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A Fine Day

Published February 6, 2014

 

Despite being a bit frazzled at times, today has been a pretty productive day. Due to the snow this morning I worked from home, but I got a fair bit of stuff done all while being able to listen to good music, watch a snowstorm outside of my window, bisected by the tasty lunch shown above†. There are definitely less comfortable ways to work.

After this I was able to:

  • Wash the salt off of my fatbike and experiment with some different techniques for cleaning off salt residue (none of which were successful). Thoroughly cleaned the somewhat-rusty (thanks, salt and lazyness!) drivetrain.
  • Figured out a likely reason why the fatbike has been ghost shifting: a partially-separated plate on the chain. This was easily fixed with a chain tool.
  • Went snowshoeing with Danielle, Erik, and Kristi to pack down the mountain bike trails at River Bends. This was my first time using snowshoes somewhere other than near home, and thanks to the four of us the trails should now be fatbikable and mostly prepped for ¡Ay CRAMBA It’s Cold Out!.
  • Shoveled the excess snow out of the parking spaces that both our neighbor Rick and I regularly use. These had been plowed, but as the plow can’t get right to the curbs, hand-shoveling the final bits helps keep the spots nicely open and accessible. I don’t like shoving the grill of my car into a snowbank to fit in a spot.
  • Ate some really tasty chorizo nachos that Danielle made for dinner.
  • Mopped the laundry room floor in cleaning up from bike washing, then did a the dishes.
  • Get started on some new signage (Coroplast ordered, vinyl spec’d / requested) for River Bends and other CRAMBA trails. Frustratingly, someone has stolen a number of the signs at River Bends and they now need to be replaced.

So, while I felt a bit frazzled and frustrated at times, overall this has turned out to be a quite fine day.

† A hot smoked salmon topped with herbs and an English muffin (Bay’s, of course) topped with cheddar, butter, scrambled eggs, and harissa.

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Dollar Scalp Club

Published February 3, 2014

Before bed this evening I was shaving my head and face in the shower, a fairly typical twice-or-so-a-week event. Having recently acquired a Dollar Shave Club four-blade razor I was giving it a go, just as I had four or five other shaving sessions before. As I was finishing up, going back over the top of the my head one more time, I felt the familiar tug of cutting one’s self. As typical for head cuts I was bleeding a bit, so I called for Danielle to tell me just how bad it was. She had a difficult time dealing with the sight of blood (needing to sit down at one point — as she did during this), but after I washed the blood off she was able to give it a look, and after setting a dry towel on my head for a while she used our largest bandage some Neosporin to patch it up.

At first I didn’t understand was the magnitude of the skin removed, thinking that it was just one of the usual small cuts that I get every couple of months, often the result of a small pimple or ingrown hair. While waiting for Danielle I managed to pull it out of the razor, setting it aside in a bit of water so I could look at it later. Shown above is the still-moist piece of skin, laid out on a stainless steel scale. This is 11mm x 20mm, and the ends are a bit thin and folded under.

Since the razor wasn’t brand new (it’d been used maybe four or five times before) I’m hesitant to fault it, but the Gillette Mach 3 that I’d used for years previously never did this after a similar number of uses on a triple-blade head. Then again, the flap of skin was stuck between the bottom two (leading and second) blades. This could have been because the leading blade was dulling, pulled up a bit of skin, and the second cleanly sliced it away.

Despite the hassle of cutting my head, the skin slice resulted in a very interesting photo. In it one can see bisected pores, small imperfections, and lighter colored and less translucent spots where the sample ended up a bit thicker than others.  Click here to see the full resolution version, which is making me wish I’d had an higher resolution camera.

This should heal soon, but as it’s more superficial than scrapes I receive while biking I don’t anticipate it being much of a problem. Because there’s so much blood flow to the scalp small cuts and scrapes like this tend to heal quickly. Thankfully Danielle was here to dress it, as being on a not-quite-visible part of my head it would have been a huge hassle to do alone.

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Lasko Pro-Performance High Velocity Utility Fan (Model 4900)

Published February 3, 2014

Wanting a higher powered fan for when riding on the trainer, and being inspired by the Air King blowers at BK Training Systems I picked up a Lasko Pro-Performance High Velocity Utility Fan (Model 4900) fan via Amazon, and I’m not disappointed. At $72.17 it wasn’t the cheapest fan (and the price has gone up in from $60 in conjunction with the onset of trainer season), but it seems worth it. When run on high it is comparably loud to the more-decorative tabletop fan I’ve been using for a couple years, but it moves considerably more air. At ~12 feet away from the fan, as I will be when on the bike, it moves enough air to make the rushing sound in my ears that I get when riding at 15MPH+.

The linear flow of the air is really different from the normal swirling chop of rotary fans, but it’s also much more like the steady flow when one is riding. I think this’ll be great for keeping me cool; it moves a lot of air.

