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A Tin of Spaghetti

Published November 21, 2010

Tonight’s dinner is an imported tin of Heinz Spaghetti in Tomato Sauce (purchased from the clearance food section at Meijer) and a bottle of Guinness Extra Stout making for a particularly contrived “British” meal. The spaghetti is not great, but better than the typical super-salty Chef Boyardee canned pasta that one normally finds here in the US.

The scum around the edge of the bowl is the result of my following the prescribed microwave heating directions of heating on high for two minutes, stirring, and then heating for another two minutes on high. Apparently the average US microwave is more powerful than the average British microwave, as this caused the sauce to boil over saturating the paper towel covering the bowl and spilling down the sides.

I think I’ll finish off some leftover pizza after this.

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…and then there was a tree!

Published November 19, 2010

While out at River Bends with Bob tonight we did a casual-pace lap, then set out for a second. Apparently due to the winds that were whipping around the area the second lap was blocked by a freshly fallen tree. I had my Sven-Saw in the car so we were able to go get it and take care of the tree. While too heavy to move in one piece, cutting it at the edge of the trail, tossing aside the lighter top, and dragging back the heavy base made quick work of this otherwise impassible obstacle. This 6″ log was sitting about 8″ off the ground, located just before the top of a short, steep bench cut uphill that turns and passes between two trees.

Here is another view of the fallen tree just after finding it. The broken piece laying on it had broken off of the main trunk as it was falling. I’m glad I wasn’t near by when this occurred.

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Replacement NiteRider Pro 1400 Extension Cable

Published November 18, 2010

After contacting NiteRider about the ill-fitting extension cable which shipped with my Pro 1400 they sent a replacement. This one fits much, much better as it’s actually the right cable. The textured indicator will also make it easier to make blind connections, which are exactly what I have to do when getting ready to ride since one connection is made behind my head.

Amusingly, the package came with 34¢ of postage due, which I’ll happily pay to the mailman. More amusingly the postage due envelope (a 1996 vintage design) is stuck shut, likely from having sat around in a mail truck for years. I think I’ll just tape a quarter and dime to the envelope and see what happens to the extra penny.

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River Bends Temporary Signage: Complete!

Published November 18, 2010

This afternoon I headed out to River Bends and installed the temporary signage mentioned yesterday. Everything went great and I used ~31 of the signs to mark a route from the parking lot all the way through the single track and to the return trails (paved and two-track). Each sign was (for easy removal) loosely nailed to a tree approximately eight feet above the ground; a height which will hopefully curtail casual vandalism.

Needing something to stand on in order to reach this height I brought along a milk crate which was light enough to carry easily and sat surprisingly stably on the ground. It provided both a work surface for applying the arrow decals to the plastic and a one foot step so that I each sign only had to be hammered in a comfortable height above my head.

Here’s a few photos of the newly placed temporary signs on the trail:

· Temporary mountain bike route sign at River Bends trailhead.
· Signs located at the T where one can continue on River Bends regular single track loop or down into the Seasonal Loops.
· Temporary signage at River Bends was placed by nailing over my head while standing on a milk crate. This placed most signs at about eight feet off the ground; hopefully above easy vandal access height.

While walking the trail I was noticing a good bit of damage to the trail caused by dirt bikes. I figured that people were sneaking out on to the trails in the evening and damaging them, but not long after getting started I heard the sound of motor and saw two guys riding on the trail not far from me. I wanted to talk to them and ask them to go easier on the trails, but as soon as they noticed that I was paying attention to them they hurried away.

I personally don’t have much concern for what people do as it’s not destructive or injurious to others. Unfortunately, their riding on trails can’t be ignored as it has resulted in large, loose ruts, particularly on hills and around corners. A trail surface normally transitions smoothly from the compact surface to the softer, leafy forest floor, but the dirt bikes have ripped up corners there are 3-4″ wide grooves 1″ deep full of loose soil along the edge. Not only will this contribute to erosion it makes the trail less safe as corners then have areas that make a front wheel wash out more easily, which is almost guaranteed to cause a fall. There are also places where the outside edge of bench cut is being eroded making the trail more off camber than desired. These trails are built to be sustainable when traversed by foot or bicycle traffic, but they can’t take the load of a heavy motorbike, particularly not when it frequently has a spinning rear wheel chewing away dirt and tossing it around.

