Thursday, June 23, 2011

Between one thing and another...

Even now I'm stealing time from something else to slap up a hasty post on the blog.

Distractions include my continuing attempts to learn to play a musical instrument late in life:


And cartooning, obviously.

I've also spent considerable computer time trying to get the new wearable camera and my old computers to play nicely together. Still working on that. Meanwhile, shooting began on the bike safety TV segment.
Ryan from Wolfeboro Community Television prepares to shoot action footage of a cyclist in the wild.

The repair shop continues to dish up time-consuming challenges. Yesterday's involved a Campagnolo 10-speed shifter. My most recent manual for Ergopower may go as late as 2000. I estimated this shifter at about 2007. Campy's website does not provide the usual metric ton of PDFs for the grunts who actually fix things to download. I had to settle for an exploded diagram from the spare parts catalog.
You want your shifter? I got your shifter right here. Explooooooded view of Campy Record Ultra 10-speed shifter guts.

The Road Map to Pieces

The reassembled shifter sitting on the outdated manual. Campy being Campy, not only do the parts more or less go together the same way, some specific parts actually still work in shifters almost 10 years newer. Shimano? Are you listening? Of course not.
The flip side of the reassembled shifter.

Parts inside there are worn, so I would not rate the shifter 100 percent reliable. The rider is going to get a new one, since this one was part of a salvaged gruppo put on her bike several years ago. This rider is 5'5". The cranks she inherited are 175s. So the problems go further than just an old, tired shifter. Since Campy goes to 11 now, the remaining 10-speed shifters are surprisingly affordable.

And now I'm late leaving for work. Nothing new there. It's the down side of having a lot of interests.

3 comments:

Janice in GA said...

I love exploded views of things. They've helped me out LOTS of times (not just with bikes.)

And I have a lot of sympathy with any adult trying to learn violin. I finally gave up, mostly, and went back to concertina. Which has its OWN challenges.

Steve A said...

I am thrilled to see the picture of Cafiend without a bag covering up his head. I think he looks little like the deer and is to be commended for his attempts to musically improve the world. I hope he takes comfort in the knowledge that he is far more likely to succeed than to become the next President of the US. Heck, it's even a much better bet than buying a Powerball lottery ticket.

cafiend said...

Last year I won $104 in the state lottery: I didn't buy any tickets.

Music is fascinating. It combines physical coordination with thought and feeling like nothing else. It's tricky enough getting to the right place at the right time for the right length of time, but even then it needs more.

I seem to have no trouble getting interested in things that won't earn me money.