Beyond trainer use, this’ll also be great for airing out the house, drying clothes in the basement, blowing warm house air into the cold garage when working out there in the winter, and airing out the hot garage on summer days.

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Hopeful Pale Ale

Published February 1, 2014

After a fun day of bike riding and working on a friend’s computer I brewed a pale ale using some leftover hops and dried malt extract. My hope for this was a low-ish alcohol (< 5%) very slightly smokey but otherwise American Pale Ale-ish beer.

The recipe for is as follows, and I intend to update this page indicating whether or not I like how this came out. I intend to ferment this beer in primary until it’s pretty much done, then immediately keg and force carbonate it. I have three other beers aging in secondary, and my hope is that this’ll be a nice-when-fresh beer that’ll will play a part in allowing me to fill all four empty kegs at the same time.

Here’s the ingredient list:

  • 6.6 pounds Golden Light LME
  • 11 ounces Extra Pale DME
  • 1 pound 10°L
  • 2 ounces Weyermann Smoked Malt
  • 0.5 ounce Simcoe hops at 60 Minutes
  • 0.5 ounce Simcoe hops at 15 Minutes
  • 1x Whirlfloc tablet at 15 Minutes
  • 1 ounce Citra hops at Flameout

This was a typical full volume boil, with the crushed malts steeped for 30 minutes in 2 gallons of water then sparged with 1 gallon.

OG: 1.053
FG: TBD

Here’s to hoping it comes out nicely…

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Welcome to the LW Coaching 100 mile Finishers Training plan.

Published January 29, 2014

For the last two years I’ve followed the LW Coaching 100 Mile Mountain Bike Race — Finisher Plan for the 12 weeks prior to Lumberjack 100 (LJ). I purchased the TrainingPeaks version of this plan in 2012 and it’s worked well for me, so I’m going to do the same this year. However, there is something about the TrainingPeaks site — maybe it’s the visibility of weeks of stuff-to-do at a time — that feels very daunting.

Today I applied the plan to the 2014 calendar, set to finish on Sunday, June 22, the day after LJ. While the first day of actually doing stuff isn’t until April 1st (this is an LTHR test), just seeing the calendar again is a little intimidating. However, it means that nice bicycling weather shouldn’t be too far away… Even if it is structured and training, I tend to really enjoy the rides. Here’s to that continuing this year.

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Kuhnhenn’s Solar Eclipse

Published January 26, 2014

 

Danielle wants me to use up the special beers that have been sitting in the fridge for a while, so tonight after a ride on the trainer I opened up this bottle of Kuhnhenn Brewing Company‘s Solar Eclipse. This is a barrel aged imperial stout, aged from 2009 to 2012 before being sold. My good friend Brian gave me this bottle a while back, and I’d been saving it for a special occasion. I guess that was tonight, to celebrate a nice weekend with friends.

At 18% I’m sipping this slowly (it was opened at 9pm and isn’t gone nearly two and a half hours later), but that seems appropriate for a beer like this. As it warms and sits the flavor changes, and I’m enjoy it the whole way through. This really is good, and something I’d like to get more of. Thanks, Brian!

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Another Elegant Cadence Sensor Magnet Option

Published January 24, 2014

I’m apparently on a quest to find ideal neodymium magnets for triggering the cadence side of ANT+ speed/cadence sensors such as the Garmin GSC-10 and Wahoo Cycling Speed/Cadence Sensor. I’d previously tried wide/thin (10mm wide, various thickness) magnets such as the one seen here on the Salsa El Mariachi Ti which sit on the end of the pedal spindle. This works well on the El Mariachi Ti where the crank boot supports it from the side, but on bare cranks it’s not difficult to knock the magnet off. My friend Jeremy has lost at least one magnet this way.

A few days ago I received some 8mm x 10mm (diameter x height) neodymium magnet cylinders via eBay and these seem like an even better solution. On Crank Brothers pedals with 8mm hex sockets in the end of the spindle, these magnets slide snugly into the 8mm hole, with a bit over 2mm poking out. This works great for triggering the reed switch inside the cadence sensor, and unlike other magnets which simply stuck to the end of the spindle, roughly 75% of the magnet is inside of the pedal so it won’t be possible to knock this one off.

Removing the magnet as needed is pretty easy, too. Because there is no flat surface at the bottom of the hex socket the magnet is relatively easy to remove. It can easily be pulled out with another magnet, by sticking a flat piece of steel to the top, or grasped firmly (say, with pliers or some strong finger tips) and slid out. While getting to this fastener outside of a shop isn’t usually needed, it’s good to have the option.

