Solo Ride

Went for a longer ride tonight. This will be a shorter entry. I basically went almost as far as we did last friday. I got near a VONS and stopped there for a bit. I actually thought I was farther than I was, but I took a short break there, then headed home. Before that I did my lap twice. All in all about 11 miles.

Tomorrow I'm going to be trying to ride from the Apartment to Work. I'm taking the day off, so I don't have to ride during rush hour, and I don't have to worry about being late. I can take my time, and get used to riding that far ( 15 miles 1-way), and for that long ( 30 mins or so). I basically drive the route on autopilot in the car, but it'll be a challenge on the bike. I'm both nervous and excited about it. Looking forward to it, and dreading it. I've built up some confidence from the last few rides, whats why i'm challenging myself to do this. I figure if I don't, I'll never get anywhere with my riding.

First Impression: Bilt Air Demon Hybrid Mesh/Leather Motorcycle Jacket

Its on sale from Cycle Gear for $129.

I noticed it while browsing the Cycle Gear website. Bilt is apparently the in house brand for Cycle Gear. Explains why I don't see it sold anywhere else. At $129, its a good value. Most comparable leather/mesh hybrids start closer to 180-200. Full mesh is better in the heat, but doesn't provide as much abrasion protection. I even like the look of the jacket.

• Fit: Its a "sport" fit jacket. I recently found out this means its TIGHT. I've never had to wear anything this tight short of a rash guard. I got the size 42. Last time I got measured for a jacket, it was a 44. I had the guy at Cycle Gear help me with fit and he said the 42 fit me better. I tried on the 44, and yes i was more comfortable, but I could see it being loose enough that it would start to flap at higher speeds.  
• Looks: The looks was one of the first things that drew me to the jacket. I wanted something that I wouldn't mind wearing, even while not riding ( or more likely, wearing when I got to wherever I was going). The jacket wouldn't be mistaken for anything other than a motorcycle jacket, but it doesn't have crazy patches or anything like that. It looks like a basic jacket, that wouldn't look out of place on a sportbike, standard or cruiser. 
• Protection: Obviously being leather/mesh hybrid, this would have better abrasion protection than the full mesh jacket I was using before. The jacket looks pretty hefty, we'll see how well it performs. 
• Heat: This is my biggest concern, next to fit. With the leather, its going to be much warmer riding around in this jacket. Again, I won't know until I try riding with it on, but we'll see how it goes. There's a lot of potential air flow, so I think if I can keep the bike moving, I should be ok. 

The jacket also has a 5-year warranty, so that should help with anything that goes wrong with it. I noticed some of the stitching was already coming loose, but with the warranty I didn't sweat it as much. 

SV650s vs SV650N

Cousin came over today, he brought along their SV650. Their SV650 is the same year as mine, 2002, but it's the S version, which means full fairings, lower bars ( clip-ons), and slightly different gearing. I never really thought about just how different the two models would "feel". I knew that the fairings drastically changed the looks, but other than that, I always figured they'd feel the same. Apparently I was mistaken.

Notable Differences:

• Lower: As soon as he got on my SV650, he commented on how much higher it was. I sat on his SV650 ( I didn't feel comfortable enough in my riding ability to take it out for a ride), and confirmed that his was at least an inch or two shorter than mine. 
• Handlebars: The "S" model has clip-ons, whereas mine are the higher handlebars. Again, I didn't think this would affect the bike so much, but having the clip-ons changes how much you lean quite a bit. The "S" version lends itself to a much more sportbike stance, whereas mine is a more upright, standard position. 
• Throttle/Acceleration: He commented that mine had a more sudden acceleration. Whereas his was a linear progression, mine would start slow and build slow until a certain rev range. Then once it hits that rev range then the bike takes on a different profile and the amount of power increases drastically. We're not sure if this is because of the exhaust, or because the carbs/plugs need servicing. 
• Exhaust sound: I don't think this was particularly influenced by one being the S and the other being the N model. Because my exhaust was a modified aftermarket exhaust, the note was quite a bit different between the two bikes. Mine is a deeper rumble, while his is a higher pitched whine. This plus the backfiring issue, makes my bike sound even more like a cruiser than a sportbike. 
• Feel: The overall feel of the two bikes are very different. His is much closer to the sportbike side of things. The sitting position is crunched down, the exhaust whine is higher, and the full fairings really give it a sportbike look and feel. Mine has a higher seating position, the bike itself is taller, the exhaust has a deeper rumble and backfires. This is much closer to the "cruiser" side of things. 

I'm hoping once I get the carbs cleaned and the plugs replaced, that will eliminate some of the backfires and straighten out the throttle response. A more linear response would help with my stalling issues. I like the IDEA of a more crouched position, for aerodynamics, and looks, but I can see my back hating it quickly. I really just need to get more used to my bike.

Major Road and another Night Ride

Went out on my first ride on a Major Road on Friday. It was fun. Being around traffic is definitely a new experience. Also, having cars merging into your lane was also a new experience.

