Press "Enter" to skip to content

nuxx.net Posts

Anatomy of a Crash

Published December 19, 2014

 

Today’s weather was cold — right about freezing — but sunny and with very low wind, which is just about perfect for getting in a mid-afternoon ride on hard, snowless trails. Riding this time of year is almost like riding on concrete trails and generally quite fast, save for the occasional spots where a thin top layer has thawed in the sun. These spots end up acting like grease sitting on pavement and require a bit of caution and attentiveness. Riding today… one got me.

I was following the 6/12 Hour Route that I so love, and just after the Grassy Knoll heading towards Woohoo Hill there is a long, sweeping turn section that’s fairly flat and pretty basic. It can usually be ridden quite quickly, but today 50′ or so had a thin greasy layer and I ended up crashing on it, sliding along for a ways on my hip.

The photo above shows where my bike ended up (click here to embiggen), and what I find most fascinating about it is the forensic evidence it contains:

  • Lower left corner of the image is where the normal tread (45NRTH Hüsker Dü) in the mud layer ends. I would have been leaning the bike slightly at this point.
  • The long bar-like tread marks are where the tire began to slide, and the wide side knobs left grooves in the direction of the bike sliding to the outside of the turn as the tire rotated forward. This indicates the bike was leaning quite far by this point.
  • Rear tire track is on the left, evidenced by it being on top of the track on the right.
  • The tires then hit a small root, which being on an unsuspended bike impart a bit of bounce. This is why there is a gap in tire marks after the root.
  • Rear wheel was moving in a wider radius than the front, which is not what normally happens. The bike was thus no longer pointed in the direction of travel.
  • Wobbles and gaps in the tire marks indicate that the bike was pretty much sideways and out of control at this point.
  • The flattened-smooth part of the tire marks is where my hip/right leg first made contact with the ground and I began sliding.
  • The S curve and straight grooves in the dirt (directly below the top of the rear tire in the image) are from the brake lever and end of the handle bar. The brake lever made the S mark as it compressed and while pushing into the ground.
  • Light mud is visible on only the right half of each tire. This shows that I was already leaning the bike when I hit the greasy mud.

So, what’s the takeaway? It’s a pretty simple message: don’t lean the bike when encountering greasy mud, and if there’s a need to two-wheel side through an area like that, try to avoid bumps that’ll contribute to a loss of traction. Normally I’m good about both of these, but today… I wasn’t. And I have the bruised hip and scraped knee to show it.

On the next pass through this section I was much, much more careful… This isn’t something that I needed a photo to know, but I do think it’s pretty nifty to see post facto.

 

 

Leave a Comment

Micro SIM in Nokia 1661

Published December 7, 2014

Sometimes you just need to make a SIM card fit… Like in this case where my warranty replacement Nexus 5 from T-Mobile failed a few days after receiving it and I want the same account working on my spare Nokia 1661. I’m glad it still has the alignment marks on it from when I needed to do this earlier in the year.

My first Nexus 5 gradually had the GPS module fail, beginning to be problematic in September and coming to a head in mid-November. The warranty replacement — which I received six days ago — has the screen brightness seemingly stuck at the dimmest mode possible. I’ve already done a full data wipe, so tomorrow I get to visit a T-Mobile store and pursue another replacement… But at least I’ve got a way to make calls and send texts until the next replacement is received.

Leave a Comment

Garmin Hub-based Speed Sensor for Fatbiking

Published December 3, 2014

For years I’ve advocated for the use of a wheel speed sensor to augment the data of GPS-based bike computers in order to alleviate distance issues caused by aliasing. Up until recently the only good options for this were traditional magnet-and-reed-switch units like the Garmin GSC-10 Speed/Cadence Bike Sensor and the Wahoo Cycling ANT+ Speeed/Cadence Sensor. These sensors work well in general, but I’ve had issues with them on my fatbike.

