update to yesterday's post

 I forget to post this about yesterday's ride, and it's too good to miss: at some point along the way yesterday, I was riding next to John K when I shouted something, probably (for example) "Car Back!". Immediately, John got a warning beep from his ride software.

It was telling him that he was in a hazardous noise zone and the ambient noise was at 95 decibels.

That was my shout. Evidently, I am a self-contained, traveling hazardous noise source.

You have been warned.

free hand? balderdash!

 After the trolls at Reddit have completely taken over the value of Gamestop stock...

... don't ever talk to me again about the magic of the free hand of the Market.

Edit Feb 1, 2021: On reflection, I realize I was wrong. The Reddit trolls ARE the free hand of the market. The market includes those who have money, but no traditional knowledge of the market. I'm especially gleeful every time I read of another fatcat who bemoans these folks because they're upsetting the market. Nope. It's just that it's a different market now. Deal with it.

what is that in the canal?

Weather threatened yesterday, so rather than do a group ride, I did this solo, and then we drove to Philly to see the Museum of the American Revolution, which was better than I thought it was gonna be. The Excellent Wife (TEW) goes to such places to critique them for what they get wrong, but I think even she was happily surprised.

We'd planned to go to the Reading Terminal Market for food, but walking from the car to the Market, we kept seeing these interesting eateries. We stopped at High Street on Market, where I had the pastrami sandwich that makes lesser pastrami sandwiches kick the sand and grumble about the unfairness of life, it was that good.

But that's not what I'm writing about today.

TEW and I had thought to do something today, but that didn't get together. I went out and did this ride to test some neighborhoods in Princeton (one of my Princeton routes goes up Mt Lucas, and the last time I led a group that way, the ensuing bitchification suggested that perhaps another route should be sought). I think it passes within inches of Andrew A's house, so if he rides in, he can peel off as it's convenient to do so.

I went early to try to avoid some rain that may come later (although if yesterday is any guide, I needn't have worried). Now, as I was riding by the canal, I noticed these orange and black tubes floating on the water. In some places, there were two sections, one on either side of the canal, but most of the way, there was just this one, and it went on for miles:

That's at some bridge or other, looking upstream and down.

It's floating too high to have water going through it. Perhaps it's to guide debris floating on the surface somehow? I saw this at the same bridge:

I'm not sure that's anything to do wit the tubing, but there certainly was enough debris hung up at the bridge.

I haven't got a clue. Any ideas?

bad computer juju

It's been a season of bad computer juju.

It reaches back at least as far as a couple of weeks before Christmas, when The Excellent Wife (TEW)'s Prius wouldn't start, then wouldn't show icons on the dash, then wouldn't shut down. She wound up buying a plug-in Prius, with, if not ALL the bells and whistles, then at least enough to start a good-sized carnival.

Then, Optimum raised our rates for internet and phone by 40% and would not listen to reason; they only offered a lower price after we'd already set up the other service. No thanks; we'll go back when Verizon screws us again (as I'm sure they will; don't get me started on Verizon).

This morning, her eight-plus-year-old laptop stopped responding to any trackpad or mouse inputs (I suspect some dodginess in the USB interface). The replacement is on order.

In between, the motherboard for my desktop gave up the ghost. There had been a weirdness for years; I'd gotten messages that some of the USB ports weren't responding, but I could get around that by using other ports. But then the hard drive controller gave up, too. I kept it limping along long enough to do a final backup, and went shopping for parts.

I built this computer from parts in 2009; I'd done a few upgrades in the meantime, but I know it was old. I built it, though, on the understanding that I'd be able to swap out parts and keep it going. So I did.

Now, there have been some changes since I built my last computer. Time was when you could tell if a motherboard had graphics built in by looking at the ports: if there were video ports, no separate video was necessary (this blog is about the most demanding thing I do on the computer). In the intervening time, however, AMD has built some video processing into their main chips. So I needed to get a board/chip combination that did the video, and I didn't know that until I'd bought some parts. I got the board, the memory, and a wrong chip from Newegg, and then was lucky to find a proper chip for $20 on Ebay (didn't need the heat sink; I had that).

