More Parts, Different Bike

Tyler dropped by today with his aluminum steed. It had a few issues that needed to be addressed.

First up, the small chainring had broken, so he was running on only one speed up front. Due to it apparently being a bit of a peculiar crankset he wasn't able to source a replacement chainring, so instead he ended up with a whole new crankset and BB that then needed installing.

I had thought he had an actual Shimano crankset, but upon closer inspection it turned out to be a clone of some sort. So, the Shimano crankset end cap tool I had him 3d print didn't end up getting used, as the end cap on his cranks actually just used a hex wrench instead.

We did need to use a BB wrench to remove the old bottom bracket, and luckily that was a tool already in my arsenal. Threaded bottom brackets can sometimes really be stuck in there, but luckily for us it wasn't too tough to extract the old one. After tidying up the threads a little, the new one spun in nice and smooth.

Upon sliding in the new crankset, there was a little bit of confusion as to how things were lining up. Tyler's bike is a hybrid, which means that it's a bit of a peculiar mix between road and MTB standards. The BB is a road-standard 68mm spacing, while the rear axle is (I think) the MTB standard 135 (the old QR spacing).

The previous crankset appeared to be spaced out quite wide to match the chainline up with the wider MTB axle, but the new crankset was a road-specific model, and so it was sitting quite a bit more narrow on the bike.

In fact, it was sitting narrow enough that I started to have some doubts about whether the front derailleur would be able to properly shift the chain down onto the small ring. That was, mind you, before I remembered that front derailleurs have limit screws, and I should probably wind them out a little before giving up in despair.

Thankfully once I backed out the limit screws I was able to verify that the derailleur would have enough swing, so we were back up and running again. With a little twiddling and twaddling I was able to get the front shifting nicely, and we were good to go. With that part at least.

The next part would be less complicated, but quite a bit more work. Somehow Tyler had managed to break a few spokes on the front wheel, so after some faffing about at the bike shop and a bit of miscommunication and parts shortages, he managed to come home with a set of new spokes and nipples rather that a repaired front wheel. Thus it would be our job to do the swap.

Out came the old spokes, easily enough. I let Tyler do most of that work. Then, because it takes a bit of know-how to do I did the job of lacing up the new spokes in the correct pattern, as well as bringing the wheel up to tension and trueing it.

Once the wheel was round enough and straight enough I proceeded to impress Tyler with my amazing tire mounting skills, where I popped the tire onto the rim without anything but my bare hands, and without exerting much effort at all, and it was just a matter of putting the wheel back on the bike and sending him out for a test ride.

At least, until I noticed how loose his headset was. Turned out that his steerer was just slightly too long for the stem and the number of spacers he was running, and so the top cap was bottoming out against the top of the steerer rather than preloading the headset bearings like they should be. I tossed in another spacer for him, snugged up the preload, and then sent him out to take a test ride.

Apparently the test ride was a success, because he came back in one piece with no new injuries, and had no complaints about the performance of the bike.

All in all it was an enjoyable afternoon of tinkering, and a pleasure to get his bike back up and running smoothly again.

A Growing Infestation

Somehow it seems that I got an infestation of bike parts growing in my house.

I left it alone to see what would happen overnight and it just got worse.

I didn't really have time to deal with it before the weekend so I just tried to ignore it until then, hoping it wouldn't get any bigger.

Well shoot, it did get bigger. A lot bigger. But I should be fine so long as it doesn't grow a frame.

Aww bugger, I think I'm stuck now. I'm just gonna have to let it grow for a few more weeks until it becomes a fully fledged bicycle, at which point I should be able to clean it up safely.

Asking Y Is Just The Start

For quite a while I've been having the occasional starting issue with the PedoVan. Everything would seem fine with the battery and its state of charge, but turning the key to the start position would result in a clunk and not really much else.

I took it to the Mercedes dealer a few times to have them debug this issue, and for the most part they really weren't much help. Eventually I gave up on them and decided to take matters into my own hands.

A little research pointed me towards a few possible culprits. There could be a bad relay supplying power to one of the engine computers, the high resistance causing it to think the battery was low, which would make it interrupt the starter so as to not destroy the battery. There could also be an issue with the Y cable, which connects the battery to the starter and the alternator. There could be an issue with the engine computer itself. There could be an issue with the starter.

