My Bubble Wasn't Protected

After falling off my road bike and smashing my iphone 4 rear screen a couple of years ago, I took out an insurance policy with Protect My Bubble so that I would be covered for any future damage or loss.
Actually, it only cost £18 to repair the phone, the back comes off in a surprisingly easy way (just two screws, and on my phone they were normal Philips although Apple have now "encrypted" them to a weird Pentalobe to increase customer frustration)
Anyway, the iphone5 failed to appear as Apple were extracting some more revenue by pretending they had upgraded the iphone4 by adding a letter S to the name, so I decided it was time to jump ship and go over to Android. The Galaxy S2 didn't disappoint and I have been very pleased with it. It is really robust, its dropped it many times without issue, not even a scratch. The build is certainly very plasticy but that is the very reason that it stands up to so much abuse.
On a morning I have a set routine which is my way of making sure nothing is left at home. My phone, wallet and headphone pouch go into the back left pocket of my cycling jacket. The other day this went wrong, and somehow when I got to school (a fifteen minute journey), the phone had gone.
My wife retraced the route, but the phone had gone. Time to ring Protect My Bubble!
They didn't seem to know who I was, even when I gave them an account number, but eventually I was put through to a claims department. They sent me an email with some forms to fill in. They said I had to get the phone blocked and get a crime number from the police. Of course, the police wouldn't give a crime number because it was a lost phone not a crime. They also wanted proof of purchase, but didn't accept that I didn't have this. I've had an O2 contract for ten years and upgraded regularly, getting any documentation emailed to me. Protect My Bubble wouldn't accept a forwarded email so I have to wait for O2 to send me an paper copy of the phone invoice, scan it and email it to them.
It took five days before I had a phone call from them and they said they were ringing to just go through the details of my claim.
I told them what had happened again, and they said they would be in touch. Two days later I got a letter saying they wouldn't cover me because my written statement said that the phone was in my trouser pocket whilst my verbal account said it was in my jacket!
I then Google'd Protect My Bubble and came across hundreds of similar accounts, whole web sites and even a whole Watchdog episode about them, all saying that they renege on paying out at the slightest reason and even when you successfully appeal, they then take six months to pay out.
My advice to anyone insured with them is to either switch companies, or put the payments into a glass jar until you need it!
Ive now ordered a Nexus 4, which has the benefit of when Im out of my contract, my payments will halve, (3 currently do a fifteen pound unlimited data plan), so the savings will also go into the jar so I can still upgrade every year!
Oh, and please tell everyone about this post so they learn all about how protected your bubble actually is!

Great beer and a bit of a bug!

Haven't got my s2 as I dropped it on  the way to work this morning, so I'm using the nexus 7 to take a pic of this lurvely RCH Old Slug stout which is on sale at the Cricketers in Horbury. Its a really nice pint and I intended to write a longer post until I saw the photo!
It would seem that the nexus seven takes photos in mirror image, great for web chatting but not good for using it as a camera.

Addendum - just loaded the blog post on my Chromebook - seems the photo is correctly shown when you post it!

Genesis Day One Alfine 11

This is a beautiful bike! I will be about ready for a new bike in March 2013 and I've been looking at the many models which are available. Carbon fibre? - no I don't trust its longevity, Ultegra Di2 - yes but still very expensive, Titanium - possibly but some of the models look very basic.

And then, I came across the beautiful Genesis Day One Alfine 11! Its an alloy frame which should last years and is reasonably light but the two massive selling points are the disc brakes and the Shimano Alfine 11 hub gearing. It will have a gear range greater than my triple Giant defy 2 and has the advantage of being rugged enough to do some off road riding such as the canal toe paths and some of the hills around Hebden Bridge.

Just got to save the deposit up before March...

Creating Calendar events by importing CSV files on the Chromebook

Ive used Google Calendar since it was released and now have several calendars which are fully populated. I have a work calendar which has all my school lessons, meetings etc and a separate calendar for non work items. I add calendars for theme of the week and others as they occur.
Setting up a calendar with many similar repeating items is quite easy when you apply a little thinking to the process.
In the past, I have used Excel to create the events for one week. Given five lessons a day with a mentor period and also morning meetings there can be thirty or so events.
This page has further details on how to set up your spreadsheet and which column headings you can use:
http://support.google.com/calendar/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=45656
Basically, the minimum headings that make sense are:

• Subject
• Start Date
• Start Time
• End Date
• End Time

The trick with a work schedule for a school is to the use copy and paste to repeat the events over the whole school year. Adjust the dates either manually or using a formula such as "=a2+7" to add seven days onto the previous one.

