Monday night I had a random blow out flat. The tube was toast: There was a centimeter diameter hole in it that had ripped into an even larger tear.
I swapped that tube out and went to the bike shop to refill my supply of spares. The shop informed me that I was using too large of tube by using the tube which says it fits my tire size: Life is so straight forward. So, now I have about a billion tubes for 32-35c tires.
On Tuesday night I discovered the same tire had jumped up over the rim in one spot. I found this out on my way home as the tire rubbed on the brakes: Shockingly I was able to go quite a way like this before I realized that vibration wasn't from the road.
So I got to use my frame pump twice this week. I hate frame pumps!
I can't wait for those new wheels so that, at least on dry days, I can ride with decent tires!
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Silly Rabbit, Linux is Free as in Freedom
Some silly teacher went and confiscated (without good reason) some kids copies of HeliOS. It's a sad sad world when our teachers are so confident in what they don't understand. Alright, it's not so bad. This is just one idiot and for some reason schools seem to have a tendency to try far to hard to obey the law. Often obeying laws that don't actually exist.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
The Electric Car Is Coming
Finally, what looks like a sensible electric car. It's expensive but it's competitive. I doubt it could be as cheap as a Smart Car (TCO) but it's competitive. So, if avoiding buying gas, or avoiding carbon use, or making use of that insane solar array is a goal this looks like a reasonable electric vehicle.
* It's small but it has 4 wheels, not 3. 3 wheeled vehicles probably work fine but they look funny and right now that's a concern for most consumers.
* It has enough range for city driving: 50 miles.
* It's cost to purchase is competitive with 5 seat economy cars.
* It can do 70mph, if the DOT passes it for safety. This will be important for those who live in cities with a beltway.
It looks like it has a big limitation: A lead acid battery. To the end user that means that the 50 mile range is not something you can do regularly. Lead acid batteries die if you fully discharge them often. They're cheap, and handle partial charges well which makes them perfect for your car starter. I'd like to see this in a NiMH version but I'm guessing that would add a few thousand to the cost.
For this kind of vehicle I would think it'd be reasonable to cut the battery size by about 20% (assuming you can do a full discharge) to 40 miles range and drop the power such that it can barely hold 55: This would be a stop gap car for folks who can happily give up freeway driving. Towns like, well, Lincoln, NE which have no freeway don't require a car that can exceed 45mph but they do require 45mph. It'd make an excellent second car for quite a few people: The car "daddy drives to work."
This isn't how I know the electric car is coming though. This is. Electric bikes are becoming cost effective using Li-Ion cells and pedal based throttle. It's a lot easier to make this (electric power supply) work on a bicycle due to the efficiency. And what happened the last time that bicycles became affordable for the common man? Henry Ford and others made cars affordable for him as well. It has to do with the shocking amount of infrastructure and function that they share.
You can currently buy what looks like a nice electric bike for $1,900 in the US. They don't appear to be popular but they're new. While $1,900 sounds like a fortune for a bike it works out quite a bit cheaper than an automobile: If you actually use the bike. The advantage? While Giant doesn't seem to be forward with their numbers most of these bikes offer a 2:1 power ratio. That means that the bike gives twice the power you do. So a regular guy with no cycling history can keep up with someone who cycles semi-regularly. It means going to work at 15mph without choosing between crawling up the hills or getting sweaty.
* It's small but it has 4 wheels, not 3. 3 wheeled vehicles probably work fine but they look funny and right now that's a concern for most consumers.
* It has enough range for city driving: 50 miles.
* It's cost to purchase is competitive with 5 seat economy cars.
* It can do 70mph, if the DOT passes it for safety. This will be important for those who live in cities with a beltway.
It looks like it has a big limitation: A lead acid battery. To the end user that means that the 50 mile range is not something you can do regularly. Lead acid batteries die if you fully discharge them often. They're cheap, and handle partial charges well which makes them perfect for your car starter. I'd like to see this in a NiMH version but I'm guessing that would add a few thousand to the cost.
For this kind of vehicle I would think it'd be reasonable to cut the battery size by about 20% (assuming you can do a full discharge) to 40 miles range and drop the power such that it can barely hold 55: This would be a stop gap car for folks who can happily give up freeway driving. Towns like, well, Lincoln, NE which have no freeway don't require a car that can exceed 45mph but they do require 45mph. It'd make an excellent second car for quite a few people: The car "daddy drives to work."
This isn't how I know the electric car is coming though. This is. Electric bikes are becoming cost effective using Li-Ion cells and pedal based throttle. It's a lot easier to make this (electric power supply) work on a bicycle due to the efficiency. And what happened the last time that bicycles became affordable for the common man? Henry Ford and others made cars affordable for him as well. It has to do with the shocking amount of infrastructure and function that they share.
You can currently buy what looks like a nice electric bike for $1,900 in the US. They don't appear to be popular but they're new. While $1,900 sounds like a fortune for a bike it works out quite a bit cheaper than an automobile: If you actually use the bike. The advantage? While Giant doesn't seem to be forward with their numbers most of these bikes offer a 2:1 power ratio. That means that the bike gives twice the power you do. So a regular guy with no cycling history can keep up with someone who cycles semi-regularly. It means going to work at 15mph without choosing between crawling up the hills or getting sweaty.
Missile Defense Works!
Sort of. It works if the missile you're shooting at doesn't have any counter measures. Wow, I'm so impressed. Ignoring the political implications of this there are some engineers who should be very embarrassed right now. Embarrassed that some idiot considered this a successful test and told the media about it.
Weren't we arguing about this 8 years ago? Wasn't this supposed to work by now? I mean, really work in a test that wasn't screwed up?
Weren't we arguing about this 8 years ago? Wasn't this supposed to work by now? I mean, really work in a test that wasn't screwed up?
New Wheels
Okay, so studs are wonderful. Studs are work. So I'm buying a second set of wheels to put my regular tires on.
I decided to go with a nicer set of wheels than I have. They're lower spoke count and lighter. The same rim width for easy swapping. ALX220's for under $250. It's good to know that not everyone is insane and you can buy wheelsets that are cost effective (assuming these don't turn out to be cheap junk).
So I'll put my normal street tires on these and put them on on days like Friday where I really didn't need any studs.
I decided to go with a nicer set of wheels than I have. They're lower spoke count and lighter. The same rim width for easy swapping. ALX220's for under $250. It's good to know that not everyone is insane and you can buy wheelsets that are cost effective (assuming these don't turn out to be cheap junk).
So I'll put my normal street tires on these and put them on on days like Friday where I really didn't need any studs.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Studs
Yesterday was my first ride with studs. No falls, so either I was on my game (read: chicken shit of falling) or they work pretty well.
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