Here is a rundown of the things I've learned:

What I've gotten better at/learned:

• Shifting: I've gotten quite a bit better at downshifting. One of the things that I truly had to learn on the bike that I never had to worry about in the car was downshifting when slowing down. I guess if you've driven a manual car, then this would come more natural to you, but I've driven an automatic my entire life. It finally "clicked" and I figured out that I should stay in gear, with the throttle on most of the time, even while slowing down. Let the engine braking slow me down, and if I ever need to speed up, I just need to open up the throttle a bit. Before this I would simply clutch in, and use the brakes. Then when I stopped, I'd downshift all the way to first, and get ready to launch. This never felt natural, so I'm glad I know what to do now.

• Launching: Speaking of launches, I took my friend's advice and have been giving the bike more, smoother throttle. Its helped quite a bit with my launches. I'm more prone to dumping the clutch with a bit more throttle than I should, but its cut down on stalls quite a bit. I think the next phase will be for me to find the right amount of throttle, but not stalling is having a good impact on my confidence level.  
• 
  

Things to improve on:

• Distractions: I noticed I get just as distracted riding as I do driving. My amount of distractions when driving is pretty low, but I think its still too high for if I'm riding. Riding requires 2x more concentration than driving does. I need to be a bit more focused when riding. But not soo focused that I'm over analyzing and actually working against myself.  
• Speed/Follow distance: Follow distance is something I haven't had to worry about before. Usually I'm going pretty slow in the residential areas, so any cars in front of me will leave me in the distance quickly. In traffic, I'm keeping up and trying to maintain speed. I had to remind myself a few times to keep more distance between me and the next car. But not so much distance that its an opening for another car to fill the space. 

So things are improving I think. I want to ride to work within a month or so. A few more runs through some major roads and I think I'll be ready to try the apt->work route on a weekend. After that I'll try riding to work.

First Group + Night Ride

Got out on the SV650 again last friday. I wasn't doing great at first, was shifting badly, and stalling out like crazy. Even had a panic stop in for good measure. A friend came over with his Victory and we rode around together. I showed him the little loop I've been doing, and we stopped at the park I've stopped at before. He tried out the SV and gave me some tips on things he noticed I was doing, and little quirks of the bike that he found.

Tips

• More Gas: Specifically, more, smoother, gas. He noticed I wasn't actually giving it continuous gas from the start. I'd give it some gas, let off, then give it even more. That little blip is enough to bog the engine down. I should just give it gas, and keep that gas on as I let the clutch out. I tried that a few times and it's worked better.
• Look Up: I've been looking down more, and trying to look when I'm trying to stop and brake. He said that will unbalance me and just look up. If I stop short or a bit far, its no big deal.

We headed out after the loop and went to get something to eat. We went through a side street, and crossed the main street. He stayed behind me until the cross street ( so I had plenty of time at the light in case I stalled). Once we passed that he got in front because I didn't know where we were going. 

Following someone is a new experience for me. I had to figure out how far away to keep him. For a bit I was target-fixated and kept steering towards his bike. It was nice following someone because I didn't have to worry too much about how fast/slow I was going for the road. I just matched his speed, and kept a cushion. We also hit quite a few green lights, so it was one of the longer stretches of uninterrupted riding I've done. 

We headed to Ogge's Pizza and had some dinner there. By the time we were done eating it was dark, so it was my first night ride. I still had my tinted visor, so I had to keep that up, but other than that, night riding is fun. There's less cars, its cooler, and seems peaceful. When I'm more experienced I'll definitely have to do it again. 

My first time parking somewhere for real =). 

More Road Time, and some lessons

Stopped at a parking space near a residential park. Had to check the GPS to see where I was. 

Got back out on the road with the SV650 today after work. I actually had to work myself up before I could get the courage to get on the road again. That drop, even though it was very calm and controlled, still shook me more than I thought it did.

Once underway I made about an 8 mile ride around the neighborhood. Yes 8 miles isn't much on a motorcycle, especially considering I stopped twice, but I'm taking it very slow.

I expanded on the route I took last Friday. I did a long loop around the neighborhoods surrounding my apartment. Got onto a night curving straighaway that got me up to 35mph ( flying I know!) in third gear. I went up a hill, which included an incline hill start from stop. I had my first experience with a long downhill, and a long uphill.

I even did my first stop light, crossing a major street, and had cars next to me. After my first lap through the residential neighborhoods, I got ambitious and headed towards the main street. This street is on another hill, incline. I ended up being at the light, with no cars behind me ( fortunately). There were cars next to me though. I was nervous waiting for the light to change. When it did, I almost stalled it but I clutched in a bit to give the carbs some time to get the fuel and then let it out once the revs came up. I even made the left turn into the AAA strip-mall. Woots.

I went back and did the loop once more ( but without passing my apartment and heading to the main street again). It was a new experience being around cars on my sides. Up to now, my only experience was having them behind me ( which feels sooo much closer on a bike than in a car), and a few times, having them in front of me.

Lessons I learned today:

Parking lot = First gear:

When heading back into my apartment's parking area, I was in 2nd gear from the decent climb up the hill. I figured that I could probably stay in 2nd gear, all the way to the parking spot. This would have been true, had I kept up the speed I was going. Unfortunately right before the ramp into the parking lot, I slowed down to less than 10mph. 

At some point I was going slow enough, that I had the clutch all the way out, no throttle, and in 2nd gear. The bike promptly stalled when the revs got low enough. Since the clutch was all the way out, that LOCKED the tires. I skidded to a halt before I could even think to pull the clutch in. 