Here’s some photos of fresh damage caused by dirt bikes on the trails at River Bends: 1 · 2 · 3 · 4

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Temporary Signs for River Bends Trails

Published November 17, 2010

Here’s the temporary trail markers (previously) for River Bends. Hopefully I’ll get them installed either tomorrow or Friday. 50 pieces were acquired, and I intend to use 20-30 of them on the trail saving the rest for spares / updating / vandalism replacements. I particularly like that I’ll be able to position the arrows as I see fit. I’ll have to figure out a good way to illustrate the seasonal loop and possibly the way back to the parking lot, but as these are temporary I may just add that with a marker.

I feel a bit bad because the it turns out that the sign place drastically underquoted me, and the vinyl application took up a good part of his day. I guess in the future these same signs will be roughly $3/ea instead of the quoted $1/ea. I feel bad about it, but at the time the price seemed reasonable, and it is what I was quoted.

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NiteRider Pro Docking Station Internals

Published November 17, 2010

This is the inside of the NiteRider Pro Docking Station (a dual-purpose battery charger / headlight programmer) that came with the NiteRider Pro 1400. While using the programming software to set up the brightness settings that I wanted (to avoid another way too bright ride) I noticed that the base station appeared as USB VID 0403 and PID 6001, FTDI’s defaults. This had me a bit curious, so I opened it up to look around.

Beyond the charging circuitry, LEDs, lightpipes, custom connectors, and an unlabeled button (reset?) I found an FTDI FT232RL (U1), Microchip PIC PIC24J32GA004 (U2), Atmel AT45DB011 (U4), and a National Semiconductor LMV344MT (U6). I made no effort to trace out the board, but it’s pretty easy to tell that the FT232RL is used so the NiteRider D.I.Y. software can just talk to a serial port which will make it very portable to different OSs.

Perhaps later I’ll try and figure out just what the software sends to the base station for programming the light. Maybe then I could work up a Mac version of the program.

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NiteRider TriNewt Wireless For Sale

Published November 17, 2010

Since I’ve acquired a NiteRider Pro 1400 my TriNewt Wireless (originally mentioned here) is up for sale. This light and battery are in great shape, I’m just selling it because I no longer have a need for it. It’s a great light for trail riding year round and had I not picked up a brighter light I’d still be using it.

This is the complete TriNewt Wireless package, which includes:

· Light Unit
· Battery
· Charger
· Helmet Mount
· Handle Bar Mount for Light
· Handle Bar Mount for Remote Control
· Frame Mounting Strap for Battery
· NiteRider Carrying Case

Asking price is $200, and I will ship domestically and internationally at buyer’s expense. Email me at c0nsumer@nuxx.net if you are interested.

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Seasonal Loops Complete

Published November 16, 2010

Having two weeks off of work is giving me plenty of time to get things done. Since the weather has been nice I’ve put off things around the house and set to work on the trails at River Bends, including a small trail day on Saturday, riding it on Sunday, and doing some work (both with Danielle and alone) yesterday and today. After all of this Phase 3 of the trail project at River Bends is complete. There is now 4.9 miles of ridable, maintained, and park-approved dirt trails in the park with 3.2 miles of that being proper single track. A year ago there was only 1.7 miles of two track and a handful of scattered, deadfall-strewn bandit single track.

I’ve completed the changes to the second version of the River Bends map (previous version) which shows the seasonal loops as three discreet loops and illustrates how they can be ridden consecutively. Based on Sunday’s ride I also added a second entrance to the single track which makes it more accessible when the two track is used as a return trail. Now one won’t have to partially descend a steep, gravely hill and make a 100° left turn into the hill-climbing switchbacks at the start of the single track; they can instead descend a short hill and enter the single track a hundred feet or so uphill.