Because of  snow buildup on the rim (photo) the sensor is positioned closer to the hub (photo) to keep it from scraping in the snow. Withof the further-back position near my heel and the frequency of falling over when when riding in snow, it’s not uncommon for the sensor to get knocked around and tilted slightly inward. This causes the reed switch arm of the sensor to knock against spokes: the usual tick-tick-tick sound. It seems that these repeated, gentle physical impacts break the switch, as I’ve now had two which stop picking up wheel speed after a year or so on my fatbike. The rearward positioning also makes it impossible to use the cadence side, which feels a bit wasteful.

Garmin recently released a new series of speed/cadence sensors which use internal motion sensors instead of magnets (sensor bundle page on Garmin’s site). These were reviewed in great detail over here by DC Rainmaker, and the hub-based speed sensor seemed a perfect fit for my fatbike. This design will stay away from both the snow and my heels, and lacking a reed switch there isn’t that part to fail. The lack of cadence sensing on a fatbike is fine with me, as it is used in such mixed conditions such data isn’t very useful. When cleaning up my fatbike earlier this week I ordered the standalone speed sensor ($39.99 from Amazon) and fitted it last night before heading out for a ride.

My first impressions are very positive. It connected to my Garmin Edge 510 just as I’d expect, and a ride through River Bends parking lot automatically calibrated it to a sane number. A 1.5 hour trail ride near dark went fine with it, and it just seemed to work, similar in function to the GSC-10, but with a technical implementation that is more suited to fatbiking. I’ll stick with the traditional reed switch sensors for my other bikes, as I haven’t had the same kind of difficulty there and I don’t strap-to-crank-arm sensors, but for here on the Mukluk, it seems a good fit.

Leave a Comment

Bike Stuff for Sale

Published December 3, 2014

Shuffling around bike parts and upgrading things have left me with some spare parts that I’d like to sell. Prices and photos are listed below, and I’ll consider reasonable offers. I live in Shelby Township, MI and work in Warren, MI and will be glad to meet anywhere in this general area to handle a sale. Contact me at c0nsumer@nuxx.net if you are interested.

Stan’s NoTubes Arch EX / Shimano XT Wheelset – $350: These are the stock wheels from my Salsa El Mariachi Ti, replaced only when I built up some carbon fiber wheels. Front is a 15mm TA and rear is QR, centerlock rotors. Very solid  build and the freehub was recently replaced. Comes set up tubeless with Racing Ralph (2.25″) and Small Block Eight (2.1″) tires. The tires are well used, but still have some life in them, so I figured I’d include them.

SRAM Rival 2×10 Gravel Road / CX / Touring Drivetrain Kit – $600: All new parts purchased for a gravel road bike build that fell through. This would also be a great touring setup, CX setup, etc. All that’s missing is brakes and a frame to put it on. This is an outstanding value build kit, all-Rival solid stuff that works well. Items included are all SRAM Rival level: 31.8mm front derailleur, short cage rear derailleur, front derailleur shim (1-1/4″ seat tube to 1-1/8″ clamp), DoubleTap shifters (retail box, with full cables and housing), crankset (172.5mm arms, 50-34 chainrings), bottom bracket, PG-1050 cassette (12-28), PC-1051 chain.

SRAM Apex 170mm Crank Arms – $20: Very mildly used set of solid cranks. I removed these from my Salsa Vaya to go to 172.5mm cranks and have no need for them. I’ve got a set of new 50-34 rings, new chainring bolts, and new bottom bracket for it that I’ll throw in for another $45 ($65 total) if you want to make this a complete crankset. Want to try out different length cranks? Need a cheap but solid set of cranks? This is a good way to go.

Serfas Seca FPS Road Tires – $Free / Beer: 28c Serfas Seca FPS wire bead road tires. Cheaper tires that came on a used bike I bought, but plenty of life left in them. I prefer wider tires and have plenty already, so I don’t want these… Got a use for them? They are yours… I’ll trade for beer, a good story, etc.

