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Broken Garage Door Opener Spring

Published January 14, 2013

While cleaning my desk this evening I was startled by a loud banging crash from the garage; a noise which faintly sounded like the garage door collapsing. No, it wasn’t someone sliding on the ice and crashing into the building; the garage door opener spring had broken (photo), dropping the door and unspooling the lift cables (left side, right side).

Living in a condominium means that the association (which is collectively funded by the co-owners) pays for repairs such as this, so I called the property management company’s emergency repair number and set things in motion to get it repaired. Because there’s a significant extra charge to the association (of which I’d indirectly pay for part) to have the work done at night I opted to let them come tomorrow and get Danielle’s car out of the garage myself. This took a bit of lifting, the floor jack to get things started, and then more lifting and propping things up with some spare wood before I could back out Danielle’s car.

Lowering it down was no easy task, as by the time the last panel rotated to vertical I was unable to support it myself, dropping it the remaining twelve inches with a deafening bang that gave me a bit of a headache. Regardless, her car is out, repairs are queued, and all is good. I knew this was going to happen eventually as all garage door opener springs eventually go, I’m just glad that it happened now; a rather convenient time.

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Falling Into Lake Huron in January

Published January 12, 2013

I can now say that I’ve fallen into Lake Huron, on a bicycle, in January. And it wasn’t a big deal.

Taking advantage of this weekend’s unseasonably warm weather (almost 60°F in mid-January along the lake!), James and I headed out to Lakeport State Park to ride on the beach and generally explore whatever we could find in the area. This was a good time, netting 2:12:16 of moving time poking around on beaches, exploring random trails in the park, and poking around some roads necessary to get around sea walls that people had built straight out to the water line. While we were able to ride around a few of them, many (as seen in this photo) simply extend out across the beach to the water line.

Due to Lakeport being a good ways north, there was also quite a bit of snow to be found both in the woods and along the beach. While poking along the beach we happened across a snow and ice-topped sand bar and decided to ride on it. This generally went well, but at one point my front wheel slipped slightly, and the place where I chose to put my foot was undercut ice, which I immediately broke through. I then tried to put my foot down on the sand below it, but being waterlogged and quicksand-ish I sank in it and toppled over into the lake, submerging most of the left half of my body and soaking my shorts, jersey, shoe, glove, and part of my bag.

The photo of me at the top of the page was taken by James just a few moments before I toppled gracefully into the water.

This was nowhear near as bad as it could have been, as I didn’t really feel cold so we just continued riding. I slowly dried off, and the rest of the ride (roughly another 1.5 hours) was great. The worst part was my left foot which had become completely waterlogged, coupled with my lack of socks due to forgetting them at home. No blisters were formed, and my foot was just starting to wrinkle by the time we were done, so everything was good.

We even found a bit of beach treasure (a Made in the USA stainless steel spoon for James and three quarters, two pennies, and one nickel all in a single pile for me) while riding along! Despite this, I think I’ll seek out a different destination for the next beach ride. This was a lot of fun, but I’d rather find a place where the beach can be ridden much further in a given direction.

The route ridden today can be seen here on Strava, and here’s some photos:

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GoPro HD Hero 2 Soldering

Published January 11, 2013

Steve Kinley with MiSCA was having problems with his GoPro HD Hero 2 camera and set about disassembling it, but in the process inadvertently disconnected the wires from the back side of the internal speaker. Knowing that I’ve done a bit of electronics work he asked if I’d take a look at it, so I did.

In the end I was able to reattach the wires to the speaker, and also fix the other end of one wire which was damaged during the original issue and came off of the PCB during reassembly. This was quite a pain, but it all seems set now. Hopefully it’ll keep working right for him.

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Grimm Brothers Brewhouse Sooty Brother Grätzer Ale

Published January 10, 2013

After trying the Magic Mirror I had one bottle of Grimm Brothers Brewhouse beer from Erik and Kristi left, a bitter, smoked wheat beer of a style known as Grätzer (lots more history here).

This is pretty tasty, and has me thinking about trying to do some sort of smokey beer with wheat for my next beer. Maybe just something like a lighter wheat beer with a bunch of smoked grain for steeping… The two flavors go together much better than I’d expected. Not that I anticipated this beer being anything other than great (everything I’ve had from Grimm Brothers has been great), but this is really hitting the spot.

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Synergistic Combinations of Surfactants

Published January 6, 2013

Danielle and I recently got new glasses from SVS Vision Optical Centers‘ Mt. Clemens location. While we had a great experience there (would recommend, will return), along with her work safety glasses she received an eyeglass cleaning kit with some rather amusing wording on it. On the back of the kit the advertising text tries to use big words to sell the product:

SVS Lens Cleaner is unique in that it actually wets out the most hydrophobic of surfaces and then allows the synergistic combinations of surfactants to emulsify the soils or contaminants present, making the lens easier to clean. This is achieved without any detrimental effect on the expensive lens treatments such as antiglare coatings or easy to clean topcoats.

Yes. That’s exactly what I was looking for: synergistic combinations of surfactants.

If this didn’t read so well I’d think it was just Engrish, but instead I just think that some copywriter did it just to see what they could get away with. It’s great.

