Sunday dawned to a great day for cycling. Maybe a breeze which was a bit more than perceptible, but great nevertheless.
Gary's ride took us west, through Turkey Swamp to Battlefield State Park, where there had been a battle at some point, apparently, but now hosts a store that sells fruit and fruit products, most notably for me, fruit strudels.
Unfortunately, they no longer make blueberry strudel, but the raspberry was really good too.
Monday, May 21, 2012
Monday, May 14, 2012
Rocky Hill | Nashanic Station : 20120513
Time for another ride, up through the Sourlands to Nashanic Station.
This time I rode solo. Sometimes it's good just to proceed at your own pace; pause to listen to the birds, study the flowers and so on ...
Not many cars either. Other than on the main roads there were very few. Maybe everyone was off visiting their mum?
Not many riders at Peacock's Country Store either. But a chocolate croissant went down well.
This time I rode solo. Sometimes it's good just to proceed at your own pace; pause to listen to the birds, study the flowers and so on ...
Not many cars either. Other than on the main roads there were very few. Maybe everyone was off visiting their mum?
Tuesday, May 08, 2012
Etra Lake to Clarksburg : 20120506
This was the first ride of the year for me from Etra Lake.
Gary, the ride leader, has upped the rate to B and consequently set off at a cracking pace under a gloomy sky. The weather held off and once or twice the sun struggled through the clouds.
It wasn't just the sun which was struggling. I just don't have enough miles in my legs at this stage in the year, which meant I completed the ride at my own pace. But still, I survived, but I really need to get a few more miles in before The Ride to Montauk Century next month ... what have I committed myself to???
Gary, the ride leader, has upped the rate to B and consequently set off at a cracking pace under a gloomy sky. The weather held off and once or twice the sun struggled through the clouds.
It wasn't just the sun which was struggling. I just don't have enough miles in my legs at this stage in the year, which meant I completed the ride at my own pace. But still, I survived, but I really need to get a few more miles in before The Ride to Montauk Century next month ... what have I committed myself to???
Monday, March 19, 2012
Lambertville : 20120318
Well, originally, the weather forecast promised much. Once again, unseasonably warm and sunny. But Sunday morning started cool and foggy. Even by our start time of 11.00 the skies looked very grey through my cycling glasses.
We headed out for Lambertville; basically up a big hill and down again. It was my first ascent of Hollow Rd/Long Hill Rd this year. But really, I was quite pleased that my legs felt good. Okay, it wasn't in any way comparable to my season's best, but, hey, I'll be doing this one plenty of times in the next few months.
Even as we pedalled the dissected plateau towards the Delaware the clouds remained steadfastly dark and threatening and I was glad I'd opted for long-fingered gloves.
However, it was quite a sociable day for a ride. I spotted a number of friends out for a day's ride, usually speeding the other way, and at one point we were joined by a couple of riders who mistakenly thought we were members of their group.
Lambertville was very busy. Not just cyclists, but plenty of day-trippers. As we leant our bikes outside the coffee shop a group of about 40 riders clattered through the town. But while we sat there sipping our coffees and teas the sky began to perceptibly lighten, pretty much around the time the morning's forecast had predicted.
The return was basically a run straight back the way we came except we diverted off Hollow Rd and took the fast descent of Grandview as a reward.
Incidently, Hollow Rd is in a very poor state for fast descent. Don't follow your leading rider too closely to avoid the frequent potholes and gravel.
So a nice ride with a cool start but a warm finish. Roll on the warm weather ...
We headed out for Lambertville; basically up a big hill and down again. It was my first ascent of Hollow Rd/Long Hill Rd this year. But really, I was quite pleased that my legs felt good. Okay, it wasn't in any way comparable to my season's best, but, hey, I'll be doing this one plenty of times in the next few months.
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| Lambertville, NJ |
However, it was quite a sociable day for a ride. I spotted a number of friends out for a day's ride, usually speeding the other way, and at one point we were joined by a couple of riders who mistakenly thought we were members of their group.