The last of the parts came today. I'd downloaded a fresh copy of Linux Mint to install after the build, and I was ready to go.

Case empty, ready for install.

...and a table full of parts to go in.

The hole where the motherboard panel shows in the back of the case.

...and the panel installed.

Motherboard in. The one it replaced was twice that size, and the case could hold the old full-size one.

That silvery rectangle at center is the chip that makes all the difference. Not much to look at, is it?

The chip, though, gets covered by a heat sink and fan. It looks all industrial-punky, but its whole purpose is to take excess heat from the chip. Under the fan are heat-dispersion fans, and copper tubing. The utility of the copper tubing is beyond me, but it looks cool; it's a shame it's gonna get closed up in that case.

Memory: the two blue strips to the right of the fan. Memory now comes all suited-up-and-bowtied, but I liked it better when it was just modules on circuit board.

I keep three hard drives and a DVD drive in there. The computer likes to boot from drive 1, so I only hooked up that drive and attached the peripherals to see if it would turn on.

Not only did it turn on, but the copy of Linux Mint that was already on the hard drive booted up; I didn't need to do a new install. I've gone and re-attached the other drives, and closed up everything, and found the couple of weirdnesses that always go with a new computer (and I'm sure there will be more). But I wrote this blog post on that computer. It's going fine.

(AND it's got a real keyboard. Having to type everything on that benighted membrane on the laptop has been a painful penance.)

So Reg's car is going great, and this computer is working again. Here's hoping Reg's new laptop is a success (and here's hoping my laptop lives long enough that I can save some money before I have to replace it).

first all-online ride - i think...

So in yesterday's post about the picnic, I pointed out that I was so smitten with the online ride calendar that I put up a ride for today. It wasn't my sole intention, but I THINK it's the first club ride that's actually gone out that was only posted online on the website calendar, and not in the emailed ride list.

I only put it up on Thursday, and I wasn't sure anyone would come out, but Ricky G said he was coming. At "go time", Andrew A was there as well. (I forgot to put the chip back in my camera, so Ricky obliged with cell phone pics. I don't usually have pictures of myself here, but there I am in the flag jersey.)

(Yes, that's The Excellent Wife [TEW] in the background; she didn't come with us, but she does her own rides from the same start, and we happened to leave the house at about the same time.)

My description included:

My intention is to run this at a low-to-moderate B pace; if you want to ride ahead, you may (and there will be places to sprint if you choose). About 1700' of climb, according to my Ride With GPS page. Probably stop in Princeton, although I'm willing to entertain discussion. 

 The ride page suggests I brought it in as intended. Nobody took me up on my offer of sprints. We agreed at a stop at the Halo Pub in Princeton, but they didn't have toilets, so instead of doing the last hill, we repaired to Andrew's to enjoy his plumbing. Ricky and I pacelined the last few miles which brought the average up; I was at about 15.5 when we passed through Kingston.

I have a flatter route, but it depends on East Mountain Road being open, which it won't be until November. I expect to lead a few Sundays if I don't see anything I like, and if weather or hotheaded heads of state don't intervene.

Youse-all oughta come out. Maybe one of these years, I'll earn the coveted ride leader jersey. (But I gotta find a stop in downtown Princeton that has drinks AND toilets.)

Edit: Not the first; Paul gets that credit. Nonetheless...

revivifying the computer

A couple months ago, I went on a rant about keyboards. One of my good ones is attached to what Laura OLPH called the "Ultra Geeky Linux Computer".

I should have recognized the signs that the boot hard drive was dying (hard drives always do), but I didn't until the computer wouldn't boot anymore. I'd been backing up onto a second (and, in fact, a third) hard drive in that computer, but I hadn't in at least several days. So there was data that I would lose.

Most of my important stuff is in my Dropbox folder, so I knew I wouldn't lose that. There was a possibility of losing some emails I'd rather keep, but that wasn't a real problem (because most of my email accounts use the IMAP protocol, they'd sync up as soon as I logged in again anyway). The key thing was podcasts (I listen to 'em when I exercise), and there were two of them in particular.

