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Patrick August 29, 2020

Another Cockpit Change

When you're the mean bastard who tortures his wrists on top of mountain bikes without suspension like I do, the least you can do is let your wrists hold onto the bars in the most natural way possible, so that they're not angled or twisted in any way. Alt bars with tons of sweep are the solution. I went from Answer bars with a 20° sweep to Jones with a 45° back sweep and my wrists have been happy ever since. Ritchey now has an alternative available with a bit less sweep. The Kyote with 27.5°. At the same time, the Kyote is considerably wider than a Jones H-Bar. 800mm versus 710mm. When I saw it on Bike24 and saw the price tag (25 EUR), I had to get one. Due to the different shapes, I also needed a new stem in order to use the Kyote. I went from a 100mm long stem with the Jones H-Bar to a 40mm stem for the Ritchey Kyote.

Patrick June 12, 2020

Flink And The Magic Of Google Sheets

I've been using the flink.run app to add my Strava data to a Google sheet with a bunch of additional tables that crunch the numbers. Each time I add an activity to Strava, flink.run adds a new row to the data table in my Google sheet. The stats in all the other calculated tables are therefore always up to date.

I sent my FortyFour Big Boy fat bike into retirement and wanted to look up my first ride on it. On Strava there's no easy way to find the first activity with a specific gear. In my Google sheet, it's a simple formula to look for the first occurrence of a specific gear within the activity table. Since I was at it, I added a first ride and last ride column to my gear table.

Patrick May 5, 2020

A Bike Jacket For Next Winter

A broken down car right ahead of Christmas and New Year, meant driving a loaner until we purchased a new car. No roomy vehicle meant no fat biking. That was followed by one of the poorest winters in years for snow cover. No snow, oh well, no fat-biking. A new vehicle in our parking spot created another necessity - to safely transport my studded fatty inside the new car without damaging the interior. Tire studs are short, but they're awfully sharp and will scratch interior plastic panels and tear fabrics or leather. In our old car, I did my best to be careful. But a scratch now and then wasn't a big deal. With a brand-new car, however, being careful isn't quite enough. I wanted something that would protect our car from those sharp metal studs. Thanks to Google I came across a post in the fat-bike forum on MTBR which pointed me to Amy Middleton's Bike Jackets. I ordered one and then waited ages because it got hung up at Swiss customs. It didn't get much use during the no-show winter of 19/20, but will hopefully come in handy for winter 20/21.

Patrick July 1, 2019

Portable Camera Equipment

When I started bringing a camera along, it used to be a Canon PowerShot digital camera. I had three different ones over the years. I used to set them up along the trail and have them snap a series of 10 photos, usually a second apart. A minute timer would give me just enough time to hop on the bike and ride into the picture. The cameras were small enough to fit into a jersey pocket.

My first action camera was a Replay XD 1080. The image quality wasn't all that great, but its cylindrical shape is still what I consider one of the best form factors. It was easy to attach it to basically anything. Later, I owned a GoPro Hero 3+, which I replaced with a Hero 5 Session. I picked the Session for its small cubic form, an ideal shape for POV chest mount shots. I have a Feiyu WGS 3-axis gimbal for stabilization and a self-made mounting plate that fits between the straps of my backpack.

Patrick December 19, 2018

Custom Carbon Front Light Mount

Designed on Sunday, November 11th, 2018, ordered the same Sunday, paid and made the following Monday, mailed on Tuesday, and arrived on Wednesday. If you ever need something done out of carbon plate, contact Rolf Meichtry at CNC-Modell.ch. He's not just quick; he does some…