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Month: November 2009

Danielle’s First 29er

Tuesday evening Danielle and I headed out to Novi, in response to this post on the MMBA forum (PNG mirror). The seller was offering a Motobecane USA 29er mountain bike with a 15″ frame size for $250, and this sounded like a really good deal and an ideal first mountain bike for Danielle. After trying the bike out to see that it fit, we took it home. While there were a few obvious problems with it, everything appeared easy to remedy.

After picking up a new tube I spent a few hours this afternoon working on the bike, adjusting things a bit and fitting a rear light. Having 29″ wheels drilled for Schrader valves made finding tubes a bit complicated, but I was able to locate one at REI. As the rear wheel had a slow leak (emptying once daily) I wanted to get a known-good tube in there. Beyond the slow leak, the bike also had the following problems, all of which were (or should be) easily remedied:

· Bent Saddle: This will be replaced with something more comfortable for Danielle.
· Too-Short Seatpost
· Brake Adjustment Needed
· Wheels Slightly Out Of True
· Rear Wheel Dished Incorrectly
· Brakes Not Bedded In Yet
· Uncomfortable / Small Pedals
· Fork Lockout Non-functional
· Handlebar May Be Bent / Weird

All of these should be easy to fix with just a bit of time, making the bike quite nice; especially for a first mountain bike. Here’s some more photos of the bike:

· Danielle’s new 29er bike, a used Motobecane Fantom 29 that was purchased for $250.
· The rear wheel is not properly dished. I’ll have to fix this.
· Mismatched brake levers because one was broken. They are still good levers, though.
· The seat is a bit bent, which is just fine, as it’s going to be replaced.
· The 350mm seatpost that came with the bike is much too short for Danielle. A longer one will be acquired later.

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Skinny Puppy at Royal Oak Music Theater

Soft Spoken Change Is Nothing; A View So Cruel

Rather last minute I decided to head out to the Royal Oak Music Theater to see Skinny Puppy perform. Despite Ogre having a 103°F (39.4°C) fever thus cutting the encore a bit short, and the backing video and costumes lacking the religious and political imagery which marked previous shows, I’m glad I went. Unlike years past I also brought earplugs, which were wonderful as I could hear properly both during and after the show.

As expected, the show was almost like a small reunion of Detroit-area industrial folks. While (obviously) not inclusive, I saw a good number of people whom I hadn’t seen for a few years and managed to say hello to most of them. I also ran into a coworker there, which wasn’t wholly unexpected as I’d previously seen him at an Apoptygma Berzerk show, and known his like for VNV Nation.

Due to life being fairly busy recently I made a last minute decision to go to the show, but it worked out well. As I was about to purchase my ticket someone was asking the queue if anyone needed a ticket, as he had a spare. While he was asking $15, I only had $20 bills, but I gladly handed one over in exchange for the ticket, as the result was still $10 less than door price, and no one in the process technically being shortchanged.

Here’s one more image, taken just after the show illustrating most of the stage setup, including the blood sprayed acrylic and metal box where Ogre spent much of the show.

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Polly Ann Trail / One Mile Short

Today Erik, Kristi, and I set out with the intention of riding to Imlay City, MI. Starting at the Clarkston Road crossing of the Paint Creek Trail (Map) this would have been a 45-ish mile ride. Unfortunately, poor trail conditions, culminating in a washed out bridge one mile south of I-69 slowed our progress enough that we decided to turn back. It’s good that we did, as we arrived back at the cars just as darkness was setting in; a particularly dangerous time for us as we were all without lights.

Along the trail we saw a number of interesting things, including a deer, cows, horses (on trail and off), turkeys, cats, squirrels, chipmunks (live and squished), grain being harvested, numerous dogs, and a discarded helmet shell. The surface also ranged from crushed limestone to pavement, single track through grassy areas to railbed ballast, to simple dirt.

At one point we happened across a what appeared to be some in-progress construction to replace an old drainage line under the trail. At the bottom of this 6′ deep ditch was a recently dead deer, looking as if it’d fallen in one night, been too injured to get out, and died. Traversing the ditch involved Erik climbing up the far side first, me passing the bikes to Erik, then Kristi and I climbing up. Unfortunately, for the first go Kristi didn’t want to climb up near the deer, and ended up scraping her leg a bit. The return trip worked a bit more efficiently.

Once past the first major obstacle we had to walk an expansive section of washed out rail bed, as it had become uneven and with leaf cover finding a safe path to ride through it was nearly impossible. One couldn’t tell if a depression in the ground is just a low spot, or something really dangerous. A bit beyond this was much more washed out area, a whole bridge! This article from Google’s cache talks a bit about the storms which washed out the area at the end of August.

Being only about a mile from I-69 we were a bit disappointed that we didn’t reach our goal of Imlay City, but the bridge made a nice place to stop and eat. It looks like only a few thousand dollars and a weekend of trail building crew would be needed to make the bridge passable again, so hopefully that’ll happen soon. We were also able to see the trail surface and know what will be required to do this ride again. Taking Sutton Rd. to Summers Rd., as seen here should easily bypass the washed out bridge and connect us nicely to Imlay City.