Lambertville was very busy. Not just cyclists, but plenty of day-trippers. As we leant our bikes outside the coffee shop a group of about 40 riders clattered through the town. But while we sat there sipping our coffees and teas the sky began to perceptibly lighten, pretty much around the time the morning's forecast had predicted.
The return was basically a run straight back the way we came except we diverted off Hollow Rd and took the fast descent of Grandview as a reward.
Incidently, Hollow Rd is in a very poor state for fast descent. Don't follow your leading rider too closely to avoid the frequent potholes and gravel.
So a nice ride with a cool start but a warm finish. Roll on the warm weather ...
Thursday, March 08, 2012
Canal Cruise : 20120308
Hey! C'mon!! The sun is shining and it's 72F/21C!!! Even an icicle like me can ride a bike in March in New Jersey. Okay, there was a bit of a stiff breeze, but the trees by the canal broke it up. And flats? Pah! I laugh at flats!! Oh yes!!! There were flats ... but not mine ...
It was day when riding your bike was hard to resist. So I drifted down the hill from where I live to the start of a meander down the tow-path of the Delaware and Raritan Canal, situated in one of the longest and thinnest state parks in the USofA.
The path is in a fairly good state, following an exceptionally mild winter. However, mild doesn't necessarily mean dry, so the path showed signs of repair where the canal had overflowed during the progress of the season.
But it was a good sign that the work had been done, although, at the moment, some of the repaired sections are pretty rough, but another month of riders, joggers, walkers and doggies should see the path relatively smooth again.
It's over 10miles/16km from our start on Route27/Old Lincoln Road in Kingston to Millstone and over that distance there is a fall of 30ft/9metres, not that you'd notice it other than the slow progress of the water on the canal.
There's a little deli in East Millstone which makes an excellent sarnie, although, unfortunately, it's closed on Sundays. But still, a simple sandwich in the open air is one of the pleasures of life, and having partaken, it was time to return, this time against the imperceptible climb, and more importantly, stiffening breeze.
A half-a-dozen turtles/terrapins turned out to salute us and a huge heron did a fly-past to finish off an unseasonably warm and pleasant ride.
It was day when riding your bike was hard to resist. So I drifted down the hill from where I live to the start of a meander down the tow-path of the Delaware and Raritan Canal, situated in one of the longest and thinnest state parks in the USofA.
The path is in a fairly good state, following an exceptionally mild winter. However, mild doesn't necessarily mean dry, so the path showed signs of repair where the canal had overflowed during the progress of the season.
But it was a good sign that the work had been done, although, at the moment, some of the repaired sections are pretty rough, but another month of riders, joggers, walkers and doggies should see the path relatively smooth again.
It's over 10miles/16km from our start on Route27/Old Lincoln Road in Kingston to Millstone and over that distance there is a fall of 30ft/9metres, not that you'd notice it other than the slow progress of the water on the canal.
There's a little deli in East Millstone which makes an excellent sarnie, although, unfortunately, it's closed on Sundays. But still, a simple sandwich in the open air is one of the pleasures of life, and having partaken, it was time to return, this time against the imperceptible climb, and more importantly, stiffening breeze.
A half-a-dozen turtles/terrapins turned out to salute us and a huge heron did a fly-past to finish off an unseasonably warm and pleasant ride.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
HeadFi
I've spouted on about hifi a number of times. But what about hifi for the head? That is, listening to music on the move, or even just privately at home.
The source for my listening pleasure is a Cowon S9 media player. It has an OLED excellent screen which reproduces video like a jewel, but my main demand was that it should be able to play .flac audio files.
I store most of my music in .flac format. This is a lossless compression codec which delivers high quality audio. I've written before about the curse of .mp3, the legacy of which is compressed audio squirted through cheap ear-buds. Music, still for the most part, is lovingly crafted and recorded. It's just that nowadays most media and playback devices are capable of only reproducing a shadow of the original performance.
