Storage, Version 2

Now more spread out along the wall, and opening up access to the rest of the built in shelves. Maddock even has his own spot on the wall for his bike.

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What I've Been Doing

With life being as busy as it has been, between work and the family, it seems like I never have any time to pause and scatter out a small blog post. But I have been riding into work every day, about 15 miles total daily. This here is interesting; it's the summary from my log:

Total Distance:            979.07

Total Time:              65:40:31

Moving Time:             59:53:29

Number of Tracks:             138

Average Speed:              14.91

Average Moving Speed:       16.35

Elevation Gain:            30,546

Min Elevation:               -190

Max Elevation:                819

  

Average Track Distance:      7.09

Longest Track Distance:     25.05

Average Max Speed:          25.79

Highest Max Speed:          43.84

Time Spent Stopped:       5:47:02

% of Time Stopped:          8.81%

Of course these numbers only include the days that I was able to have a good GPS signal, which was most days. But it is nice to no longer be "a slave to the numbers" and just judge my speed on my own and not be that concerned with logging the data because I can always upload it to the log later, because the phone saves the record automatically. One hell of a run-on sentence I know, but it gets the point across I think.

That's all for now, I've been typing this intermittently while at work so my train of thought is incredibly broken.

Stem Fail

Okay, I know that is has been a long time since I've posted, but I had to share this right away.
Here's the short of it: I was leaving my office and saw that my tire was flat, sucks but no big deal. I found a very small thorn had made a pin-hole, so pull the thorn, but in the spare tube, CO2 blast and I'm on my way right? Well the rubber at the base of the stem on my spare ripped through, don't know how it happened, but I wasted a CO2 thing on it.
So alright, it was just a pin-hole, put on a stick-on patch and fix it right when you get home; this time I figured to just take the time and pump it up with my hand pump that I keep in my backpack for for really bad days (like this one). I had gotten the tire up to about 100 psi (7 bar) when something happened. That something is what you see in the photo above. The stem snapped, inside and out!
Arg... I'm now waiting for Kassy to come pick me up so we can go shopping.....

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Poor Zipper Pull

I will miss you.

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The Sights

Okay, so my blogging has been a bit hit or miss recently... alright it always has been. But anyway, I just wanted to share that I was able tlo get these two shots the other day on my ride home. It's just a reminder that even though I may not have the best scenery on my commute, I do get to see some pretty cool stuff.

this first picture you really can't see what I'm trying to get the picture of, but for the second shot I was able to be at a stop sign and could zoom in a bit (4x digital zoom) and get a much better picture of what was flying around, a MV-22 Osprey.

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Google: Navigation vs. My Tracks

Yesterday I got out of work early, and Kassy was already out and about with the kids and one of her friends, so I thought I would take a completely different route home instead of always going on Kearny Villa.
First off, let me say that I will never be taking this way again. The road surface was horrible and there wasn't even anything nice to look at. Well, maybe there could have been some nice things along the way, but the traffic was taking most of my attention, even though almost all of the drivers we considerate and really did share the road with me.
But moving on, as you may know I have an Android phone and use it for everything. In the car I like using Google Navigation over the Garmin because of it's constant updates and live traffic info, plus I like the user interface better. Another GPS application I love and use everyday is My Tracks. The app records and displays statistics such as speed, distance, elevation, and several others.
When I thought about taking a new route, I wondered how it would work out using both of these programs together so that I could record my route and have the turns navigated for me. Well as it turns out, these two fight each other when used at the same time. Now I don't think that they fight each other for the GPS signal because there were times that both applications were working together, as you can see below. The blue line represents the route I traveled, and the red line is where My Tracks was able to record my position.

So anyway, this makes me think that they were using just too much memory and the one running in the background (My Tracks) was dropped out here and there. So it may be possible to run these together on a phone with more RAM than the Motorola Droid.

I was able to approximate that the route was 16.5 miles, but I wave no idea how long it took or average speed so I'm going to just remember it as a ride and not try to log it. If I log something I'd like it to be accurate, and I'm trying to not be such a 'slave to the numbers' as I used to be.

