Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Olympus Pen E-P1

samples photos from Olympus Pen E-P1.

date: 30 June 2009 7pm
lens: Olympus 14-42mm (no UV filters) 16:9 mode.
no editing. Straight from the camera. Standard jpg


















camera pinhole art effects

another effects from the camera

shot using 17mm f2.8


and more personal review coming soon!

Monday, June 29, 2009

"Shaving leg hair can became 0.0000004% more efficient"

The next time you walk around and if you can see any guys shave their leg hair you know he is a extreme cyclist ... or maybe something else.




"It's more aerodynamic." This answer comes pre-packaged with the delightful subtext that you are so fast on your bicycle that you have found it necessary to book time at the local wind tunnel, where you discovered that you became 0.0000004% more efficient without the aerodynamic drag of your hair. And don't get me started about the weight savings!

read more here


Weight winnies!


For the past few weeks I have been reducing my bike weight and notice that for every RM100 I spend im actually reducing about 10g. Found a site saying that for every 1kg reduction we can gain 2 seconds.

CHECK OUT OTHER LIGHTWEIGHT FULL SUS BIKES AROUND THE WORLD HERE


Sunday, June 21, 2009

Father's Day Special Ride for me! ( 6/7/2009 upadated)!

Last Thursday after work stop by at my regular bike shop for lepak. Siang (the boss) invited me to join them on Friday 8.30pm for night ride to Ulu Langat Look Out Point. So I said yes and loan their hardtail to ride up. It took me 13 mins to reach the top non stop and no water break till I was at the top. Great achievement for me at first time riding on road.

Sunday was suppose to ride with my regular team at Kiara but at the end I decided to join Siang and his workers plus his regular customers and this time to Genting Sempah! 16km climb!

It took me 1 hour to reach the peak with my full sus bike but I changed my tires to the smaller one (from 2.1 to 1.9) and lighter weight tube (from 160g to 95g) . Total weight reduce after changing the tires and tubes are 590g.

Yoong with his Cube LTD and 1.9 tires was the first to reached the peak follow by Reimi on his Merida Scultura Carbon road bike and 3rd is me! I did not stop at all for water break nor my feet remove from the cleet. Took only two sips of water. Great achievement for me! 2nd time on road. Best is I did not give up at all but towards the end my ass -sooooo pain even now.

Coming down I cant beat any of them at all due to the weight of the bike - 13kg. Yoong with his Cube LTD only 11kg. Ride finished at 9am and we when for breakfast. Reached home 10.00am still got plenty of time before Father's day dinner so watch my car, clean the koi pond and washed two rabbit cage.

Will join them again every Friday nite ride to Ulu Langat Look Out Point!

this Maxxis Fly Weight tube cost me RM24!

it comes with cloth rim strip

That is Yoong standing next to his Cube LTD and my bike is lying on the ground!

my new road tires - Maxxis Larsen TT Exception Series - RM90 per piece - pump at 55psi.


OK! NOW THE FATHER'S DAY DINNER

Father's day dinner! Two Eggs on Tow Foo. The sauce is the best. One of their signature dish.

another of their signature dish - salted fish "shui san fei yue"

chilli but not spicy

seafood pot! and my dad!

the closer view

got crab also inside the seafood pot - can you see the crab egg?

the size of the prawn - best is they are fresh!

the 2nd layer of the seafood pot - after the sause from the seafood on top drop into the bottom later with vege and mushroom

the place!

they dont really do walk in customers!


and the receipt! icon! Total bills is RM182 for 6 persons and one can of Asahi Beer!


EXTRA!

CK one of my riding buddy loaned me a pair of slick tires - Panaracer Urban Max 26x1.25 and 1 pair of 1.25 tubes on 23th June. So this coming sunday 28th June will be riding at Genting Sempah if my regular bike shop kakis is going and gonna test out this tires - smaller from 1.9 Knobby to slick 1.25.

Compare - Maxxis Lersen TT Exception Series is about 390g and Panaracer Urban Max is only 290g.

Check with Heehong Cycle see if they have Maxxis Flyweight 1.25 tube but they said Maxxis did not make one for 1.25 so I have to use CST normal 1.25 tubes -130g (Maxxis Flyweight 1.9 is only 95g).

Panaracer do have one called Panaracer R'AIR TUBE 26X1.25 and only 70g but have to hunt for it. CST dont have!



More

Last night (23th June) after stop by at Heehong Cycle again to avoid the jam cuz it was raining and stuck in a terrible jam. Again this time they invited me for Friday and Sunday ride. Siang said he can ride faster than me during last Friday Ulu Langat. I never said anything and I was not also competing when them as Im riding a hardtail and he is riding a road bike and on top of that he said mountain bike can climb faster cuz mtb comes with 34 teeth cassette and road only 26. Well fair enough for me but during the ride I was not even competing with them. Why dont compare a 12kg mountain bike with a 8kg road bike. If really want to compete is same bike.

