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Island Lake and Maybury

Published April 13, 2009

Jon and Bob standing outside of Bob's van after a cold (but nice) day riding at Maybury. Prior to this we were at Island Lake.

Having today off (Easter Monday Holiday), I ended up heading out to some mountain bike trails with some friends from the MMBA, Bob and John. Starting quite early this morning we took off towards the west side of the Detroit area, and ended up riding Island Lake and Maybury (both loops of each), with a break to eat lunch at Leo’s Coney Island and stop by Trail’s Edge.

Since I’d never ridden either of those trails it was a nice new experience, and I’ll definitely be visiting them in the future. They are both about the same level of technical difficulty that I’m accustomed to, but much longer in length. I imagine that once the weather is a bit nicer (read: warm enough for shorts) they’ll be a whole bunch of fun.

Today wasn’t so nice, necessitating shorts and a jacket and full finger gloves. Since I only have wind/waterproof full finger gloves Bob loaned me his Fox Digit gloves, which worked out great. If I’m needing to buy some for myself I think I’ll get these.

After arriving home at 6:30ish I showered, picked up some fish and chips from Chicken Shack, then watched a bunch of Season 3 of The Office. Now, bed. I’ve got lots of work waiting for me in the morning.

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SDrive NUXX Parts

Published April 9, 2009

All the SDrive NUXX parts, except for the PCBs and enclosures, sitting sorted and ready to go.

Hey, look, it’s all the parts for SDrive NUXXs, except for the PCBs and metal end panels. The parts have been sorted, kits assembled, and all AVRs programmed and labeled. The PCBs should ship on the 16th and the end panels on the 27th.

And yes, that is a belt of SD connectors.

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Flat Tire

Published April 9, 2009

Somehow my bike front tire went flat between when I arrived at work and when I returned from lunch. This is disappointing.

When I went to get in the car after lunch (to drive to another building) I found that my front bike tire is flat. While I’d found my front tire flat last night, I changed the tube and thought I’d fixed it as it held air all last night and while on the car en route to work. Now I need to investigate further, which likely means a stop at home en route to meeting up with the group I’m riding with. Darn.

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Winding Down…

Published April 7, 2009

Whenever I start wrapping up a personal project, I start to feel a bit let down. It’s almost as if I enjoy doing the work more than any sense of accomplishment or completion which comes with finishing a project. While the SDrive NUXX project isn’t totally done, as long as I didn’t screw something up, the difficult / interesting work is pretty much done. I’m just waiting for parts to be delivered (all orders have been submitted), then I’ll have some packaging / kitting / assembly / shipping, and it’ll be complete.

At times like this I start to feel around for something to do next, but until I find that I end up feeling a bit lost and useless. It’s not like these little projects give me much purpose in life, but they do at least hold my attention, teach me something, and make things interesting.

I think that tonight I’ll clean up the basement a bit, ensuring that the workspace needed for the aforementioned kitting and assembly is available, and then setting up a workspace for IC programming. Maybe after that I’ll swap out the tires on my bike for something a bit more trail-friendly, as I think that the weather is probably going to break after this weekend. Still, I need to find another big project. Maybe a device which monitors power consumption of USB devices on a per-port basis, or some sort of nifty clock, or something…

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Winwood Decksters

Published April 6, 2009

Winwood Decksters platform pedal clipped into the Crank Brothers Eggbeater C pedal on my multi-speed bike. This feels very stable for riding around the neighborhood and to the store.

One of the biggest difficulties I had with going to clipless pedals on my bike last year was that the requirement for bike shoes made it difficult to use my bike for a short trips, such as those up to the store. It’s not hard to slip my bike shoes on, but they aren’t exactly comfortable for walking around in. While it would be possible to buy something like Keen’s Commuter cycling sandels / hiking shoes, that would be expensive and overkill.

Thanks to I’ve been checking out Alfred E. Bike‘s Daily Deal section, and late last week they had a set of Winwood Decksters for right around US$20, shipped. These devices are aluminum platform pedals, but with SPD-type cleat mounts (like most cycling shoes) on the bottom. Mated to a pair of cleats, they can turn any pedal back into a platform, perfect for quick rides to the store, picking up pizza, etc. Having recently switched to Crank Brothers Eggbeater pedals I had a spare set of cleats, perfect for use on these pedals.

When my set of Decksters arrived today, I decided to fit them with the cleats and deal with the cold / wet weather and give them a try. Installation of the cleats was very simply, and after being torqued to ~44 inch-pounds, I snapped them on the pedals and took a couple quick rides around the basement. Due to the plastic blocks on the bottom of the pedals (mandatory for using the Decksters with TIME or Eggbeater pedals) the Decksters fit very snugly on the pedals, and didn’t move.

While I could pop them off by twisting them with my hands, during a test ride around the neighborhood, intentionally rotating my feet on them, they didn’t seem to move. They also felt nicely solid, like a good pair of reasonably sized platforms. Initially I thought that pins or sharp points on them would make them a bit better, but I think this would lead to them popping off more easily, and may encourage their use in situations where they just don’t belong (BMX, DJ, FR, etc.).

