[BobCochran]

Hello friends! I’m your new team member, Bob Cochran. I want to thank Kitty deeply for providing such positive support for my rides. I’m quite glad that I’ve started contributing points to the team.

Thanks so much — and I hope to meet all of you some day.

Bob

[BobCochran]

@drevil 154267 wrote:

I worked there briefly 19 years ago, and joined an alumni reunion last night when it closed. IIIRC, one guy, Fred, has worked there for 26 years until last night. I’ve been going there for at least 27 years, so it’s a bummer to see them close.

I heard the same as you mentioned, that Mom’s is moving in to the space. I hope it’s true. I can’t think of much else that’s sustainable that I want to see move in otherwise.

Is Fred the tall guy with a snow white beard and a bald head? I wish the entire REI staff from that store well. I signed their “What is your 2017 goal?” book with a goodbye.

Bob

[BobCochran]

@peterw_diy 154225 wrote:

I am under the impression that high temperatures in your electrical wiring indicate you’re pushing too much current. Tape used for vent ductwork, sure, that stuff is designed to laugh at scalding heat. But electrical tape?

There are many different electrical applications where heat is an environmental factor. Sometimes you need an electrical tape with a high temperature rating. For the use case here (the hood taped over the LED light) I was thinking that the tape will heat up from sunshine exposure alone. If the tape can’t withstand that the hood could fall off the light. Anyhow I see that Vicegrip is giving interesting suggestions above and may be a better option.

This tape is rated to 600v and 14-176 degrees Fahrenheit.

https://www.amazon.com/Duck-299006-4-Inch-Utility-Electrical/dp/B001B19JLS/ref=pd_lpo_60_bs_lp_t_2?_encoding=UTF8&refRID=R25EPHPY2KD0FXG2QBFF&th=1

Scotch (3M) also makes specialized electrical tapes which are made of glass and intended for oven controls or other applications where there is really high heat.

https://www.amazon.com/3M-Electrical-Thermosetting-Adhesive-50-Inch/dp/B000UE46LK

A quick Google will disclose many types of high-temperature electrical tape. The tape you use depends on the application and environment. I’m a hobbyist and for some projects, high temperature tape is recommended. I simply follow the advice given for that particular project.

Thanks a ton

Bob

[BobCochran]

@anomad 154215 wrote:

Thank you BobCochran for pointing out the safety concern of the aluminum can’s sharp edges. I rounded off the corners and touched it up with sandpaper to dull the edge. Still not ideal, but I am comfortable enough to give it a try for Gen1. Wearing full finger gloves this time of year adds a barrier too. The tape is just 3M stuff from a big box store, probably not the worst or best out there.

Can you think of a different material I should consider for future generations?

Plastic is an obvious choice, but doesn’t form nicely. I have a couple sheets of kydex in storage somewhere that could be formed (I have used it for making knife sheaths). I wonder if the lights get warm enough that it would lose its shape? Fiberglass or carbon fiber would be slick.

GenN+1 will have a hinge opening it up to hopefully catch the attention of taxi drivers when I hit the streets. Then flipped down when I get to the bike path to be friendly to fellow path users.

I think you have a good set up here, and it sure makes the experimenter in me curious! The materials here should work fine — of course field testing and your preferences will guide you. As to other materials the only one I can really think of is maybe one of those silicone baking sheets that so popular now. You lay one down on a cookie sheet and put your cookie dough on the silicone sheet and pop it into the oven? Well perhaps cutting an appropriate sized hood from one of these might be useful…but I would think they are too soft and too flexible. Besides which your significant other may not appreciate such an experiment making use of the baking sheets in the kitchen.

Good luck and post some photos when you have a chance!

Bob

[BobCochran]

@anomad 154190 wrote:

Here’s where I am going with this idea. Thanks for the inspiration!

I think the metal hood will serve as a good heat sink. Just do not slice your hands up on the hood by accident. The metal is probably sharp, right? Electrical tape (the high quality kind, anyhow) has to withstand fairly high temperatures and since you will be moving along on the bicycle, the tape should just conduct heat to the soda can hood. And this time of the year the device will have quite cold air swirling around it. I think you will be okay from a heat transfer standpoint and at risk of enduring a trip to the nearest emergency room if that hood cuts your hand.

Speaking for myself, I simply point my own headlight downwards at the pavement. I get enough of a pool of light that I can see the pavement ahead of me and others can see me.

Thanks a ton

Bob

[BobCochran]

Brett and Drevil, thanks a lot for your suggestions. I want to try both of them in the coming weeks so I can get some miles in for Team 19, and also learn the District better and have it “wired into me” from practicing the how to get there.

Thanks a ton

Bob

[BobCochran]

What is the best way to bicycle to the start location from Greenbelt, Maryland? I signed up for the 59 mile ride. I think I can bicycle to the start location, do the ride, and make it home.

Thanks a ton

Bob

[BobCochran]

Better screen shot for above (I hope). This is showing the result of an aggregation query on a small set of test data.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]13518[/ATTACH]

Please note that out of loyalty to Team 19, which has recently adopted me (thanks, Kitty) I will soon add rides to the underlying data to show we are ahead!