This could have been a very dangerous situation if I was leaned over in anyway, or if I was going faster. Fortunately I was straight up, so after it stalled I simply skidded to a halt, nothing hurt but my already beaten pride. If I was leaned over enough, I would probably have dropped the bike or worse slid out. Had I been going faster, I could have been propelled over the bars. Though this is a fallacy since if I was going faster, I wouldn't have stalled out in that situation anyway.

Lesson learned: If I'm in a parking area as tight and slow as my apartment's, its time for 1st gear. 

Grabbing is bad:

On the hill during my first or second lap, I was trying to make sure I didn't stall. I was at a stop sign, on an incline, and no one behind me. I was feathering the clutch, and trying to keep the revs up to not stall. I kept the revs up a bit too high and grabbed a handful of throttle. This jumped the revs from a manageable 1.5-2.5k to a hurried 3.5-5k. I had to hold on to the bars in order to keep on the bike. This of course caused me to yank on the throttle even more. I regained control pretty quickly, and let off the throttle. 

It wasn't that dangerous because I did still have the clutch half-way in. If the bike really did get away from me, my instinct would have been to grab the clutch as well, which would have stopped the surge of torque. 

It would have been much more dangerous had I been on a 600cc inline-4 supersport, or worse a 1000cc superbike. I could easily have wheeled the thing and gotten into some major troubles. Thank you Reddit, and everyone that told me to start out on a small bike. Yes a 250cc bike would be lighter and more manageable, but I don't think the 650 is that unwieldy, and my back appreciates the larger frame. 

Conclusion:

I'm slowly building up confidence in my clutch control, and overall control of the bike. My stops still leave a bit to be desired ( they're not all that smooth and I tend to put my feet down too early). I also haven't had very much sustained riding. Most of the riding I've been doing have been short bursts, since there's not a lot of long uninterrupted straightaways in residential areas. I don't think I'm quite ready to tackle a major street yet, but I do think I should try stopping less. Today I stopped twice, once to look at the map to see where I was, and another simply because I didn't know what else to do. I think it might help if I try actually having a goal to get to, instead of just riding around. 

Its certainly coming along. 

Instagram

I've been really getting into photography the past few months. Today I rediscovered Instagram. To most people those two should be mutually exclusive, but hear me out. I think I finally see what the appeal to instagram is. It lets you make snapshots look... composed.

By "composed" I mean it looks like you took a few minutes, to think about what you were taking. Good or bad, it give sit a bit of a processed look.

Composition is my weakest trait, photographically speaking. I tend to just shoot, and try to fix it in post more than anything. I'm horrible at it. I'm just starting to actually take a few seconds, and think about what I'm shooting. My photos have gotten better for it, but they're still not what I would consider good. They're informational, rather than artistic.

With instagram, you can fake it. It lets you "fix" that image afterwards. It gives the illusion that you took the shot with something in mind. People will still judge whether you actually succeeded, or what the heck you were thinking, but it does make them think. I guess in a way its a shortcut.

Don't get me wrong. People can create amazing things on instagram. But I'm just saying it lets people cover up their mistakes, me included. I might start using it more, simply to set myself to take more pictures.

Recently I've noticed, I don't upload a lot of what I take, simply because the post processing seems a bit daunting. I can make the image look technically good, but there's nothing interesting about the picture.

A few minutes ago I took a shot of the sv650 I took on my first street ride. Ran it through instagram, and added some minimal processing. Made it look a bit over-saturated ( a guilty pleasure I'll admit) and posted it up. Maybe I'm comfortable showing that because thats the norm in instagram?

Either way, bottom line, anything that makes people take more pictures and share them, can't be all bad.

iPhone/iPad/iPod Calendar + Google Calendar not all calendars sync...

I had a problem with my Google Calendars. Some would sync with the Calendar app on my phone. Some would not.

I tried different things, but apparently its buried in this web address:

http://m.google.com/sync

Go there, find the device you'd like to edit, and find the calendars you want to sync.

No fuss, no muss.

SV650

The past few weeks have been motorcycle fever at the old homestead. For a few years now I've wanted to learn to ride a motorcycle. I've also been putting it off, mostly because of time and money. Those concerns have ebbed and waned, but I've always put the motorcycle off. I literally woke up 3-4 weeks ago and the first thing I thought of coming out of my sleep induced stupor was...

"Today's the day. I'm going to sign up for the MSF...".

That as they say, was that. Signed up for the earliest one I could find ( which was last week). The class in general went well, I did better on somethings than others. In the end I passed the course, and was able to get my skills test waiver. The friday previously I went to the DMV and got my motorcycles permit.

Fast forward to Monday and I found a decently priced motorcycle on craigslist. It was the model I liked, looked to be in generally good shape, and for the price range. A friend from work was free to come with me to take a look ( he's been riding for ages). The bike was rough, but the seller assured me that a carb cleaning was all it needed to get it running in tip-top shape. ( More on that later). Negotiated a decent deal, taking into account the future work needed for the bike.

My coworker was gracious enough to ride the bike home for me. The ride improved on the way back, but it was still rough. Still it looked awesome sitting in my parking spot.

