Stuff Cyclists Say ...

I found this the other day on FaceBook:



Of course, I have never been known to say any of these things ...

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.

Lossless Audio File | Compressed Music File - .mp3

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.

Lossless Audio File | Compressed Music File - .mp3

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 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.

Most bikes tended to be of a utilitarian nature

Some design innovations

This dog cart combo was a show stopper

One for Steve ...

Who hasn't wanted to wear a helmet to a wedding?

A real Mini

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PS: Don't ask me why the images don't line up ... Blogger problem?

What's that bit called?

Here it is, as a service to cyclists, every bit of a bicycle named:

Larger version here ...

The Philadelphia Bike Expo - 2011

I think I'm going to The Philadelphia Bike Expo on Sunday.

And one for the long term diary; The New Amsterdam Bicycle Show - 2012.

Philly report to follow ...

What's In Your Seat Pack?

I'm a seat pack Nazi. I hate those seat packs which rattle and swing around under the saddle. I like the pack pulled up tight and silent.

TimBuk2 Bike Seat Pack

So anyway, what's in mine? This is my road bike seat pack. An orange TimBuck2 optimised for running tubeless tyres.

So I cram the bag with:

A compact bike tool. You can get more comprehensive tools with chain-breakers and stuff, but this is for basic, on-the-road, adjustments. If I'm at the stage of needing a chain-tool I'm calling for a ride home.

Tube and rattly bits secured in an old sock

Tyre lever. Tubeless tyres are very tight so I carry two. One lever will do for most regular tyres.

Spare tube, tyre boot and self-adhesive patches. The only time I had a failure with a tubeless tyre was because the tyre fabric ripped. A tyre-boot and inner tube will get you home.

Emergency cash. Whatever you think appropriate. A note will also act as a tyre-boot in emergencies. I rode thirty miles successfully with a dollar bill sealing a rip in a tyre.

CO2 Inflator: Will get your tyre pumped up enough to ride home. CO2 seems to leak through rubber, so your tyre may look flat again the next morning. Just inflate it with your usual air pump.

Yes, it all fits in ...

Hand wipes: Gets the worst of any oil off your hands. I also carry thin latex/poly gloves in my back pocket so I don't necessarily have to unpack all my kit to help someone else.

I wrap the rattly bits in an old sock. This helps stabilise the pack and stop annoying rattles.

So, there you have it ...

The Covered Bridges Tour - 2011

This year, I finally made the Covered Bridges Tour run by the Central Bucks Bicycle Club in Pennsylvania, just across the Delaware from Frenchtown, NJ.

The weather was very fine, promising temperatures rising into the 80Fs/high 20Cs. However, the day started in mist and fog around 50F/10C ... chilly.

A group of us, mostly friends and acquaintances, met up and set out on the 50mile/80km route. At 8.30am it was still quite cold, and it took me a half-hour or so for my hands to warm up ... I am such a cold morsel.

Me at the first feed station

Eventually the mist did burn off and the day became the most gorgeous fall Sunday. This was well forecast, so there were a lot of riders on routes from 20miles/32km up to a metric Century - 100km/62.5miles.


This is a very pretty area, with lots of quiet byways and lanes. I thought the route was pretty well marked and the feed/rest stations were pretty good too.

Unfortunately, I had a number of leg cramps after the last feed station. I'm usually quite careful about avoiding cramps, but something went wrong this ride. I thought I drank and ate plenty, but in the end, possibly not enough. It meant I trailed in last of our original group, but received sympathy from other riders who passed me and I commiserated with other riders who had the same trouble. Maybe there was something in the air.



We toured covered bridges; Erwinna (1832), Loux (1874), Cabin Run (1871) and Frankenfield (1872). Sheard's Mill (1873) was crossed on the metric Century ride.

50 and Metric Century Cue Sheet:

Life in Hi Fi

I now have a chance to install my audio stuff in a more permanent location. Our new abode has a larger than average first landing which is just right to accommodate my rather small, but perfectly formed system.

Lucy shows up ...

When not in use the speakers fit back in the corner.

Of course it's not ideal, but already I'm getting good results from the set up, and since I mostly listen via headphones, the space's acoustic properties aren't a major concern.

Due to the demise of my old laptop I haven't yet been able to include a link up to my music server, but I am able to play cds and bvds (lps).

I've dug out items, some of which have survived transatlantic flights intact and have nearly enough for a second "party" system down in the living room.

The Heart

The various elements require either 110v/60Hz or 220v/50Hz, so providing a feed is interesting. But most of that stuff and cabling is hidden behind the support, an Expedit unit from Ikea, which seems fine to me and holds loads of cds, lps, etc.

The heart of the system is a Musical Paradise MP-301 mkII valve amplifier, fed by a Project pre-amp for the turntable, and a Cambridge DacMagic which handles digital sources such as the cd player and, in future, the music server.

The Soul

There are currently two sources; a Project Cherry Classic/Ortofon 2M Red combination turntable, and a Little Dot CDP_1 disc transport.

Output is handled either by Quad 11L loudspeakers, or Sennheiser HD-580 headphones.

There was some hum on the turntable line after set up, but I ran an earth/ground wire from the amp, via the pre-amp to the turntable and this seems to have solved that issue.

The first listening was very satisfying. The amp runs at 6 watts, so I was not expecting a lot of volume, but it drives the speakers at a reasonable level without any apparent distress. Makes you wonder why we need to run hundreds of watts on domestic systems.

Apart from integrating my network digital source, I need to look at speaker stands. The Quads rock around on top of the generic supports I have. They need to be held firmly to exploit their qualities.

More on this later, when I run through the system from each source.

PAUSE ║ ►

It's moving time ... new abode ... and no matter how hard you try you accumulate a ton of rubbish (as we say in the UK) which is, obviously, indispensable and has to be moved.

And my dear wife had a nasty fall. Very, very painful, but now on the mend. Get well soon Linda. Will you still be able to play the concert piano?

Back on the chain-gang soon ... and hi fi developments too ...