Bob

[BobCochran]

I’m working on a very generic version of this which uses NoSQL and MongoDB. There are a lot of other NoSQL databases to look at too such as PouchDB. The great advantage of a NoSQL approach is elimination of multiple tables and joins. That reduces latency and complexity a lot.

This is totally generic project right now. By that I mean it is not specific to Freezing Saddles. I’m open sourcing my code on GitHub under the Unlicense. Others can download it later when it has a lot more functionality to it. An example screen shot is shown below. That one comes from my cell phone. I have a long way to go, and I need to integrate Strava, but things are progressing. Should be a good project for me for this year.

Sorry the screen shot is so small, I thought it would be bigger…

…Bob

[ATTACH=CONFIG]13517[/ATTACH]

[BobCochran]

Thanks everyone! I think I’m with Team 19 now, but I’m not sure. Sorry for the delayed responses from me, I’ve been fully challenged with certain other things.

Thanks a ton!

Bob

[BobCochran]

Yes, I get the impression that REI is not going to be holding fire sales to get rid of merchandise. They have no need to. They can just truck everything to another store. Presto, sell with a healthy markup in price to cover the costs of operating in the District.

I was looking for a Camelbak water reservoir in the very same store, and thought I might get a discount, but no dice. I did get 50% off on the energy gels.

Thanks a ton

Bob

[BobCochran]

@Emm 153915 wrote:

The newer one has some cycling features. If you’re looking for a smartwatch that also does fitness, it’s a good watch from all the reviews. It looks nice, has good features, and they’ve been making some good updates. But if you’re more interested in a fitness watch that also has smartwatch features, check out some other options too like the garmin vivoactive series. They’re cheaper, have alot of smartwatch functionality, and are built to do things like track your ride/run/swim/golfing.

My personal phone is a droid, so the apple watch wasn’t a good choice, but I love my garmin vivoactive hr. It also syncs automatically with strava (including HR info) after each ride if you set it up on garmin connect.

Thank you, Emm! I really appreciate your telling me about the Garmin Vivoactive. I have a question. Can you download the collected data, including the heart rate information, to a a file such as a .csv or .tsv or .json file so that you can import it into a software program of your choice (like Microsoft Excel!) and work with the data alone? I was given a Fitbit several years ago and I was very peeved that I had to use the Fitbit website in order to view the data. And apparently Fitbit owned that data about me — it was their property and they could do what they want with it. (And they had my name and address and other personal details too.) This Garmin Connect website might be the same way. I want the ability to have all my own data in a format that I can use and analyze on my own. I want it exclusively owned by me, not put on a website where it becomes the property of a company.

Anyhow getting a “vivoactive” is very very tempting. And it is lots less expensive than the Apple Watch as you say.

Thanks a ton

Bob

[BobCochran]

No one would really wash a bicycle in the same tub used for people washing, right? That was just a gag photo, yes? I mean the mess is really tough to clean up afterwards. And who wants to step on chain grease. The stuff is probably carcinogenic.

Bob

[BobCochran]

So how is everyone doing with their winter hydration? I just went to the soon-to-be-history College Park REI store, because I wanted to replace my Camelbak water reservoir. I don’t like carrying water bottles, as silly as it may seem. My always-dicey balance means I could tip over trying to reach down for a bottle. And a difficult lesson I learned one fine hot day coming back from BWI Airport, by bicycle, burned into me the need to always sip some water while riding. So I use hydration packs with sipping tubes. That REI store offers 3 different brands of reservoirs: Camelbak, Osprey, and Platypus. I wonder what the rest of you think of these different brands?

For me — the Platypus has a very difficult to work bite valve. I’ve tried two different Platypus reservoirs. They fit okay in my ancient Camelbak backpack, and the sipping tube is long enough for me, but the bite valve is tough to use and I can’t get all the water I want in my mouth when I sip.

The Camelbak reservoirs sip okay, but the bite valves will leak water with the slightest pressure on them. More than once I’ve had water on the floor because I forgot to keep the backpack off that dangling bite valve. (Sorry, Proteus Bicycles! I did clean up the messes I created.)

The Osprey reservoirs I’ve never tried. I don’t like their warnings about magnetic devices printed on the back of the packaging. They scare me a bit. What if they harm my poor iPhone? The other brands have no such warnings about magnetic devices.

So at the store I ended up buying a 100 ounce Camelbak “Crux” reservoir. I bought that because they redesigned the bite valve. It now has an on/off switch. And the plastic material is supposed to be BPA free.

I’ve had the same Camelbak backpack for about 10 years now — I wish it had more capacity for other things, but I’ve adapted to its sad limitations. It has at least another 10 years of service life in it.

I’d be interested in learning how others hydrate in the winter.

Thanks a ton

Bob

[BobCochran]

@BobCochran 153856 wrote:

I notice that the Team 18 members on freezingsaddles.com show 11 members, and I’m not listed there (no miles until today, actually.) Was I replaced by someone else?

I’m a bit confused…

Thanks a ton

Bob

Hmmm, I show up as a team member on Strava (one of 12 members) but not on freezingsaddles.com where it shows the teams and team members. I’m sure that will change when freezingsaddles.com “refreshes”. I had thought teams were limited to 11 members each. Anyhow, I did 20 miles today to help you folks out. Not too bad for someone recovering from bronchitis. I might be sorry later on today…but it was fun!

Thanks

Bob

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