offtrail.guru

Three weeks ago, the Swiss news portal 20 Minutes reported that instead of doing a traditional apprenticeship, young people dream about getting rich with drop shipping, a business model where one runs a customer-facing online store without keeping an inventory and without handling the shipping process. So basically, these kids are hoping to make a living selling cheap goods without doing much work. Why would anyone want to buy something at an inflated price from a drop shipper when you can get the same on AliExpress at the lowest cost and often with free shipping? Whenever I see something unbranded or from an unfamiliar brand, I check AliExpress. Most of the time, I find the same item for a fraction of the price. I bought a tiny Windows 11 mini PC and often buy computer accessories there. It’s also a great site to search for cases in all shapes and sizes.

Whenever you switch a part on your bike, it’s important to do your homework. A coworker of mine once wanted to change the stem on his bike. He got one, went on the put it on the bike, only to realize that his handlebar wouldn’t fit. He had purchased a stem with a 31.8mm clamp. Unfortunately, his bike was equipped with a 35mm handlebar. It’d be easy to laugh and say what a noob. But we can’t all be experts in everything. I’m certainly not. After several winters of riding my fat bike, the axle of my crankset has worn where the bearings are seated. Without tightening the pre-load adjuster, there was noticeable play. A tightened pre-load adjuster doesn’t remove that play; it only hides it while the bike is in the work stand. The play is still there under every pedal stroke and will only worsen over time. It will also lead to premature bottom bracket failure. It was therefore time to replace the axle. Because I chose a SRAM XX1 carbon crankset at the time, a simple axle change isn’t possible. The axle and the non-drive side crank arm form an inseparable unit.

When I first started fat-biking in March of 2013, I grabbed one of my Giro Aeon road/MTB helmets and slipped on a winter cycling cap when my head felt too cold. On cold days, I took off for rides wearing a Bern Brentwood helmet that I had bought for my daily commute. Soon, it became the helmet I wore for fat-biking exclusively. For very cold or snowy days, I bought a Smith Vantage, a goggle-friendly ski helmet with ear pads and adjustable vents. The Brentwood is now ten years old. Safe for the visor, which forms one piece with the liner, it held up amazingly well. But after ten years, even a sturdy helmet such as the Brentwood should be replaced.

I’ve been wanting to digitize my old photos from 1994 and 1995 for several years. Now that I’ve had to be home a lot, it was the right time to get it done. I purchased a Plustek OpticFilm 8200i SE 35mm film scanner to scan close to 600 negatives over the last couple of months and ultimately uploaded 550 photos into a Flickr collection.

Most of my cycling photos taken during the past six years have been shot with a GoPro Hero 5 Session in video mode. When I want to snap a picture of myself riding a particular spot on a trail or capture the scenery along a particular route, I place the GoPro on the ground, press the record button, hop on the bike, ride away from the camera, turn around and ride back towards the camera. I have an extendable mini-tripod that is small enough to fit into a jersey pocket and a longer one that needs to go into a backpack or a jersey pocket if I wear a vest over it. Shooting that way takes all but a few minutes, and the video footage the GoPro recorded is often not more than a minute and a half. At home, I view the video footage on my MacBook Pro in VLC and export the snapshots I want. Then, those unedited snapshots are imported into Photos, where I crop and color-adjust them.