 

Leave a Comment

Fiddler Breaks Local Intranet Zone Assignment in Internet Explorer

Published December 2, 2014

Beware: The use of Fiddler to troubleshoot Internet Explorer issues can complicate the use of the Local intranet zone by effectively disabling the intended behavior of the Include all sites that bypass the proxy server setting. KB174360 describes the Local intranet zone as follows:

By default, the Local Intranet zone contains all network connections that were established by using a Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path, and Web sites that bypass the proxy server or have names that do not include periods (for example, http://local), as long as they are not assigned to either the Restricted Sites or Trusted Sites zone.

When Fiddler is enabled, proxy settings on a client machine are changed to direct all traffic to 127.0.0.1 as seen above. This results in no websites automatically matching the Local intranet zone because none bypass the proxy server.

While troubleshooting a suspected issue with custom user agent entries I had Fiddler running, as is my normal practice.  The reported issues was custom user agent strings not being sent, something that won’t happen on IE9 unless Compatibility View is enabled. I’d first thought there was a problem with the Display intranet sites in Compatibility View option not working due to the Local intranet zone assignment not working, but my issue actually turned out to be Fiddler getting in the way by causing no sites to match the Local intranet zone. When Fiddler was disabled and I switched to using an external tap for monitoring, behavior returned to normal.

Fiddler is great for MITMing secure sessions thus making troubleshooting secure websites trivial, so not being able to use it in these circumstances will cause other problems. But there are other ways around that…

Leave a Comment

Fiddler for Chained Proxy Authentication

Published November 6, 2014

I recently had an issue where an application which supports proxies but doesn’t prompt for credentials needed to use a proxy server to communicate with the internet. The solution? Use Fiddler and its built in scripting language as a secondary proxy chained to the primary, forcibly sending a valid authentication header to the proxies.

How does one this? Here’s how, which is a bit more detailed writeup than what’s found here at Stack Overflow. Note that this presumes basic familiarity with Fiddler:

  1. Use Fiddler to watch a session that uses Basic authentication to the proxy. Look at one of the requests headers after successful authentication and find the line which contains Proxy-Authorization: Basic. Copy this value to the clipboard. (Example line: Proxy-Authorization: Basic dXNlcm5hbWU6cGFzc3dvcmQxMg==)
  2. In Fiddler, click Rules → Customize Rules to open CustomRules.js in an editor.
  3. Locate the function OnBeforeRequst. The line beginning this will read something like static function OnBeforeRequest(oSession: Session) and is line 159 in the rulset that ships with Fiddler v4.4.9.2 (latest as of November 6, 2014).
  4. Below this, add a line as follows, with the secondary part being the string that was copied in step 1. In this example the bolded portion is what we’ve added:
    [...]
    static function OnBeforeRequest(oSession: Session) {
    // Inject a Basic authentication header
    oSession.oRequest["Proxy-Authorization"] = "Basic Yno5eWw1Oldyb25nLmdvLldheSsyNDA=";
    // Sample noRule: Color ASPX requests in RED
    // if (oSession.uriContains(".aspx")) { oSession["ui-color"] = "red"; }
    [...]
  5. Save and close CustomRules.js. Fiddler will now begin using this modified ruleset. You can observe that this header is now included with every request.
  6. Ensure that your application using Fiddler as its proxy. If the application is local to the computer on which Fiddler is running and uses WinINET then this is likely automatic. If not, it will need to be manually pointed to the local proxy. Fiddler can also accept connections from computers elsewhere on a network (Tools → Fiddler Options… → Connections), but configuration of this is beyond the scope of this article. See the Fiddler documentation for more information.
Leave a Comment

Clement Crusade PDX for CX Stuffs

Published October 27, 2014

About a year ago, when getting ready for the Detroit Invitational CX Race (DICX), my friend Joe lent me a worn pair of Clement Crusade PDX tires that he wasn’t using. I used them a few times over the year, for a couple of single track rides and some cyclocross (CX) races, but last week he asked for them back.

I’m not much of a racer and only have a need for the tires a dozen or so times a year, but I wanted want to have something other than my usual set of gravel road / pavement tires for these times. Particularly as the CX races that I do tend to be some of the more fun events I went ahead and ordered my own set.

