Mar 22 - on a roll

It was time to go shopping, so up to my computer I went !

I had a long and building list ...

-- a couple of pairs of jeans
-- a replacement dongle for my ipod shuffle
-- a new ipod shuffle that doesn't require a dongle
-- rear suspension parts ... finally decided to order a package of parts since it was cheaper than the individual parts, even if I have to throw some away
-- tie rods
-- chains, chainrings, cassette

... and I also went for a ride.

The rear suspension parts package includes the front and rear upper control arms, the link and the ball joint. Replacing these and the tie rods will necessitate another trip to the alignment shop, so I decided that I'll do them together, rather than one at a time. It remains to be seen how difficult all this will be. This doesn't address the "knock" and I'll ponder those subframe bushings when I have the car up on the jack stands. They aren't expensive but I want to see first how difficult the job will be.

The older generation ipod shuffle that I have has the controls on the earbud cord. I cannot use those earbuds so I bought a dongle and connect my own canal buds for cycling. After a year of dangling and swinging, the wires inside it broke so I need a new one to operate the device. That said, I like the on-unit controls of the newer version that Sandy has, so I bought one of those too ... they're tiny and it wouldn't hurt having both along for a long ride (1200k), since I cannot charge them during the ride.

The chains, chainrings and cassette are all spare parts. I'll go through 2-3 chains this summer and the large chainring for the crankset and the cassette were all replaced right after last year's Shenandoah 1200. I have yet to replace the small chainring since it gets less use. My shifting got very messy towards the end with noise and occasional chain slip. The teeth of the cassettes and chainrings get sloped from wear. They might very well last until the Fall, but once they get that bad I'd be in a fix without spare parts.

I "think" that I've gone through 3 cassettes for each chainring and about three chains or more per cassette, which gives you some idea as to wear. I get 2-3,000 miles or more per chain. The chains wear faster here in Florida due to the fine sand wearing the rollers and plates. Basically the chains get longer and as they get longer, they wear the teeth on the cassettes and chainrings. The idea is to change the chains before they wear too much, since they are a lot cheaper than the other parts. I have a small chain-checker tool that measures the stretch.

... and now I'm getting lots of order processing notices and scheduled delivery notices. Next week will be like Christmas as stuff starts to arrive via FedEx, UPS and USPS.

My ride took me south again; the wind was quite strong from the ESE. There was enough of a Southerly component this time, however, to make the northbound trip fun. Riding along with the wind at my back, feeling it even when I was rolling at 20-22, makes for a great ride. It was hot though and at times I wished for a little, just a little, breeze in my face !

We had Norwegian Salmon for dinner last night, good for a change. We don't eat much salmon down here. Sweet potatoes and green beans completed the picture.

I've been back and forth over the past few days with a fellow at a security monitoring company in North Bay. I'm going to put a security system in our place up north, not because I feel a particular need, but because it will pay for itself in less than a year in reduced insurance rates, which have been going through the roof. We'll only use it when we go away, not on a regular basis -- same as down here.

The back and forth has been about options and pricing. In the "big cities" they basically do the installation for free and make their money on the ongoing monitoring -- at least that's so down here -- due to the competition for your business. In remote areas, they want to charge you MSRP for the equipment and installation labour (Canadian/English spelling :), and then ongoing monitoring. It's a lot cheaper for me to purchase the equipment down here, do the installation myself, pay them to visit the site and checkout the installation and programming ... so that's my plan.

In the next little while I'll be back online deciding on the exact equipment package.

Onward ...