The Cowon S9 is one of the few players that is capable of playing .flac files, so it's useful to be able to copy files from my music library straight to the Cowon without transcoding. Of course, I could store several times more tracks on the player if I just used .mp3 files, but its 32gb capacity means I still carry a lot of music, usually just a couple of favourites plus any new stuff I have acquired lately.
Amplification is perfectly good on the Cowon, but I also use a headphone amplifier to remove the load on the device, leaving the music player free to deal with the work of rendering the files without stress.
There are several costly, esoteric headphone amplifiers around, but my choice is rather less than expensive, a Fiio E11. In the past I have also used a Fiio E5, but the E11 supplies much more weight to the music and is happy feeding my more power hungry headphones. Both are rechargeable via USB and have one or two bass tone pre-sets, although I find the sound perfectly good without introducing more processing.
The player and the amplifier are connected using a good quality, but not expensive cable.
I generally chose one of two headphones with this setup. Shure se425 ear-buds for travelling (no longer available), and Grado sr80i headphones for use at home.
The Shure se425s are of the ear-canal type. That is, they sit deep in your ear. They are supplied with a number of buds and it's up to you to select the best for you.
At first this type of ear-bud is disconcerting, even uncomfortable for some. Many people don't like them at all. But headphones of this type provide a quality of sound superior to any other portable headphone/ear-bud.
They also provide a degree of sound insulation way better than noise-cancelling headphones; great for air travel, but to be used with caution on the street.
When using my personal hifi at home, I tend to use the Grados. They sound great, but they also are not a sealed type. That is, sound can leak through so I can hear if spoken to. Of course, that means sound leaks the other way too, so the rest of the family can hear your music to a degree.
It's noticeable lately, travelling public transport here, that people are starting to realise that the headphones supplied with even the most expensive portable devices are poor. However, often this results in buying "designer" type head-phones - I'll mention no names, undoubtedly sounding better than OEM ear-buds because they're usually designed to improve perception of a poor quality source, but with grossly inflated prices.
I would bet that a recognised "hifi" brand headphone will sound twice as good as a designer headphone costing twice as much ... Sorry Dr Dre ... Ooops! Mentioned a name ...
 |
| Cowon S9 |
I store most of my music in .flac format. This is a lossless compression codec which delivers high quality audio. I've written before about the curse of .mp3, the legacy of which is compressed audio squirted through cheap ear-buds. Music, still for the most part, is lovingly crafted and recorded. It's just that nowadays most media and playback devices are capable of only reproducing a shadow of the original performance.
The Cowon S9 is one of the few players that is capable of playing .flac files, so it's useful to be able to copy files from my music library straight to the Cowon without transcoding. Of course, I could store several times more tracks on the player if I just used .mp3 files, but its 32gb capacity means I still carry a lot of music, usually just a couple of favourites plus any new stuff I have acquired lately.
 |
| Fiio Ell & Fiio E5 |
There are several costly, esoteric headphone amplifiers around, but my choice is rather less than expensive, a Fiio E11. In the past I have also used a Fiio E5, but the E11 supplies much more weight to the music and is happy feeding my more power hungry headphones. Both are rechargeable via USB and have one or two bass tone pre-sets, although I find the sound perfectly good without introducing more processing.
The player and the amplifier are connected using a good quality, but not expensive cable.
I generally chose one of two headphones with this setup. Shure se425 ear-buds for travelling (no longer available), and Grado sr80i headphones for use at home.
 |
| Fiio E11 & Cowon S9 |
At first this type of ear-bud is disconcerting, even uncomfortable for some. Many people don't like them at all. But headphones of this type provide a quality of sound superior to any other portable headphone/ear-bud.
They also provide a degree of sound insulation way better than noise-cancelling headphones; great for air travel, but to be used with caution on the street.
 |
| My head-fi gear |
It's noticeable lately, travelling public transport here, that people are starting to realise that the headphones supplied with even the most expensive portable devices are poor. However, often this results in buying "designer" type head-phones - I'll mention no names, undoubtedly sounding better than OEM ear-buds because they're usually designed to improve perception of a poor quality source, but with grossly inflated prices.