These are generally considered quite knobby when it comes to CX tires, something that the more serious people would reserve for muddy conditions, but I found them to be sufficient for my amateur needs on all off road surfaces. During a test ride at River Bends last year I was shocked with just how well they cornered, and at DICX and Barnyard CX (a friend’s private race on Labor Day) they did a great job of grabbing into grass and the soft surfaces usually associated to more-casual races.

The tires have now been fitted to the Jamis Nova, my CX/trainer bike, and if things work out as I hope tomorrow I’ll get to use them during some sunset-time race practice at Bloomer Park and a couple of races this autumn.

Leave a Comment

Another TrainerRoad Setup

Published October 15, 2014

For the past two years I’ve been using TrainerRoad in the basement while riding on a bicycle trainer during the winter months. I’m normally not too keen on getting exercise for its own sake, but I’ve found that sometimes I get feeling grumpy and a bit of exercise, such as riding on a trainer, helps. Along with fatbiking it also helped keep up my fitness over winter, making bike riding in springtime a good bit more fun.

The setup that worked really well for me last year can be seen here, where an old Asus Eee PC (netbook) handled the job of running TrainerRoad and logging data. This worked, but the machine is slow enough that it’d get in my way whenever I needed to update, fiddle with settings, etc. Having some time off work this week and wanting to improve a bit, I decided to see what I could do using spare hardware from around the house.

Using a slightly-more-powerful-than-the-Eee PC Asus EeeBox EB1501 that I’d purchased in an ill-fated attempt to use it as an HTPC I connected it to an old Dell Ultrasharp 2005FPW display that was originally purchased for use with a PowerMac. It was first positioned directly in front of the bicycle — just as the netbook was — but this felt really awkward so I went looking for other options. What I’ve settled on thus far is seen above; the 20″ LCD display placed above the television, showing the relevant data and workout graph. A single computer speaker is placed next to the computer so I can hear the end-of-interval countdown beeps, and the ANT+ USB receiver is placed to be pointed directly at the bicycle.

The mouse and keyboard are wireless, so I should be able to set them near the bicycle and pull them out as needed, but as individual workouts in TrainerRoad are started and paused by pedaling (or stopping) they likely won’t be needed very often. No longer having the laptop and stand in front of the bicycle should allow different positions for the blower fan which helps keep me cool. I’ll probably try straight-on first, since that’d be closest to actually riding outdoors.

My biggest fear with this setup is that there’s some on-screen detail that I’ll miss (overall time, parts of the graph) or I’ll find myself getting off of the bike regularly to adjust something in the application itself. If this doesn’t work out, I might look at something like an older iPad, seeing as TrainerRoad has an iOS app under way now… Or maybe my Nexus 7 tablet, if the Android version is ever released. Either would work nicely on a small handlebar mount and probably be quite efficient to use.

Now if I could only find the irritating tick in the bike when pedaling under load… Maybe that’s a project for tomorrow.

Leave a Comment

Marquette, MI

Published September 29, 2014

With two weeks off of work I took some time to head up to Marquette, MI for some mountain biking focused around the Noquemanon (NTN) Trail Network. Thanks to suggestions from my friends Nick and Marty Shue it was very easy to find my way around and I had a great time and I’m looking forward to my next trip there.

Here’s a dump of my thoughts consolidating information.

Lodging / Location

I stayed at the Ramada in downtown Marquette. Location for this was excellent, with a couple mile easy bike ride (via safety paths / non-road bike/foot specific trails) to both the North and South trail areas. These same trails extend for miles outside of town and would make for good road riding as well. I stayed in room 106, which was a single queen size bed located quite close to an outside door. This was very convenient for riding to and from the hotel. The room itself was nice, although it felt a bit damp in there and gloves/clothes took quite a while to dry.

The Hampton Inn location would also be good location-wise, but it’s quite a bit pricier than the Ramada.