Which was it? Who knows.

So, I started from cheapest fix to most expensive. First up: replacing the ECU relay. It was relatively easy to do, but had no meaningful effect on the starting issue.

Next up on the list was the Y cable, so I bought a replacement and then got kinda lazy for a while, distracted with other projects and so on. But eventually I got around to swapping it in and...

Lantana, again

Ok, take two. After the peculiar number of frosts over the past winter, only 2 of the 4 lantana I planed last fall survived. Since I was swinging by Home Despot this morning I decided to check out the garden center, and was pleased to find that they had some in stock, so I picked up 3 new ones to fill in the gaps.

The gaps:

You can sort of see the ones from last fall sprouting back up again. Hopefully they'll get established over the summer and be able to weather next winter ok.

The new ones are a bit bigger than the ones I planted last year. It just happened to be the size they had available. With any luck the head start they got in the nursery will help them put down a healthy root system so that they can weather the frost too.

And if not, they're only like $7 each. I'd just rather not have to dig more holes, to be honest.

Getting Baked

After the soda bread disaster a few weeks ago, I still had the urge to find a bread-like recipe that would work well for my personal eating habits. Mulling it over for a while, I decided to try making some biscuits.

Thankfully this recipe was anything but a disaster, and in fact turned out quite well indeed. I did diverge slightly from the recipe, which called for either whole milk or buttermilk, and used both whole milk along with buttermilk powder in order to create a super-milk and laugh in the face of god himself.

I tried one already for lunch and have yet to be banished from this mortal plane, so I'd call it a success.

In other news, I decided to try a few new things for my weekly cake baking. Firstly, I swapped out the almond flour, because almonds are not a water-friendly crop, and instead used buckwheat flour. Secondly, I tried the "reverse creaming" method where you mix together the flour (and other dry ingredients), sugar and the fat (usually butter, but in my case olive oil) up front, then add in the liquid eggs and the rest of the liquid. This contrasts with the usual cake method which mixes the butter and sugar together first before adding the egg, then the wet and dry ingredients, or the olive oil cake method which mixes the egg and the sugar together first, then the oil, then the wet and dry ingredients.

The result is that the cake batter comes together dramatically more quickly, and bakes up...

... well, the jury is out on that. It didn't bake quite right, but I later realized I'd accidentally set the oven to 375°f instead of 350°f, and so that's probably why it was a little bit off. I'll give it another try next week, hopefully without the "oops."

Still tastes good, though.

My Head Is In Stitches

So these cheek pads from my mountain bike helmet have been getting a bit worn in the corners.

The fabric on the outside is a rather thin knit, and there's a backing of stiff plastic that it's sewn to, so as a result it's gained some extra holes over the years of laundering them after I soak them in sweat.

Luckily, there's a solution.

After removing the padding and turning them inside-out, we can see that the fabric is actually lined with a thin foam, and that there's luckily enough material between the seam and where the holes are to be able to line the area with a more durable fabric. In this case, some bias tape.

Bias tape is a peculiar material. It comes pre-folded, usually twice, where the edges are folded in, then the whole thing is folded down the middle. If you're using it to edge a seam allowance you just leave the middle fold in place, but if you're intending to sew it flat (for using as a hem, or in this case for using as a patch) then you steam that middle fold flat.

In either case, you first temporarily unfold one of the edge folds and use a plain stitch along the crease to sew that side in place. Then you flip it back up and use a slip stitch (or blind hem stitch, which is basically the same thing but with less thread showing on the right side) through the outside of the other crease to complete the sewing.

You can also top stitch this last seam with a machine if you don't mind a bit more thread showing, and assuming the project will actually fit in a sewing machine, which this one most certainly will not.

I also added a little bit of darning to the holes to close them up, and hopefully the combination of that with the bias tape reinforcement will keep things in one piece for a while longer.

Although the other pad wasn't quite as worn, it still showed ample evidence that it would soon be getting some holes of its own, so it got a bias lining to reinforce it too.

With any luck these should continue to keep my head in one piece.