I would bet that a recognised "hifi" brand headphone will sound twice as good as a designer headphone costing twice as much ... Sorry Dr Dre ... Ooops! Mentioned a name ...
Monday, January 23, 2012
Stuff Cyclists Say ...
I found this the other day on FaceBook:
Of course, I have never been known to say any of these things ...
Of course, I have never been known to say any of these things ...
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Sound Advice
Okay, so reports of the death of the CD format may have been greatly exaggerated, but it doesn't fail to amaze me that people's tolerance of poor quality audio seems to be infinite.
I still love to tinker with my audio equipment at home. You know, the stuff which used to be called hifi. Turntables, CD players, amplifiers and speakers dedicated to converting media which had been lovingly crafted into the best quality sound available.
It used to be a social thing, listening to music together, even just as a collective background to reading, knitting or whatever. And I'm not just talking about a vinyl versus CD thing. I love vinyl records. They have a quality about them which CD cannot match. I'm not saying it's better, just different.
Like, most of the time I'm happy sitting and sipping a rye & dry, ice and lemon. Sometimes it nice to sit and just concentrate on a single malt and contemplate where it came from, the moors, the heathers, the peat and copper, the barley and the water ... That, for me is the difference between vinyl records and CD/digital.
Now music is just a shoddy commodity squirted down a tube into your ears, and your ears alone, sadly just another solitary activity while you're on the commute, walking down the road.
Let me illustrate.
The above image illustrates what modern music formats are all about. The way a compressed image file and a compressed audio file such as .mp3 works is very similar. On the left an image with full dynamics. On the right compressed and pixelated.
Now imagine looking at this image through a pair of thrift store reading glasses compared to your own prescription lenses. It looks crap right? For dollar-store glasses read mp3 player and earbuds and for prescription glasses read hifi. In fact, the right hand side will still look crap through your honed to perfection glasses.
Compressed image files do not look good. Compressed audio files do not sound good.
Insist on good quality audio.
I still love to tinker with my audio equipment at home. You know, the stuff which used to be called hifi. Turntables, CD players, amplifiers and speakers dedicated to converting media which had been lovingly crafted into the best quality sound available.
It used to be a social thing, listening to music together, even just as a collective background to reading, knitting or whatever. And I'm not just talking about a vinyl versus CD thing. I love vinyl records. They have a quality about them which CD cannot match. I'm not saying it's better, just different.
Like, most of the time I'm happy sitting and sipping a rye & dry, ice and lemon. Sometimes it nice to sit and just concentrate on a single malt and contemplate where it came from, the moors, the heathers, the peat and copper, the barley and the water ... That, for me is the difference between vinyl records and CD/digital.
Now music is just a shoddy commodity squirted down a tube into your ears, and your ears alone, sadly just another solitary activity while you're on the commute, walking down the road.
Let me illustrate.
 |
| Lossless Audio File | Compressed Music File - .mp3 |
Now imagine looking at this image through a pair of thrift store reading glasses compared to your own prescription lenses. It looks crap right? For dollar-store glasses read mp3 player and earbuds and for prescription glasses read hifi. In fact, the right hand side will still look crap through your honed to perfection glasses.
Compressed image files do not look good. Compressed audio files do not sound good.
Insist on good quality audio.
 |
| Lossless Audio File | Compressed Music File - .mp3 |
Sunday, November 06, 2011
You can't have too many bikes? Right?
But where are you going to put them?
The past couple of places I have lived have had the best bicycle accessory there is - as well as a car, that is - a cellar.
But now my storage options are very limited, and somehow I still have to store four bikes and all I have is a single garage in which we still have to park a car.
And here's where the Saris CycleGlide comes in. Imagine a filing system for your bicycles; each bike hangs from its individual fitting on the ceiling and slides up and down a track for access. The CycleGlide comes equipped to handle four bikes, plus an option to add another two.
