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Sunday Morning Winter Ride at 10°F (-12°C)

Published January 3, 2010

Starting a bit after 11am a group of us headed out for some biking at Stony Creek. With temperatures bounding between single and double digits Fahrenheit it was definitely a cold day. With a double-layer of sweat pants and BDU pants, boots and toe warmers, thermal layer, fleece, and jacket I was almost a bit over-warm, but some armpit venting and selective undoing of layers made things rather nice. We ended up riding one course of the single track, visiting The Pines, The Snake, and The Roller Coaster before heading back to the car. This was a rather slow ride, with my middle of the pack average somewhere around 8.6 MPH.

Wanting to wear boots I also fitted my bike with platform pedals, which turned out to be an interesting experience. Since these pedals have a bunch of sharp pins to ensure good traction my foot had no float, meaning that whatever position my foot contacted the pedal in was the position I had to pedal in, unless I was able to lift up my foot and replace it. This doesn’t sound like a problem, but compared to a normal clipless setup where one can pivot a foot at will, it’s a bit uncomfortable. There were also times where I’d inadvertently come off of the pedal, not due to slipping but forgetting that I had to provide continuous, but ever so slight downward pressure while on the upstroke of the pedal. Thus, I’m really not sure I like platforms for riding single track. At one point I had to duck around a tree that I almost hit, and the familar motions that I’d make with my foot to move the bike sideways a bit didn’t work and I ended up clipping the tree.

All said, it was a very nice ride. Having studded tires I had no problem staying upright on icy patches, even if I did have to walk a couple glazed switchbacks in The Snake. With the frequent riding of others and the snow being as cold as it was, everything was packed into nicely gritty flat areas, as seen above.

Here’s a couple of the photos that I took today:

· Standing in the bathroom at the Stony Creek mountain bike trailhead getting ready for a cold winter ride.
· Regrouping at the end of The Pines.
· Heading towards The Snake on a cold single-digit Sunday morning.
· Bob’s icy mustache in the field after The Roller Coaster at Stony Creek on single-digit early-January ride.

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Debadged Klean Kanteen

Published January 2, 2010

My sister got me a an 18oz. plain stainless steel Klean Kanteen Classic for Christmas, along with a Sport Cap 2.0. This will eventually be fit to my new bike with a stainless steel King Cage Iris for holding drinkable things (water, HEED, juice, etc) while biking. Being made of stainless steel the cage won’t leave any marks (save for scratches which can be polished out as needed) on the bottle, and it should look nice for years. It’ll also be easy to scrub out, should any unexpected funk develop.

Not being fond of having too many logos on things I removed the Klean Kanteen branding from the bottle with a No. 96 Scotch Brite pad, whose grit perfectly matched the existing finish of the bottle. A solid rubbing over the logos and a quick wash with a bit of soap and water later and the bottle is now nice and plain, ready to match the logo-free bottle cage.

I’ve been using the bottle and sport cap to drink from while writing this post and it’s really quite nice to drink from. With a silicone check valve on the top to let in air while drinking liquid flows quite quickly. The use of this check valve means that its not completely leakproof, but it should be sufficient for bike riding when the bottle is generally kept upright in a cage.

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More Furnace Problems

Published January 2, 2010

Here’s one of two limit switches in my furnace. This was pulled out while I was attempting to determine why my furnace isn’t working properly. As it’s nice and clean this didn’t seem to be the reason for the problem.

What I’ve observed is as follows:

1) Pilot igniter sparks for ~20 seconds.
2) Pilot lights.
3) ~20 seconds later main gas valve opens.
4) Main burner ignites.
5) Main burner extinguishes, but pilot stays lit.
6) 4-5 repeat three times before blower starts.

After removing this limit switch, looking it over, cleaning its contacts and surrounding area, then reassembling it #5 didn’t occur and the blower started like normal. I’ll listen carefully for a while and see if the problem reoccurs or if more thought needs to be given to the issue.

I’d generally blame the flame sensor, but there isn’t one on my furnace. I’m concerned that this problem may be caused by the controller board dying (capacitor plague?) or some other passive electronic bit slowly failing, leading to intermittent issues. Replacing controllers or gas valves is not cheap, and I’m wary of doing so without knowing that it’ll fix the problem.

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Google Maps Fails Again!

Published December 31, 2009

Here’s yet another failure of Google Maps in my area. Not only is my address not found (it worked just fine in the past but now has the street name listed incorrectly), my ZIP+4 alone doesn’t work, and now 22 Mile Rd. shows up improperly in Street View as 20 2 Mile Rd..

I just submitted the following bug report to Google about this:

Google Maps lists 22 Mile here properly, as the name '22 Mile Road'. When in Street View this is listed as '20 2 Mile', which is wrong.

We’ll see how far it goes. My last few bug reports, while acknowledged as correct and noted as being fixed in future releases, have resulted in only one fix that I can validate myself; more appropriate naming of roads on the GM Tech Center campus. It’s now been months since I reported my address as not working and it’s still not right. There are also problems where a local highway and surface road with similar names are sufficiently confused to make businesses appear along the wrong road. As can be seen here a bunch of locations are incorrectly placed roughly one mile east of their actual location. This too has been reported, and not fixed.