The first is This American Life. You can get the .mp3 file of the weekly story for free IF you download it within the week; otherwise it's a 99¢ download at iTunes. I'm incredibly cheap about that kind of thing, and I HATE giving money to Apple, so I download them weekly (I have gigabytes of TAL stories on my backup drives). I hadn't backed up the last couple to the backup drives.

The other was Car Talk. When you sign up for the podcast, they only give you the last two. But I had them for years, and I was still listening to Car Talk episodes from 2013 or 2014. I wanted to get my old list back. I had been using Opera browser as my podcast feed, and I'd been saving my Opera profile through many updates. Could I get the files back?

So here's what I did:

1. Buy the new hard drive.
2. Download the latest Linux Mint live DVD image, burn it to disk, make sure it will boot up. It did.
   
   
   
3. Try to see files on the old boot drive. Hooray! I can see the files! (So the problem must have been in the boot sector.) But because of the Linux copy permissions, I can't copy-and-paste them in the live CD session.
4. OK. Disconnect all the hard drives (the DOA boot drive and the two backups), connect the new drive, install Linux Mint. 
5. Sound doesn't work. Sound doesn't work? Research indicates it's a stupid choice of setting in alsamixer, which I don't initially understand, but I got it working.
6. Hook up the DOA old boot drive. Yay! I can see it! AND I now have the permissions to do the copy-and-paste, which I do. I managed to salvage the "This American Life" files.
7. Check the email program. Yay! Everything's there!
8. Download Opera (not available through the Linux Mint repositories [their version of the "Google Play Store"], but it is available in the right format for Linux Mint). But wait. There's language on the site about how Opera now can do RSS, which is what I use for podcasts. I've been using it for years for that. What?
9. Install and open Opera. Weep with disappointment. Opera has changed their format; they no longer open the old profiles. I've lost all my feeds.
10. Take out the DOA drive, hook back in the other backup drives, and begin the hours-long process of tweaking the system to my liking (I'm still not done).

So I've got a couple of other podcast solutions going now (one is using the Firefox bookmark system, which works better for my purposes if I don't use the built-in Live Bookmark feature), and I've sworn off Car Talk. I'm more of a Judge John Hodgman kind of guy these days, anyway.

Edit Feb 22: A superficial bit of internet research unearthed the fact that the original Car Talk guys retired in 2012 (and Tom Magliozzi died in 2014); they had a number of shows "in the can", but recent shows are just amalgamations of calls and bits from their active period. So it's time to move on from Car Talk anyway.

tour de franklin: volunteer wrench

For the past few years, I've led a team on the Tour de Franklin. I won't be leading a team this year; instead, I'll be manning a maintenance and repair station there in support of the New Brunswick Bike Exchange.

I know for some of you this ride is a chore, but I hope some of you will come out anyway. It's for a good cause (the Franklin Twp Food Bank), and, even if you don't want me wrenchin' on your road bikes, if you've got a Wal*Mart toy bike that isn't runnin' right, I can usually whip those into shape, too.

And if you think it's hard working on a high-end bike, where all the parts are already supposed to work together, you should try adjusting those mis-matched agglomerations that the toy stores sell. Now THOSE are a CHALLENGE!

podcasts

Several rides ago, Robert N, a sometime Hill Slug, and I got to talking about exercise, and I mentioned I take the curse off by listening to podcasts. In an email, he asked what I listen to, and I responded, and I just realized it makes a blog post. So, with some minor edits, herewith, starting with my weekly routine. In each case, the show title is a link to the web page; where possible, I've included the link for your RSS reader below it.

Mondays: 99% Invisible, a show about design done by an architect:

http://feeds.99percentinvisible.org/99percentinvisible

... and Planet Money, a show from NPR about finances (for not-finance-people, whihc includes me):

http://www.npr.org/podcasts/510289/planet-money#

Tuesdays: Geekspeak, a show about science and tech, done by a rotating cast of young programmers in California:

http://geekspeak.org/episodes/rss.xml

Wednesdays: Right now I'm doing Mystery Show (of which there are only a few episodes at this writing). A woman solves "mysteries" having to do with such things as, "Where did that business suddenly disappear to?" and "What could that vanity plate mean?":

http://feeds.gimletmedia.com/mysteryshow

My other Wednesday choice right now is 7th Avenue Project. A modern Renaissance Man, Robert Pollie, talks to artists, scientists, authors, and various other kinds of movers and shakers. I'm embarrassed that Pollie can sound so smart in so many disciplines.

http://audio1.cruzio.com/kusp/pod/rpollie.xml

Thursdays:  This American Life (I'm sure you've heard of it).