Next is about last Sunday ride at Genting Sempah. Yoong said he actually can ride faster than me again. The real stories is Yoong (with is 11kg hardtail on 1.9 tires) started to ride first and Reimi (with his road Merida Scultura Carbon). I was with my own full- suss with 1.9 tires catching up at the back and later three of us ride together till the top where I was at the front till almost the end both of them overtake me. Along the way I asked Yoong to overtake me as Im not familiar witht the road and cant gauge my power but Yoong said he's ok following me. Reimi was behind Yoong and we all ride very close to each other. We even chat along the way. Well last night at their place again Yoong and Reimi said they can go faster than me again and Reimi said he kasi chance. What the heck and I was not even competing again with a 11kg and a road bike. Siang joined in the conversation and said again mountain bike sure lead cuz we all got 34 teeth gear. Whats wrong with them??!?

So I told them back why not you all join me and my regular gang to Kiara?! they reply and said very dirty lah need to wash lah blah blah blah...

So this is the calculation between a MTB and a Road gear ratio:-

MTB
Front chain wheel teeth 44-32-22
Rear cassette 11-34

44 / 11 = 4
so for every revolution of your legs, the rear wheel would have rotate 4 times. This is usually the difficult gear to ride and best for speed.

22/ 34 = 0.647
For every leg revolution the rear wheel will do just over 0.647 a revolution. This will be the easiest or slowest gear and is best for steep climb.

Road
Front chain wheel teeth 53-39
Rear cassette 12-26

53/12 = 4.416
so for every revolution of your legs, the rear wheel would have rotate 4.4 times. This is usually the difficult gear to ride and best for speed.

39/ 26 = 1.5
For every leg revolution the rear wheel will do just over 1.5 a revolution. This will be the easiest or slowest gear and is best for steep climb.


Next Move

next move

1 Set of Left Hand & Right Hand Standard LengthTitanium Spindles that will fit all recent Crank Brothers Egg Beater Models including C, SL, Stainless Steel, Ti, 2 Ti, 4 Ti & MXR models.

Spindle Weight is :33.25grams each

Our Spindles are made from a new high strength Titanium Alloy developed for the Air Force's F-22 Raptor Program. This alloy is called Ti-6Q2 (Ti-62222s) it is stronger, tougher, more fracture resistant, more abrasion resistant than the traditionally used Ti-6al-4v yet has the same weight characteristics.

Our spindles and materials are 100% American made.The Titanium is made in Niles,Ohio & the machining is done right here in Detroit,Michigan With the winding down of the F-22 Raptor Program we have an abundance of this Titanium made available to us at an economical price.Because of the current excess capacity for machining in Michigan we are able to provide a superior product for an economical price.Traditional Carbon & Stainless Spindles can weigh as much as 68gr. This is an economic way to make your pedals & your MTB lighter.

Also our spindles have a high rider weight limit of 235lbs & carry a 6 month replacement warranty.

We are not associated with Crank Brothers nor are our spindles or the materials they are made of approved by them.


and Next Move (6th July)

  • Replace Hope Floting Disc 7" (130g) rotor to 6" Avid G2 clean sweep rotor (104g. G3 minus another 10g). Quad Pulse XC 84g.
  • Kenda Navegal 2.1 SWS DTC 630g to Kenda Navegal 1.95 Stick- E 545g
  • Replace Crank Creek normal bearing to Race Face Deux sealed bearing = reduce another 50g and cost me RM90.


cheap 6" rotor (s6) weight at 150g!

Thursday, June 11, 2009

buying a DVD player at Harvey Norman

Last night after work (11th June) on the way back using Kesas Highway dont feels like going home and decided to pamper myself a new toy after all the hardwork :( and decided to go downtown to get a DVD player.

Harvey Norman was having some sales and decided to go to Pavilion cuz purchase anything for more than RM100 can get a free parking and easy for me to carry the boxes!

At first already decided to for Philips that comes with HDMI cable and with upscaling 1080p features. Talk to the salesman named Sham to get some opinions for his view and decided to buy the Philips HDMI for RM299 and when I was about the pay for it another salesman asked me to take reconsider Pioneer. Earlier Sham also suggested me to take the Pioneer as we all know Pioneer can play most of the disc and not very sensitive but the price tag is RM399 and without HDMI cable sommore. (HDMI cable will cost me another RM200!) But both salesman said I can have the Pioneer (model DV410V-S) for RM369 - that was RM30 cheaper from the original pricetag!!! I did not nego as I know buying item from this kind of place will never get to nego and guess what, they are giving me FREE HDMI cable!!! and according to them it cost RM399 for the cable. I asked them to show me the cable and realised it not a sales item (please see attachment photos). I also compared the cable with Philips and the material plus the thickness of the cable is much better!

Anyway I bought the Pioneer and reached home, pasang and watch a movie till 11.30pm.

Still thinking did I get a good deal or what?





Monday, June 8, 2009

Weight Reduction Program for my bike!

Replace M5 and M6 bolts to Ti bolts and remove 1pc 180mm to 160mm front adapter total reduce 100g and replacing 180mm front disc to 160mm minus another 40g.


total replacing 11pcs of Ti Bolt and 4 pcs at the rear brake.

Replacing Shimano XT pedal to Crank Brother SL reduce 90g


Shimano XT shifter to XTR reduce40g

Total weight reduction is 220g. Next is XT crank to XTR and that will minus another 90g. Crazy me...