Select the dates with a formula and copy them to the clipboard, then use "paste special" and paste values only. This gets rid of any formula which is essential before the next step.

Typically each half term lasts for between four and eight weeks. I manually edit the list to remove the dates when we are off.

Save the file and then we are ready for the next step.

Export the file as a Comma Separated Value file which will have a .csv file extension.

The wonderful thing about Google spreadsheets and the Chromebook is that all of this is possible and can be done just as easily as using a desktop Windoze machine running Excel!

Now we have to get the CSV file into Google Calendar. It couldn't really be easier, on Google Calendar, goto "settings", and scroll to the bottom of the page. Select Import calendar and browse for your CSV file. Select which calendar you want it imported to, then click import. Be very careful because you are about to import a lot of events and they will have to be manually deleted one by one if you get the wrong calendar - ouch!

My wife and I both have a work and home calendar and have shared the calendars with each other so we can edit events. I have the calendar widget on my Galaxy S2 screen and also on my Nexus 7 homescreen.

If we are at a meeting and its overrunning then we just adjust the times and then we each know what is happening. Weve even been known to add a "Pub" event to each others calendar when we have some spare time and fancy a pint.

Absolutely delighted that the whole process is even easier on Google spreadsheets and the Chromebook than it was on "old gen" hardware. Spot on Google!

Tweaking the format

Wow!

I've been contemplating setting up a couple of new blogs recently, one for technology and another for education based stuff.
After a lot of serious thought, I have decided not to! Im going to include it all on Quickbeer and make more use of Labels. From now on, I will tag, or label all posts as follows:
Beer - anything to do with my love of real ale - may contain spelling mistakes!
Biking - this label will include new bits of kit, ride records and stories about cycling sport.
Education - my views on education, both how to do it and comments on some of the politics associated with it.
Technology - anything that includes stuff that needs a battery or power source, and associated stories!
Hopefully, this will allow folks to select just the posts that they want to see. Please comment if you can see any issues with this, or have further suggestions.

Getting started

As a regular cyclist, the massive increase in two wheeled users has been shocking and alarming. Whilst new peddleists are always welcome, the number of very rusty or very shiny brand new bikes that have appeared since King Wiggo claimed the yellow jersey and took the United Kingdoms first tour de France crown has been amazing.
The reason that I say it has also been alarming is because riding a two wheeled chariot demands a certain level of skills that is best learnt by experience rather than memory. You need to know how to claim your road space, manage the traffic and deal with the weather. None of these are easy!
In short, join the CTC, get active and learn how to ride your bike!

Bye bye dear friend!

All ready to go!

I really love my faithful Brompton, but there is just no point in having such a wonderful bike laying around doing nothing!
I had a Brompton M6R - six speed with rear rack. It also had a granny gear, effectively giving me twelve speed but more importantly meaning that I had never had to get off and push it up any of the extremely steep hills around Ossett. I had fitted a sublime Brook's B17s Saddle in green leather and a front dynamo hub with Schmidt Edelux light, along with a host of little tweaks and mods to make it into an even better "system"
I will miss it, and I hope that the new owner, Jonathan in London, will get much use from it.

Lance Armstrong, still an amazing athlete.

