Les?)

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M-59 Construction Information / Excellent MDOT Customer Service

Published July 22, 2009

Earlier this week I noticed that electronic traffic information signs have been placed along M-59 on my route home from work. The signs are a bit vague, indicating that construction is to begin sometime around the end of July, but not saying anything more. I also noticed that some utility poles were being moved outwards from the highway, so that got me thinking that perhaps M-59 is finally being widened.

(For those that aren’t familiar with this area, M-59 narrows from three lanes to two, then widens back to three a few miles later. This bottleneck is essentially leftovers from a much earlier version of the highway, because while both ends expanded, the middle section hadn’t been touched for a while. This obviously leads to an almost-daily backup.)

To find out what was going on I consulted the websites for the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) and both the the Macomb County and Oakland County Road Commissions. None of these websites had the info, so to the phone I went. A few calls and transfers made yesterday afternoon left me at the voicemail box of Steve Stramsak, a Traffic and Safety Engineer with MDOT, where I left a message asking about the road and leaving my email address.

This morning I received a very nice, detailed response, explaining exactly what is happening with the road:

Continue readingM-59 Construction Information / Excellent MDOT Customer Service
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