2002 SV650N - new to me

Update: Tried riding it the next morning after I got it. Went ok. Its running pretty rough, so I stalled out quite a bit. I was uncomfortable revving the engine because it was early in the morning. I was uncomfortable going down the slope on it, so I ended up walking it. I had issues riding it up the incline. I stalled out and was having trouble getting going. I eventually just gave it more gas than I wanted to and that did the trick. Unfortunately on the next lap I decided to go the other way. I was going slow, went over a speed bump and the bike started to lean. It went farther than I could save and it dropped. I got it down very gently, but I couldn't save it. Getting it back over again took quite a bit of effort, but I was able to do it. It was quite embarrassing.

Update 2: Originally I thought my back took the brunt of the drop. I was wrong. It is in fact my wrist that took most of the hit. I decided to take the rest of Thursday off from riding, help me recenter, and shake off the drop.

Update 3: Called a shop and its going to cost $500 to get the carbs cleaned. Another $500 for the tune-up. That's crazy. I haven't decided what to do, but I'm pretty sure I'm gonna have to do SOMETHING. I want the bike in tip-top shape, mainly to ease my riding and to help with safety. I really wanted to go to THIS shop because it got really good reviews on yelp, and also its very close by to me. Riding on the streets seems a much more attainable goal than riding on the freeway.

Update 4: Had a decent outing on the bike. Finally got on the street ( woohoo ) even if it was just a small side street next to my place. Still it had plenty of hills, stop signs and even had to start on a hill, and make a left. That took a few tries and a few stalls, but I got it done. It was nice to build some confidence in the bike. Still really need to work on my smooth stops, but its coming along.

35mm F/1.8

Broke down a few days ago, and decided to get the 35mm F/1.8. Going to E3 was what really put me over the edge in getting this lens. The kit 18-55 F/4-5.6 lens did much better than I was expecting in the low light of the exhibit floor. I had the auto ISO on, with a max of 6400. It did actually go all the way to that ISO a few times. It worked out pretty well, because of how dark the whole scene was, it really helps mask the grain. It was the first time I was really able to see how to work with what I had. I took enough pictures, and had enough time, that I could think about what I was doing.

After reviewing the pictures afterwards, I was able to salvage quite a few with lightroom, but it was pretty clear that a faster lens would have been great. That, plus the unanimous praise I'm always reading about the 35mm finally pushed me over the edge. It is normally $200 everywhere, but recently its actually gone up to $220. I found it locally at Best Buy for the original $200, and I had a $25 Gift Card for Best Buy. It seemed destined to be. I bought it on friday and have been playing with it ever since.

 Lens:

 It's pretty tiny. Its amazing how small it makes my D5100 look, compared to when the kit 18-55, or especially the longer 55-200 is on it. I can only imagine how tiny it would make a smaller bodied DSLR, such as the D3100. I do agree that the lens is very "plastic", there's no doubt that its plastic through and through. This isn't really a negative for me, since all my other lenses have the same feeling ( the 55-200, feels super light compared to its size), but I can imagine how "cheap" it must feel for someone used to the more substantial metal bodied lenses.

 Pictures:

 The 1.8 aperture creates a razor-thin DOF. Its taking some getting used to. I naively though, her thats a wide open aperture, that's great for low-light. Just shoot wide open, never need a flash. I was sorely mistaken. I've taken to stopping it down to 2.8, which gives me a decent amount of DOF. Its still much faster than the 4-5.6 of the kit. It's also weird to be shooting with a prime. I knew this would take some getting used to, but I never imagined I used the zoom so much. The first few shots I took, I actually unfocused the camera because I was trying to find the zoom ring. I'm just now remembering to frame using my feet, instead of sitting in one place and trying to zoom. I've been reading online, how using the same focal-length gives your photos a bit of uniformity. I didn't think that was big deal, and to be honest, I still don't. But since I've been shooting so much at 35mm, then I could imagine that it would. Whether this becomes a significant thing, we'll have to see.


 Pics to come later.

RAM issues

Been fighting this all weekend. Having major RAM issues with the quad. I bought another 4GB of ram to up my total to 8GB. Unfortunately I still have DDR2, so I had to buy 2x2GB sticks. This means that all 4 of my slots are now filled. It seems that motherboards are a bit fussy when all 4 slots are used up. I've tried upping the voltage on the RAM and upping the voltage on the chipset.

The problem is I have no idea when its actually "stable". I've been getting file corruption issues since I installed the ram but I have no idea when they were caused. I thought I had it completely stable, even running Prime95 and Intel Burn Test multiple times without any issues. But I then got a "No entry point" error running Premiere and another corrupted wallpaper. I've tried the new ram by itself, in slots 0 and 2, and that seemed to work ok. But I didn't memtest it very long. I tried the old ram in slots 1 and 3, and that didn't allow the motherboard to POST at all.

I would think this is something bad, but it could just be that its not designed to run with memory in those 2 slots only ( though the motherboard manual mentions that configuration as valid). It could be that those 2 slots are just not quite good.

 I've gone back to Square 1. I've put everything back to stock. All 4 are in, running at DDR800, with stock voltages. I've been running Memtest for the past few hours, and so far no errors. This is a bit distressing because I know this configuration before caused windows not to load properly. This may mean that memtest just cannot detect the errors ( or the errors aren't memory related).