Seven Times TDF winner Lance Armstrong
- image from  http://www.telegraph.co.uk 

So, it would appear to be over, or at least the long drawn out campaign to prove that Lance Armstrong is guilty of "doping" is entering the last stage which will almost inevitably lead to him being found guilty.
This morning Lance issued a statement on his website (see http://lancearmstrong.com/news-events/lance-armstrongs-statement-of-august-23-2012) in which he outlines why he thinks he is innocent and why is not continuing to fight USADA against their claims that he used artificial means to win the Tour De France a record seven times.
Lance Armstrong is an amazing man. From an early age, he showed exceptional cycling ability and his genetics and determination made him an outstanding athlete. He won events in running, swimming and cycling (and ironman style events with all three) from an early age and became a very successful athlete. Even when he discovered that he had testicular cancer, he never once gave up and not only fought but beat cancer, he re-trained and brought himself back to a level of fitness that even the world's best athletes find hard to understand. I have read many books from various Tour De France cyclists and they all give a similar image of Lance. His appearance in a room, or on the road was like a steam train, his legendary anger against the other cyclists were the driving force that made him perform to an exceptional level.
Away from cycling, Lance turned his energies to providing a massive support network for cancer victims and against a condition that we are gradually finding ways of beating. To date the Livestrong Foundation has raised $500 million which in an age where large numbers are commonplace still makes most people draw in breath and say "Wow"
"Doping" in cycling used to be incredibly common. Even cyclists who would profess themselves to be clean and to stick to the rules would still inject concoctions of "recovery" drugs and sleep in an oxygen tent between stages of a race - all perfectly legally. It was common for athletes, especially cyclists to use blood transfusions (sometimes for their own stored blood), which allowed them to carry more oxygen in their blood and therefore perform at an even higher level that they would do otherwise. When the hormone erythropoietin (EPO) was found to help boost the bloods hematocrit level for six to twenty four hours after injection. When this is combined with a very hard training regime, athletes recovery times are much quicker and performance is greatly enhanced. Steroids were often used as well, which reduce weight and also enhance recovery. After several weeks it is difficult to detect that athletes had used these methods (the Americans allegedly set up a college training programme where the time that these drugs took to be undetectable where studied - Ben Johnson's spectacular fall from grace where he was exposed as a "drugs cheat" has led to much speculation that this was widespread among all athletes at the time.). It was also found that EPO can be masked by using plasma infusions and that an elevated hematocrit level can be reduced in just thirty minutes.

Male fake phallus urination device image.
Source: The Original Whizzinator website
(accessed online Dec. 3, 2008)

When the Festina team car was stopped and searched at the 1988 Tour and found to be brimming with illegal drugs, (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festina_affair), all hell broke loose and the cycling fraternity had to be seen to do something. They acted slowly and often turned a blind eye to dodgy practices. When David Millar was caught with two empty EPO syringes hidden in his apartment (he claims he had already decided to be "clean" but was keeping the syringes as souvenirs), he became an outspoken campaigner against the use of drugs in cycling. He tirelessly fights against doping, and has offered advice at every level to the industry. Gradually cycling is cleaning up its act. You will see that a stage winner is escorted straight to the toilet where they have to give a urine sample. The cyclist has to strip and an observer watches the urine leave the body. It goes into two containers which are then sealed (the A and the B sample). The A sample is tested and the B sample is stored so that it can be re tested in later years. Incredibly cyclists have tried to use devices like the false phallus shown above in the Tour.
The question of whether Lance has used performance enhancing substances or methods to train is difficult to give a straight answer to. He did use performance enhancing drugs to fight cancer, which is of course a very normal thing to happen and we are all glad that he did so. I have no doubt that he was not an out and out doper. He possesses exceptional ability and determination and he deserves the reputation that he has for being one of the best cyclists that there has ever been. I am also pretty sure that he will have used methods that would not be allowed today, but then again it was once common for Tour De France riders to have a flask of brandy with them, and that would definitely not be allowed today.
At the time that Lance won his incredible seven Tours, I would say that he won fairly and did not have an advantage over his fellow cyclists other than his amazing talents abilities and mental attitude.
Should he be stripped of his seven titles? No, I dont think so, but I do think its about time that everyone took a more honest and less hypocritical view on what used to happen in cycling. Let's move on...

Spoiling the boat for a h'apeth of tar!

Cheap Replacements

My Giant Defy 2 bike came with Tektro dual pivot brakes which weren't at all bad but had the most awful rubber block brakes. When I came to do some routine servicing, replacing the chain (For an excellent Wipperman Connex phosphor bronze coated chain) and brake blocks, I bought some longer blocks. Unfortunately I made the mistake of buying some cheaper ones from an obscure manufacturer.
Brake shoes must be fitted slightly "toe-in", which means that the front of the shoe should be angled so that it is slightly closer to the rim than at the back. This prevents brake squeal. On these cheaper shoes, this is accomplished by a dished washer and nut that fits onto a bolt that protrudes to each side.
I really cant remember why I bought these blocks other than that they were cheap, but it may be that they were part of a larger order so I tagged them on to save postage costs. They are longer which I thought may give better braking.

