Papermaker
Check out this nifty papermaker belt buckle given to me by a friend:
Based on the inscription on the back, looks like it was a bit of swag from Albany International.
Posted on Sunday, May 15th, 2011.
Abbreviated Action Update
Running
Training continues. I’ve been at 35+ miles a week for two weeks now, and I’ve got a time trial on the track scheduled for this afternoon. Not sure exactly what we’ll be doing, but it will be interesting (and probably humbling) to put some numbers on my performance. Whether I stay at this mileage or bump it up again may depend on the time trial results too.
I recently read Once a Runner
Bikes
The new bike has been working great – I’ve been riding it exclusively since I finished putting it together. I tweaked the seat height and handlebar angle a few times, and now it’s set up quite nicely.
The only mechanical problem I’ve experienced is throwing the chain off the front derailleur, the risk of which can be minimized be adjusting the derailleur set screws. Right now, the derailleur moves over a larger range than is necessary to switch chainrings.
The bike is fast and I really like the brake setup.
Posted on Saturday, May 14th, 2011.
The Downhill Cut
My new bike has been getting a lot of attention around here recently, but my hooptie still has a few tricks up its sleeves. Here’s five minutes of footage from yesterday’s afternoon commute:
Pretty windy out. Spot the rabbit around 1:10! Here’s the handlebar setup:
Posted on Friday, April 22nd, 2011.
First Ride
I finished assembling my new touring bike on Monday night. I took it for a successful test ride this afternoon. Here’s what it looks like:
I have yet to install the handlebar grip tape, which is why the green electrical tape holding some cables in place is still visible on the handlebars. My impression is that wrapping bars is a bit of an esoteric art, so I wanted to make sure the cables and controls were well-positioned for riding before wrapping them.
Anyway, the bike rides great. I really like having secondary brake levers on the tops. I set the handlebar height relatively high compared to many road bikes; this results in a comfortable almost-upright posture when holding the tops, similar to my commuter. I figure I will appreciate this on long rides. Of course, with hands on the brake hoods or in the drops I’ll have new options for speedier cycling.
Here’s a close-up of the drivetrain. I selected a cassette with a pretty wide range (11 up to 34 teeth). The cogs with many teeth are the low gears, and I wanted to be able to climb and carry heavy loads with ease. The lowest available gear ratio is 1:1. On the other hand, the outer chainring has 50 teeth, which will drive those high gears to ludicrous speed (compared to my mountain bike-based experience, at least).
Posted on Wednesday, April 20th, 2011.
Touring Bike Component Showcase #3
Headset cups installed! (Had the local bike shop press them in.)
That head tube is begging for a nice custom head badge. I’ll have to think about design ideas.
Posted on Tuesday, April 12th, 2011.
Touring Bike Component Showcase #2
Here’s a test fit of the new cockpit components. Inline brake levers. Headlight shared with Hooptie commuter bike, thanks to second mounting bracket. Speedometer. Crabon fibré stem.
Posted on Saturday, April 9th, 2011.
Touring Bike Component Showcase #1
As you may know, I’m building a new bike from parts. Most of the parts have arrived, but I’m still waiting on a few small items (and two big ones: the wheels). I’m going to wait until everything has arrived before assembling anything. So, until then, I will post a few photos of interesting parts for you to ogle.
Aluminum drop bars with bar end shifters.
Posted on Wednesday, April 6th, 2011.
My Day
In the tradition of my dad’s My Day posts, here’s what I did this morning:
- Burned a DVD of presentation videos recorded by the Bridges to Baccalaureate coordinator (a downstairs office neighbor). The Bridges program pairs prospective transfer students with professors and grad students to participate in a few weeks of research during the summer. The presentations were given by each participating researcher – they described their work so the students can choose which lab to work with. The DVD will be shared with a group of students who couldn’t attend the presentations due to bad weather.
- Imported my recording of yesterday’s EvoS seminar: Daniel Nettle on human behavioral ecology in the context of a British city. I think Daniel’s work raises the bar, methodologically speaking, for the neighborhood research efforts taking place locally. He did the footwork, so to speak, to construct an observational ethology of human activity on the streets of two different neighborhoods, resulting in a sort of corroboratory data you can’t get from surveys alone. Anyway, tomorrow I will combine the audio track with slides from his presentation, and the resulting video will join our archive.
- Payed the hotel bill for the keynote speaker at a recent conference held in Binghamton. Used a fax machine to receive the invoice! Spoke on the telephone and recorded the expense in a FileMaker database I set up to print the required paperwork (because filling out forms is work for robots).
- Ordered some lab materials for a funded research project from VWR International. This also involved speaking on the phone and filing forms.
- Replied to a student question about registration for next semester’s seminar series. (They have to submit a petition – an awkward solution to our program’s peculiar record-keeping status.)
- Created the poster for next week’s seminar about caterpillar chemical defenses. I make the posters in Pages and paste the new information into the previous week’s layout (it’s like using a template, but lazier). I like to include a photo of the guest speaker. Usually it’s pretty easy to find an appropriate image, but sometimes it’s a real scavenger hunt. I don’t think the posters play a terribly important role in advertising the talks, but making them is a fun way to finalize preparations.
After lunch, I accompanied a graduate student friend on a hardware store sortie to procure parts for a book scanner. We are going to build one! His research involves coding a bunch of records that exist only in printed form. It has been determined that scanning those books and bound volumes will be the most efficient way to proceed, so there is even funding for this DIY endeavor. I expect the scanner will get a lot of use beyond the scope of that project, so it will certainly be a worthy investment.
I rode to and from work in the rain on my Schwinn.
Posted on Tuesday, April 5th, 2011.