(This American Life only has the .mp3 of the most recent show for download. You can stream earlier shows, but you can't save them. Not to be denied, I've been getting and saving them most weeks for years; I probably have seven or eight years on my hard drives.)

Fridays: From the CBC, DNTO (Definitely Not The Opera; it's now an interview-and-story show. Each week, the host, Sook Yin Lee, takes on a topic and has people opine and hold forth; some are experts and some not.)

http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/includes/dnto.xml

Others:

From Maximum Fun, Judge John Hodgman. John Hodgman (as you probably know) was the "PC" in the old "I'm a PC, and I'm a Mac" commercials. He has a breadth of knowledge and a droll wit, and he and "bailiff" Jesse Thorne weigh in on topics that listeners send in, asking for "adjudications". Topics have included whether to send the kids to nerd camp or regular summer camp, how much to tell about a movie before it becomes a spoiler (and how old a movie has to be before you can say what you want without it being considered a spoiler), and other such topics of earth-shattering import.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/judgejohnhodgman

(Maximum Fun has a number of other shows I haven't pursued for lack of time; the site is definitely worth a look.)

NPR Ask Me Another: If I weren't afraid of sounding dull, I'd call this a hip quiz show, but I know nobody says "hip" anymore (except me). I don't know most of the quiz questions (many are pop culture and too recent for me), but the attitude and presentation are fun.

http://www.npr.org/podcasts/510299/ask-me-another#

When all else fails, I have episodes of Car Talk I haven't listened to, from when both the car guys were still alive (Tom Magliozzi died in 2014).

http://www.npr.org/podcasts/510208/car-talk#

 Have you heard anything else cool?

annual breakdown & rebuild

Every fall, I take the Yellow Maserati, my titanium bike, down to parts and rebuild it, partly because the titanium can seize the other parts (although this is mostly a problem with titanium-on-titanium), partly to see if any problems are developing (more later), but mostly because I like to do it. This weekend is predicted cool and rainy, and the Ciclovia for tomorrow has been cancelled, so today was the day. Here's the bike on the rack with the wheels off:

One of the first things I do (because it's a thankless, dirty job) is take off the cassette and clean it. Here's the rear wheel with the cassette on, and the chain whip and wrench:

Beneath the wheel, you'll see a political poster; this one is corrugated plastic and it makes a great drop and parts-and-floor-protector. (It might be the best thing those two particular politicos are good for. Hrmph.)

After some heavy scrubbing and the judicious application of some toxic hydrocarbons, behold a cleaner cassette:

On to the cranks. I took them off to clean 'em up (and to have access to the bottom bracket). As I started to clean the large ring, I noticed the teeth were uneven and worn; I'm not sure you can see it in the picture below:

I had a large ring from another crank that was in better shape and I put that in.

Now to the bottom bracket. It's a sealed Mega-Exo, so it doesn't take much maintenance (I put some black car grease where the crank axle goes across), but I take it out every year to make sure it doesn't seize in place. When I put it back, I use an anti-seize goop called Ti-Prep in the threads; it's got copper in it that does something that makes the titanium play nicely with other metals (and with other titanium parts); you can see the coppery goop in the pic below, before I've re-installed the bottom bracket. (The drive side is reverse-threaded; both sides of the bracket loosen towards the front of the bike.)

After the cranks are back in, I disassemble the fork and drop it out. This steel fork develops some rust on the inside of the steering tube every year; not enough to affect its integrity, but enough that I don't like it, so I use steel wool to get the worst of it off. When I put the stem back on, I put a little white grease between the parts (and around the threads of the bolts) so they'll come apart nicely when I need them to do so. Here's the white grease on the top of the steering tube (I put a bit of black grease around the crown race, where the bottom bearing of the steering assembly is, and at the top bearing).