Shimano Blocks

When I fitted them, I thought they looked awful! The bolts protrude quite a long way and they just look ugly. In use, they also squeal whenever I clean the bike (every week) or if they get wet.
As soon as I could, I went to Blazing Saddles at Hebden Bridge and bought some "proper" Shimano blocks. These come with a shoe and replacable blocks that are held in place by a small allen bolt. Two pairs of blocks came in at just under twenty pounds, and I was also supporting a local bike shop in a town that has been flooded twice this year and needs every penny they can get.
These blocks are in another league completely. Instead of a protruding bolt, they use an allen bolt that fits into the block which makes it much neater and also easier to adjust. The blocks don't squeel at all and stop the bike very effectively.
Next time, I will not try and scrimp - a definite false economy!

Tell 'em Wiggo

Of course, when the 32 year old Bradley Wiggins completed his time trial event in characteristic fashion yesterday, I was as pleased as the next man, but probably for different reasons.
The fact that he is now our most successful Olympiad with seven medals to his name spanning three different events over three games is amazing - and he has already remarked about getting a fifth gold in Rio which seems very possible.
More importantly is the effect that becoming the first Britain ever to win the coveted General Classification yellow jersey in the Tour de France and now the gold medal in the time trial, is having on the UK's attitude to cycling. Already, sales of cycles and cycling accessories have risen as people start to get onto two wheels which can only be a positive thing. Better cycling facilities and hopefully safer cycling routes will follow.
No, for me the best thing about Bradley's win is that he has retained his irreverent view of the powers that be and has remained unswayed by the pressure from his sponsors. He has always been outspoken against doping in the cycling fraternity and his criticism of established cyclists who fail drugs test has not been silenced by sponsor or media pressure as it so often is. On the night on his first yellow jersey win this year, the press asked him some doping related questions which led to him firing a string of expletives at the reporter responsible leaving everyone in no doubt that he is not swayed by the pressure to say the right thing.
When he eventually won the Tour, he did not face the cameras and the 'dippy president', instead he turned around and spoke to the British crowd, joking about drawing the raffle tickets but actually showing his great appreciation of their support.
Bradley Wiggins, at last, a very British champion!

DOMS

I went for a run two days ago and I am now in agony! Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness is caused by unusual exercise of muscle groups and is probably a result of minor tissue damage caused by the exercise. As I get older, I find that DOMS kicks in much sooner, for example, I cut a hedge last week and after only twenty minutes of exercise, I was sore for several days.
The good news is that DOMS is only caused by unusual exercise, so repeat the exercise regularly and the pain will be much less. Its a sign that the training has worked, in fact its a sign that the training has been optimal.
So, I've had a days rest, time to load Runkeeper and head off again!

Lurvely!

Its been a hard week and at the end of a period of average golden coloured beers, mainly in my favourite drunkery, the Cricketers in Horbury.
After the end of a second hard week polishing citizens, it was such a relief to find that the Cricks had a wonderful 5.1% Five Towns Monster Mash on ale. Very nice, smooth - but lively, it needs a couple of minutes to settle after pouring. It tastes smoky, rich and is very smooth. Definite drink again pint!

You pays your money!

Its no secret that I love a nice porter or mild beer. I've been known to do the WEWO (walk in, walk out) when the range of beers hasn't a nice dark offering and that is after I filter out the rubbish pubs offering standard mass produced slop.
Today the Cricketers in Horbury spoilt me with a choice of four darkies. We can discount the Timothy Taylor Ram Tam straight away as it always gives me a headache.
They often don't have any which is a real shame, but this choice was great. I've tried to upload a pic via my galaxy s2, but the kindle fire won't let me include it - if you see a pic it will be an inter android collaboration.
First up was Pendle Porter, a smooth 5.0% beer with a big head and smooth taste. Didn't like it at all, it was a struggle to drink and reminded me of a mass produced beer.
Next came Pennine Midnight Rose, another dark ale at 3.7%. Very nice and very moorish! Could drink this all day. Pours well and the taste is nice.
I now have the spectre of no 3, its Sarah Hughes Dark Ruby Ale and tis 6% beauty has/bitten me before! Its one of those ales that fall close to the very strong bracket and typically tastes nice without been overpowering. The problem is that this is proper falling over water and a few of these sublime beauties really get you in the mood...
Oh well, once more into the breach dear friends...

