Great Service

Just dropping by to record some excellent customer service provided to us recently, by way of thanks to the BlackBox people.

Several years ago we bought Heather some noise canceling headphones to keep out the lawn-mowing and similar noises so prevalent in our neighbourhood full of infill housing. Over the years two plastic parts on the headband had broken, and they become less comfortable to wear. I contacted the manufacturer to ask for spare parts, and was surprised when they offered to replace the whole unit as this was a design flaw in 'early models'. The new headphones fit even more snugly than the old, and still provide the crystal pure sound that so delighted Heather when she first plugged them in (having first used them just to deaden outside sounds). So check these out if you're looking for high end headphones or are very noise sensitive.

New Polo Bike

I've been experimenting with a more upright posture for polo, using a small mtb that a neighbour dropped off. I feel more free to reach around, as my hands are unweighted. My centre of gravity is also lower, which I think makes me steadier at very slow speeds. I do sometimes oversteer, but hopefully will learn that the bike can't actually turn right angles.

Compare the new posture with two of us on roadbikes in this picture. I'm struggling to reach behind while my balance is tied to the handle bars, and my friend is falling off with hardly an increase in his forward lean:

ps. Having a new bike has been handy since my fixie is off the road - more on that later, once I discuss it with my LBS.

pps. Dig the cap that Heather made me!

8 Years Ago

My neighbours in Vancouver had teenage sons who built mounds like fresh graves on their lawn, with headstones showing the flags of the teams the Canadians were about to play. Those boys went wild, running up and down our dull suburban street, when Canada beat the USA for the gold medal from Salt Lake City.

As it happens I'm on holiday this week, and enjoyed the luxury of watching Canada take Olympic gold again in the men's ice hockey. What a game - equalised by the US with 24 seconds to play, then won by golden goal in overtime. Too bad nobody else in the house was particularly interested.

Seven Years Ago

Heather and I, seven years ago. I visited her during my Spring Break - our first time together since her visit to Vancouver that January, when we started going out.

I arrived the weekend after Heather came down sick. We had no idea back then - we went out to a party one night, missed the bus, and started walking. It would have been a 45 minute walk, perhaps more given the couple inches of snow! We had to turn back after the first bus stop, and take several breaks on the way home - one of many examples needed before we realised Heather could feel almost normal but crash quite quickly.

(Very few pictures were taken that holiday, which is a shame because it was the only time I've ever had my hair professionally dyed. Just another curious new experience for a lad back in college world, who was surprised how much applied chemistry was involved for the salon staff, but too expensive to repeat. I quite liked the effect, though - auburn streaks, iirc.)

Household Carbon Calculator Posted

If you're interested in drilling down on which parts of your lifestyle are dependent on carbon emissions, then please check out the spreadsheet which Heather and I developed to audit our own consumption in 2008.

Feel free to send us more data for the table of emissions in various product categories. The tool could be a lot nicer, too, but after 18 months of futzing round with Google Spreadsheets, Zoho, and other random ideas, I've gone with a simple Excel spreadsheet. It does work in Open Office, too, so my conscience doesn't trouble me as much as it might.

We've also posted a few paragraphs on the intro page about why we support carbon pricing and why responsibility eventually rests with the consumer. I hope to develop a longer introduction to my thinking on carbon pricing for a friend and his kids, but a brief consultation with my blogging history indicates that you shouldn't hold your breath.

Helmet Hair

The warm weather and my recent haircut have combined to produce a new level of helmet hair, where the ventilation stripes remain clearly visible after I get off the bike. Heather has been most amused.

Mundo Maintenance

AS my Yuba comes up to it's 2nd anniversary, I've needed to do a bit of maintenance. Unfortunately, the final element proved challenging due to being a non-standard part (or from a very different standard).

1. Rear tyre
   I've had two rear tyres go bad on me recently, on different bikes. Not sure what I'm doing wrong, but possibly dragging the rear end around while the tyre has little pressure? Certainly I haul the tail of the Yuba around, as its turning circle can be a bit of a pain for parking. Either way, the rear tyre started to stretch alongside the bead on one side. This was new to me, so I was slow to realise that this was the cause of a wobble on every turn of the wheel.
   
   
2. Brake pads are wearing out faster than I expected. Possibly I'm dragging the rear brake too much?
   
   
3. Rear Hub
   This was the doozy. I tried to adjust the cones at one point to fix the wobble from the tyre, and stuffed it up. I had already broken two rear spokes, drive side, so had to remove the cluster to replace them. (No hurry, though. With 46 of 48 spokes, the wheel still ran sweetly.)
   The rear axle is a 14mm BMX axle (grumbling tech details here), and I didn't have proper cone spanners in 19mm. I managed to approximate one spanner, but couldn't get the freewheel cluster off since my removal tool (Park Tools FR-1) doesn't fit over the 14mm axle! I ended up pulling the axle right out, taking the cluster off, replacing the ball bearings (as I lost one carrying the wheel to my friend's to use his vice), then reinstalling. Naturally, I forgot something so had to repeat. I never did get the spoke guard back on.

So that was a pain, but it has been running nicely again now. Next time I'll probably drop it into the shop for the rear hub, but hopefully that won't be for ages.