Paver patio part 2 - Planning and Blocks

   Part two in our exciting saga follows our hero through the planning and early set up of the patio. I created a rough SketchUp model of what we wanted to do. 

SKP model

   This was kind of helpful, but what helped more was to lay out blocks to see the shape better. We could visualize the patio a lot better this way. 

Laying out the border

   I ended up digging up and disposing a lot of grass. It was weird because for the last year I have been trying to keep that grass alive. Well, it's dead now. Next I chose the final height of the patio. I chose something that was about 14" below the door. This way, with one step, the rise would be about 7" to get inside. 

String line

   I put out a bunch of pavers at the height the patio so. I went through about 300 yards of this pink string. I started in the North West corner of the yard. I dug out the base for the short wall that we'd need in the low parts of the yard.

Beginning the curve

   I ended up doing this curve twice because at first I wasn't happy with it. You can also see a trench where I buried a pipe. What for? you'll see later.

Completed curve

   After the curve was complete, I worked my way along the house Where you wouldn't see the foundation blocks, I used cinder blocks because they are cheaper and lighter. You can also see the beginning of the step out of the house.

Step

   Opposite the house I worked along the fence and around these two trees we have. This was a lot of work since it was two half circles. 

Around two trees

   Many trips to Home Depot were made for these blocks. They were about 45 pounds each, my car could carry about 15, and I used just over a hundred, so, yeah lots of back and forth. If you look carefully on the cart it says, "Do not overload. Do not ride."  We have no time for rules.

900 pounds of blocks and one kid

Patio Project Part 1 - Old Deck and New Condo

   This week I'm going to be posting every day, and it's going to be a project post! This summer, I re did our back yard. This was tearing out the old deck and putting in a paver patio.  Here is the fruit of my labor: 

Final product (and Max)

   First things first - tore out the existing deck. Here's what we had:

Existing deck

Existing deck part 2

   It was fine, but small and kind of falling apart. On the 4th of July, out it came. This project was made much easier with the use of a 36" crowbar and a sledgehammer. You'll notice the house is still yellow. We wanted to get the deck out so the new paint had good coverage.

Top layer off

   Everything came apart pretty well. the boards under the desk were pretty rough. This was going to have to happen sooner or later.

Semi rotted out structure

Just the planter box remaining

   The 4runner is the real hero in this project, from trips to the dump and hauling blocks from Home Depot.

1/3 of the deck at the dump

   Cue the interrupting project. Our tenants moved out of the condo and we decided to update the place a bit. Here are the After pics:

New Hearth

   New tile, carpet, fridge, cabinetry, and fireplace. It looks really nice now.

Backsplash and stove hood

   This was inconvenient timing, but turned out ok, as we were able to make some needed updates to the place and get some new tenants and they are awesome. Next post - the patio begins!

Friday WTF: Walmart Assembly

   No one is claiming that the folks working at a box store were ever properly trained on bicycle assembly, but here are some examples of particularly poor work in a little game of spot the problem:

A.

B.

C.

D.

A. Bars on backwards

B. Cranks on wrong

C. Fork on backwards

D. Wheel on backwards

   Nothing wrong with a bike form a box store, just give it the once over before taking it off any sweet jumps.

Keg Cargo Bike

   Cargo bikes are becoming more and more common, which is very exciting. Check out this awesome cargo bike from Panda Cycles made to carry a keg!

Behold, the keg trike!

   This bike was spotted in Ft Collins and reported by Urban Velo, (which is a good blog, check it out). This bad boy is a reverse trike with some sweet independent steering and a 36" rear wheel. It is designed to cary a full keg between the front wheels. It even looks like they were using SketchUp to work out the basics:

SKP in the house

   Here's a last pic with a keg on the thing. When carrying something heavy like this I bet three wheels makes things a lot easier. How heavy? well a full keg weighs about 150 pounds.

Cue mood lighting

   So you're asking, sure this is cool, but can a Larry vs Harry do that? Sure...

L vs H with some kegs

   ... if you're willing to rock 300 pounds on two wheels! 

Jens Voigt Breaks Hour Record

   Uh, spoilers ahead. So everyone knows Jens Voigt is a badass. No one is arguing that. Colorado was lucky enough to host his last professional road race, The 2014 USA Pro Challenge where he took 28th. He was also voted most combative on stages 4 and 7. 

   In fact, if you look him up in Google image search, it suggest 'suffering' as an additional tag:

Suffering indeed!

   He's been at the top of the riding game for the last 20 years, with wins sprinkled throughout his career. Be it the Tour de France, Tour of California, the aforementioned Pro Challenge, he is a staple at big road races. What's left for a guy with this kind of career? Enter the hour record.

   The hour record is a track event in which a rider sees how far they can ride in one hour. Sounds simple right? Wrong! The hour is one of the most prestigious events in cycling and the past record holders are guys Eddy Merckx. On Sept 18, Jens gave it an effort at a velodrome in Grenchen, Switzerland. The event was broadcast on YouTube as well.

Here's the details of his ride:

• Jens was riding a specially built Trek bike with newly allowed aero bars.
• He was running a manly 55x14 gear ratio
• He rode 51.115 kilometers, or 31.76 miles
• Since it was an hour, it's an easy conversion, he was averaging 31 miles an hour
• He completed 205 laps

The bike

   He beat the previous record of 49.700. It was super exciting to see him go out on such a high note. The velodrome was going nuts, the fans are going nuts, what a way to bring a career to a close!

GO JENS!

Look 795 Aerolight

   Look bicycles isn't shy when it comes to cool technologies. You may remember the super cool stem I wrote about a while back. 

   The Look AeroLight is no exception. It's packed with fun bits of tech to make you faster on the road. Here are a couple pieces of technology I found particularly awesome: 

1. Integrated fork and brake - The brake on this bike has been fully integrated into the fork leg. Here's a few pictures:

Side shot

Cut away

   This is a pretty cool technology as it harkens back to the vee brakes of BMX and mountain bike days past. 

   The proper name for this is the linear pull brake, and they had a brief popularity on cross bikes between the center pull brake and disc brake. Lots of power for a cable operated rim brake, good power modulation and feel. And when integrated into the fork leg, very low drag. 

2. Full carbon one piece crank - Look claims that this crank has a combination of weight and strength above 2 piece cranks. This crank gets installed by some wiggling anyone with experience with a 1 piece BMX crank is familiar with. 

Spindle close up

Shot from Look's site

   This crank uses the same technology that carbon frames take advantage of: carbon layup and construction that builds strength into areas where you really need it. This crank has added strength to resist pedaling forces and efficiently transfer power form the pedals to the chain. 

   There are some other cool things, such as adjustable stem, DI2 compatibility and vibration absorbing seat post. All this adds up to a pretty cutting edge bike. It's too new to get a good reaction from testers but we can assume that this Look rocks! 

eBay Users That Make You Want to Scream

  So I have this XO shifter on eBay right now:

(After price change)

And this guy asks me to drop the price a bit. Not a lot, just $5. I'm ready for this thing to go so yes, lets drop it.

User: Could you accept 40 buy it now? Please let me know.

Me: Sure, I'll repost it at $40 buy it now when the current auction expires (3 days). 

User: but you can stop the auction because nobody has bet or you can add a best offer option to the auction, let me know to send my offer and you accept it

Me: Done, better hurry before someone else buys it!

User: no man thanks that is a left i need the right.

   The second picture in the auction man!

2 freakin' speeds!

   I don't even know what to say!