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Day: April 8, 2013

Pub Pedals

To make non-bike-shoe riding easier I picked up a pair of Windwood Decksters a couple of years ago, but I never really used them because my primary use for flat shoes on clipless pedals was doing trail work and the Decksters were prone to popping off when twisting one’s foot, like when riding on trails. Instead when taking my bike out for trail work I’d just deal with riding in boots on Eggbeaters or wear bike shoes.

With a recent successfully-funded Kickstarter campaign Pub Pedals — a slip-on platform for Crank Brothers Eggbeaters — came to be. Nick had purchased a pair from the original campaign and after they arrived I saw how high quality they were and that they’d meet a need of mine, so I ordered a pair. Today they arrived, and after some basic testing I’m quite happy with them. I still have to actually try them out for basic riding on trails, but I expect them to work quite well.

I first tried them on some older Eggbeater SL pedals that are on my Mukluk 2 and they installed pretty easily, but weren’t loose enough to come off easily. I then tried them on the newer Eggbeater 3s that are on most of my bikes and they were sufficiently difficult to install that I sent a note to Nick asking if his fit. They did, so I tried mine again and was able to cajole them in place by wearing gloves and spreading the cages a bit with my hands. Eventually they fit in place, snugly enough that I see almost no chance of them coming off during even fairly aggressive trail riding. (I’d probably slip off the pedals before I could apply enough force that they’d push off of the pedals.)

Come next time I’m out doing trail work, provided there’s no need to carry long tools, I strongly suspect I’ll be giving these a go. Or, maybe I’ll slip them on next time I’m looking at taking a ride up to Sherwood for some dinner and beer… After all, they are Pub Pedals.

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Evaporated Tungsten Deposits

A few days ago when I entered the garage I heard a noticeable 60 Hz buzz. Since this part of the house contains only fluorescent lighting I was a little confused at what it could be. The noise seemed to be coming from one of the incandescent bulbs on the ceiling; one which was giving off a strangely dim and off-color light. Switching the lights off then back on finished off the failing bulb, and it burned out in a typical flash.

I’m not completely sure what was occurring, but with quite a bit of darkening (likely condensed metal vapor) on the inside of the bulb and the odd colored light I strongly suspect that a gap had formed in the filament but was arcing, then on next power cycle the filament blew itself apart.

This bulb is one of two 300W incandescents that I use to illuminate the garage. I’ve considered putting in some bright, all-temperature fluorescent lighting, but doing that would be considerably more expensive than occasionally installing ceramic sockets and spending $5 every couple of years on a bulb.

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