My aluminum saddle post doesn't need much maintenance, but I take it out to put in a new dab of copper Ti-Prep. You can see the remains of last year's application in the pic below:

My brake pads are still in good shape, so I didn't have to replace them.

Time to cable. The SRAM shifters I use give me a difficult time running the shifter cables, and it was worse this year after the crash. There's  bit of damage I didn't see that I'll have to keep an eye on, although I don't have to replace them right away. Still, the end of the shifter cable was a bit bent up after forcing it through the shifter on one side (it looks like a scratch on a negative, but that bent line is the end of the shifter cable after I was done manhandling it):

The handlebars, after the new cables are on, but before they are taped down:

I found some inexpensive tape in a dollar store. Some of the colors are decent, but that not-quite-Bianchi-celeste does nothing for me... so it's a good color for UNDER the bars:

And for my 60th birthday, Snakehead got me some good SRAM tape in yellow (well, it IS the Yellow Maserati, even though it's usualy decked out in black and grey). Here's the bar in her finery.

(One of the things I'm not good at is wrapping and taping bars. I had to do this twice before I liked the result, and a fussy rider would probably do it yet again.)

The bike's still on the rack; in the morning, I'll readjust the cables to deal with the "cable stretch" (those cables are stainless steel; they don't stretch; it's the housing that shrinks... but I'm getting too pedantic here). I hope to take it out for a shakedown 20-miler tomorrow.

Edit: Blogger won't let me respond to the comment below; so I'll do it here: today, it took between three and four hours.

'Nother Edit: I did NOT replace the chain, which I did about 100 miles ago. I DID take off the bottle cages and clean 'em up.

it doesn't need to be so complicated

I ride with people who have electronic shifting systems on their bikes, and I've recently heard that a hydraulic shifting system will soon be available for road bikes (the Acros AG-E system has been available for mountain bikes, at $1999 for just the shifting group, for years).

I follow, irregularly, the Retrogrouch blog, and he has a post about it called, "Hydraulic Shifting? Why?". From his post:

Cables are too simple for some people. Light. Simple. Easy to understand. Easy to fix. Replacing a damaged cable, whether for brakes or shifters, is an easy job even for an inexperienced home mechanic.

Can't have that, can we?

Even now, as hypesters are trying to convince us all that the future is electronic shifting (and that future is NOW!), oval chainring maker ROTOR Bike Components is releasing a new different technology -- hydraulic action shifting, to complement hydraulic brakes...

I don't know -- the "disadvantages" of a cable system, to my mind, are well offset by the simplicity. And cables themselves have actually improved to the point that the old notion of cable stretch is practically a non-issue. In fact, it was never considered a problem until the advent of indexed shifting -- in the days of friction-only shifting, who even noticed that the cables stretched over time?

This friend, as we Quakers say, speaks my mind. I know that most of my riding companions do little of their own maintenance, so complexity may not be an issue to them. But I also know that many of them, if they will be honest, could get as much riding enjoyment, and as much health benefit, out of lower-end bikes than they actually ride.

I've got two bikes, both of which I built from parts. I built them with longevity and cost in mind (I am not wealthy), and to suit my own riding style. My "fast" bike, the Yellow Maserati, has a titanium frame, SRAM Rival shifting system (because I got a great deal on it at the time), and Cane Creek brakes. It's light enough, but it's not really light - but it fits me well, and I can get it going fairly fast, especially up a hill. A minor savings in weight would not make a noticeable difference in my performance on that bike.

The other bike, the Krakow Monster, was built partly as a response to this technical creep of frame materials and parts. The frame is a Surly CrossCheck; it's chromoly steel, and it's heavy. The bike has cantilever "vee" brakes, which are the best modern braking system for rim brakes. But the shifting system is friction levers on the downtubes. I've made it up with 30mm tires (they will probably be wider in a future incarnation) and a rear rack, and I take it on towpath rides and any club ride rated C+ or lower. So far, I haven't had trouble keeping up.

The Krakow Monster is well over 30 lbs. fully loaded, with two water bottles and the 100 in³ seatbag I use. And it will go up Coppermine Road. Like this. That's not a bad pace, for a 60-year-old rider on that heavy bike.*

I don't need electronic shifting. I certainly don't need hydraulic shifting. I don't need disk brakes; I rarely ride in conditions wet enough to demand them, and I don't ride the screaming downhills that make heating up the wheels and tires by riding the rim brakes a hazard.

