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Ticks Are Durable

Published July 15, 2011

This evening while riding through River Bends to look for specific areas in need of trail work I picked up two ticks on my legs. I found them both while driving and while I was able to flick the first one out the window, I dropped the second on the floor. I stopped to find where the second had landed, and after picking it up with a napkin I tried three times to crush it between my fingers, but each time failed. I eventually smashed it between the hard plastic console and a bike light housing, and after applying a good bit of force it finally snapped, crushed, and stopped moving. It’s amazing how well built ticks are.

While I didn’t get a good look at the first one, a bit of research shows that this one is a female Dermacentor variabilis or American Dog Tick (Wikipedia).

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SD Card Connectors Fitted

Published July 14, 2011

Here’s thirty SDrive NUXX PCBs with SD card readers. Thus, the first step of PCB assembly for this run of devices is complete and the boards are under way.

I know what I’ll be doing with most of my free time for the next week or two. Not that I mind; I really enjoy this stuff! Short production runs are fun.

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SDrive NUXX ATmega8-16PU Programming

Published July 12, 2011

Here’s what I spent a good portion of my evening doing: programming and labeling 50 Atmel ATmega8-16PU microcontrollers as part of a new SDrive NUXX production run. Some of these will be sold preprogrammed along with blank PCBs and aluminum end panels while others will be fitted into assembled devices. The next step is for me to begin soldering on the surface mount SD card connectors.

Programming was done with CrossPack on OS X. The issue that I previously complained about has since been fixed, so I had no issues using avrdude and an AVR Dragon fitted with a ZIF socket to quickly program and verify each device.

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Permanent Signs at River Bends

Published July 9, 2011

On Thursday I headed out to River Bends with Spencer Wood, the Eagle Scout candidate who built the trail head kiosk and is working on the trail signage. He and I placed a bunch of WRONG WAY signs along the single track clearly illustrating it as one-way trail, and signs were also placed along the two track. All placed signs are color coded to match the map, and the directional signs match the directional arrows. This is a really big step in the construction of the trails, as it establishes the trails with permanent signage which matches the published map and the forthcoming trail head information.

Conveniently we were able to arrange it so that the temporary signs placed last November could be reused (in place) in most areas, reducing the need to remove signs and the effort and associated waste. The seasonal loops (blue signs / route) is currently unridable and thus not completely signed, but this should be done within a couple weeks; hopefully some time after next weekend.

Here’s a few more photos of the new signs:

· In the parking lot at River Bends getting ready to hang more trail signs.
· Start of Phase 1 of the single track at River Bends showing the entrance to the single track (yellow signs) or multi-directionality of the two track (green signs).
· Wrong way sign on a stake at the end of the normal single track due to there being no trees to affix it to.
· Sign indicating the start of the two track at the current end of the asphalt path at River Bends.
· New signs (yellow and blue) at the beginning of the seasonal loops at River Bends.

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SDrive NUXX PCB Cross Section

Published July 6, 2011

The new run of PCBs for the SDrive NUXX arrived today (photo), and with them was this this piece of the PCB, embedded in acrylic, sliced, and polished to allow inspection. The through-hole plating, top and bottom layers, and everything are all clearly visible (and measurable). Now it’s time to order up the components and enclosures, wait for the end panels to arrive, and get to building.

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Fourth of July Ride

Published July 4, 2011

While a bit hot, today was a great day for a ride and also a good time to try out some Infinit Nutrition products. For about two years now I’ve been drinking Hammer Nutrition‘s HEED while riding, and this has been good for most riding that I do. However, it goes off pretty quickly in heat and doesn’t do the trick so well for many-hour rides.

Some friends recommended that I check out Infinit’s offerings, so I ordered up some and thus far it seems pretty nice, even mixed double-strength to be enough calories for a decent-pace two hour ride. The flavor was good, and the extra bit of flavor from the stronger mixture helped ensure that I drank water afterward. When I ordered I got some with protein (for longer rides) and some without. Today I tried the protein-less version, so for my next ride I think I’ll try the one with it in there.

This ended up being a nice ride, with me not backtracking once. I ended up taking residential and dirt roads a bit north of Stony Creek, over to the Paint Creek Trail, down through Rochester, through Bloomer, through Holland Ponds and then River Bends, and then heading back home via some more residential streets. While hot out, it was quite a nice ride. I just wish there was more shade along the route. During times when I was under trees things were quite comfortable, but the last few miles of the ride on pavement was getting to be a bit much. There was very little stopping on this ride, only a little bit in Holland Ponds to climb over fallen trees and walk up the stairways.

Today’s stats:

Distance: 38.07 Miles
Moving Time: 2:39:21
Moving Average: 14.33 MPH
Max Speed: 34.86 MPH
Bike: Titus Racer X 29er

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Swimming with Roxie and Sand Road

Published July 4, 2011

After a hectic weekend of getting married Danielle and I headed up to her aunt and uncle’s cabin in Caseville, MI to swim and relax a bit. As you can see above, we spent a bit of time swimming with Roxie, and then after that I set out for a bike ride in and around Sleeper State Park. Swimming was fun, and riding found me on both the aptly-named Sand Rd. (see?) and attempting to navigate hiking / game trails along nifty ridges through state-owned land; stuff which would do very well being turned into proper bike/hike trails. It also ended up with riding along some interesting dirt bike trails, popping out in a neighborhood not far from where I’d started.

Despite not making it to a lake that I’d set out towards (single track-ish stuff distracted me) I ended up with about a sixteen mile ride and ~2 hours poking around in the woods. Not bad for something mostly unplanned along the shoreline of what’s otherwise quite-flat farmland.

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First Flat of the Year

Published June 30, 2011

Today while riding at Stony Creek I got my first flat of the year, a pinch flat that happened somewhere in the Back 9 of the Roller Coaster. Just yesterday I switched from the original rigid fork on the Salsa El Mariachi to a squishy Rock Shox Reba which made me feel much more comfortable riding the trail quickly. I strongly suspect that I was fine with the lower pressure when riding the rigid bike more slowly, but today I took something a little too fast, didn’t pick as nice of a line, and pinched the tube. Oh well. That’s what spares are for.

(This was another great day of riding. In the last four days I’ve been lucky enough to ride almost all of my favorite local trails, including Bald Mountain, Addison Oaks, Stony Creek, River Bends, and Maybury.)

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Thanks, Feedback Sports!

Published June 28, 2011

For years now I’ve been using Feedback Sports’ RAKK storage and display stands to hold up bikes around the house. Unfortunately, the place I bought all of mine from sold them without the clips to hold them together. Wanting to clip them together in the garage I emailed Feedback Sports asking if they had them available.

After a brief exchange of email, Sammy, an internal sales and customer support person sent me a $0 invoice for the exact number of clips that I didn’t have, and it arrived this morning. Now I’m able to hook all four racks together, which is quite nice as then they don’t slide around the floor when shoving bikes into them.

Thanks, Feedback Sports!

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