Tweaking the format

New look for the Genesis Day One

I've been riding the Genesis Day One Alfine 11 for a couple of weeks now, but have only just been able to add the extra goodies that I ordered when I bought it.
I always strip a new bike down to make sure everything is properly greased and that my portable toolkit is sufficient for road side repairs.  I adjusted the front stem height by moving the spacers from below the stem to above, and was pleased to see that the bearings were healthy.
The Day One is a good looking bike, the Reynolds 853 white tubing is complemented by light tan seat and bar tape, albeit made of plastic. On all the pictures I had seen of the bike, the wheels were plain black but mine had some awful stickers which I think really cheapened the design. I took both wheels off and removed the tyres. The sticker came off quite easily but the sticky "sub tape" wouldn't budge. Some white spirit didn't help but it did make the residue into a sludgey soft glue that rubbed off with a bit of effort. One advantage of disc brakes is that your rims remain un-marked so I do think this is worthwhile.
The Continental Gator-skin tyres are very tight on the rims - I usually can take tyres off without tyre levers but these were too tight, so I will include a plastic tyre lever in my kit.
The disk brakes were quite simple to adjust. Loosen the fixing bolts, and cable clamp then dial in the inboard adjustment (needs a torx T25 but you can just about do it by hand if you need to), then the outboard pad. With both sides dialled in, the wheel should be locked. Torque the clamping bolts down gradually and then squeeze the brake arm slightly before tightening the cable clamp. Next, slacken off the pads until they dont rub and check that the brakes work.
I love the completely silent running of the bike, there is no chain or gear noise at all and it is quite eerie spinning along with just a slight noise from your tyres on the road.
Using Sheldon Brown's gear calculator confirmed that the Day One was slightly higher lower geared than my road bike with a 53 front triple and 18-28 cassette. Im unlikely to need the top gear but I know that some of the hills around here need a low gear, so I bought a 20 tooth rear cog to replace the standard 18. Fitting it was quite simple with only a minor fight offered from the split spring. I did have to slacken the chain off which meant I had to reverse the anti-rotation washers, at least until I put a new chain on.

Lovely Apple Green Brooks B17

Very expensive Brooks leather bar tape

Next up was a new Brooks B17 saddle. You can get the standard B17 in many different colours so I went for a lovely apple green and added some very expensive matching Brooks leather bar tape.
I left the original brown tape above the hoods, and wound some reversed black electrical tape over the top. The Brooks tape is no worse than normal tape to fit, if anything it has a little more give and flexes around the bend more easily. Getting the gorgeous cork and oak end cap in was tricky and I would say is a one off operation - they wont be coming out in one piece!
I hope the B17 will be as easy to run in as my B17s was on my Brompton (i.e. zero breaking in!)
You will see from the picture that I have mounted my Garmin 800 on a genuine Garmin centre mount. Its an ideal location and fits in with the clean lines.

Shimano A530 pedals

After my accident, I am a little wary of clipping in when the conditions get a bit slippery. I think a suitable answer is the Shimano A530 SPD pedals.
These have traditional SPD clips on one side and a wide, clip free pedal on the other,
Cycle Gear agreed to upgrade the 520 pedals that come as standard but there was a bit of confusion around the models (my fault - between the A530 and the M530 in white)
I'm very happy with the A530s, they feel almost the same as my 520s and in plain pedal mode they give a wide and firm base. I'm sure they will be great if we get any more slippery mornings but I hope there won't be too many now that we are officially into spring.
The other change I had made was to fit a pair of Crud 2 mudguards. In not going to show the details of these because I have already taken them off! I want a really minimal pair of mudguards but the problem that you have with disk brakes is getting the mudguard stays to go around the brake calliper. The Crud 2s are very close fitting and I haven't been able to get them to remain in place but not rub. Work in progress, but I'm probably not going to use mudguards.
I've also opted to not fit bottle cages. For the time being, I'm trying a backpack for hydration. Im very impressed with my chosen solution, but will post a separate review when Ive put some miles in.

Back to work!

Bone is healing nicely

Dissolving stitch escaping!

Very quick update! After eight weeks off work, I can return to work, on a phased return for two weeks.
I saw the physio and fracture registrar on Wednesday. Physio was good, he said I should be able to push it a bit more now and my length of recovery is now limited to how much pain I can stand. I'm pretty good with pain so its "light the blue touch paper!"
When I saw the fracture registrar, it wasn't such good news. He is very pleased with the bone recovery and the fracture is healing very well.
The wound is a little different. As you can see from the second photo, there is still some swelling which becomes tingly sometimes and has been painful.
The reason is right in the middle of this photo. If you look about one inch above the elbow you can see a small black stitch which is trying to escape! One of the dissolving stitches obviously doesn't like the party and my body is rejecting it by forcing it out of the scar. This has possibly led to an infection which is causing the swelling. He told me to go to my GP and ask them to look at it.
He advised me not to use ibuprofen or diclofenec (which I haven't anyway) because they inhibit bone growth. He suggested I use paracetamol and keep the dose regular as that is how they work best.
I have to comment on the fantastic volunteer staff at Pinderfields. The folk in the main atrium are very helpful and put a smile on everyone's face - I think it must be a competition that they have because every person they interact with leaves with a smile. Fantastic, thank you and well done!
My GP may not share that view! She wasn't very happy that the registrar had referred me to her when he could have issued the antibiotics. Fair point I suppose, but I do feel like a pawn in the NHS chess game sometimes!
Of course the antibiotics have upset my stomach so I wont be far away from a toilet in the next few days!
Looking forward to work, I have met with our fantastic HR manager and made arrangements and they have been most accommodating. Hopefully I will have a meeting with occupational health on the morning of my return and we have already ordered a new desk which will be shoe horned into my classroom. I'm not sure how easily I will be able to fasten my shirt, but I can wear a polo shirt.

3D printing

Prusa Mendel printer (from www.reprap.org)

Annoying!
Ive finally got round to a "deep clean" of my office, including the dozen or so boxes of old computer bits and various forgotten about projects.
One of those projects was a 3D repstrap printer which I probably got about half way through. A quick google shows that things have really come on a lot so I think its time to resurrect this project and finish it off.
3D printers consist of various blocks that are almost plug and play (think of it as object orientated hardware)
There is the main board, the CPU of the system and associated stepper motor drivers, heating element drivers, switch sensors etc.
There is the physical hardware that hold three stepper motors at ninety degrees to each other and move a carriage across the printing plane.
There is the print head, usually a heating element and a "pump" that forces a plastic into the heated chamber and out of a small nozzle. The printhead (extruder) has a thermistor that measures the temperature accurately.
Of course, this is a vastly simplified version of events!
I had bought and assembled several bits of electronics, namely a sanguino board (similar to an arduino), and three stepper motor drivers.
When I plugged everything together and tried to run a program, one of the stepper motors wasn't turning. This turned out to be a burnt out L297 chip which these boards were prone to. My choice is to replace the chip and carry on, or just buy a complete set of electronics for a new set up. In any case to get my current printer working will need me to buy another stepper motor driver (for the extruder printhead) and an extruder assembly.
Im going to opt for a complete set of electronics which will work out far cheaper in the long run. The old style of electronics were expensive and things have mover on considerably. You can now buy a microstepping stepper motor driver for £10 and a full set of electronics for £120
Initially, you create a "repstrap" printer which is a working printer that has some components bodged together using various bits of hardware. You then get the repstrap to print a replacement set of components and then rebuild the whole printer using replicated components.
Should keep me busy through the Summer!