I still need to clean my bike some time. And I really want to go out on a mountain bike ride, but who knows when I'll get a chance to do that.

Oh, and Kassy also talked to a guy that rides with a group around the flight line of MCAS Miramar during lunch on Tuesdays. They meet up at Comm Squadron, so now I just need to find that.

New Blogger-droid

The editor that I use on my phone to publish post has been changed up a bit since I last used it. Obviously it's been a long time. I'm sorry but I just haven't really thought of anything to write about recently.

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Versus TV commercial

Busy

It has been one busy work week that just doesn't end. This weekend was the drill weekend for July and we led the reserves through both swim qual and a CFT. It made for some pretty long days and I can't wait until our comp days (compensation) this Thursday and Friday to get some much needed time off. Seems that my body is finally starting to get used to the idea of riding everyday again, my speed has gone down a bit recently because of the PT (physical training) program we have going here at work, but it's comming back.
Anyway, I just wanted to make a short entry today because it feels like it's been a really long time.

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Lake Miramar

As promised, here is my small write-up about my trip to Lake Miramar with Maddock. It's small now because it has taken me so long to get it written up on here. I blame work and le Tour de France (watching it right now) for me not finding the time to write this.
Anyway, Kassy had gone out on a small shopping trip with Callum and some friends so Maddock and I were left to spend some time together and I thought it would be a great idea to go to the lake. I loaded up the van with our bikes and the trailer. First thing when we got out to the lake, Maddock to ride his bike.

Unfortunately it's really hard to get a good picture of a two year old riding his bike while you're walking (and sometimes jogging) beside him. No worries though, because I got a video (we were looking for the ducks).

Would you believe that this kid rode a mile all by himself? He really did, I didn't realize it until later when I took him out in the trailer and I was looking at the distance markers. But he really did do it, all on his own, even up some small hills.

After his ride we ate some lunch that was more of a small snack because he wanted to go feed the ducks. And I did my best to get a few pictures of that.

I love this last one, I didn't even know I got this last shot until I got home and was looking over the pictures.

Maddock really enjoyed the 5 mile loop around the lake and even wanted to do another lap, so I turned around and went back the other way. Well, as expected, about half way back around the lake I look back and there he is.

Passed out and not going to wake for anything, all that was left for me to do was head back to the car and get everything put in to head back home. I was good timing too, because out of habit I put the chain on the front door without thinking that was the only way for Kassy to get back in the house. I got a phone call on my way back home about it. In the end though, Maddock had a great time, and I can't wait to go back.

[Every picture and video in this post was taken with my phone, awesome huh?]

Dirty

It's so dirty!
Should I clean it or take it to a place and get it cleaned?
I wouldn't have to pay me to clean it, now that I think about it, I need to wash the van too.

Still planning to write about Maddock and me at the lake, just need to sit down with my computer, I tend to forget about it sometimes because of the capabilities of this phone.

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Salute? I don't get it.

Okay, so here's a picture of the top of my front fork. See that Sergeant chevron right there? Well I put it there to be funny and add a tiny touch of motto to the bike. Seems though that the gate guards can't see them, nor can they see the E5 and SGT on my ID card that I have to show them. Thursday I had a Gunny salute me, third time this has happened to me. I have plans to write a big artilce about my trip to Miramar Lake with my 2 year old son, Maddock. I'll need to do that on a computer though.

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Really

Okay, I really do have two stories that I want to put on here but I didn't have the time for the one the day it happened and today I spent time editing the Family Blog and messing with my new Ubuntu (Linux) set up on the laptop. They will come in due time I promise.

iMapMyRide Now On Android

Fail.

 

My entire time in Okinawa I used the website MapMyRide to record my ride times and plot out my route. I didn't love it, but it was good and I was loyal to it as I saw many improvements over time.

