Ballona Creek Bike Path

Posted on by
Reply

While some may say calling it the Ballona Creek Bike Path gives it a far more romanticised name than a concrete river deserves, as you get to the sea some natural vegetation and wildlife does appear. And regardless, the beauty I see in the bike path is not in the visuals, but the ability for me to escape the hustle and bustle of the LA roads and ride without being impeded by traffic lights.

After a successful ride along the Marvin Braude Bike Path, next on my list was Ballona Creek. Starting in the heart of Culver City, the bike path takes you 6 miles all the way to the sea, just south of Marina Del Rey where it meets up with the Marvin Braude.

I continued my cycle north to Santa Monica, before cutting back through traffic to University Park.

Once again I strapped on my GoPro and went for a ride, you can see the compilation below:

More info on the route can be found here.

 

Bridge to Nowhere

Posted on by
Reply

A few weeks ago we got the opportunity to do some hiking in the nearby San Gabriel Mountains. A group of about 8 of us hiked up there for 3 days passing by the Bridge to Nowhere.

img_4417It was our first opportunity hiking in the area and we were fortunate enough to have great weather. We drove up to the trail-head on Saturday morning, arriving around 9AM. The parking lot was packed. We had to park several hundred metres down the road and hike up. Parking requires a pass, and free permits were available a little way on by the camping area.img_4454Although the parking lot was full, the trail is long and wide enough that you rarely have any problems with other people on the track. Majority of the people we saw were situated at the Bridge to Nowhere itself, watching or taking part in the Bungee Jumping. We had no idea about this when we were hiking in, and none of our hiking mates mentioned it to us until we got there, assuming everyone knew about it :) Coming from SA it’s not the biggest bungee jump in the world, but more than enough to get a thrill, especially with the really close cliff faces. None of us tried it though.img_4504The hike itself is not too strenuous, a 10 mile round loop to the bridge and back, made up of meandering paths and some river crossings. When we hiked the area was extremely dry, so I managed to keep my shoes out of the water the whole time, but there is usually more water, requiring some wading. Although there are a few areas with a slight climb, over all the route is flat with only about 200m of altitude gain.img_4499We arrived at the bridge and had lunch there, but our plan was to continue past the bridge. We carried on and set up camp on the side of the river a few hours later. Once you get past the bridge you are walking in a canyon the whole time, criss-crossing the river. It’s really beautiful and was great to get out of the city.img_4474We saw a snake. It was super chilled, just doing it’s thing. Also many people panning for gold. Apparently there’s still some left, but the further upstream we got the less people we saw, but the more remnants of previous mining activities showed up.img_4477Also poison oak. Something we haven’t seen before, and we were fortunate enough not to have any bad experiences with.

The Overseas Market

Posted on by
Reply

Note: this post was originally hosted at the retired autosandelectric.co.za, an archive of which can be viewed here. Original image links to Twitter are no longer available.

We recently had the opportunity to attend the OC International Auto Show in Los Angeles, and what an eye-opener. Smog used to be a major issue in LA, but thanks to a number of efforts and legislation, a major turn around has been seen. Part of this relates to car regulations surrounding emissions. Along with this came a major push towards EVs support by a Clean Vehicle Rebate Program.

As such you see a lot of EVs driving around LA, a lot more than in South African in any case. And the OC Auto Show showed similar trends with majority of manufacturers featuring at least one hybrid or alternative energy vehicle.

There are several reasons for the very limited availability of EVs in South Africa, one of which which is often overlooked is price. At $30,000 the Nissan Leaf is one of the entry level vehicles in not just the EV market, but the hybrid market as well. This translates to about R400,000 and is sold locally for about R450,000.

That is a lot of money for a car, but you can see the Dollar-Rand exchange doesn’t affect it that much. Where are the R200,000 EVs. Although $30,000 is still a lot for a vehicle in the States, with a minimum wage in California eight times higher than in SA, and an overall higher income group, more people are able to afford such vehicles.

This then has the rollover effect that because there are vehicles, more charging stations are built, because more charging stations are built, more people feel like it is not a hassle to purchase an EV.

It was refreshing walking around the Anaheim Convention Centre and viewing all the EVs and hybrids on offer, that we just don’t get in SA. Some of which include:

  • Audi A3 e-tron
  • Ford C-max Hybrid
  • Honda Clarity – Fuel Cell
  • VW e-Golf
  • Toyota Rav Hybrid
  • Toyota Mirai – Fuel Cell
  • Hyundai Ioniq
  • Hyundai Tucson – Fuel Cell

Surprisingly absent were Tesla, although they don’t really do things in a conventional manner. Although Mercedes had a large offering of their vehicles, their hybrids were completely absent.

Flying with a bike & Fork regrease on MTB (Merida Ninety Nine 9.600)

Posted on by
Reply

I recently had to fly with my bike, and the airline wasn’t going to take it for me, so I ended up having to freight it. I used Emirates SkyCargo, and they first look at the weight of your item, and then calculate a volumetric weight, based on the dimensions of your package (LXBXH div. 6000).

My bike as it should look

My bike as it should look

Their minimum billing amount is 30kg. My bike and accessories definitely weighed less than this, but the standard bike boxes are significantly larger than what is considered a volumetric 30kg. As such I went to town cutting my box down to size. But to get the box small enough, I also had to almost completely disassembly my bike. I removed the wheels, and took my tubeless tires off the wheels. I removed the saddle, the rear dérailleur, the pedals. Then I took the fork out and separated the brakes from the fork. And then squashed it into my box. And it all fitted. I even got my tent, helmet, pump and one or two other items in.

Cramming my bike into a box

Cramming my bike into a box

So my dad helped when I did all this, and I didn’t pay too much attention when we removed the fork and put all the bearings loose into a small bag. I wish I had, as it would have saved me a couple disassemble and re-assembles of my headset. Regardless now I know a lot more about the topic. After all that, I decided quite a bit of dirt probably got in during the hassles and decided to re-grease the bearings.

How my bike sometimes looks

How my bike sometimes looks

It seems like the number of variations for headset bearings is a lot. I couldn’t find an example the same as mine, so I figured I’d put some pictures up here. I tried recording the whole thing, but that was humorously terrible :) So instead I just took some screen shots.

The bike is a Merida Ninety Nine 9. 600. The headset is described as “big conoid semi”. It makes use of non-sealed roller ball bearings. The lower bearing is just a bearing, and the upper bearing consists a bearing, a seal, an upper race and a centring ring. If you do do this, I really recommend getting a nice bike stand, my bike was falling all over the place while I was trying to hold it together.

  • Loosen clamps on fork stem

There are two bolts on the stem (one on either side) and one on top for tensioning

There are two bolts on the stem (one on either side) and one on top for tensioning

  • Remove fork and bearings
  • Clean bearings and races (I just used paper towel, but some degreaser will help)

Bearing after having grease removed

Bearing after having grease removed

  • Place some grease on the races and bearings (I just bought a small tube of automotive grease from local hardware store).
  • Replace all bearings in order you removed them

Bottom bearing goes in with balls upwards (towards bike frame)

Bottom bearing goes in with balls upwards (towards bike frame)

Top bearing goes in balls facing down (towards bike frame)

Top bearing goes in balls facing down (towards bike frame)

Top bearing gets additional seal, upper race and tension cone

Top bearing gets additional seal, upper race and tension cone

  • Tighten bolt on-top of fork (to tension the package), then tighten clamps on stem.
    • If you’re unsure how tight they must be, find specified torques in your bike’s technical manual.