If you’d like to see more photos of these pedals, here is my album of the Winwood Decksters platform pedal adapters, and here are the photos which can be found in there:

· Boxed Winwood Decksters, as received from Alfred E. Bike.
· The Winwood Deckster platforms themselves, along with nuts and screws for mounting the cleats.
· Pair of Crank Brothers Eggbeater cleats, ready to mount on the bottom of the Winwood Decksters.
· Yes, I made sure to torque the screws to the recommended ~44 inch-pounds.
· Bottom of the Winwood Decksters pedal with Crank Brothers Eggbeater cleat attached.
· Winwood Decksters platform pedal clipped into the Crank Brothers Eggbeater C pedal on my multi-speed bike. This feels very stable for riding around the neighborhood and to the store.
· Detail of the underside of the Winwood Deckster pedal, clipped to an Eggbeater C pedal. Note that the plastic blocks rest against the pedal and ensure that it doesn’t move.

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Race Face Deus XC Crankset

Published April 5, 2009

Race Face Deus XC Crankset on my not-really-a-Rockhopper-Disc-anymore.

Last week I purchased a barely used Race Face Deus XC crankset, with brand new bottom bracket for a really good price. After a bunch of thinking about building a new bike I ended up using it on my currently multi-speed bike.

As they can be a bit fiddly, I had Rochester Bike Shop mount the external bottom bracket, then I took it home and finished putting everything else together. With just a little bit of front derailleur adjustment everything was nicely in place, and a test ride today (before that photo was taken) shows that the new rings really are working better, as everything just worked.

There’s still a bit of seal drag because the BB is brand new, but that should clear itself up after a bit more riding. If only it wasn’t going to rain and snow tonight and tomorrow I might be able to get out this week on trails. Ah well, maybe next weekend…

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No Falling!

Published April 4, 2009

At the end of the Roller Coaster it appears that the park has done a controlled burn to clear brush.

Today while Danielle and her friend Sarah went for a walk around the lake at Stony Creek preparing for the Breast Cancer Three Day Walk my friend Bob (photo of him today) and I met up for a bit of a ride around Stony Creek. We started out on the single track back at the point where I fell, finished the Roller Coaster, rode back through up to the top of Mt. Sheldon, then down the full length of the Roller Coaster.

It was a good ride, with no falling, no almost-falling, and lots of really good exercise and experience climbing hills without the ability to shift. It’s really different, but fun.

One thing I found interesting was that, as seen above, the park seems to have done some controlled burns to clear out some brush. This section is right at the end of the Roller Coaster, the common meeting point for everyone towards the end of the Wednesday Night MMBA Group Ride.

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One Week Later

Published April 3, 2009

Showing the scar / residual cut after shaving. It felt really, really good to finally shave.

One week after falling, and one day after the stitches were removed, I finally was able to shave. In this photo you can see that I’d become very, very, terribly, uncomfortably scruffy, but with stitches and a bit of scabbing on my face I didn’t want to risk shaving.

After getting home from work I took a shower, shaved all of my head and face save for my upper lip, fitted a new (and very sharp) blade to the razor, then started shaving shaving my lip. While I was particularly cautious, it all went very well with only a bit of pain coming from the inside of my mouth as my face moved around. There are still some painful cuts on the inside, but those are healing quite quickly.

I then applied some Target-brand Moisturizing Scar Lotion which claims that it, if used multiple times per day for about two months, will help ensure that scars appear softer and smoother. I’d compared the Target brand version to the bigger name brand version, and as the only ingredient difference was the type of polyethylene glycol, I opted for the 50% cheaper Target brand. It has a somewhat bothersome fragrance, but dealing with that will be worth it to help things heal better.

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Stitches Removed, etc.

Published April 3, 2009

This morning the stitches were removed from my face (photos later), and while initially painful from the jostling and tugging during the removal it already feels quite a bit better. I’m going to wait a few more days before attempting to shave, but I think that it’ll go well. After the doctor’s office visit this morning I ended up having a rather busy, but good day at work.

This evening I did some work on my multi-speed (Specialized) bike, fitting a new crankset (more on this later) and ensuring that shifting was working as it should. I then set out for a ride through one of my typical local routes on the single speed (Bianchi), just to get back into the swing of things. It was nice to get back out and ride some after almost a week of not doing so, and the route up through River Bends Park and on some dirt (and single track) stuff went very well. It was a nicely uneventful ride; one which I hope to follow up with a ride through Stony Creek this weekend which, hopefully, will not be eventful in any way which causes me (or others) injury or pain.

This evening was then capped off with some Pirate Booty clone stuff from Trader Joe’s and a bottle of New Holland’s Dragon’s Milk while watching most of the second season of the US version of The Office. I’m actually finding that this US version is quite a good adaptation of the UK series. I think I’ll try and watch all of the episodes currently available via Netflix‘s streaming stuffs.

And now? Bed.

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