Monday, November 28, 2011
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Pre-Work Shower
Did anyone else get hit by this dark cloud this morning?
Friday, November 18, 2011
The Internet Vs. The Local Bike Shop
I love the Internet. Any place where beauty and depravity are sewn so tightly together holds a special place in my heart. As a cyclist the Internet is a great place to find really good deals on gear and connect and share ideas and knowledge with other cyclists.
Having said that, there are things the Internet won't do. The Internet won't help you diagnose a technical on the side of the trail on a cold night. The Internet won't answer your random tech questions while trying to get you back on the trail. The Internet sure as hell won't replace faulty parts while performing the previous two functions.
Ok, so I'll get to it.
Last Tuesday I was riding the LHT (yeah you know me) home from Bethesda on the Capital Crescent Trail. I hadn't been on the LHT all season. I decided that this past summer was going to be all about the road bike. Well summer is over and I have been looking forward to getting back on the big rig. Upon doing so I immediately felt very slow and very weak. After a mile or so I realized I couldn't possibly be this out of shape and that something was wrong with my rear hub (XT m770). I pulled into the CityBikes off the trail at Connecticut Ave. to borrow a cone wrench thinking maybe things were too tight on the bearings.
I went to the back of the store and proceeded to remove the rear wheel. I was startled when I grabbed the cassette as it was burning hot, the whole hub was and so were the spokes. I gave the wheel to Brian, one of the mechanics on duty, and he started to monkey. To make a long story short he tried for about 10 minutes to get the hub apart which was locked up tighter than a duck's ass. When he finally did and removed the freehub bearings he saw that one of the rings had cracked causing all sorts of mayhem. While this was going on he replaced my Serfas True 250 which was having a battery issue.
The kicker is he did all this without being douchie, charging me an arm and a leg, or putting on airs like some some bike mechanics feel the need to do. We've all encountered one or a combination of these elements at one time or another when having bike work done. This was not the case last Tuesday night.
The moral of the story is this; no amount of Internet connectivity can compare to a friendly knowledgeable face when the shit hits the fan.
If you're wondering, the freehub was toast and I had to get a ride from a friend. I ordered a new complete hub and am planning on swapping out the guts of the old one with the new one as the old hub body is fine. However, if this proves to be beyond my technical abilities I'll know where to go.
Having said that, there are things the Internet won't do. The Internet won't help you diagnose a technical on the side of the trail on a cold night. The Internet won't answer your random tech questions while trying to get you back on the trail. The Internet sure as hell won't replace faulty parts while performing the previous two functions.
Ok, so I'll get to it.
Last Tuesday I was riding the LHT (yeah you know me) home from Bethesda on the Capital Crescent Trail. I hadn't been on the LHT all season. I decided that this past summer was going to be all about the road bike. Well summer is over and I have been looking forward to getting back on the big rig. Upon doing so I immediately felt very slow and very weak. After a mile or so I realized I couldn't possibly be this out of shape and that something was wrong with my rear hub (XT m770). I pulled into the CityBikes off the trail at Connecticut Ave. to borrow a cone wrench thinking maybe things were too tight on the bearings.
I went to the back of the store and proceeded to remove the rear wheel. I was startled when I grabbed the cassette as it was burning hot, the whole hub was and so were the spokes. I gave the wheel to Brian, one of the mechanics on duty, and he started to monkey. To make a long story short he tried for about 10 minutes to get the hub apart which was locked up tighter than a duck's ass. When he finally did and removed the freehub bearings he saw that one of the rings had cracked causing all sorts of mayhem. While this was going on he replaced my Serfas True 250 which was having a battery issue.
The kicker is he did all this without being douchie, charging me an arm and a leg, or putting on airs like some some bike mechanics feel the need to do. We've all encountered one or a combination of these elements at one time or another when having bike work done. This was not the case last Tuesday night.
The moral of the story is this; no amount of Internet connectivity can compare to a friendly knowledgeable face when the shit hits the fan.
If you're wondering, the freehub was toast and I had to get a ride from a friend. I ordered a new complete hub and am planning on swapping out the guts of the old one with the new one as the old hub body is fine. However, if this proves to be beyond my technical abilities I'll know where to go.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Product Review: GoPro Heavy Metal Test
On November 6th I went to see Anthrax Testament and Death Angel at the Fillmore in Silver Spring. I did this for a few reasons: I haven't seen Anthrax since the early 90's, I was able to stop by and purchase the tickets from my bike on the commute home, and they were playing less than a mile from my house.
This show was also a good opportunity to test out my GoPro Hero in a new environment. I've tested it is rain, snow, and even Pennsyltucky but until now I never knew how well it could stand the skull pounding fury of heavy metal.
To illustrate how times have changed I didn't have to stow the gopro in my ass to get it into the show. Since most people have nicer cameras on their phones most venues disregard little awesome cameras like mine.
The sound quality was ok which is much better than I expected. The first video is sans case and it sounds much more tinny than the next one which has the case on. You be the judge on which sounds better. Without the case the sound is very tinny but with the case it's a little muffled. At any rate it sounds pretty good for a little tiny mic on a little tiny camera.
No Case:
Case:
I think I like the wide angle better in this experiment. I thought the regular view would give me better picture quality but it doesn't seem to be the case.
In any case the camera worked pretty well and Anthrax was awesome, even though they only played one song off their most successful album...
This show was also a good opportunity to test out my GoPro Hero in a new environment. I've tested it is rain, snow, and even Pennsyltucky but until now I never knew how well it could stand the skull pounding fury of heavy metal.
To illustrate how times have changed I didn't have to stow the gopro in my ass to get it into the show. Since most people have nicer cameras on their phones most venues disregard little awesome cameras like mine.
The sound quality was ok which is much better than I expected. The first video is sans case and it sounds much more tinny than the next one which has the case on. You be the judge on which sounds better. Without the case the sound is very tinny but with the case it's a little muffled. At any rate it sounds pretty good for a little tiny mic on a little tiny camera.
No Case:
Case:
I think I like the wide angle better in this experiment. I thought the regular view would give me better picture quality but it doesn't seem to be the case.
In any case the camera worked pretty well and Anthrax was awesome, even though they only played one song off their most successful album...