Update: So memtest cannot find the error. I ran it for about 3 hours. Which isn't much for memtest, but it was enough to get full coverage once. It passed fine. I rebooted into windows to make sure I was still seeing the errors and as soon as I did, stuff would refuse to load, and programs crashed. So I'm thinking this isn't a memory issue at all. Its a chipset issue. I've upped the chipset voltage to +.150V. I also overclocked the processor a bit to 2.8Ghz ( from 2.6). I probably shouldn't do that, but its annoying me now, so I figure why not.

I've run Prime95+ for about 18 hours, and it was fine. Now I'm trying Intel Burn Test 10x to see how that goes. I haven't seen any file corruption in the wallpapers, so I'm hoping if this gets through IBT. I can call it stable and just reinstall windows again to get rid of the file corruption. Update 2: So IBT returned an error. It said that it might be because of instability or UAC. I tried upping the voltage a bit more, but it turned yellow and wouldn't POST. So I kept the voltage at +.175 ( I was wrong before it wasn't at .150) and upped the FSB one notch up. Now I'm rerunning IBT, as administrator and seeing how things are going.

BTGuard [Follow up]

Speeds did take a hit. Some torrents aren't as bad as others. I used their testing torrent ( which is really just ubuntu 10.04 iso) and the speeds maxed out my connection. But for my day-to-day downloading, speeds are cut about half. Some torrents were especially hit. Whereas I was getting 100k-200k/s before, I'd be lucky to get into 60k/s with BTGuard.

Usually this isn't such a big deal. For the average 350MB file, this means that it takes 20 minutes instead of 10 minutes. But if you're downloading something closer to the 8GB to 20GB range, then this could be a significant increase in how long you're in the swarm.

I haven't quite decided if BTGuard is worth it. I was originally getting it so that I could get the bigger torrents without worrying about having to be in the swarm for a long time, unprotected. But if BTGuard's speeds are so slow that I end up being in the swarm 2x-3x longer, then the protection its proxies give me may not be worth it.

BTGuard

Started subscribing to BTGuard. All the recent privacy and idiocy with what Congress and the House are trying to do with the internet has annoyed me enough in order to pay for anonymisation. I'm not going to say what I download, but I figured its worth the $6 a month for other people not to know either.

So far its worked decently. The speed is slower than I'm used to. On torrents that used to scream by at 1.1MB/s, now plod along at 300-400 KB/s. Still fast, but there certainly is a hit. With it being more anonymous, I'm not as worried about keeping it on longer.

We'll see if I keep it going after this month.

utserver and webmin

Found something interesting when trying to install webmin on the ubuntu server.
I recently installed utserver ( uTorrent Linux Alpha Server). Apparently, regardless of what port you specify it uses for the webui, it will also bind and use port 10000. This is a problem because webmin likes port 10000 and will not install if it is already taken.

From the utorrent support forums. The way around it is to shut down utserver ( thus freeing port 10000). Then install webmin. After that, re-run utserver. utServer will find that port 10000 is taken and then will choose a pre-defined alternate port.

The reasoning why utserver needs another port in the first place had something to do with device pairing. To be honest I didn't pay attention because it didn't involve anything I was doing.

OC1 Clinic

Yesterday I went to an OC1 clinic put on by Hanohano. Here is me trying to record as much of it as I can before I forget it. The clinic was touted as a "Beginner's Clinic", with a lot of information geared towards the very newbie OC1 paddler, and even for those who are looking to buy their first OC1.

I'm trying to get the thoughts recorded before I forget it, so it won't be as organized as I'd like. Maybe afterwards I'll try reorganizing.

The clinic went very well. Chris Hill, the HanoHano men's coach. He was very informative. He knew his shit.

So he went over first how an OC1 is made, and what the differences are between non-vacuum bagged, vacuum-bagged, carbon and kevlar layups are. Non-vacuum bagged, is also a wet layup. All OC1s have a core material, and the layup is applied to either side. Non-vacuum bagged layups are done by hand, and the excess resin is squeegeed out. This results in uneven application and varies the weight greatly. This is mostly used for one-off, or cheaper layups. Exotics are made this way also. Vacuum bagged is still fiberglass, but using a bag and vacuum to suck out the excess resin. The example that was given was gluing 2 pieces of paper, and putting an encyclopedia on top to squeeze out the excess. My huki was done this way. A carbon layup is much much more rigid, and in the water transmits the most paddler energy, into forward motion energy. It is also very easily dented and susceptible to crush marks. The Hurricane is a carbon canoe ( apparently all hurricanes are carbon). To keep the carbon's efficiency, but give it some flex in order to take some beating, kevlar is added sometimes. This gives it a bit of a flexible skin over the much more rigid carbon. S-glass wasn't mentioned. I guess I'll have to look that up myself.

Mechanics of paddling were explained as well He made a distinction between paddling technique and paddling mechanics. He taught the latter, but did not touch the former, in respect of the different styles that coaches from other clubs teach. The mechanics are based on physics and are absolute, how those mechanics are performed is style, which is different for every club and every paddler.

One of the mechanics mentioned was forward angle. When paddling the force of the effort is usually ( the majority anyway) is perpendicular to the blade face. The movement of the canoe is 180 degrees from that force, so the opposite side. If your blade is at a forward angle then you are either propelling the canoe upwards, out of the water, or forwards in the water ( depending on the angle). If you have a negative angle, then you are pushing the canoe down into the water. He also mentioned that while negative angle is bad, that doesn't mean that you should get your blade out as soon as you start getting negative angle. It just means you shouldn't be applying force at the negative angle. Especially in OC1s, being comfortable is very important. After the stroke, its fine to stop putting pressure and allow the blade to come out of the water naturally. Also if you try to pull the blade out right at your hip, where the blade face is again perpendicular to forward motion, then you're acting as a brake as as the blade is in the water.