While permanent trail signage is being handled as part of an Eagle Scout project, I’m hoping to get some temporary signs in place which will mark the general trail route. I stopped by a local sign shop today and arranged for 50 signs made of corrugated yellow plastic with a black bicycle and space for an positionable arrow decal. These signs, along with the positionable arrows cost $1/ea and should be available tomorrow. As long as the park approves it, I hope to nail these to trees or existing signposts along the route from the parking lot through the single track and back. Hopefully I’ll get the signs tomorrow and approval soon so I can place them, wrapping up everything I wanted to accomplish before the snow flies.

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Plantronics Blackwire C610

Published November 12, 2010

I occasionally have to work from home, and most of that work ends up involving long conference calls. I’ve taken to using VOIP for these calls, but until now I didn’t have a quality headset to use during such calls. I’d tried everything from speakerphone via my iMac‘s built-in audio to an iMic and old analog gaming headset, but nothing sounded good and was comfortable to wear for more than a few minutes.

Having used Plantronics headsets for years at work I decided to see what they offered for portable / computer use and came across the Blackwire C610, one of their enterprise products and purchased it from PROVANTAGE for just under $70 shipped.

Without loading any drivers or software this headset shows up as a standard mono USB audio device, and its inline volume and mute switch works independently of the computer. The mute button also beeps through the earpiece to indicate mute status, and illuminates a dim red when the mic is muted. The headset weights a bit less than the handset alternative headset that I’d used at work for the last nine years and comes with the typical cord clip. There is also a two ear version (the Blackwire C620) for those who don’t like one-ear headsets.

The headset comes with both foam and leatherette ear piece covers, and the sound quality is outstanding. In tests calling friends and on conference calls I’ve received no complaints about quality, and when specifically asked I’ve been told that it sounds better than any mobile phone I’ve used recently. (This probably also has a fair bit to do with the PCM codec used by my VOIP provider.)

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Special Mud

Published November 11, 2010

This evening I met up with a coworker (Doug) and a friend (Jon) to ride the Lake Orion High School (LOHS) mountain bike trails. After running into the trail builder, M. C. Escher himself, in the parking lot and talking for a few we headed out. While brutal compared to most other local XC trails, the LOHS trails are in great shape and after a slow ride around there took connector trails into to Bald Mountain South Unit where we were able to ride the flowing, fast two track for a while before heading back to the parking lot.

Since we we weren’t in super-thick fog the new headlight worked wonderfully, and using both elements (spot and wide) it throws light far enough that I could comfortable ride at full speed. A bar light still would be nice to create some shadows†, but I think this setup will serve me really well.

Back at the parking lot I noticed a bit more mud on my bike, which surprised me since the LOHS trail was dry and packed hard, and I didn’t recall any mud in Bald Mountain. Not thinking right I grabbed a pinch of the mud to see if it was actually just a different colored piece that landed on my bike last night I realized my mistake: it was not mud. This is not the first time I’ve ended up with trail feces on my bike, but normally I notice it before I touch it and can then wash it off later.

Thankfully the school was open for a band concert and I had some Dr. Bronner’s Peppermint Soap in the car, so I was able to visit the bathroom and wash the soiled hand (and a key) before changing. At least I managed to only contaminate one hand and a small metal object, and the doors to the school were propped open. The clump shown above in my fork crown is only the little bit that remained after the 1″ clump I’d originally removed with my fingers. That bit of filth ended up in the grass just before I tried to wipe my hands (somewhat) clean on the damp blades of green.

† Riding with just a headlight generally eliminates shadows, as having the light nearly on-axis with your eyes keeps one from seeing shadows. Adding another light located elsewhere, such as down on the handlebars, creates just enough shadow on objects that it’s almost as easy as riding in daytime.

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