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Well Seasoned Cast Iron Pans: Flaxseed Oil

Published January 24, 2014

Our house has a couple pieces of cast iron cookware, but it wasn’t seasoned very well and Danielle and I both wanted to change that. After some separate but overlapping research we both found that using flaxseed oil is best for seasoning cast iron cookware due to the high quantities of α-Linolenic acid (ALA) that it contains, as this will polymerize nicely during the seasoning process.

Sheryl Canter’s post Chemistry of Cast Iron Seasoning : A Science-Based How-To was the basis of much of the information used, but I disagree with some of her techniques (eg: applying very thin layers of oil then wiping them off until no longer visible, starting with a cool oven) as being overwrought. Starting with a clean, dry pan (scrubbing to get food residue off and putting in the oven at 200°F to facilitate drying) I instead did the following, using some food-grade refrigerated flaxseed oil purchased at Whole Foods:

  1. Using a piece of a synthetic fabric sock (a square about 2″ x 3″), spread a layer of oil on all surfaces of the pan. It should look oily, but not have any drips, sags, or pools. Be sure it is an even coat. Paper towel (which I tried at first) left lint residue that’d burn into the oil and get stuck in the coating.
  2. Put the pan in your oven and set to 550°F or so. The temperature needs to be above the smoke point of the oil, because during this smoking the ALA will polymerize and thus the cast iron becomes seasoned.
  3. Once the oven indicates it’s at temperature, set a timer for an hour. During this hour the cast iron should reach the oil’s smoke point, which’ll release a bunch of somewhat unpleasant smoke. Vent the house if you can.
  4. After an hour has elapsed, or once the oil is done smoking (you’ll get a better feel for this as you repeat the process) turn off the oven, open it up, and slide out the racks so the cast iron can cool.
  5. When the cast iron has reached a temperature that it can be handled with bare hands, repeat these steps as many times as desired.

To season our cast iron cookware I used seven repetitions of this process. Each took a couple of hours, but most of that time was waiting for the oil to smoke or the cast iron to cool down. The result on one of the pans, a Lodge Wedge Pan that Danielle received for Christmas from my parents, can be seen above. Prior to the flaxseed oil seasoning it had a factory season on it, which was a dull, thin-looking surface that only seemed sufficient to prevent corrosion during shipping. After receiving a proper season the pan was not unlike a used PTFE non-stick surface and quite pleasant to use.

Post-seasoning the cast iron can be easily cleaned with water, a plastic bristled scrub brush, and a gentle plastic scrub pad / sponge that’s safe for non-stick pans. This has easily removed everything we’ve had stuck to the pans and left the season intact.

† While flaxseed oil and linseed oil are the same thing, products labeled as linseed oil are commonly for wood finishing and usually contain drying agents and other things that you probably don’t want in contact with your food. Thus, it’s best to just suck up the seemly-high price of buying food-grade flaxseed oil at a local store knowing that it’ll be safe. Don’t worry, one bottle will last you for a long time; this process does not go through it very quickly.

Other oils could be used, but flaxseed oil will be the most efficient readily available oil due to it’s high ALA content. This portion of the Wikipedia article on α-Linolenic acid listing the ALA content for a number of different oils, showing that flaxseed is around 55%, while canola and soybean (both frequently branded as vegetable oil) are 8% and 10%. If a lower ALA content oil is used, it’ll take longer to build up a thick coating of seasoning (polymerized ALA).

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New Helmet Pads for Giro Xar

Published January 21, 2014

After ~2 years (and maybe four months of need) I finally replaced the pads on my daytime helmet†, a Giro Xar. I’ve been quite happy with this helmet, and it’s done well for me, but the soft pads inside were soundly compacted and some parts were starting to delaminate. This meant that there would be large lumps inside the helmet if I didn’t put it on very carefully.

At $4.99/set for the pads I should have done this a while ago. The replacement is as simple as pulling out the old pads and sticking the new ones to the velcro.

† At night I wear my old helmet, a Giro Phase. This one isn’t quite as comfortable as the Xar, so I keep a light mount on top and use it mostly at night. It’s also a backup in case something happens to the Xar.

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Stinky Elk Antler

Published January 19, 2014

A couple years ago Danielle purchased an Elk antler as a toy / treat for Roxie. While Roxie initially enjoyed it and chewed into one end, she soon lost interest. Today, in an attempt to renew her interest, I cut it in half with a bandsaw. This is one of the stinkiest tasks I’ve performed, as the resulting dust smelled like a strong, meaty, rotten animal smell: exactly the sort of thing Roxie loves. Even wearing a dust respirator some of the smell still crept in, and now the garage smells strongly enough that I can’t walk out there.

Once half was given to her she took a keen interest and began licking the cancellous bone at the center. Hopefully her interest in it will continue and she’ll finish it this time.

(Note the dark-colored rot-like area, perhaps mildew, that had seeped in from the end she first started licking. Or maybe that was the more flavorful bit?)

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