He also mentioned having reasonable personal goals out of paddling. Its not reasonable to tell yourself that you're gonna go beat the big boys of paddling when you're just starting out. He mentioned his triangle-into pyramid. The three corners are:

1. Athleticism
2. Fitness
3. Technique.

Athleticism is the natural, genetic gift people have towards sports or physical activity. People sometimes don't like to talk about it, but its true. Some people are just genetically predisposed to be good towards certain things. Some people are just really great at sports. You can tell if you're one of those people by looking back at your own history. Have you always been into sports, have you been good at almost any sport you've done? Is your hand-eye coordination always spot on?

Fitness is what people seem to sometimes confuse with Athleticism. This is something you can work on. This is your weight vs your strength vs your flexibility vs your endurance, etc. Hit the gym, cross train, or paddle. The more fit you are, the better at paddling you can be. ( Can not will).

Technique is another area that can be worked on. But in my opinion, people seem to stop working on early. He mentioned that he knows quite a few very good paddlers that have shit technique. Its just that their Fitness level and Athleticism are so high that they can still be good with the shitty technique. This is also where efficiency would come into play.

He said the last part that makes it into a pyramid is the man-hours spent on the sport. The first 3 are the base that determine the foundation of your paddling, but the man-hours are what determine its height. I thought that was very good way of putting it.

Drills:

He taught us 3 drills, which he named Pistons, Throwing the Hips, and the Frankenstein. The way he tested these was 20 strokes.

Pistons:
The idea of it is simple, but I had some trouble getting this drill down. The point of the drill is to combat pain and fatigue in your hip flexors. Normally to get the twist, specially in an OC6, most people will coil their body up. To get that coil, they use their hip flexors, which are very small muscles to start the twist. In an OC1 this is much easier to see. The point of the piston drill is to use your opposite leg to do that work, instead of your hip. I've always had an issue with this, but never thought there was anything I could do about it.

The idea is to push off with your opposite leg. For example if you are paddling on the left side. You push off your RIGHT leg, that pushes your right hip back, and throws your left hip forward. This puts you in the normal Kau position, and you are ready to take a stroke. Once your are taking the stroke, you use your left leg as normal to get the drive. On the right side its the opposite. Left leg opens you up, and puts you into the Kau position, drive off your right leg during the stroke.

The drill itself to get you use to it, is to sit on the OC1. Brace with your heels into the footwells. Put your but to the back of the seat ( do not move the seat). Put your hands on your knees. Push down on your right knee, and feel yourself twist to the left, then push the other knee and see yourself twist the other way. Keep doing this ot get used to the motion. Then try to do it without your hands. Try to do it without having to think about i.

Throwing the hips:
I had quite a bit of trouble with this one also. Visualize yourself sitting on a skateboard. You're trying to launch yourself, in that skateboard, forward. What you do is throw your hips forward in order to create motion. I don't quite get this drill, and will have to compare notes with the other sardines to see if they understood it better.

Frankenstein:
This is very similar to the drill I have new people do. It involves keeping your arms perfectly straight. You keep your arms straight throughout the entire stroke, catch, pull and recovery. It really exaggerated the twist, and coupled with the other drills, really gets you efficient. I got the concept pretty quickly, having done it a bunch of times in the OC6, but it was still a bit different trying to do it on the OC1, especially on the right side.

Stability:

He mentioned that leaning overly to the left actually causes the canoe to be over-stabilized and is actually less stable. The most stable the canoe is when you're paddling on the left is with the paddle in the water. The least stable is at the recovery. Apparently this had something to do with the way your hips are when your leaning over. I don't remember when you're the most stable on the side.

He also talked about transporting the canoe. Long story short, the racks we got were awesome for small cars.

There's probably more, and I'll add it as soon as I remember.

HowTo: Repair an Outrigger Canoe Paddle. Part 2 Whole paddle repair

This part will be similar to Part 1, but this time with a more involved repair. This paddle is owned by the club, and was not in great shape. It had the usual scratches and dings like Enzo, but it also had significant water damage on both the handle and the two sides of the face. With the extent of the damage involved, I decided that spot-treatment would be ineffective, and the whole paddle must be redone.

Side View: The edges are scraped up badly.
Wood has started to rot.

As can be seen, there is enough damage to the handle that visible splitting of the wood can be seen. Also, the edges of the face are starting to fray. In some of the problem areas it you can even see some red paint from the canoes. The rest of the gallery can be seen here.

Step 1: Identify Problem Areas

2/3 of each side of the handle are worn. There moderate water damage on each side. Both sides are deep enough to observe wood splitting and a crack running down the paddle. The face has similar damage on each side, with fraying towards the bottom. The face itself is in relatively good condition, but could use a new coat of varnish. The handle has quite a bit of water damage and what I guess to be mold. Must be sanded down. A worrying area is the right side of the face, where a visible crack seems to be running down the side.

