The fork blades of the tandem are monstrous!

I’m preparing the cue sheet for a bike ride from Murrysville to Corsica on the randonneur bike I ordered from Boulder Bicycle. It’s expected to arrive in Murrysville on Thursday. The route is a hybrid of Google Bicycle Beta instructions and the way I like to drive to Corsica. i recall the drive being 65miles or just a touch less. This route only adds six miles and keeps me off the foulest sections of the drive.

It’s been totally built-up with decaleur, fenders, lighting, etc.

On Friday I have to drive five hours east to pick up my eBay victory — a retired machinist’s entire tooling collection. For $3,300 I bought about $25,000 worth of precision machining equipment. This is definitely a good deal considering that a day before I found this auction, I had been grimacing at the prospect of paying $1,000 for a height gauge.

Click on the pic to see the whirl of tools

Once it’s back in Pittsburgh I need to palletize it for sea freight. I cannot justify air-freighting 2000lbs of equipment. My forwarder says it will take three weeks to get to Singapore.

Today I brazed the front triangle of Ryan’s Mini-Velo. Unlike Le Chacal, where I brazed and mitered piece by piece, on this one, I mitered and fit the whole frame and then brazed at one go.

“At one go” is an optimistic way to describe it. It took the better part of the day. I varied my technique a bit — I ‘tinned’ the joints first and then added the fillets.

Sulaiman convinced me to make my fillets thicker after I first brazed the frame. That added some time to the process, but it was good practice. I learned some tricks to build much nicer fillet mounds. Fluxing the rod itself enables me to feed it much more smoothly into the fillet mound. And I also can identify the correct color of red that indicates a fillet at the right temperature for building.

I wrapped the joints in wet rags overnight so I can remove the flux tomorrow and then measure the alignment. I am hoping for the a nice, straight frame. I added to the fillets after taking it off the jig — hope that didn’t warp things.

Google Maps now has a mode for bicycling directions. It doesn’t work in Singapore yet, so I tried it on the Murrysville-to-Corsica route. Click on the map to be taken to the full directions.

Overall, the directions (both by car and by bike) are odd, or at least not what we’d customarily do (follow state 66, basically).

The bike version really diverges once I reach West Kittaning. Rather than going northeast, up through Goheenville and Distant, it keeps running north, along the river. Maybe it prefers along the river because the grade is not going to be as severe? That little detour along the river, for instance, adds 15km to the trip. It also avoids Olean Trail for some reason. Maybe it tries to avoid gravelly roads too?

The estimated time is also bizarre — 8 hours to ride 115km. It thinks I average 14km/h? ahhaahh not quite. Unless I really underestimate the altitude climb required for this ride, I don’t see why it would be so slow. On rides half as long I can pretty easily manage 27km/h solo.

Anyway, maybe I’ll try some version of the alternative Google bicycling directions when i am in the USA this summer. Certainly stretches of 66 are not that nice for cycling (no shoulder, two-lane highway). Maybe the riverside run would be nice.

It’s either 0.83 x metabolic energy of one gram of fat or 1.8 x the metabolic energy of one gram of sugar or protein.

That is, today’s ride burnt an extra half-packet of sugar. Fantastic.

When I’m using Google software I get positive surprises. For example, plot a route in Google Maps then start dragging segments of it to spontaneously change the course.

View Larger Map

Microsoft software never surprises me. It is decade-old bloatware. It usually has an implementation of everything.

When I’m using software from small niche hardware companies, I assume it’s going to suck in countless ways.

My longstanding hate-object was Garmin, but now that Google Maps and my iPhone has mooted standalone GPS units, I have the luxury of not even thinking about Garmin any more.

A new enemy has appeared — my CycleOps Powertap. This is a small cycle computer that wirelessly talks to a rear wheel hub that measures my pedaling torque (thus wattage). Wattage is the most useful telemetry for a bicyclist.

The PowerAgent software that talks to it is shabby and brittle. But of course, that was a known known. I discovered a real gem in the cycle computer’s firmware yesterday. During a long ride, my cycle computer would periodically blink “full.” I had not cleared out old ride data for a while, so the telemetry was filling up. Didn’t really matter, I had already downloaded the old ride telemetry, so having the cycle computer replace it with the new, current ride data would be fine.

Except it didn’t.

Against all odds, the firmware designers decided that it made more sense to simply cease recording new data rather than overwrite the old data!

Why would the default assumption ever be that I value old data more than data I’m currently generating?

Does the cycle computer remember that I downloaded previously? Isn’t that a clue?

If they agree that it really should replace the old data, but were unable to implement that, then they’re just really pathetic.

And God, the Dahon’s wheels are heavy — 2.25kg for the rear rim+hub (includes a Shimano Nexus internal hub) and 1.18kg for the front rim+hub, radially spoked to a dyno-hub. In comparison, my Aeroheat + XTR front wheel weighs 0.640kg.