 I have always been a huge fan of LEGO. My parents used to get me plenty when I was a small child, and as soon as I started earning a wage, I bought LEGO Technics sets. My children had every single DUPLO set that there was but at that time, we didn't invest in any "grown up" LEGO.
That all changed when I was out collecting milk money one day. One of the houses that I called at mentioned that they were selling there LEGO Technics sets. It turned out that they had all of the big sets and wanted £25 for the lot!
I kept the sets in an immaculately organised box with loads of trays for each type of component. I used to build all sorts of stuff and really enjoyed the creative element of using it, and the problem solving aspect of fitting components into a task that they weren't quite designed for was especially attractive for my anarchistic personality.
When I got divorced, my ex wouldnt let me have the LEGO set, quite petty really but there was nothing I could do about it and there were much bigger fights to fight. Im lucky that my three kids saw how important it was for me though and gradually small amounts of LEGO made their way to my house in a magical way!
Shortly after I re married, I was in a Toys R Us store (cant remember why, possibly looking for a present for my younger children) and I came across the NXT Mindstorms set. As a teacher, we had looked at these sets as a possible way of teaching programming but the idea of controlling all the bricks proved too much of a challenge so we never pursued it. To cut a long story short, I bought a set and began making all sorts of crazy robots!
The Internet is a great place to find building ideas and see videos of various robots that people have built. LEGO produce some very clever software for progamming the NXT brick and also for designing models and its all free.
Yesterday my wife and I went to The LEGO Show in Manchester. It was amazing to see how many people were there and some of the stuff that was on show is really inspiring and must have taken hundreds of hours.
I was very pleased to see the famous and world record holding Cubestormer solve a Rubiks Cube in 3.5s. Here is a video of it in action:

I couldnt resist buying another set and set 8043 looked really interesting. It uses four motors to control six directions of travel (three for the jib, two for the tracks and one to rotate the whole cab). A fourth motor is used to select which of set of functions is used by sliding a form of clutch between two settings. It also uses the same component to transfer power to the tracks. One motor drives a shaft that runs in the centre of the pivot for the cab and another motor uses a concentric tube to power the other track. I must take some more pics but for now here is a timelapse of the whole build process!

Shoefayre

I had the pleasure of taking brood 2 to a static caravan at Filey last weekend. I had the worse man flu ever so I spent most of the weekend asleep and Sundays torrential downpour was certainly an experience.
On Saturday we popped into Bridlington. My grandma used to live there and when I was training to take over the Scarborough branch of Shoefayre, I took the train across every day to work in branch 196 which is right next to the harbour.
They were certainly one of the old school of retailer. None of the branches had a phone and we used to have to go to the local phone box to ring in our weekly sales every Friday tea time. Staff had to hand write a receipt which listed each purchase. Each receipt was then copied to a day sheet and a total for the day was calculated by adding up the columns. You soon became very adept at doing this and I can add up a column of figures much quicker in my head that using a calculator. As long as the money on the day sheet balanced with the amount in the till, and exceeded your sales target, all was well. Every three months, someone would come along and actually physically count the stock. You had to have a 'leakage' figure of less than 3% but I could usually get it down to a few quid every quarter of a million pounds! The system was supposed to be water tight but in practice there were many ways that you could adjust the figures and if they had a dishonest manager wanted to, they could have fleeced them. My regional manager related several stories of how some branches had 'fiddled' and he simply couldnt see how!
Anyway, this picture shows the Brid branch. It was really tiny but all those upper floors were crammed with stock! There was nothing worse than having to run up three flights of stairs to get another size on a busy Saturday afternoon.
Another world, but I learnt so much about retail. My Scarborough branch enjoyed often very good sales but sometimes we took very little (January in the snow) I am not at all surprised that they went under. Good value, quality shoes but no control over the stock levels!

