One of the subscribers to a bicycle touring list that I also subscribe to recently got a flat (he lives in Florida so it's not too cold to ride) and he decided to let his LBS fix it while he made a video of the process.
I thought the video was worth posting. Probably because it almost exactly matches my method.
My notes:
I wrote to Ken (the bicycle owner) and noted that the mechanic talked about positioning the tire label by the valve in order to know where to look next time a flat occurred.1 However, the mechanic never performed that search with the flat being fixed. Ken said that because of YouTube limits, he had to edit the video and that the mechanic had spent about five minutes examining the old tube / tire.
I actually position the label opposite the valve. Presumably you can position the label anywhere as long as it is consistent so that you can use the label and valve to locate where the cause of the flat came through the tire.
Another member of the list noted that if the offending bit of metal or glass or whatever is not lodged in the tire but is loose inside, it will continually roll to the bottom as you examine the tire so you ought pay particular attention to that. I've added that to my procedure.
I pump up the tire maybe a 1/3 to 1/2 way and examine the bead seating as in the video. I also knead the tire as you can see. I also might bounce the tire on the ground in a couple places. After that, I deflate the tire again in order to relax the inner tube. My theory is that if there were kinks or creases, the now relaxed inner tube allows them to straighten out.
1 When the next flat occurs, you pull off the tire and find the flat in the inner tube. Once you find the puncture, you know to look at the tire the same number of degrees away from the label as the puncture was from the valve.
2010-02-16
2010-02-10
Guns for Lead Based Toys
"China's military stepped up pressure on the United States on Monday by calling for a government sell-off of U.S. debt securities in retaliation for recent arms sales to Taiwan."
- Washington Times 2010-02-10
When will we wise up? Will it take a real economic strike by China crippling our economy before we tighten our belts and stop the insane spending. Federal, state, and our own consumer addictive self destructive behavior has to stop.
- Washington Times 2010-02-10
When will we wise up? Will it take a real economic strike by China crippling our economy before we tighten our belts and stop the insane spending. Federal, state, and our own consumer addictive self destructive behavior has to stop.
2010-02-01
Sanctions
The news today reported that China is threatening sanctions against the US because of arms sales to Taiwan.
How could they?
As many have been predicting for some years now, our debt will come back to bite us in the butt. China has been buying up our debt for years now. And now like the poor broke neighborhood gambler up to his eyeballs in debt to the loan sharks, we could be truly screwed.
If we are to prevent our proverbial legs from being broken, we need to STOP THE SPENDING. I never thought this was going to work. But the feds took a shot. It ain't working. The projection is now that every penny of personal income tax will be needed to cover the interest on the debt.
What's next?
Default?
Hyperinflation? That worked out well in Germany now didn't it.
STOP THE INSANITY!
How could they?
As many have been predicting for some years now, our debt will come back to bite us in the butt. China has been buying up our debt for years now. And now like the poor broke neighborhood gambler up to his eyeballs in debt to the loan sharks, we could be truly screwed.
If we are to prevent our proverbial legs from being broken, we need to STOP THE SPENDING. I never thought this was going to work. But the feds took a shot. It ain't working. The projection is now that every penny of personal income tax will be needed to cover the interest on the debt.
What's next?
Default?
Hyperinflation? That worked out well in Germany now didn't it.
STOP THE INSANITY!
2010-01-25
Droid Drippings
I finally bit the bullet.
About 10 days ago, I traded in the old cell phone for a Motorola Droid. Joined the20th21rst century.
I would have gotten an iPhone like Peachy did, but after reading a lot on the internet and talking to a bunch of people who have an iPhone concluded that the network was a significant issue. I know a couple people who haven't had a problem, but Peachy didn't have a network in South Carolina. Her cousins have dropped calls (although Rachel seems to think Paul is exaggerating a little). Given that the main justification is that I need to keep track of shuttle launches and hurricanes on the Florida trip, I felt that I ought to stick with Verizon and the Droid seems to the obvious choice for that network.
It is pretty cool alright. It isn't quite a PC in my shirt pocket, but it isn't far off. The basics are there out of the box. GMail, Calendar, navigation, and maps are there. It has pre-loaded apps like FaceBook and twitter. I'm not on FaceBook and I've written about 4 tweets total so I haven't even tried those out.
I can just connect a USB cable to the PC for charging although that is slower than the AC charger. I suspect that is because of the current restrictions on a USB port. The AC charger is rated about 1.75x the maximum USB port. The AC charger is interesting. It has a fairly compact plug and a USB cable. So I can unplug that cable and plug it into the PC.
While charging on the PC, I can backup the SD card and/or download MP3s to the card.
Weather Channel
I added a WeatherChannel app that isn't quite as good the web interface but it will do. It would be nice if it showed the several days of hour by hour as the web version does and provide as much information.