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FS1330 – Salsa Alternator Dropout Set 12×142 w/Maxle

Published January 4, 2013

In preparation for building up a new bike that I have on order I purchased QBP #FS1330, the Salsa Alternator Dropout Set 12×142 w/Maxle. This is a set of swing plates for Alternator dropouts which allows a 142mm x 12mm rear axle to be used instead of the standard 10mm quick release. While the wheel set coming with the bike won’t work with this, I hope to eventually get a through axle rear wheel so I wanted to order the plates and axle before I needed them.

I was not able to find photos of this item online before I ordered it, so now that I have the set I wanted to post some photos for others. So, here they are: FS1330 – Salsa Alternator Dropout Set 12×142 w/Maxle

Looking at this in person I can see why it’s so much more expensive than the normal replacement swing plates. Beyond the inclusion of the Rock Shox-branded Maxle these are machined instead of cast, with lots of small details. These probably aren’t produced in nearly the quantity that the normal swing plates are.

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Cold Ride with a Cold

Published January 4, 2013

This morning I woke to find myself with a cold, but Dominic convinced me to go anyway, saying that during his rides on days when he is sick the ride has made him feel better. I’m glad I did, as getting out for a full lap of River Bends (regular+seasonal+pavement+two track+newest segment) just before the sun set really felt nice. I only saw two other people during the whole ride; a couple who seems to be out there walking their dogs almost every day.

The photo above (or here, slightly larger) was taken after riding the S turn, a series of banked curves out in the Seasonal Loops that appear to have built (or formed) by some motorcycle riders in previous years. Due to the inches of powdery snow I wasn’t able to get up enough speed and actually ride the berms, but it was still fun. The trail leading off to the right is a good example of how nicely packed most of the other single track is now.

Here is another photo, this one showing powdery snow stuck to the Big Fat Larry. I love how riding in snow cleans all traces of dirt from one’s tires.

And yes, I did feel better after the ride.

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Pelican 1020 Case for Google Nexus 4

Published January 2, 2013

For the last few years I’ve been using a Pelican 1050 case to carry my Google Nexus One phone when biking, hiking, mapping, etc. This past Monday I received my new phone, a Google Nexus 4, and set about fitting it into a new case. The Pelican 1020 is the closest fit, but unfortunately it’s just slightly too tall to hold the phone flat inside the case.

Setting the phone at a slight angle allows it to fit nicely in the case, and with the addition of two block of neoprene foam rubber (layered and held into place with contact cement) the phone is soundly secured in the case. The block near the top of the phone holds it from rattling around, and the thicker block near the bottom keeps the phone from sliding around if dropped soundly on its face.

This is not the most elegant solution, but until I can find a better-fitting case it’ll do. I’d love one which allows the phone to nestle in as nicely as the Pelican 1050 did needing just a bit of extra foam, but that’ll take some digging, if they even exist…

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Stuff For Sale

Published January 1, 2013

I’ve posted some older things which I no longer use for sale on Craigslist:

I’ve also posted a practically-brand-new Shure SM57 microphone on eBay: 290838759540.

If any of you are interested, please let me know. Friends and family discounts will apply. This stuff is all in great shape, I just simply don’t need it so I’d like get rid of it and save space in the basement.

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2012 Outdoor Riding Statistics

Published January 1, 2013

Shown above (full size image here) are my outdoor cycling statistics for 2012, as compiled using a Garmin Edge 500 and Ascent. Due to aliasing issues on rides that were done without a wheel sensor and a small handful of rides where I didn’t have my GPS there’s likely a small bit of under recording here, but it’s probably pretty close. By wearing a heart rate monitor while riding the tools are also able to estimate the number of calories burned.

The big, most notable stats are as follows:

Total Distance: 4217.31 miles
Total Ride Duration (Clock Running): 462:09:23
Moving Time: 363:55:11
Distance Climbed (Elevation Gain): 133,326′
Calories Burned: 289,802

More interestingly my ride duration can be seen ramping up to May, which is right was the end of getting ready to attempt Lumberjack 100 (LJ). Things settled down in June likely as I ramped down for then was disappointed by LJ, but then the next three months had far more distance likely due to the great weather and my having half of each August and September off of work. November and December dropped off dramatically, likely due to the poor / wet weather we’ve had and drastically shortening days.

My average moving speed was also highest in March, which I attribute to that being a month of mostly dirt road riding as trails weren’t in good shape for riding. September was also fairly high with some long distances, likely attributable to more riding to and from trails. My cadence was also a good 10 RPM lower than what I see on the trainer (70s to 80s outdoors vs. 80-90), which I suspect to be a combination of outdoor riding for me being much more interrupted pedaling versus the trainer’s constant spinning. Most outdoor rides lasting longer than trainer sessions and on the trainer I don’t have to worry about bike handling, so I’m probably more willing to spin quickly when indoors.

Beyond these numbers I also spent 41:53:31 on the trainer, burning an additional 31,114 calories. (I don’t do anything with distance or speed on the trainer as it’s not really like riding on outdoor surfaces.) This was all done from January through May, then in November and December.

It’ll be interesting to see how 2013 compares to these numbers. I’d really like to give LJ a go again, but I’m on the fence about it. I really enjoyed the training rides leading up to it, but it did take a bit of time and effort. Registration doesn’t open for a couple more months so I’ve got time to decide and see if I really want to give it another go.

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