I can take my bikes down to parts and rebuild them (and I do). I love the mechanical systems that actuate the shifters and brakes. Cables, levers, cams... there's a steampunk feel to them.

My bikes do everything I need them to do. I don't need them to emulate racers. I don't need them to feed my desire for the latest gadgetry, or expensive toys. If that's what you want, fine. But expensive, cutting-edge gear doesn't need to be the norm for a 14mph flat, social ride in Central Jersey.

*Some of my fellow riders would like a lighter bike; at the same time, they never ride in the drops, and seldom change the chainring in the front. These riders would do as well with a single chainring in front, and nine or ten gears in the back, with a single shifter, on a bullhorn handlebar with no drops (the brakes could be set up the way they are now, or with mountain-bike-style brakes). That would present a substantial weight savings. But it wouldn't look like the standard road bike, so I doubt anybody will do it.

blocked from responding to comments

For some reason, although I've been able to comment on another blog, Blogger is blocking me from responding to comments on this one. This post is in lieu of those responses.

Laura - yes, that was Al L, and he's been on other rides since. And now that his picture is up, the NSA will be able to track him.

Sean - I have every expectation you'll be invited; you were one of the first people Laura thought of when she had the idea of the no-paces, heavy-and-hobby-bike ride.

lifepaint

Laura OLPH sent me this:

Original article here.

 Colorless, reflective paint. Is it really colorless? And how long does it stay on?

(It does seem like a good idea...)

complicated electricity from bike setup

This works, but I think it's way complicated:

He's evidently also used it to run a tv and charge phones.

I can't get my brains around the wiring, and I think you've gotta be a strong cyclist to keep the thing going. But it's at least proof-of-concept.

Original here.

geo-orbital electric bike wheel

I don't understand why I think this might be a good idea. I don't understand why I'm not ranting and raving against this thing.

According to this article on DigBoston.Com, these guys have developed a bike wheel that puts a motor and battery pack where the hub and spokes are on a standard front wheel. The tire and rim spin around what is essentially a huge hub.

It's supposed to get up to 25mph (which you can increase by pedaling), they expect a range (without pedaling) of 20 miles, it'll cost about $500... and it will quick-release into your existing 700c fork (and they're looking at making a 26-inch version that would fit into mountain bike frames). There is a one-time installation of a controller, but if you want your road bike back...

...says Burtov. 'When I want to bike for fun or exercise, I take the front wheel off, put my regular wheel back on, and in 30 seconds I get back my 100-percent manual bike.'

It doesn't require all-new hardware? And their they're* asking what I think is a reasonable price?

It might get more cyclists on the road, which, by making cycling more common, would make drivers more likely to look for cyclists (which would be a help to drivers as well as riders).

If you check out the video, you'll hear some blather about, "You could put anything in there." I suppose you could, but I hope they won't.

They're available for preorder now. No, I don't want one... but I wish them every success.

Thanks to Laura OLPH for the link.

*Edit May 17: D'OH!

the bike you won't be able to ride

Yeah, that's a reversing-gear assembly in the steering. Push the handlebar left, the wheel turns right. It turns out you can't just jump on it and ride. In this article called You Won't Be Able To Ride This Bike on Nerdist, author Kyle Hill has some discussion about the video below:

Destin at Smarter Every Day has some thoughts about learning and brain plasticity in youth that I don't think will stand up to scrutiny, but I was impressed with his observation that knowledge does not equal understanding. (I wouldn't say it that way, but in the recovery biz, we've known for decades that knowing how to recover from addiction, or even knowing how not to relapse, is not the same as actually doing it.)

And no, I don't want one.

smartphone-controlled paper airplane

This is the most useless thing I've ever seen. It is also immense.

That was for the Kickstarter, which got funded... they're actually for sale.

I, for one, am delighted that in this world of exploitation, abuse, crime, inequality, and other stupid miseries, that something this excellent and frivolous is a success. There will be hope for us.

net neutrality passes

I feel like justice has triumphed for the first time since 1980. The FCC has voted to reclassify broadband internet as a utility, meaning that ISP's won't be able to preferentially supply their favorite content over content from other sources.