Once I started riding Le Chacal on my daily commute, instead of my 700mm titanium racing bike, I realized how absurdly low-geared it is. Small wheels plus the stock MTB gearing set on it leaves me with way too many ultra-granny gears (full cadence 90rpm pushes me at normal walking speed!) and not enough high-end to go fast.

So how to fix it? The rear cassette is 11-32. 11 is about the smallest cog you can get without getting into the strange Shimano Capreo transmission system. I don’t want to go down this route because Capreo is hard to find, it uses special tools, and defeats some of the simplicity-of-repair I want for the bike. Then what about replacing the 44-32-22 crankset with bigger rings? Again, turns out these are hard to find and I couldn’t get something big enough to make a difference.

It turns out the best thing to do it just toss the crankset entirely and replace it with a road set, like Shimano Ultegra 53-39 double-ring. That combination loses some of the uselessly-low granny gears and earns me a few higher gears. I’ll still be able to spin them out > 40kmh, but it’s definitely going to be faster.

This chart shows my current gearing (Le Chacal Current) and my race bike gearing (Tri Current) versus the new design (Ultegra 53/39 + 11-34). Main differences: Highest gear at 90rpm cadence gets me close to 40kmh. I sacrifice most of the <10kmh granny gears. And since I have fewer cog combinations, the spacing at higher gears is fairly wide.

This should do, and Ultegra or comparable hardware is easy and inexpensive to get hold of. The problem, however, is that my bike’s cable routing is setup for a MTB-style derailleur — the cable comes from the top of the bike while road bikes expect the cable to come from underneath the bottom bracket. Bad news. What can I do that doesn’t involve welding on new brazeons? Turns out a German company manufacturers a little addon lever that I can bolt on to the derailleur which converts it to a top-pull operation. I don’t know how long it will take to get this piece.

Most signs point to me bringing Le Chacal to Italy in its stock configuration unless by some miracle Speen can airmail me this part in just a few days. And if not, who cares. My high gear still runs at 33kmh, and as proven, this is the max speed I can maintain continuously for an hour, so I can live with it. The bikes are here for leisure anyway, not hard riding. Plus I wonder how my gearing compares to Le Chacal, which Matt will be riding. Fortunately, they are matched pretty well, in fact the Dahon is geared a touch faster.

Communication Error

Message:
java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: /private/var/folders/Il/IlR5g547GqySdDOncreFpU+++TI/-Tmp-/libd2xx-macosx.jnilib: no suitable image found. Did find: /private/var/folders/Il/IlR5g547GqySdDOncreFpU+++TI/-Tmp-/libd2xx-macosx.jnilib: no matching architecture in universal wrapper
Level:
SEVERE
Stack Trace:
java.lang.ClassLoader$NativeLibrary.load(Native Method)
java.lang.ClassLoader.loadLibrary0(ClassLoader.java:1878)
java.lang.ClassLoader.loadLibrary(ClassLoader.java:1758)
java.lang.Runtime.load0(Runtime.java:770)
java.lang.System.load(System.java:1020)
com.cycleops.d2xx.Library.loadLibrary(Unknown Source)
com.cycleops.d2xx.D2xx. (Unknown Source)
com.cycleops.jpowertap.Manager.getConnectedDevices(Manager.java:120)
com.cycleops.devicemanager.DeviceManager.getSelectedDevice(DeviceManager.java:52)
com.cycleops.devicemanager.DeviceManager.getSelectedDevice(DeviceManager.java:41)
com.cycleops.devicemanager.ConfigureDeviceAction.performAction(ConfigureDeviceAction.java:39)
org.openide.util.actions.CallableSystemAction$1.run(CallableSystemAction.java:118)
org.netbeans.modules.openide.util.ActionsBridge.doPerformAction(ActionsBridge.java:77)
org.openide.util.actions.CallableSystemAction.actionPerformed(CallableSystemAction.java:114)
javax.swing.AbstractButton.fireActionPerformed(AbstractButton.java:2028)
javax.swing.AbstractButton$Handler.actionPerformed(AbstractButton.java:2351)
javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.fireActionPerformed(DefaultButtonModel.java:387)
javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.setPressed(DefaultButtonModel.java:242)
javax.swing.AbstractButton.doClick(AbstractButton.java:389)
com.apple.laf.ScreenMenuItem.actionPerformed(ScreenMenuItem.java:95)
java.awt.MenuItem.processActionEvent(MenuItem.java:627)
java.awt.MenuItem.processEvent(MenuItem.java:586)
java.awt.MenuComponent.dispatchEventImpl(MenuComponent.java:317)
java.awt.MenuComponent.dispatchEvent(MenuComponent.java:305)
java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(EventQueue.java:638)
org.netbeans.core.TimableEventQueue.dispatchEvent(TimableEventQueue.java:104)
java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilters(EventDispatchThread.java:296)
java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(EventDispatchThread.java:211)
java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(EventDispatchThread.java:201)
java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:196)
java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:188)
java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(EventDispatchThread.java:122)