Each of those areas will have to be sanded down. Remove as much of the rotting wood as possible. Try to sand down into the cracks/splits to avoid sharp edges. Remove varnish from the entire paddle and revarnish.

Step 2: Sand

I sanded the problem areas first. Again used 220 grit sandpaper. I could have used a courser grit, especially considering how much material I ended up removing anyway, but the 220 ensured that I didn't take off too much material at once. This was done all hand sanding. On the damage to the handle I sanded off all the red paint, as well as evening out the cracks.

Majority of the fraying has been sanded down.
Varnish will give it some strength.

On the face, I sanded the outsides until the I got through the fraying wood. I tried to smooth over the crack as best I could. I got down to the point where the crack was small. I could have gone all the way down, but that might have changed the shape of the face or made it uneven from one side to the other. I also could have Epoxied the crack together, but at this point I wasn't ready to start working with Epoxy yet.

After the problem areas were sufficiently sanded, I went about sanding the rest of the paddle. I decided to just remove as much of the varnish as I could from the whole paddle, and redo it. This would let me experiment with how best to varnish ( more on that later) and give me experience on sanding.

Note: do this in a well ventilated area. I did it in my garage, with the door down and no airflow. Not a smart idea.

Step 3: Varnish

Because I decided to redo the entire paddle, I got the liquid version of the same spar varnish. I initially tried using a normal bristle brush, and a more expensive natural fiber brush. Both worked well... for the first coat. But I was not able to clean them thoroughly well enough, and the next time I tried to use them, they were much too hard. Finally a friend told me to try the opposite, the super cheap foam brushes. Use them for one session, then simply throw them away. This worked much much better.

Also I experimented with different techniques for brushing on the varnish. I've found that super thin coats work the best. It drastically reduces the likely hood of runs and pooling. I would start at the "shoulders" of the paddle ( as it hangs face down from some dental floss). I would "paint" from beyond the shoulder, then brush all the way down past the end of the paddle. Again this is to avoid runs and pooling for when you change direction.

If you decide to do many coats of thin varnish this is even less of a problem, as you simply keep brushing until the coat evens out. Be careful as the foam brush tends to simply suck in the varnish, I found myself almost squeezing the brush along the dry areas of the paddle to create a small pool then spreading it with the brush. Experiment to see how it works best for you.

I did one side completely, then the other. After doing the other side, check the reverse( original) side again for any runs that you may have caused. Usually I'll find a few big ones and brush those away. If you do it quick enough the other side will still be wet enough to allow you to brush. If the varnish has gone tacky, don't brush or you'll only end up leaving brush strokes in the varnish.

Step 4: Scuff/Finish Sand

As before, you have to create and abrasive surface between coats. You can use the same scrubbing pad. But I chose to use the 220-grit for the first few coats. The first few coats had quite a few imperfections and drips, so the extra abrasiveness helped me get rid of them. If all else fails, simply keep sanding until you sand away the imperfection and get back to the bare wood.

I must have added about 10 coats of varnish and sanded away at least half of them.

Step 5: Finish Coat

Keep repeating as in Part 1. A change I did do is that towards the end, I switched from liquid to spray varnish. This ensured that the last few coats would be easier to apply and get perfect. This was especially useful on the face, where imperfections were easy to see.

In hindsight I probably could have kept using the liquid varnish, but my skill was not up to it, and neither was my patience.

The results seem to work out fine. There's a visible difference between the handle and face ( the handle I kept using liquid varnish). I was originally planning on doing a final coat on both parts, but by then the paddle was needed and I figured it was "good enough". When the season ends I'll probably try again to perfect the technique.


Notes

The hardest part of this kind of repair was the face. You can see a lot of drips on the face, and its especially easy to see imperfections in the face of the shaft.

HowTo: Repair an Outrigger Canoe Paddle. Part 1, Simple Repairs

For the past few months I've gotten into repairing outrigger canoe, bent shaft paddles. I started into it because my own paddle, Enzo, needed some minor work done. Mostly just some scratches and small gouges in the face and handle. Those were easy enough to repair, once someone told me how. Unfortunately, the web was less than its usual helpful self when it came to repairing paddles. Hopefully this series of entries will help with that.

Figure 1: Scratches

First round is the simple repairs. These include wood that's been exposed to water, and has started to intake water. Simple scratches (shown in Figure 1) or small dings are pretty easy to repair.

Step 1: Identify the Problem Areas
The first question you have to ask is, is the damage slight enough that you can just fix that small part of the paddle, or is it large enough to warrant stripping and re-coating the entire paddle. Most of the time if you're contemplating fixing your paddle, then its probably bad enough that you'd want to fix the whole thing.

On my first paddle, Enzo, the damage wasn't too bad. Enzo is the "Nani" model, all-wood outrigger racing paddle made by Kialoa. Unfortunately I didn't think to take pictures of the damage before hand. The damage was localized mostly at the handle ( from being stood up on the ground), the shaft ( from banging on the gunwales), and the edge of the face ( from banging into the canoe, and general wear). In our Canoe Club, it is considered very disrespectful to stand your paddle face down, so Enzo has almost always been handle down. Even with this, the tip of the face was still banged up, think how bad it would be if it stood on the face all the time!

