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Stupid Thorns

Published March 31, 2010

This morning when I went to leave for work, my bike (which was on the back of the car) had a flat tire. I opened it up, ran my hand carefully around the inside of the tire to check for anything poking through, and found nothing. The old tube still seemed to hold pressure, and after a new was fitted things were fine. Tonight’s ~22 mile ride had no problems, but after eating at Rochester Mills I found my front tire low again.

It turns out that the thorn seen above was hiding under some mud, relatively dull, and slowly poking at the tube. Oh well, at least I can patch them and be ready for riding on Friday, and it’s not something weird like rim tape shifting, bad seams in the tube, or a defective valve.

(Yes, I know that’s a terrible photo… It was a very long exposure and I think the tire deflated some while it was sitting there, moving the subject.)

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New Crabon Fibre Breaks

Published March 27, 2010

After coming across a rather good deal for a barely used (installed, but removed before the bike was built up) set of 2009 Avid Elixir CR disc brakes with black carbon fiber levers (blades) I got them installed last night. While they felt soft at first, the brief ride that Danielle and I took around Stony Creek’s Trolley Trails got them about 50% bedded in. Even using a smaller rotor in the front than I’d previously had (160mm vs. 185mm) they seem to be quite sufficient stopping my heavy person on big 29er wheels.

Since I had to disassemble things a bit to fit the new rotors and such, I ended up swapping out the 2.2″ Kenda Nevegals that came with the bike for some 2″ Specialized The Captain Control tires that I’d picked up in the MMBA annual meeting fundraiser auction for $40. These are simply a larger version of the tire I’ve had on my 26″ bike since July 2008, and a tire that I rather like.

I also swapped out the NiteRider Rebel 1.0 computer for my old Cateye Strada Wireless, which despite having a large and somewhat fiddly speed sensor is much more readable and usable. The NiteRider Rebel 1.0 had two problems that I couldn’t get over. The first is the angle of the display coupled with my stem mounting and the stem angle, leading to the LCD being hard to read when leaning right over it or standing over the bike. The second is a lot of latency between button pushes (up to 1.5 seconds while moving) making it hard to switch modes and check things while en route. It would be hard to tell if a button press was not registering or simply being slow†. Both of these were irritating enough to make me simply go back to the old computer.

With all of this working out it looks like I might have a pair of BB7s and a NiteRider Rebel 1.0 computer for sale soon. I might even consider selling off the Nevegals, although having some 2.2″ tires hanging around could be nice come winter, or if I’m heading anywhere sandy.

†I suspect the device uses an interrupt on change for the wheel sensor then just polls the button, and has a few opportunities for user input to be slowly read. Perhaps their higher end computers are better.

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Early Spring 2010 Moblog Photos

Published March 23, 2010

Here, have some new photos posted to my moblog:

· I rolled up the rim and did not win.
· My Specialized is now lacking a fork, as the Fox is being sold and the new rigid fork has not yet arrived.
· UPS RMA label for sending back the damaged Belleville 700 boots received from Botach Tactical.
· Six bottles of Blenheim Ginger Ale in the fridge.
· Garlic and sesame bagel, part of my breakfast before going to work on the trails at Addison Oaks.
· The urinal at Pei Wei in Rochester, MI is rather close to the ground. It would be good for urinal pooping.
· Sending my census form in. This makes me feel like an adult.
· Ice and snow around a drain pipe on the Paint Creek behind Rochester library. Seen while wandering around before an MMBA marketing meeting.
· Forlorn bag of salt in the parking lot at work, with a bit more context.
· A cut open bag of salt left leaning against a curb at work. I imagine it was caught in a plowed pile of snow.

I should set up a more automated method of posting these than simple manual uploads.

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Battery Charging Paranoia

Published March 23, 2010

This is my setup for the first charge of the Li-Poly battery used in the a Bicycle Video Recorder. I had the battery sitting in a partially covered ammo can, my multimeter and thermocouple monitoring the battery’s temperature, and the charger connected to a Kill-A-Watt to show current flow. While charging occurred I’d periodically check in on this to be sure the temp isn’t way up, current draw isn’t unexpectedly high, or the battery hadn’t exploded. Not pictured is the fire extinguisher which was located ten feet away from this setup towards the stairs.