Now back in the states and with my new phone, I began to use Google My Tracks. A very nice GPS tracking program that also records every aspect of your position: Speed, Total Distance, Max Speed, Total Time, Average Speed, Moving Time, Average Moving Speed, Elevation, Elevation Gain, Min Elevation, Max Elevation, Min Grade, Max Grade, and your Lat/Long position. I've loved using it and only lost the ability to see my calorie burn estimate (I'm sure there's another app for that). I became less of a "slave to the numbers" like I was using MapMyRide and I didn't have to log onto a [slow] website after each ride to record it.

So now MapMyRide has finally brought their iMapMyRide application to Android. This is something that people have been waiting and asking about for a long time. Here's the problem: it's the iPhone app exactly. I see no effort made to have this app work the way it should for Android. The menu button does nothing, because the menu is always displayed at the bottom of the screen. The back button does not take you back to the application's previous screen, it takes you to the phone's home screen (exiting the app). And there are a bunch of other "what happened here" sort of problems with the application that make it something you just don't want to use.

 

I'm going to stick with My Tracks, sorry MapMyRide, but you lost me on this one.

New Things

I thought I could just make a really short and quick post regarding some updates/changes to this blog. First, it has been a little since the new layout has been applied and I am very happy with it. The last layout was cool and fancy, but a bit too fancy. This new layout is more simple, loads faster, and is easier to follow, plus I thing the title area is fun.
In another direction, I have added a new 'page' to this blog. For now you can find the link (My Tracks) to the right, under my profile information. Eventually these links will be moved up under the title, once there are a few more pages to link to. That may take a little while though, new pages are just a pain to create on the phone and I just started the process of backing stuff up on my laptop to prepare it for a switch from Windows to Ubuntu (Linux). And I would love to use the desktop computer, but with our move, we can't seem to find our surge protector to plug everything into.
Until then, I will continue to post updates in my standard no-schedual way.

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New York City nixes plan to remove 'ghost bike' tributes.

I try to stay away from the controversial, to not really make a stir, but this really gets me going. It's not the article that gets me, it's everyone's reaction/comment on it!

Visit this link to read the story:

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/06/21/2010-06-21_city_nixes_plan_to_remove_ghost_bike_tributes_after_outcry_from_families_of_dead.html#ixzz0ruMd5zbg

 

I've got a few thoughts about it all and I'll try to get them out in a way that will make sense.

First off, I agree that the ghost bikes need to be maintained just as any other memorial of any type; like the crosses and wreaths you see on the side of the highway for people that lost their lives in a car. Does anyone bitch about those things? Not that I know of. Then why so much hate for the cyclists? Could you not learn how to ride one when you were a kid and get picked on by all of the neighborhood kids, so now you see your way to get back at them is to spew hate towards every cyclist you see? I feel that more than 3/4 of all the comments to this article at my time of reading could be marked as offensive.

I can think of so many responses to these comments:

 

atombom

10:26 PM
Jun 21, 2010

This city has yet to memorialize 9/11 yet capitulates to these jackasses who think that the streets exist for bicyclists over motor vehicle drivers. Friggin madness.

The streets do not exist for bicycles over motor vehicles, the streets are for vehicles. Many things are considered a vehicle, bicycles are, so are horse drawn carriages, do you want those on the sidewalk? Where they "belong", away from idiots in cars?

The truth is, roads and streets are designed with cars in mind and most other vehicles are left out of the planning process. In most states the bicycle is considered a vehicle and thus has two very important notes applied to it: you can get a DUI riding one, and you also rate to use the entire traffic lane that you are in.

selvagejeans

2:59 AM
Jun 22, 2010

the day ghost bikes should be taken down is the day when drivers would share the road and not scream obscenities as they zoom by cyclists with inches to spare...When they pay attention to the road instead of to their text messages... When they stop drinking and driving... When cyclists stop being salmons going upstream (biking against traffic)...