Local Bike Shop

Upon arriving in town I stopped by Sports Rack, located about a block from the Ramada, to purchase an up-to-date trail map and get suggestions for riding. The folks here were extremely friendly, sold maps with all monies to benefit the NTN, and just seemed like a great shop. I didn’t need to buy anything from them, but if the need had arisen I would have gone here immediately. Definitely seemed like a great shop for summer and winter riding.

Food

The following restaurants were recommended to me by Marty, along with my thoughts on each. I would gladly eat at any of these again next time I’m in Marquette:

  • The Vierling: Little more upscale, but still casual and friendly. I had the whitefish with pasta, which was good, but the pasta was kinda lump-ish and together, which might have been caused by all the cheese. Still tasted good, though. Beer was good, even though when walking by the brewery one evening I saw an employee smoking while working in the brewing area.
  • Jean Kay’s: Seems to be proper pasties, nicely located between the North Trails and downtown not far from the bike paths. Good outdoor seating and deck for keeping an unlocked bike. Very tasty, not too heavy, great after a few hours of riding.
  • Donkers’ Restaurant: Candy shop / restaurant with good breakfast. Hash browns seemed a bit oily and I was disappointed that the sausage patty on one of the breakfast sandwiches seemed to just be a typical patty instead of something locally made, but it was still good. I had breakfast here twice.
  • Vangos Pizza: Bar that serves excellent pizza. Ate a small (one size up from a For One) with pepperoni, mushroom, and their house made sausage. Surprisingly good crust. Easy walk from Blackrocks as well.
  • Dead River Coffee: Really tasty coffee. I had a cappuccino while reading All my friends are dead.. I was there early enough in the morning that it was just myself and some employees so I felt a bit out of place (they were deeply discussing coffee roasting quality control techniques and whatnot), but not uncomfortable. This seems like a proper small coffee shop with people who really care about making good coffee.
  • Blackrocks Brewery: Probably my favorite of the local breweries. Great beer, really comfy atmosphere. Lots of bikes locked up outside. Bring food from elsewhere, though. Built in an old house.
  • Ore Dock Brewing Company: Another big name local brewery. Great beer as well, but didn’t feel as comfortable to me, perhaps because it’s more of a large hall-type building. Has pretzels (hot and cold) and popcorn for food, but also allows outside food.
  • Third Street Bagel: Bagel / sandwich place. Ate a breakfast bagel from here which I’d first purchased intending to eat while driving, but after seeing its size I ate it sitting outside the restaurant. Also has good coffee. Both were quite tasty and made for a pretty quick breakfast.
  • Togo’s: Sub/sandwich place. On recommendation of an employee I had the hot pastrami sub with mustard and horseradish. This was a good choice; ate it at Ore Dock Brewing Company.

Trail Routes and Difficulty

To start, the maps on the NTN website are not as up to date as the one which can be purchased at the local shops. Additionally, the purchasable map does not include the 1-2-3 portion of the Harlow Farms Connector Trail which is incredibly useful for accessing the south trails from the Iron Ore Heritage Trail (rail trail / non-motorized path) which runs through downtown and within a couple hundred feet of the Ramada. Signs like this lead the way. Still, this was quite easy to find when actually riding, and both of the main Marquette systems were close enough to downtown that I didn’t regret riding to the trails each day.

Once on the trails, though, the marking is outstanding. I almost never had a problem figuring out where I was on the South Trails, and only a couple parts of the North Trails (in particular in The Cedars section where the trails is very close to the Noquemanon Trail and there are a spiderweb of connectors) where I got a little confused, but I wasn’t lost — I just wasn’t sure if I was on the right trail. It was still loads of fun, though.

Anxious to get out and ride, on my first day of riding I found myself on a black diamond trail, and this is where I had my first fall. I was trying to ride up some rocks, got my wheel stuck, and just toppled over. I slid a bit, but wasn’t hurt and was more amused than anything else. This photo shows where I fell, which in retrospect (and after riding other trails there) was really quite an easy spot. I think I may have been arrogantly pushing a bit that first day.

