The summit sits at 4055 feet, its parking lot is where the Portland Astronomy club meets to study the night sky. The viewpoint is worth the ride, or drive; on a clear day, you can see four major mountians, with a ~270 degree field of view. As for climbing this hill on a bike...we'll, you'd better be reasonably fit, or the screaming legs of exhaustion will turn you around.

From my house, Google says that this ~36 mile trip:
By car, would take 1.25 hours.
By bike, 4.5 hours.

I did it, by bike, in under 2 hours and 15 minutes. Of-course, I have no ordinary bike; I had help. Google assumes your average speed would be around 8MPH, mine averaged 16MPH.

The assent was fun and brisk, the good company and screaming fast descent were worth the trip. The cougars...well...I could have done without them.
Continue reading "Biking to Sherrard Point (Larch Mountian's Summit)"

Our local recumbent parts and accessories manufacturer sells some awesome TailSoks & frames. Although I'm not ready to purchase one of their admittedly well-made aluminum-tube based TailSok frames.

TerraCycle recently started making making their TailSoks with retro-reflective fabric, and so that means they're currently clearing out their old inventory of non-reflective soks, for bargain at $39/each.

So, after picking one of their clearance soks...
Continue reading "How to make a TailSock frame for less than $10"

How disturbing...

Earlier yesterday I posted to a CAD/CAM machinist forum, seeking help with their software. Hours later I find that my posting has been doctored to not only remove information valuable to anyone visiting, but they fraudulently re-characterized my original message into a semblance of praise for their software.

What's even more disturbing is their recent Award, and how they cited forum comments as "...Vectric wish to Thank all of our customers for posting such glowing feedback and positive information on the Forum, because the Queen's Awards committee considered this to be very important when making their decision..."

How disgusting...here's the facts.

Continue reading "What a fraud Vectrix"

An update to my previous rant about Apple's attempts at forced obsolescence.

Rumor is, Apple is going to release a software update to Fix iPhone 3G performance issues...soon...

I'll believe it when I see it. Until then, some of us have Real Work to do on these things and simply cannot wait for Steve Jobs/Apple to throw us long-time loyal customers a tiny little bone.

Steps to fix slowness on iPhone3G w/ iOS4.0.2...
Continue reading "iPhone update due "soon""

I'm happy to see the wrongs being corrected in California now.

I wish it could be this simple:
You may organize and do as you and your group pleases. For as long as your group's charter, expressions & actions always respect and protect:
1) Equal access to liberty, security, dignity, privacy & individual sovereignty.
2) Equal opportunity of association, education & occupation.
3) Freedom of thought, conscience, art & expression.
4) Exclusivity to lawfully acquired & created possessions.
5) No discrimination for age, ethnicity, disability, gender or sexuality.
6) Fair compensation for products & possessions.

The guiding principals would be:
1) No hateful actions or expressions.
2) Embrace and encourage diversity.
3) Enabling success for those less fortunate.

The core corrective principal would be restitution, before repression.

A guy can dream...

My Apple iPhone experience has taught me a few things:
1) Apple has an awesome return/warranty policy. If it's broken, they replace it, period.
2) My 3G iPhone works seamlessly with my beautiful and highly-reliable 8GB/500GB MacBook Pro.
3) A $500 technology investment is intentionally engineered into a paperweight just two years later.

Allow me to elaborate on the third point ...
Continue reading "Lessons from Apple Computers"

In the past few years I've met some amazing engineers, many are local folks...there must be something in the water.

The list grows daily, and I can no longer track them all manually. So...now comes a wiki page:
http://gregg.berkholtz.net/wiki/diyprojects


Examples:
Three-wheeled leaning vehicle:


Electric Motorcycle:



My list is absurdly-long...keep an eye on the new wiki page

An update to my Feburary posting; the airless Kenda inserts are working great.

Yes, I do feel just a little bit slower off-the-line...but...over the past couple of weeks I've realized that I'm no longer scanning the roads for glass, nails & other crap anymore. Only the largish potholes and other uneven surfaces.

Combined with the fact I no longer haul around pumps, tire wedges and patch-kits. Is it worth feeling slightly-slower off-the-line, yet never worrying about flatting again?

Hell yes!