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Sore Trapezius

Published April 16, 2009

It seems that the rocky / rooty trails at Island Lake and Maybury which we rode on Monday took a bit of a toll on me. Yesterday morning my back/neck was a little bit sore, and a bit of research showed that it was likely my trapezius muscle on the right side of my body. Since it wasn’t too sore yesterday I headed out for a paved ride on the Macomb Orchard Trail, which ended up being a bit over 20 miles.

Once back at the car I found that I was a good bit more sore, but just wrote it off as a problem from leaning over the bike for a while. However, when I woke up this morning I found that I can’t really turn my head without a good bit of stiffness and soreness.

I think that this point I just need to stay off my bike for a few days and rest up, then maybe do some elevated leg pushups or something else which will build up these muscles a bit. This is a bit disappointing as today and Friday are forecasted to have really nice biking weather, but that’s just how things go. At least I’ve got other things which I can be working on in the mean time.

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Freshly Turned Planters

Published April 15, 2009

Someone, possibly the lawn care people, removed the old plant roots and turned the soil in my planters. In the process some soil was spilled on the porch.

When I arrived home from work yesterday I found that someone had turned the dirt in my planters (more detail) and removed the roots from last year’s flowers. I think it may have been the lawn care people, as they seem to have cleaned up the leaves left over from autumn.

I’m looking forward to early May so that I can plant some new things. I’m not yet sure what I’ll plant this year, but hopefully it’ll look nice…

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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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