As the green light on the charger shows, the battery is now charged, and everything sitting in place without a coating of extinguisher dust shows that nothing exploded. Now it’s time to grab an 8GB or 16GB SD card and do a runtime test. That sounds like a job for tomorrow, though.

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Purple Foam Block

Published March 21, 2010

After getting the battery and power supply going the next step in the bicycle video recorder project was to fit everything in the case. The foam block seen above, carved out of a $2 remnant from The Foam Factory, is a big part of this, as it supports the recorder, battery, and power supply inside the bag. Everything is now assembled, and I’ve even gone for a quick test ride around the courtyard, as seen in this video.

Photos of today’s work begin with the blocks of foam here and end on page 6.

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Battery + Power Supply: Go

Published March 20, 2010

Today I received the voltage regulators to be used in the aforementioned power supply for the Bicycle Video Recorder that I’m working on. They fit perfectly in the PCB that I’d made, and worked exactly as expected. As the battery had a slight charge when received from All-Battery.com I was able to use it to test out the assembled power supply — as seen above — and I’m getting a proper 5V and 12V out of it. This is good.

Tomorrow I’ll give the battery a full charge, as I want to do the first charge in a relatively safe area, just in case something bad happens. I’m also hoping to finish up the routing and assembly of cables that will hold it all together. After this is done the setup should be ready to record video, and I should then be able to take it for a test ride and get on with battery life tests.

Figuring out where to run all the wires (out which sides of what) and how to bundle it all up in the bag will be a bit of a challenge. I’ve got an assortment of foam to use for padding things, but I’m not yet sure how I’ll arrange it all. The SanDisk V-Mate needs open access on the top during use, and the battery has to remain easily removable / unpluggable after use.

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Jacket Potato: Part Deux

Published March 19, 2010

Here’s a second take on a jacket potato, much larger than the previous go 14 months back. This was consumed with a bottle of North Peak Brewing Company’s Majestic Wheat Ale, a not-that-wheaty-but-still-decent almost-pale ale. While eating this Danielle had her own baked potato, with a steak and a small pile of the same mushrooms.

The mushrooms were washed and quartered, then sauteed in olive oil and butter along with garlic, onion, salt, black pepper, and a bit of white wine. It was quite good, but probably would have been better with more butter and less cheese.

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Danielle Rides Trails!

Published March 19, 2010

Today after work Danielle and I headed out to Stony Creek so she could try out her new 29er on some trails. Prior to today she hadn’t ridden a bike off road, and despite some initial (but quickly alleviated) fears about how a bike feels when it’s on loose gravel she did great. We rode most of the easy two-track; following the route P-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12-17-18-19-5-4-3-2-1-P as seen on this map.

Here is another photo of Danielle, this time riding her bike and approaching marker #6 just before the entrance to The Pines.

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Macomb Orchard Trail in March

Published March 15, 2010

Since the trails are still thawing and thus generally unridable, a group of us got together tonight to ride the Macomb Orchard Trail from Onyx Ice Arena to the bridge over M-53 and back. Instead of driving up Jon and I decided to leave from my house to add a few more miles on it. The result ended up being 2:41:45 of moving time to cover 37.2 miles, for an average of 13.7 MPH. Peak speed was 24.6 MPH, likely achieved on the hill down from the bridge over M-53, even though there are times when I knew I was above 20 MPH on flat ground with the wind at my back.

Despite being a bit cold and with a 15 MPH headwind on the way out, with particularly chilly spots near the still-frozen low-laying swampy areas, it was a really nice ride. I didn’t eat enough and ran out of energy a few times, but small handfuls of granola and a bottle of double-strength HEED helped with that.

I also gave the aforementioned sample contact lenses a try tonight with some clear-lens protective glasses and they worked out very well. Without astigmatism-correcting lenses my vision wasn’t as perfect as it could be, my eyes weren’t dry and I could see quite well. I’ll wear another pair some other time this week and be sure that it’s not a fluke, but I’m pretty sure that these worked out well.

Now, off to get some more to eat, but only after figuring out why my furnace won’t light.

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