The open standard means more freedom, and (probably) more innovation.

In the earliest days of computing, when standards were wide open, computers suddenly got sound, video, telephony, and magic. Now that there are so many competing standards, I can't remember the last computer innovation that impressed me.

With the open standard of the internet, though, I'm ready to be impressed.

bike calendars for 2015

Each year, I make up a calendar for myself to keep track of mileage on the bike; last year, I did one for hours on the bike, too. Last year, I posted a link on the Freewheelers Facebook Page to the one I made up, and someone replied with a sheet that could be edited for any year, full of macros and computer niftyness that I don't have the skills for... but I can't find that one now, and I didn't see a link to it on the Freewheeler web page (it may be there, but the page is so complicated that it's hard to find stuff).

So I made the calendar again this morning (editing from one year to the next is the work of a few minutes), and I'm making it available. It sums weekly, and year-to-date. The original is in open format, and is available at the link below:

2015 bike calendar

It opens in Libreoffice, an open-source, free office suite that runs on most of the common operating systems. If you're not familiar with Libreoffice, you should be. (Libreoffice is the open-source successor to Openoffice, which has been bought by Apache.) Libreoffice includes most of the programs that another, more common, expensive office suite uses, and opens documents created in those formats.

Some of you might prefer that format, and you've already spent the bucks on that suite, so I'll also make the document available in that format. But do check out Libreoffice.

2015 bike calendar for Excel

geeky bike physics

Stumbled across this today. What happens if you tie a string to a bike pedal at the bottom of its travel, and then pull backward on the string?



There really is no end to my bike geekiness; I loved this.The original article is here, but the sound quality wasn't as good, and the video took FOREVER to download, with much buffer-overrun pausing.

I will take credit for making a correct guess that the outcome would depend on the gearing, but I had no idea that the gearing difference would have to be so large to make the difference.

(Between rain and family obligations, probably no group ride this weekend, and I'm looking for bike-y stuff to assuage my disappointment.)

disc brakes on road bikes?

When Ed and I did that pickup ride on Friday, we stopped in at the Wheelfine Imports. Mike, the principal there, has no problem talking, and one of the things he did was give us a printout of this article from Bicycle Retailer magazine about a study Magura, a disc brake manufacturer, is doing on disc brakes fro road bikes.

From the article:

As Pahl walked about Eurobike and Interbike looking at disc brake-equipped road bikes, he winced whenever he saw bikes spec’d with 140- or 160-millimeter rotors. Rotor size and type are vital when considering heat dissipation.

And Pahl said he’s doubtful small rotors—currently fashionable on road bikes—can dump enough heat on long descents to keep braking systems from boiling...

Further, there are questions about the mounts:

The static disc brake torque test for road forks required by the EN 14781 standard is more rigorous than the EN 14766 standard for mountain bikes. Road bike forks must carry an 8 percent higher load than a mountain bike fork and a road fork’s braking cycle fatigue test is 66 percent longer than for a mountain bike fork.

“I don’t know why the road disc fork testing is to higher loads and cycles than a mountain bike fork, but it does reflect higher road speeds and less tire slippage of a road tire on pavement,” Baker said.

But the key thing seems to be concerns about heat dissipation:

 While road standard tests are for higher peak loads and greater cycle frequency compared with mountain bike discs, the heat dissipation requirement is the same. Road and mountain brakes must absorb 75 watt-hours of energy over a 15-minute period without failure to be legal for sale in Europe. To put this in perspective, a 200-pound bike and rider traveling at 25 mph dissipates 3 watt-hours of braking energy to stop, and no matter how many times they stop they are unlikely to overheat brakes.

However, the same rider descending a mountain pass hitting 50 mph in stretches between switchbacks and who brakes to 15 mph for corners uses 11 watt-hours to slow down. If the descent averages a 7 percent grade, add 2 watt- hours to each brake application. After braking for seven or more corners within a 15-minute period, the rider’s front brake could have absorbed much more than 75-watt hours of energy required by the standard.