Step 2: Sand

The next thing you have to do is sand away the varnish. I chose to use 220-grit sandpaper and hand-sanded all the rough areas. Any areas where wood has started to rot, should be sanded until the majority of the rotted wood has been removed. Be careful of removing too much wood. If the water damage looks pretty deep, it might be worth just smoothing it down, and letting the varnish penetrate through the damage. It won't look as uniform, but you don't risk compromising the structural integrity of the paddle.

Step 3: Varnish

For such simple, smaller repairs, I would suggest using a spray varnish. I used Helmsman Spar Varnish. This is used on marine craft and will work well on the paddle. Apply a thin coat on the area, just enough to cover the work area. A mistake I made was not putting enough varnish. You should put enough to coat the area, but not enough to drip. If you're not sure, err on the side of too little. This repair will require multiple coats, so don't worry if the area doesn't look the same as the rest of the paddle.

Put a coat or two of the varnish, about an hour or two apart. This will create a nice base to work with. Let these coats dry for at least 24 hours. Also, before spraying the varnish, take a slightly damp towel and a dry towel, and go over the area. The damp towel will remove the excess saw dust, and the dry towel will ensure that any water from the damp towel won't penetrate into the wood. Do this right before varnishing ( so that dust doesn't have a chance to get back on).

Step 4: Finish-sanding

At this point the area should be relatively smooth. Because these areas are high traffic, we need multiple coats to build up a nice buffer of protection. At this point take a pot scrubber, such as this. And go over the area to create an abrasive surface. This will allow the next coat to adhere better to the previous coat. Make sure you don't take off too much. Now is the time to remove any drips that might have occured, or smooth out any lumpy areas. Consider going back to a 220 grit sandpaper for big drips.

My rule of thumb is to use the scrubber until the gloss of the varnish has been removed. Go over it again with the damp and dry towels.

Step 5: Revarnish and repear

At this point you simple put another layer of varnish onto the paddle. Alternate sanding and adding a coat and let the varnish build up. On Enzo I went for about 4-5 coats total. When spraying, make sure to go "past the area". The spray should be even and consistant. Start a few inches away from the wood and spray a nice even coat. Then keep spraying an inch or two PAST the wood, before changing direction. This ensures that the speed changes do not deliver more or less varnish.

Face of the blade has been fixed.

Here are some shots of the finished product. It came out pretty well. Note: This paddle isn't the same paddle as pictured in Figure 1. I didn't think to take pictures of the damage before starting work.

 The handle still shows some of the damage left in the wood. To remove the rest of the damage would have required quite a bit more sanding. I didn't think I could remove it without significantly altering the shape of the handle. Plus I didn't want the handle to get too small.

The rest of the pictures from this repair are available in my gallery.

Google+

Just received a Google+ invite and signed up. Now I have to see how that affects this blog with regards to visibility.

[CYGWIN] "Sync" passwd with Windows Password

Sometimes if you add a user using window's control panel, they won't automatically get added to the /etc/passwd file in cygwin. This is annoying if you're trying to set up OpenSSH access. To "Sync" them, use mkpasswd. Like so:

mkpasswd -l -u >> /etc/passwd

This is also useful if cygwin is complaining that your password is incorrect, when you know its right. Just be careful to remove the old entry in passwd. Got this info from:

Etienne Mbuyi on Cygwin mailbag. Thanks!
http://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2005-07/msg00933.html

A toe into patch 4.1's new 5-mans: Zul'Gurub

I got some unexpected free time last night so I fired up WoW. I haven't logged in for a few days, and haven't played seriously in over a week. I've been very busy, and in a way, kind of burned out from WoW. I've tried to stay away from the Computer in general when I'm home. Usually I'm on my iPad watching The West Wing ( just discovered this awesome series) or Farscape ( also just discovered, also good).

Fired up WoW and went through the long process of updating to patch 4.1. It didn't take near as long as I was expecting. While the Launcher patched up WoW, I was on curse client updating as many addons as available. Curse Client makes this so much easier, even the free version. Even with about a dozen addons updated, most of my main addons were out of date. I bit the bullet and had WoW load them anyway. I disabled some of the more likely-to-be-broken ones, such as xperl. Fortunately Healbot was working ok, which allowed me to try one of the new 5-mans.

I queued up and it popped almost instantly into Zul'Gurub. I'd never actually done the raid before, so everything was new to me. We got to the first boss High Priestes Venoxis.

The fight is pretty tough, especially with a PUG. 2 players are "linked" and have to run away from each other, as well as everyone else. After a few seconds an AOE explosion happens, if the linked players are still close enough for the AOEs to overlap, they're insta-dead. Then there's a maze of green slime on the ground that has to be avoided at all costs, and thats just phase 1. Phase 2, he turns into a snake and does a spit attack, and then something called Bloodvenom. Basically a whole lot of green is sprayed everywhere and you have to make sure it doesn't hit you, and you don't hit the maze. Rinse and repeat.

The PUG I was in was doing ok, learning as we were going. The problem was that after about 2 wipes one person would drop, which means a new person popped up, and it would take them another 2-3 wipes to get up to speed. By then another person would drop, and eventually we couldn't get anywhere because people weren't staying long enough to learn the damn fight.

I'd never had that kind of experience in DF before. Usually people would drop on the first wipe or just stay and finish. Eventually after about a dozen wipes, 3 tanks, and countless DPS I dropped group as well. It just wasn't worth it anymore. Maybe next time I'll try a guild group first.