So I spent a Sunday afternoon locating ceiling rafters and re-routing the garage door motor power cable installing the device.
In essence it consists of two rails which need to be very securely attached to the ceiling. It was fairly easy to find the underlying rafters so that the bikes wouldn't be hanging from half-an-inch of plaster-board, or whatever they call it here.
Four extra rails which are able to slide up and down the ceiling rails hold adjustable hooks, which in turn support the bicycles which hang, upside-down, from their wheels
I was able to suspend my own weight from the hooks, so I'm thinking my efforts at finding strong attachment points have been successful. The rig is rated at 200lb/90kg; that is 50lb/23kg per bike, more than enough for most quality bicycles. The extra kit enables two further 50lb/23kg bikes to be stored. From my trials, I would have no problem in assuming the bikes will be held very securely.
The bikes can be slid up and down the rails, facilitating access to individual bikes, then rolled over to one side when not in use.
First impressions are very good, the whole thing being far more flexible than using pulleys or hooks to suspend the bikes from the ceiling.
As long as you are able to lift a bicycle to shoulder height this is an effective system with scope to expand the capacity to six bikes.
I know, you always need just one more bicycle. but this will handle most cyclists' fleets.
The past couple of places I have lived have had the best bicycle accessory there is - as well as a car, that is - a cellar.
But now my storage options are very limited, and somehow I still have to store four bikes and all I have is a single garage in which we still have to park a car.
So I spent a Sunday afternoon locating ceiling rafters and re-routing the garage door motor power cable installing the device.
In essence it consists of two rails which need to be very securely attached to the ceiling. It was fairly easy to find the underlying rafters so that the bikes wouldn't be hanging from half-an-inch of plaster-board, or whatever they call it here.
Four extra rails which are able to slide up and down the ceiling rails hold adjustable hooks, which in turn support the bicycles which hang, upside-down, from their wheels
I was able to suspend my own weight from the hooks, so I'm thinking my efforts at finding strong attachment points have been successful. The rig is rated at 200lb/90kg; that is 50lb/23kg per bike, more than enough for most quality bicycles. The extra kit enables two further 50lb/23kg bikes to be stored. From my trials, I would have no problem in assuming the bikes will be held very securely.
As long as you are able to lift a bicycle to shoulder height this is an effective system with scope to expand the capacity to six bikes.
I know, you always need just one more bicycle. but this will handle most cyclists' fleets.
Monday, October 31, 2011
The Philadelphia Bike Expo - 2011
Well, I chipped the car out from two inches of solid, frozen snow and set off for the Philly Bike Expo in brilliant sunshine.
The show, sort of in between a swap-meet and an exhibition, was made up largely of bike-builders, accessory and component manufacturers and snake-oil sales salesmen selling their own concoctions of miracle bike lubes and cleaners, no doubt conjured up on their kitchen tables, and even more doubtlessly, effective and environmentally friendly.
I felt a little conspicuous, lacking an old cycling cap and bushy beard, sans moustache. I was going to say, and that was just the women ... but I won't.
Anyway, here are a few images I captured. I mean, strictly speaking they're not photographs.
PS: Don't ask me why the images don't line up ... Blogger problem?
The show, sort of in between a swap-meet and an exhibition, was made up largely of bike-builders, accessory and component manufacturers and snake-oil sales salesmen selling their own concoctions of miracle bike lubes and cleaners, no doubt conjured up on their kitchen tables, and even more doubtlessly, effective and environmentally friendly.
I felt a little conspicuous, lacking an old cycling cap and bushy beard, sans moustache. I was going to say, and that was just the women ... but I won't.
Anyway, here are a few images I captured. I mean, strictly speaking they're not photographs.
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| Most bikes tended to be of a utilitarian nature |
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| Some design innovations |
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| This dog cart combo was a show stopper |
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| One for Steve ... |
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| Who hasn't wanted to wear a helmet to a wedding? |
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| A real Mini |
PS: Don't ask me why the images don't line up ... Blogger problem?
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