Chain Stretch

My previous post referred to a replacement chain that I had to fit to my Giant Defy2 road bike. The wear on the chain crept up on me really and when I measured the chain it had stretched by 0.75% If you havent come across the phenomenon of chain stretch before, this might not seem like very much, but most experienced cyclists wouldnt let the chain go above 0.5% stretch.
You measure the length of the chain using a tool that slots in between ten or so links.of the chain. Depending on the length of those links, the tool slots further into the chain link and shows the total % of chain wear. The term "stretch" is a little misleading. What actually happens is that the chain pins wear and allow the links to be a little further apart.
This has a dramatic effect on how the chain runs around the sprockets on your bike and the most affected is the smallest sprocket on the rear of the bike.
This picture shows the 12 tooth sprocket that I have just removed from my road bike. You can clearly see that the tooth shape has changed with a distinctly different angle on one side of the tooth to the other. There also appears to be a ridge on some of the teeth where the deformed metal has literally been pushed out of the way.
This led to the chain slipping when I selected that gear. Other gears were un affected but the 12 tooth sprocket was almost impossible to use as any pressure caused the chain to ride up the worn slope and slip.
There is only one option and that is to replace the worn sprocket.
I could have simply replaced the one sprocket (most bike shops sell them for a few pounds each). I decided to use this as an excuse to enhance my gear range. The Defy 2 comes with a 9 speed cassette ranging from 25 teeth to 12 teeth. I decided to go for 28t-11t.
I ordered one from Chain Reaction Cycles but in my hurry I ordered a 10 speed cassette. Half an hour later I was checking over the order and spotted the mistake but it was too late to change the order as it was a Sunday. I rang them on Monday morning only to be told that the order had already been despatched. Chain Reaction offer a 365 returns policy (Ive since found out that all online sales have to offer this by law) but the service is fantastic! There is a return label included in the box, you fill in the form and stick it to the box then take it to a Collect+ depot - a shop half a mile from where I live. This service is free!
Anyway, the 9 speed cassette arrived on Tuesday and I am really pleased with the extended gear range.
Top tip - check your chain wear every 500 miles and dont let it get past 0.5%

Schoolboy errors

As we move towards the new cycling season, I like to give my bike a good service and check things over in a bit more detail. Unfortunately, I left this too late this year!

When I returned to the cycle sheds the other day, I was surprised to find that I had a flat tyre. I checked very carefully but couldn't find anything that would have caused it and the hole in the tube didn't look like a "snake bite" which ruled out a pinch type of problem. I should have checked things a lot more carefully!

The next morning, I had another puncture on the way to work and had to swap my tube (only took four minutes, which was a re-assuring time, its nice to know all your emergency procedures work!). This time I looked much more carefully. There were signs of wear on the tyre side-wall, and sure enough the brakes were incorrectly adjusted and had been rubbing on the tyre. The tyre had a minute hole, and a greatly reduced strength so when I later pumped 120-PSI in, the inner tube pushed through and exploded.

As I had to buy a new tyre, I bought two new ones from www.nextdaytyres.co.uk and they arrived very quickly. I bought two Schwalbe Ultremo LX tubes, in black (the coloured option was tempting but doesn't wear as well)

Whilst I was in a servicing frame of mind, I swapped the brake pads and checked the chain for wear.

Another issue! The chain was at 0.75% wear and would need swapping. I ordered a Wipperman Connex with the phosphor bronze coating. They come with a quick-link and I always found them to be very reliable. It was a doddle to fit, although I did initially run the chain incorrectly around the rear derailier! I tested it and all seemed OK and it wasn't until I noticed a problem changing gear that I checked it again carefully. It let me use nearly all 18 gears but some were a little tricky to switch to. I had threaded the chain over the derailier frame instead of under it. Once I swapped it, everything became ghostly silent. Gear changing is positive and reliable and you cant hear the chain run at all.

The 0.75% wear was a worry, and sure enough the smallest rear sprocket is too worn. The gears always skip under load when in the highest gear. I've just ordered a new rear cassette and have opted for a slightly larger size or 27 teeth rather than 25 which should make the big hills a little easier. I would have liked to go for 11 tooth small and 30 tooth large but it isn't possible with Shimano 9 speed systems.

Lesson - I need to service my bike more than once per year! As the bike is far higher mileage that the Brompton, I am scheduling a service every 1000 miles. I will make the service much more thorough than just a quick check of things. Expensive lesson learnt, its cost me sixty pounds for the tyres and forty pounds for the cassette. Both replacements are good but were done way before the old component had worn out.