Cherry Radio
Cherry Radio is a streaming radio application. I've found WHYY (NPR) and fox news radio. If I can keep the battery charged, this should provide night time listening. I do need to find a 60s/70s music station too.
MyMaps
MyMaps is the Droid app for interfacing with google maps. MyMaps doesn't work very well. It crashes fairly often and sometimes sits for hours loading a single map. While push pins are showing up, the routes that Skippy put in for our trip are not showing up. Hopefully this will get better by August.
Google Sky Map
Google Sky Map is like google maps but for the heavens. It shows planets, constellations etc. The App seems to work ok but I haven't really been able to test it against my night sky as it has been raining forever here.
My only regret at this point is carrying the thing around. I never found a good way to haul around the old flip phone. This of course is much worse. I need more shirt pockets. Or maybe it's time to go Euro boy and start carrying a pocket book.
That's about all I've tried at this point other than GMail which works but mail is boring, so no review of that. I'll have to post an update at some point on battery life and such.
About 10 days ago, I traded in the old cell phone for a Motorola Droid. Joined the
I would have gotten an iPhone like Peachy did, but after reading a lot on the internet and talking to a bunch of people who have an iPhone concluded that the network was a significant issue. I know a couple people who haven't had a problem, but Peachy didn't have a network in South Carolina. Her cousins have dropped calls (although Rachel seems to think Paul is exaggerating a little). Given that the main justification is that I need to keep track of shuttle launches and hurricanes on the Florida trip, I felt that I ought to stick with Verizon and the Droid seems to the obvious choice for that network.
It is pretty cool alright. It isn't quite a PC in my shirt pocket, but it isn't far off. The basics are there out of the box. GMail, Calendar, navigation, and maps are there. It has pre-loaded apps like FaceBook and twitter. I'm not on FaceBook and I've written about 4 tweets total so I haven't even tried those out.
I can just connect a USB cable to the PC for charging although that is slower than the AC charger. I suspect that is because of the current restrictions on a USB port. The AC charger is rated about 1.75x the maximum USB port. The AC charger is interesting. It has a fairly compact plug and a USB cable. So I can unplug that cable and plug it into the PC.
While charging on the PC, I can backup the SD card and/or download MP3s to the card.
Weather Channel
I added a WeatherChannel app that isn't quite as good the web interface but it will do. It would be nice if it showed the several days of hour by hour as the web version does and provide as much information.
Cherry Radio
Cherry Radio is a streaming radio application. I've found WHYY (NPR) and fox news radio. If I can keep the battery charged, this should provide night time listening. I do need to find a 60s/70s music station too.
MyMaps
MyMaps is the Droid app for interfacing with google maps. MyMaps doesn't work very well. It crashes fairly often and sometimes sits for hours loading a single map. While push pins are showing up, the routes that Skippy put in for our trip are not showing up. Hopefully this will get better by August.
Google Sky Map
Google Sky Map is like google maps but for the heavens. It shows planets, constellations etc. The App seems to work ok but I haven't really been able to test it against my night sky as it has been raining forever here.
My only regret at this point is carrying the thing around. I never found a good way to haul around the old flip phone. This of course is much worse. I need more shirt pockets. Or maybe it's time to go Euro boy and start carrying a pocket book.
That's about all I've tried at this point other than GMail which works but mail is boring, so no review of that. I'll have to post an update at some point on battery life and such.
2010-01-18
First Ride - 2010
I put new batteries in the computer head unit and sensor today. Finally slapped on a new set of pedals and headed out for my first outdoor bike ride of 2010. It was a little chilly despite putting on layers.
It was a short ride. I mostly wanted to shake down stuff and see what work I should be doing for fixes or maintenance. The other reason for a short ride was that my knee has been hurting lately. I want to see if I can exercise that out over the next month. If not, I guess it's another doctor visit.
I'm not going to change the chain until right before we leave for Florida. I might put new batteries in then too and I'll have to think about fresh tires. But the bike seems in pretty good shape. I didn't even have to pump up the tires.
I did have a close encounter when I made a right turn at the CVS plaza. A car coming the other way turned left and was on my butt for the first 100 feet or so until it turned in to CVS. After I got home, I called daughter #1 and accused her of attempted patricide. She claimed she didn't know it was me so it would have only been patri-manslaughter.
It was a short ride. I mostly wanted to shake down stuff and see what work I should be doing for fixes or maintenance. The other reason for a short ride was that my knee has been hurting lately. I want to see if I can exercise that out over the next month. If not, I guess it's another doctor visit.
I'm not going to change the chain until right before we leave for Florida. I might put new batteries in then too and I'll have to think about fresh tires. But the bike seems in pretty good shape. I didn't even have to pump up the tires.
I did have a close encounter when I made a right turn at the CVS plaza. A car coming the other way turned left and was on my butt for the first 100 feet or so until it turned in to CVS. After I got home, I called daughter #1 and accused her of attempted patricide. She claimed she didn't know it was me so it would have only been patri-manslaughter.