This I agree with, but have slightly contradicting opinions about. Drivers need to share the road, this includes all "drivers", even us cyclists. I first started really riding heavily trafficked roads in Japan, here the lanes are more narrow and it seems that everyone owns two cars and drives both of them at the same time. I am used to vehicles passing by me very closely, much closer than most cyclists are comfortable with. But in Japan, cycling has more history in their culture. They may not be the best drivers out there and do many things very different than Americans do, but they do not yell at cyclists or salmon on their bikes (at least in traffic, they do it all the time on the sidewalk, and there is a funny law about that).

atombom

6:09 AM
Jun 22, 2010

The day ghost bikes should be tolerated is the day that bicyclists pay a registration fee for the bicycles like they do in Honolulu in order to shoulder some of the costs for road upkeep like drivers do through the various fees and taxes associated with operating a motor vehicle. Until then, go *****, bike riders!

Yet another statement that I agree with, but have many questions about. First, what obscenity could be only 5 letters long that would make sense at the end of that comment? Anyway... I'm all for a bicycle registration system, perhaps then bicycle theft would be taken more seriously too. My road bike has a Japanese registration on it, but there were not any fees associated, it's more for just tracking purposes in the case of theft or abandonment.

But for states to start a registration fee/service for bicycles, there are so many planning details that come to my mind:

 

How would you display your registration? My Japanese one is a bright orange sticker down by the bottom bracket, but not very visible unless the bike is upside down.

So lets say that there is a decal-like license plate that you have to have, with a yearly registration decal to be affixed with it. Now the difficulty would be enforcing it. And when would you be required to register the bicycle? I would hope that it would not be expected of me to register my two-year-old son's little 12 inch with training wheels.

And with this, would there come other laws such as helmets being required in relation to seat belts? That would be pretty controversial, because not even every state makes you wear one on a motorcycle.

And really, 'atombomb', when it comes down to it, it sounds like you bitch so much about operating your motor vehicle that it makes me wonder why you still bother to own one.

 

Really though, I have never seen a ghost bike in person, but from the pictures I have seen they can be both beautiful and/or creepy. In the end, they really serve a great message: drivers need to pay attention and watch out for cyclists and cyclists need to be proactively paying attention to traffic.

They are tragic reminders that everyone is loved, remembered, and morned. The city of New York is right in there decision to not remove they ghost bikes if they appear to be well kept. Perhaps they should conjure up some sort of registration system for these small memorials so that their owners can be contacted if the bike is in a poor state and also provide a civilised system for somebody to request the removal/relocation of a bike. 

Eugene in Brook...

6:58 AM
Jun 23, 2010

Congrats to the city on making a common sense decision to let these modest memorials remain. In addition to remembering the dead, these memorials serve another, perhaps more important, function. They remind cyclists to be careful of cars, and they remind drivers to calm down and slow down. Let's tone down the rhetoric and learn to share the road.

Paving

The city is redo-ing the bike lanes along Kearny Villa road, riding home today was kind of funny with these dashed lines on both sides of me. My route to work is really great, very flat and most of it on the same road, unless I stray from that path. the only sad thing: even these new paved lanes aren't as smooth as the roads were in Okinawa.

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Good to Go

Okay, fixed enough for now.

I need to fix this

Sometime I need to get onto an actual computer and fix up this blog of mine. I plan to remove the Facebook commenting because it doesn't work they way that I want/need it to, and I'll be removing the Facebook Share and Google Buzz buttons as well because the folks that run Blogger have added a share link in the top NavBar that gives you many social networking options to choose from.

Another thing that I plan to look into doing is adding a 'Mobile' version of the site. This may not mean anything to most of you but as I have been using my new smart phone for almost all of my computing needs recently, I thought it would be a good challenge for myself to see if I could set it up (though it will probably be mostly self-serving).

In other news, today is my 26th birthday and Tuxedo Tuesday. I am celebrating by being at work...

New Stable

Started and finished the new storage system for the bikes. I took the bike 'tree' that I built in Okinawa and modified it to fit in a corner and hold Maddock's little bike too, the old hanger that we used when we lived out in town on Oki now holds the road bike on the wall. I really like this set-up so far and I can't wait to see how the rest of the garage turns out once everything gets put in its place.