I currently use (and rather like) a T-Mobile G1 Android-based phone and I like it enough that I’m seriously considering buying a Nexus One when it launches. However, terribly inaccurate local data including not having my home address available limits some of the major selling points of the phone.

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Acquired in Trade: WTB Laser V

Published December 30, 2009

Through a very timely trade with someone on the MMBA Forum I was able to swap my ill-fitting WTB Rocket V for this new and (very? overly?) shiny WTB Laser V. I’d already ordered a Laser V to try out, but unless this one’s appearance ends up being beyond reproach, I think I’ll be returning it. As can be seen here the chrome and yellow bits aren’t too terrible when taken in context with the yellow bits on the computer and the various silver things on the bar.

Being cloth the cover of this one is also a bit rougher than I’m accustomed to, but that should be okay for now. If it’s not there’s always plenty of other options. At least this one will only cost the $7 or so to ship back the unwanted saddle when it arrives.

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Bonding Cut Bicycle Cables

Published December 30, 2009

After installing a bicycle cable and crimping on an end cap, removing it usually results in a frayed cable which is difficult to remove and reinstall. For maintenance reasons I want to be able to do this, so I’ve begun looking at methods to seal the end of a cut bicycle cable as is done with factory cuts.

My first experiments with cyanoacrylate glue (aka Super Glue) seem to work well, and when Erik suggested that I solder them, I decided to give that a go. Some research online indicated that a silver-bearing solder works well, so after acquiring some plumbing solder (with silver in it) I gave that a try, and it wouldn’t wet the surface nor wick into my test cable. Normal lead/tin solder for electrical work didn’t work either. I next tried a blowtorch, and while fun it only resulted in ablating the wire resulting in what is seen on the right.

So, right now I think that wetting the ends of the cable with cyanoacrylate glue is the best solution. This is what is shown on the left, and it results in a rigid, solid piece of cable. Disappointingly the cable could be crushed (and promptly frayed) when squeezed with locking the pliers that I use to pretension cables, but this should be acceptable.

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UHMW Tape Applied

Published December 29, 2009

Today I did a bit more work on my new bike, applying UHMW polyethylene tape to various places where cables are observed rubbing the frame. Thus far it seems to have worked pretty well, although I have to place one or two more pieces to deal with cable rub on the fork. I also spent some time today wrapping the chainstay in an old scrubbed-clean tube tube to protect it from (and silence it during) chainslap. Photos of all of this can be seen under the following links:

· UHMW tape on the left front of the down tube to protect against cable rub.
· UHMW tape on the seat tube to (hopefully) keep the front derailleur housing from damaging the finish.
· A thin strip of UHMW tape on the Fox Float RP23 shock just in case the cable hits here.
· UHMW tape behind the computer wire-wrapped brake line on the fork crown.
· The drive side chainstay has been wrapped with part of an old tube to both protect it from damage and cut down on chainslap noise.

Now that the bike is almost complete (only waiting on a new saddle and stem) I’m becoming anxious to ride it. It’s too bad proper outdoor riding on it won’t happen until spring, when I can be reasonably sure that a bike won’t be stuffed with saltwater after riding around the block. Until then I’ll just keep riding my current bike.

(No, there are no complete photos of the new bike yet… I’m waiting until it’s wholly fitted out with the proper parts before this happens.)

Also, I scanned the piece of UHMW tape seen above along with its mate and the seat tube / rear derailleur cable piece before applying them so that I could reproduce them easily in the future if needed. These scans, at 1200dpi with false color to aid in cutting, can be found here:
Down Tube / Front Triangle Template · Seat Tube / Front Derailleur Housing Template.

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Packing with Foam Peanuts

Published December 28, 2009

When packing items with foam peanuts it’s important to ensure that they are compressed and will hold the items they surround firmly in place. One of the best ways to do this is to slightly overfill the box when adding the packing material, compressing it while taping the box shut. It’s easy to tell if this method is done right, as the sealed box will feel solid without internal movement when shaken but there also won’t be any bulging of the packaging.

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Early Winter Moblog Photos

Published December 28, 2009

Here, have a bunch of winter-time moblog photos including food from Slows Bar-B-Q in Detroit, ice skating at Campus Martius, and random bits of snow:

· Danielle taking a nap.
· Random poor quality photo taken at home.
· My order of pulled pork and cornbread at Slows Bar-B-Q.
· Danielle’s plate of catfish and beans at Slows Bar-B-Q.
· Kristi, Erik, and Nick at Slows Bar-B-Q.
· Outside of Slows Bar-B-Q in Detroit.
· Danielle skating in Campus Martius.
· Zamboni smoothing the ice at Campus Martius after ice skating with Kristi and Erik.
· Purchasing a stack of RAM and an external hard drive as christmas presents at Micro Center.
· Grilled cheese and cajun fries from Five Guys in Auburn Hills.
· Looking inside of a sharps container at Danielle’s work.
· Slow, slick drive to work along M-59 through construction.
· Looking out the window at work on a very empty holiday week Monday.

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