Adrian’s Microblog

”La Concha”, a traditional Mexican pastry.

Fluffy and light inside, with mild sugar topping, for a very tasty treat.

Read about conchas and more Mexican sweetbreads on Wikipedia.

<h1>Winterizing Your Commuter Bike</h1>

So I’m gonna make a go at bike commuting this winter, and have been trying to see what may need to be done to my bike to help that be successful. So far, tips I’ve picked up are:

Treat the surface of the bike frame to keep winter muck from sticking to it.

Apparently this can run from Pam cooking spray, to lightly applied car wax, to a special purpose bike product. Important key is not to get it on the disc brakes if you have them (for the obvious reason). A silicone spray can be used for the pedals. And for extreme conditions, DuPont’s snow and ice repellant made for snow blowers, and applied to downtube’s and the cassette.

Be sure you regularly wipe off and re-lube the chain to keep it running smoothly. Tire modifications can range from

Getting studded tires (extreme conditions and hard to turn) Getting file tread tires. And leaving the tires on the lower side of inflation so the rubber grips surfaces more.

You can also go deeper and disassemble joints to treat them with lube and rust-resistant goo. Not to mention, you can seal and/or lube the cables as well. Use fenders to protect you from spray of weather from the road.

As long as the fenders have enough clearance, they should be good for avoiding jams Otherwise, you may want to consider clip-ons

Keep your saddle and other leather/fabric parts wiped down, and even treat the surfaces. Having a good designated spot for cleaning also goes a long way to making sure your bike stays in good shape from its winter excursions.

I’ll be back to edit this post, but here’s some links: www.bicycling.com/repair/wi… gizmodo.com/four-ways… www.beginnertriathlete.com/mobile/Ar… www.bikeradar.com/us/gear/a…

”Brand New Day” by Joshua Radin.

This song helped me get through a rough year a number of years back, and just recently re-watched the official music video. It made me laugh, and thought you gentle reader may enjoy too. :)

Flahute Cycling Cap by Red Dots Cycling.

Definition of “Flahute” as provided by Flahute.com:

The type of rider who wins races where 125 riders start and one finishes—that’s a Flahute. A Flahute thinks the Tour de France is just a bunch of long training rides. A real race is one where it’s pouring rain, it’s cold, the roads are treacherous, and the prize list is about the same as your 8-year-old neighbor’s allowance. When you’re a Flahute, that’s racing.

L’enfer du Nord Winter Cap by Red Dots Cycling.

Derivation of the name, as described by Whitstable Printworks:

”First run in 1896, Paris-Roubaix was initially conceived as a “leg loosener” for Bordeaux-Paris that, at the time, was considered the most important spring time race. Despite being half the distance of this race, Paris-Roubaix soon became an entity in itself on account of its sheer brutality. It quickly gained a diabolical reputation on account of the route traversing unpaved forest roads and cobblestone tracks that were often made all the worse due to the rain and wind that would batter the peloton as it swept in from the North Sea.

Now well established, it wasn’t until an enforced four year hiatus due to the First World War, which the race gained its most notorious and descriptive nickname “L’Enfer du Nord”. In 1919, six months after the Armistice, the race began its twentieth edition and followed the line of the Western Front. Passing through towns and countryside ravaged by war and death and entombed under grey, sombre skies one journalist penned the race as being in “the Hell of the North” and the nickname stuck ever since.

Today, years after the passing of the First World War, the peloton still has to combat much of the same terrain as it struggles across the infamous pave of northern France. Despite time easing the travesty of war there remains a spectre over this race that adds to its drama and cements its claim as the most important and toughest one day race on the calendar.”

“Seagulls (Stop it Now)”, a bad lip reading.

A comically disturbing re-reading of the transformation stage of Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back.

(via Stephen)

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Melvin Krazenberg’s Six Laws of Technology1. “Technology is neither good or bad; nor is it neutral.”The impact of a technology depends on its geographic and cultural context, which means it can be both simultaneously. 2. “Invention is the mother of necessity.”Every technical invention seems to require additional technical advances in order to make it fully effective. 3. “Technology comes in packages, big and small.”To understand any part of a technology package requires looking at its interactions with and dependency on the rest of it. 4. Although technology might be a prime element in many public issues, nontechnical factors take precedence in technology-policy decisions.” 5. “All history is relevant, but the history of technology is the most relevant.Many times history is driven by what technology makes possible. (One can’t help but also assume bias that comes from Kranzberg teaching The History of Technology course at Georgia Institue of Technology.) 6. “Technology is a very human activity.” (Excerpted from WSJ article “The Six Laws of Technology Everyone Should Know” by Christopher Mims.)