java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class com.cycleops.d2xx.D2xx
at com.cycleops.jpowertap.Manager.getConnectedDevices(Manager.java:120)
at com.cycleops.devicemanager.DeviceManager.getSelectedDevice(DeviceManager.java:52)
at com.cycleops.devicemanager.DeviceManager.getSelectedDevice(DeviceManager.java:41)
at com.cycleops.devicemanager.DownloadDeviceAction.performAction(DownloadDeviceAction.java:83)
at org.openide.util.actions.CallableSystemAction$1.run(CallableSystemAction.java:118)
at org.netbeans.modules.openide.util.ActionsBridge.doPerformAction(ActionsBridge.java:77)
at org.openide.util.actions.CallableSystemAction.actionPerformed(CallableSystemAction.java:114)
at javax.swing.AbstractButton.fireActionPerformed(AbstractButton.java:2028)
at javax.swing.AbstractButton$Handler.actionPerformed(AbstractButton.java:2351)
at javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.fireActionPerformed(DefaultButtonModel.java:387)
at javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.setPressed(DefaultButtonModel.java:242)
at javax.swing.AbstractButton.doClick(AbstractButton.java:389)
at com.apple.laf.ScreenMenuItem.actionPerformed(ScreenMenuItem.java:95)
at java.awt.MenuItem.processActionEvent(MenuItem.java:627)
at java.awt.MenuItem.processEvent(MenuItem.java:586)
at java.awt.MenuComponent.dispatchEventImpl(MenuComponent.java:317)
at java.awt.MenuComponent.dispatchEvent(MenuComponent.java:305)
[catch] at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(EventQueue.java:638)
at org.netbeans.core.TimableEventQueue.dispatchEvent(TimableEventQueue.java:104)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilters(EventDispatchThread.java:296)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(EventDispatchThread.java:211)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(EventDispatchThread.java:201)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:196)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:188)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(EventDispatchThread.java:122)

That would work, except the set screw is a 0.5mm pitch ISO threading system and my 3mm tap is a 48 threads/inch American Standard Unified thread system. Those two aren’t going to cooperate. I double-checked all this with my Machinery’s Handbook 28 to confirm.

Damn it. Basically my taps are useless. I’ll have to buy the appropriate tap when I buy my chuck key.

It was a good first project. I used aluminum which Seetoh told me is a good metal to start machining with. As well, the plug required a bunch of different techniques. Facing the aluminum bar, turning it to diameter, boring, drilling with a tailstock drill, and even using the lathe as a jig for my helicoil tap.

The epoxy is setting now. Presumably tomorrow I’ll be able to install the pins and then the headset will be back to good. I need this finished so that we have two bikes in Italy (just 2 weeks away).

On his way home from school

In the meantime I’ve been tensioning a pair of 406mm wheels for Le Chacal. I’m using the truing stand I built from another’s plan. I have many grievances with the design. Cheap, light plywood is a big contributor. I’ll have to modify this thing later, but in the meantime I need to get Le Chacal ready for Italy, and this means lighter wheels and a transmission with higher gearing.

Oh, and I have to repair the Dahon by building a new headset clamp. I’m going to turn an aluminum plug on the lathe, thread it with a helicoil plug, dress it with some grooves to hold epoxy, and then I’ll pin it through the steerer tube.

Nice to be out of my state of ‘high dudgeon’. Now I have to stop being irritated with Saris and instead irritated with my lame wattage output tonight on the trainer. I think I soft-shoed it by 10% at least.

This is an expensive product. It comes with a java application to control the powertap (configuration, downloading data, etc).

It doesn’t work on any of my Mac computers even though the literature claims it does.

I followed the instructions exactly (on two separate Macs and also tried a Parallels XP installation) yet it always fails. I did manage to install the (crappy) software on an IBM ThinkPad, and it will find and talk to the PowerTap, but only after I did some gross thing to change the COM port id of the USB jack I was using.

Doubt me?

Here’s where I install the PowerTap driver on my OSX machine.

Then when I run the the PowerAgent software, it cannot spot the PowerTap, and com.cycleops.exceptionhandler.ReadableException throws.

I tried to do some debugging, but nothing works. The online technical support for this product is lamentable. The closest thing I found was TrainingPeaks software help that recommended adding an FTDI driver. This made no difference and everything continues to not work.

Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!

Apparently they’ll get to me in about three days……………….