Per my bike computer, today’s ride was 38.29 miles, with a moving time of 3:25:55, 11.1 MPH average, and 30.9 MPH maximum speed. We started around 12:30 PM and returned to the parking lot around 5:00 PM.

Here’s today’s photos. Unfortunately I didn’t get any of the actually washed out parts of the bridge, nor the unsafe bits that I climbed across:

· Dead deer in a culvert crossing the Polly Ann Trail.
· My attempt at climbing the ditch. I failed, as this was not the easiest point to climb.
· Erik found a much better way to climb the new ditch in the Polly Ann Trail.
· I then handed the bikes to Erik, who pulled them up.
· Erik helping Kristi climb up, as she didn’t want to climb near the dead deer.
· This helmet shell, with a blob of foam on it, was found on the Polly Ann Trail.
· One part of the trail, about 3 miles before I-69, was washed out and uneven enough (particularly with leaf cover) that we walked it.
· Home-made sign warning that a bridge is out somewhere down the Polly Ann Trail, just south of I-69.
· First sign of the washed out bridge, one mile south of I-69.
· I climbed out on to the bridge. While the approaches were damaged, the main part of the bridge was solid.
· Kristi and Erik disappointed at the washed out bridge.
· Erik and Kristi looking at the washed out bridge on the Polly Ann Trail, showing the loose / unsupported part that I walked across.
· The body of the bridge itself is solid, but the approaches are gone.
· The point where the Polly Ann Trail crosses from Oakland County into Lapeer County is where its surface becomes much less maintained.

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Let There Be Light!

Today my NiteRider TriNewt headlight was returned after being sent out for repair. NiteRider actually replaced the cable which had a short, replaced the switch, and sent a new helmet mount; all under warranty and free of charge. I was a bit surprised at the switch replacement, although in retrospect I had noticed that it felt a bit odd. I’d previously thought that I simply wasn’t familiar with its operation, but it turned out to be faulty as well.

As can be seen above it was also tested, with the battery illuminating the light for 3:16:00. I presume this to be on high, and this is plenty of time for my uses. Now I can get back to riding more at night. I’ve was loaned an HID which I’ve used from time to time, but being prone to fall damage and not being my light, I was hesitant to take it out very many places. Hopefully tomorrow evening when the weather is a bit nicer I’ll be able to head out for another ride.

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Cascaded USB Hubs

As part of rewiring my office I purchased this seven-port USB hub from Firefold for $22.99, part number USB-7P-HUBSP. It turns out that this hub is actually two Genesys Logic GL852G hub chips, with one cascaded off of the other. The three ports shown above on the left are connected to the first hub, then the other four are connected to the second hub chip. Thus when the case is closed up (as seen here) ports 1-4 are on one hub which is connected to the hub that ports 5-7 are on. This shouldn’t cause a problem, but it’s a much cheaper design than using a seven port hub chip and having everything at the same level.

The hub also ships with a 5V 2.5A switching power supply. Having seven ports which can supply a maximum of 500mA each, this power supply cannot fully power the hub. That said, most devices never pull anywhere near 500mA, so this shouldn’t be a problem either.

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Clean Celeriac

Danielle received a celeriac from the CSA, but we’ve yet to use it. It’s been stored in a bowl of water for a while, but the large amount of dirt in the roots was rotting and smelling very bad while changing the water, so tonight I washed it off and changed the water. On the upside it now smells like only celeriac, but unfortunately my hands also smell like celeriac. No amount of washing with Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps seem to cover it up. Oh well.

Hopefully we’ll use the celeriac in soup. Perhaps I’ll make some up this week, or maybe there will be time this weekend. Or maybe this particularly great looking recipe for celeriac and mascarpone puree. Mmm!

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Printed In The Closet

Over the weekend I moved the printer into the closet. It’s much happier in there as there isn’t much dust, and it’s much more out of the way. After the Mac Pro is gone I can remove the rack, freeing up even more space. I’d originally had some network cable issues where things would link but not work, but a quick test tonight showed that one end wasn’t as well crimped as it should have been, so redoing that end sorted out the network.

Time was also spent on more mundane around the house chores, with some dishes being done, dead plants being removed from planters, patio furniture put away, and glass put in the storm doors. I’m hoping to clean some every day up until I leave on vacation. With the forecast of rain and snow for this week I don’t think I’ll be doing much biking, so there should be plenty of time. There’s something very nice about coming back from vacation to a clean house.

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Nokian Hakka WXC300

Through the Daily Deal at Alfred E. Bike I was able to get a set of Nokian Hakka WXC300 studded mountain bike tires for just under $150. This is far cheaper than normal, and so low that should I not like / need / want the tires I will be able to sell them for what I paid.

When the tires are brand new, Nokian recommends that one ride for 30 miles on paved surfaces to finish setting the studs in the tires. I intend to do this, but only after looking over the tires and fixing the not-quite-seated ones, as shown above. I’m hoping that the tread of these, combined with the spikes, will make for nice winter riding on the mixed ice/snow that ends up covering local paths. Normally the ice isn’t an issue, but there were quite a few times where I flopped over quickly as the front wheel slid out from under me.

Here is a photo of the Nokian Hakka WXC300 tire in the package showing the general tread pattern and the terrible “Deserve Them” company slogan. I expect that the large well-spaced, abstract edge knobs will work nicely in snow.

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