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PA to CA

The trip was long and hard at times, but the senery was awesome (once we got into the mountains). This entry is really just here to post this picture of the old bike shop sign, I don't have too much to say about our trip because it was a little while ago and it would be pretty difficult to recall it all in proper order.

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Droid

I can now post short blogs from my phone (my wife actually figured it out first), so now after such a long break during our move from Japan to California I can start posting new things easier and quicker. In a day or two I should be posting some things about the trip and my first rides back in America.

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Testing out

Just sticking this up on here to test out blogging through the phone.

Do you know what's at stake?

Dear Friends,

I have 48 hours to help LIVESTRONG raise $75,000 for the global fight against cancer. I need your help – RIGHT NOW!

LIVESTRONG Action just launched I RIDE FOR LIVESTRONG, a virtual version of the Tour of California. The Tour is the biggest cycling event in the United States, and Lance Armstrong and Team RadioShack will be riding in it later this week. They're dedicating their ride to survivors and caregivers and raising awareness about the worldwide fight against cancer. You can do the same by creating your own virtual bike and dedicating it to someone in your life--a survivor or caregiver who has inspired you.

I just dedicated my ride, but I need your help – cheer me on! The more cheers I get, the faster I ride:

http://www.livestrongaction.org/bike/bartley-rides-for-my-grandmother

Now, more than ever, we need to talk about the global cancer crisis – this year, cancer has become the leading cause of death worldwide. And if something doesn't change, one in two people will be fighting cancer by 2030.

We have to fight back, push our leaders to act and dedicate resources to realize a world without cancer. Every single story and rider strengthens our cause and helps to make our voices heard. That's why I RIDE FOR LIVESTRONG – will you cheer me on?

http://www.livestrongaction.org/bike/bartley-rides-for-my-grandmother

LIVESTRONG, Bartley

Complete

The blog layout and logo and Facebook enhancements are done for now. The only drawback that I can find is that there is no way (as of now) for me to be notified of your comments being posted. Small drawback that affects only myself and is mostly transparent to everyone else.

But this is it, let me know what you think.

Pardon the Construction

I'm changing up the blog layout, so if it's jacked up right now, I'm working on it, hit refresh to watch it progress or just come back later.


*Update:  It seems that I have most of the new bits in order. On the list is still creating an embedded custom Google search, and having the comment system use your Facebook login in order to comment (this should make it much easier for most everyone to comment).


**2nd Update (Approx. 8:30pm Tokyo Time [GMT+9] April 28th, 2010):  The Facebook comment box is now up and operational to my liking, I still have to add details to the application page (on Facebook) for it, but you can now feel free to post comments using it.


***3rd Update (Approx. 9:00pm Tokyo Time [GMT+9] April 28th, 2010):  Google search and Facebook comment box complete, now I need to design a new header logo sometime.

Carry Golf Clubs on a Bicycle?

Yes, that is exactly what he wanted to do.

Oddly enough, I was really the one to pose the idea to him. Quite some time ago I had been browsing through Free Patents Online and came across a few club carrying variants while looking at bicycle trailer patents. Most of the designs were with using a one-off rear rack design that greatly restricted any sort of multipurpose capabilities of the bike.

Starting to Play Catch-Up

My mountain bike has been purple for some time now. I absolutely love it too. Not only was the Japanese water-based spray paint amazing to work with, along with the purple paint came a few other upgrades as well. I have always wanted to upgrade to disc brakes on my bike, but I realized a while back that I would need to get a new fork to do so (mine had no caliper mounting tabs). So I 'delt with it and just kept using the stock brakes until they were warping and not holding up to the pressure any more (literally, the brake arms flexed under pressure). Truly tired of my mushy brakes I started to look for something new and I came across Cane Creek.

First Trip with a Camera.

