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Month: August 2013

A Nicely Useful Outhouse

Published August 12, 2013

Today I rode my bicycle from home to my parents house, taking a dirt road route that I put together a couple days before. The ride went great, and the only difficulties I encountered were feeling a bit blah at the start, then having to ride on freshly graded roads for a while neat the end. The weather was excellent, traffic was light, and I had no problems with cars. The rotating cue sheet that I put together last night worked great, and I think I’ll use this technique for other rides in the future. I even happened across this conveniently located portable toilet in the construction zone on the southeast corner of Van Dyke and Boardman roads where I stopped for a few minutes and had a bit of home made protein bar to eat before carrying on.

At one point while heading north on Dequinder I was kept company by these tire marks, which seemed to alternate between Specialized The Captain and Maxxis CrossMark patterns. I think that two people, alternating position, must have ridden through there shortly before I did. Other than this, I didn’t encounter anyone else riding outside of parks or rail trails.

Other eventful things included: being near lots of cows, seeing a bunch of beautiful houses and orchards along Boardman, watching a crane stand in a fresh-cut lawn watching someone finish mowing, and being briefly chased by a dog. Mostly all good things.

Strava data for today’s ride can be found here.

 

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Rotating Bicycle Cue Sheet

Published August 10, 2013

I once saw a cue sheet like this somewhere online, so I figured I’d give it a go for tomorrow’s ride. I’m hoping that instead of the MOT I’ll be able to take dirt roads for a round-about path to my parents’ house in Richmond, and this illustrates the roads that I’m not already familiar with.

Instead of a flat page and some manner of holder this is a basic paper loop around the bars, listing turns one after another. It can then be hand-rotated to advance the list. I currently list the name of the road, which direction I should be going on it, and if it’s at the end of the previous road (a T intersection). Next time I may make the font smaller, better clarify the intersection type, and note the distance on each road.

While I could have put a cue sheet into my Garmin bike computer it takes a fair bit longer than printing a basic note, and when I last tried it with a slightly older Garmin (Edge 500 vs. my current 510) it wasn’t the most reliable, so I’m hesitant to try it again. The paper band has the limitation of font and bar size dictating the upper capacity limits, it’s not really waterproof (laser printing only goes so far), and it could get torn off. But it’s also super-easy to do.

Hopefully the ride will go as planned and the cue sheet will be a positive contribution.

UPDATE: This worked out very well. I’ll be using this cue sheet mounting technique in the future.

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New Rubber Stopper Time

Published August 7, 2013

After twelve years it is time to get a new rubber stopper for the laundry tub. The current one has begun decaying, and a couple weeks ago when attempting to push it out of the drain with a metal rod I poked a hole in it, destroying its traditional water stopping powers.

Now to find a replacement… Lowe’s was out of 1 1/2″ stoppers when I went there earlier today, and the universal stopper that I purchased doesn’t work. Time to try another store…

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Google Maps Bicycle Routing Issues

Published August 2, 2013

Google Map Maker allows most anyone to edit Google Maps. Someone has been using it to add all of the trails at Stony Creek, including the very small paths and foot-only trails. In general I’d think this is a good thing, but for some reason they are ending up being listed as bicycle routes. Some of these (such as the MTB single track) are inappropriate for general bicycle route designation due to their rugged character, while others (such as the Nature Center Trails) are simply closed to bikes.

While putting together some route ideas for a ride tomorrow I ran into my first actual issue with this; Bicycle routing directing me to the Nature Center hiking-only trails while making my way through the park. (See the image above or here.) While I know to avoid them, I suspect this is going to be a growing problem for some with finding bicycle routes in the area, particularly for those who aren’t willing (or prepared) to ride off road. I could also see it leading to conflicts with some users insisting it’s open to bikes “…because Google said so”.

Time to file some bug reports and get the bicycling designation removed…

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New Spark Plugs after 166358 Miles

Published August 1, 2013

My 2006 Honda Civic EX was probably a bit overdue for new spark plugs. I’d neglected this maintenance item for a while, but at 166358 miles it was long overdue. This evening I picked up four Autolite plugs on the way home and swapped them out. This was considerably easier than I expected.

I only ran into one small problem, when the rubber-lined spark plug socket would remain stuck to the plug deep inside the engine, popping off the extension as I tried to remove all of it. After unsuccessfully attempting to shim the extension in the socket I wrapped one turn of Gaffer’s tape around the assembly (photo) and this problem resolved. All plugs are installed, torqued to spec, with threads coated with copper-based anti-seize. It may have just been coincidental, but the car seemed to start quicker after replacing the plugs. Maybe it’ll run a bit better now, and if I’m lucky maybe I’ll get better mileage…

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