148 cable ties
21 August 2022 11:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
igenlodeI got up early on Saturday and walked around town looking for cable ties so that I could safely cycle to market (which was obviously not an option with an electronic sensor dangling off my front fork by a single tie).
I eventually obtained some at the fourth shop I tried, although to be fair when I got them back and opened the bag they turned out to be somewhat smaller than the snapped cable ties I'd taken with me for comparison, and in fact the slots in the sensor were large enough to allow me to use *two* ties side by side for security. So I could probably have got away with buying the noticeably oversized cable ties that I rejected in the third shop I tried, for fear that they wouldn't go through the slots provided. (The first two shops simply didn't have any, although the second shop thought they did but couldn't find any on the shelf!)
So I now have a new cycle computer reasonably securely fixed -- the magnet is loose already, and of course almost impossible to tighten properly with its recessed hexagonal nut -- and just have to learn how to use it. This mainly consists of trying to remember which button combinations will reset the 'current trip' counters without wiping all the rest of the data or inviting me to change the time setting on the clock :-p
This model has two buttons whereas the former model only had one, plus an extra two display modes (average speed and elapsed trip time), so the opportunities for different button-presses multiply quite alarmingly! The general principle seems to be that you hold down the left-hand button to reset the current display, save in the case of the clock, where you use the right-hand button to enter editing mode and the left-hand button to adjust the displayed time. I still haven't got the hang of Freeze Frame Memory mode ("It's unnecessary to press the LEFT button except choosing the Freeze Frame Memory mode").
It doesn't really help that, as is apparent above, the manual has clearly been translated from some other language! (Fitting instructions: "Tear off double stick side of under-frame, fixed it on the bike handlebar roughly", e.g. "Remove the paper backing from the double-sided adhesive pad, attach it to the underside of the cycle computer holder and use it to fix this unit into the approximate desired position on the handlebars" :-D)
And I also have a bag with hundred and forty-eight spare 2·5mm disposable cable ties for any future bike maintenance purposes -- at any rate, they are definitely not the sort of thing I normally use!
At the same time I took the opportunity to buy a pack of two replacement carabiners for my water bottle, which has chewed through at least three 'toy' carabiners including the one it was originally supplied with. The problem is not the end-to-end strength of the metal hoop; the problem is that the little spring gate gets bent sideways in its rivets and ceases to lock firmly into the main hook at all.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Climbing_gear_-_Broken_Carabiner_-_18.jpg
The new ones are rated for a load of 50kg (although as before, the rivets securing the hinge are by far the weakest part) and are noticeably thicker and heavier for the same size. And I now have a spare.
My first evening primrose opened unexpectedly this evening; they didn't flower at all last year, being biennials (although I'm surprised there weren't any seedlings that had started themselves the previous year), and weren't showing any sign of growing flower stalks this year either until a couple of weeks ago. But one of the many crowded rosettes of leaves has now asserted sufficient dominance to throw up a stalk, and although I didn't think the buds were anything like mature, I looked out tonight and found one in full bloom.
(Not particularly scented, unfortunately, although you can smell it if you bend very close...)
I eventually obtained some at the fourth shop I tried, although to be fair when I got them back and opened the bag they turned out to be somewhat smaller than the snapped cable ties I'd taken with me for comparison, and in fact the slots in the sensor were large enough to allow me to use *two* ties side by side for security. So I could probably have got away with buying the noticeably oversized cable ties that I rejected in the third shop I tried, for fear that they wouldn't go through the slots provided. (The first two shops simply didn't have any, although the second shop thought they did but couldn't find any on the shelf!)
So I now have a new cycle computer reasonably securely fixed -- the magnet is loose already, and of course almost impossible to tighten properly with its recessed hexagonal nut -- and just have to learn how to use it. This mainly consists of trying to remember which button combinations will reset the 'current trip' counters without wiping all the rest of the data or inviting me to change the time setting on the clock :-p
This model has two buttons whereas the former model only had one, plus an extra two display modes (average speed and elapsed trip time), so the opportunities for different button-presses multiply quite alarmingly! The general principle seems to be that you hold down the left-hand button to reset the current display, save in the case of the clock, where you use the right-hand button to enter editing mode and the left-hand button to adjust the displayed time. I still haven't got the hang of Freeze Frame Memory mode ("It's unnecessary to press the LEFT button except choosing the Freeze Frame Memory mode").
It doesn't really help that, as is apparent above, the manual has clearly been translated from some other language! (Fitting instructions: "Tear off double stick side of under-frame, fixed it on the bike handlebar roughly", e.g. "Remove the paper backing from the double-sided adhesive pad, attach it to the underside of the cycle computer holder and use it to fix this unit into the approximate desired position on the handlebars" :-D)
And I also have a bag with hundred and forty-eight spare 2·5mm disposable cable ties for any future bike maintenance purposes -- at any rate, they are definitely not the sort of thing I normally use!
At the same time I took the opportunity to buy a pack of two replacement carabiners for my water bottle, which has chewed through at least three 'toy' carabiners including the one it was originally supplied with. The problem is not the end-to-end strength of the metal hoop; the problem is that the little spring gate gets bent sideways in its rivets and ceases to lock firmly into the main hook at all.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Climbing_gear_-_Broken_Carabiner_-_18.jpg
The new ones are rated for a load of 50kg (although as before, the rivets securing the hinge are by far the weakest part) and are noticeably thicker and heavier for the same size. And I now have a spare.
My first evening primrose opened unexpectedly this evening; they didn't flower at all last year, being biennials (although I'm surprised there weren't any seedlings that had started themselves the previous year), and weren't showing any sign of growing flower stalks this year either until a couple of weeks ago. But one of the many crowded rosettes of leaves has now asserted sufficient dominance to throw up a stalk, and although I didn't think the buds were anything like mature, I looked out tonight and found one in full bloom.
(Not particularly scented, unfortunately, although you can smell it if you bend very close...)