What I learned was that the trail designations are pretty spot on to the IMBA descriptions. Black diamond is about my upper limit, and these seem to either be because of exposure (steep drop-offs) or technical challenges, or a mix of both.  I can deal with both by walking, but my slight fear of heights makes it harder to deal with the exposure. On my last day of riding in Marquette I found myself on a trail called Gorge-ous which had enough exposure in spots to nearly induce a panic attack in me. It’s beautiful, but it snakes its way down the edge of a gorge up above the Carp River, and the drop-off would cause some serious problems. This photo shows one of the more exposed spots, complete with a repurposed truck mirror to allow riders to see around the corners (these are two way trails, remember).

I mostly enjoyed the blue square (intermediate) trails, as there was pretty much nothing on these I couldn’t ride comfortably. They were nice for just rolling around and seeing how beautiful the area is. When I’m up in Marquette the next time I’ll likely try out more of the black diamond stuff, but after being a bit thrown off by a technically difficult group ride on Wednesday evening I was playing it safe.

Group Ride

The folks at Sports Rack told me about a group ride at Al Quaal Recreation Area in Ishpeming on Wednesday nights at 6:30pm. Wanting to see some new trails I headed out for that. This ride apparently breaks into three groups (A, B, and C), and I made a mistake when I chose the A group. If/when I go back I’ll likely ride with the B group.

I’d heard that the A group was fast, and that Al Quaal was mostly XC ski trails with small amounts of single track. I’d also heard in the parking lot that the single track is about as difficult as the Blue loop at Marquette South, which sounded fine to me. I could ride hard on the wider stuff, then deal with the single track. This turned out to not be the case, the trails were some of the most technical and rocky that I’ve ever personally been on and I was in way over my head. There were numerous 8″ – 12″ rocky step-ups and climbs far beyond what I’ve ever ridden before and thus I walked quite a bit. For the part I rode there was actually very little XC ski trail, even though the climbs and downhills on it were quite fast and fun.

This held the group up a great deal, so after making my way through a bit of it I was going to head back early. Very kindly of them the group didn’t want to let me head off alone somewhere I hadn’t been before (even though I knew I could find my way back) so I kept on a bit further, before splitting off and heading back to the cars with someone who was cutting out early named Don. After this the group carried on to some other trails which apparently have considerably more exposure, including rocky ledges looking down at the tops of trees. I’m glad I didn’t carry on to this area.

(This technical loop seems to be partially labeled with pink signs indicating the Quaal Loop. It does not yet seem to be mapped.)

Later that evening I ran into two of the B group riders at Blackrocks who I had previously talked to in the lot, and that conversation confirmed that I was in over my head. It sounds like the B group would have been much more my thing… More XC ski trails, more single track but not things as hard as what the A group did. Whoops.

I just hope I didn’t squish the group’s plans too much. I definitely learned something that day, though.

Routes Ridden

In the three riding days in the Marquette area here’s where I went, as illustrated via Strava:

After Marquette…

After leaving Marquette I headed down to Glacial Hills in Bellaire. I’d heard of this trail for a couple years, and finally having the chance to ride it I wish I’d gone there sooner. This is incredibly flowing, quite easy (but fun) machine-built trail. I was amused that it was about the same difficulty as the Grom (Beginner / Kids) Loop in Marquette, but for almost 30 miles. It was a blast. (Strava data.)

Once I was done riding at Glacial Hills (mostly because the sun was setting) I headed to Traverse City and checked into a hotel, staying the night so I could attend an Iceman Out-and-Back ride put on by Einstein Cycles. This was a not-fast-paced-but fun ride from the shop out to Kalkaska, then back via most of the Iceman route. Due to pacing, stops to chat, and getting turned around on some of the newly cut trail segments we didn’t have time to do the full route, but it was still a good time. It was nice to spend some time in the northern Lower Peninsula riding as well; which is completely different from what’s found near home, and different still from Marquette. (Strava data.)

Photos

Photos from this trip to Marquette, including a couple along the drive and riding to and from there, can be found here.

1 Comment