I finally made it out on a ride with a camera. It took me so long because I never before really went on a ride purely for the sake of just riding. But this time I did, I had no distance goal, no planned sprints, no overall time target, just a plan to go out, enjoy myself and take some pictures of the bike with stuff. Honestly, I was kind of inspired by the whole Flat Stanley thing, not that I was about to flatten my bike and mail it to people though.
Just now thinking about how I'll be writing this I realize that I should have tracked the mileage per each photo, but oh well. Anyway, even with the master plan to not plan any real 'training' into this ride, I still went 62.57 miles (100.7 km) and a max speed of 41.3 mph (66.5 kph) - I couldn't resist doing at least one sprint. But, it did take me almost 5.5 hours to do, so at least I stayed relaxed with the overall speed.

Maddock rides his bike!

This is awesome. He's growing up so fast!

Now of course the cyclist in me says two things: 

1. We need to get him little clip-in pedals because he (mentally) learned how to ride by watching me. I have clip in pedals on both my bikes, this allows me to push forward when the pedal is at the top of the rotation without dropping my heel to maintain contact with the pedal. That's why the poor little guy's feet keep coming off the pedals. (I find it really really cute!)
2. Stupid left pedal fell off because it has a right hand thread. The right side is supposed to be right hand thread and the left be left hand thread. This was, as you spin the cranks the pedals constantly tighten themselves to the crank arms. Well this one constantly loosens itself, until it falls off...  maybe Gampa can put a tack weld on it so it stays there forever.

I just wanted to share this with everyone real quick cause I'm working 12 hour shifts right now and Kassy (wifey) put it up on YouTube for me to see.

First Coat!

I find it to be absolutely amazing that the Japanese can make such good products and not even promote them. Krylon say's that they are known world-wide, but they are nothing to this paint. I don't know how to say what it is called or tell you any real details about it, all I know is that I asked a very polite older man who worked at the store about the paint and he explained it to me as I asked questions. Turns out, this stuff is water based, requires no primer and sprays great. I did forget to ask him how long to wait between coats and how long it had to set before I could sand anything. Oh well, I bet 4 hours is a good guarantee.

Babysitting

I got back to Okinawa yesterday to find that my friend that had borrowed my van wile I was gone, is now in Korea; and left his bike in the back of my van. Of course I can't just leave it in there the whole time that he's gone, so I brought it up to my room. Now I have three bicycles (one road, two mountain) in my room. It also gives me some time to work on his bike; there have been so many little things with it that have bothered the both of us and he could just never find the time to bring it by for me to tinker with it.

PostSecret

Form time to time I look over the PostSecret blog. I really wish I'd have found out about Post Secret a long time ago, it fascinates me. Anyway, I read this just now and thought it was sweet:

"At my college we have a bulletin board inspired by PostSecret. One day a photograph of a sunset was posted. Written across the photo in white ink it said "sometimes I wonder if anyone would care if I didn't wake up in the morning". 

A few weeks later another photograph was posted. This was a photo of a sunrise. In white ink it said "yes, I would". . . I wish I could tell the person "thank-you" because the sunset was mine."

I'm a Daddy again.

Little baby Callum Forbes Darraugh was born at 4:56AM on 2-8-2010. You can read the birth story written by his Mommy here.

Now I get it.

After living in Japan for almost 3 years now, both on base and out in town, and getting annoyed at the fact that none of the side roads have names, this one little video that I got through the podcast Best of YouTube explains it all. Now it seems so simple!

Helmets

I don't care who you are or what you think you're capable of, you should always wear your helmet, I know mine has saved my life before.

Maintenance Love

You know something that I love? To remove my old HeadShok fork from my mountain bike frame you have to use a hammer. (Yes I did research this before I did it... just a little.)

Lesson Learned

Today's lesson: Trying to do 'home brew' tubeless tires on your mountain bike is not worth the time, trouble, and labor. HOWEVER, it was a great learning experience and many of the things could (oddly enough) be applied to other things. How did I learn this lesson? Well, I read an article about tubeless tires, there are manufacturers out there with wheels and tires designed to work this way, there are also companies that sell conversion kits. And then there's the ways that people were doing it before all these products came around.