Filling Old Binding Holes on Skis

It would be great if every ski I owned was new. Buy skis, get them mounted, ski the piss out of them, then get rid of them. But the truth for us budget minded skiers is that one pair of skis often serves many roles in its life time. These many roles usually involve mounting and remounting various bindings. Because of this, a "new to me" ski usually has a set of holes from a previous set of bindings. Sometimes there are so many holes already in the skis that they look more like a peg board. Three sets of separate binding holes are about max. Beyond that you run into hole over lapping issues.

The first thing to do is to make sure that the new holes for the new bindings do not overlap on an existing hole. It is recommended that the distance of a holes width, reside between the old and the new hole. In practice half a holes width is fine. I have even had holes over lap before and been fine. Just make sure to use plenty of epoxy when setting the screws. In a situation where two holes are overlapping, I have read that a hardwood plug can be inserted into the old hole to provide some structural support. I have never used a hardwood plug, but think that they would be better than nothing.

Before mounting new bindings, the old holes need to be filled and smoothed out. How to do this has always presented many different solutions. Two things need to be accomplished. The old holes need to be filled so that water does not seep into the ski. Water into the ski could fill and water log the wood or foam core. The freezing of this water could then swell, bulge, and ultimately rip apart your ski. The next thing to deal with is the circular ridge of material that has built up around the old binding hole. The holes drilled for the bindings are slightly smaller than the the screw that goes in it. As the screw is inserted into the binding hole it taps it threads into the hole and top sheet. The first few twist of the screw will force a ridge of material up above the top sheet. This is ok for the old binding as the correlating hole in the binding itself is slightly counter sunk to allow space for the ridge of material. But for the new binding, this extra material will not allow it to sit flush on the ski. Many people use a sharp chisel or a razor knife to remove this ridge, but there is a better way.

Most ski shops stock an assortment of ski hole plugs. These are plastic plugs that are hammered into the old holes. These plugs are

slightly larger than the hole which they are fitted in. This interference fit not only seals the hole but locks the plug in place. Plugs can be had in various colors so the holes can be camouflaged. I am not a big fan of these plugs. Sure they are cheap and easy, but I never seem to have any on hand. I also believe that they are not very secure. Sure the fit is tight initially, but a lot of flexing and movement goes on in a ski. Old binding holes are typically underneath the new binding so inspection of these plugs can not be performed.

Now that I have told you how other people solve these two common issues, let me tell you how I do it. After all isn't that the reason you follow this blog?

For filling old holes, I use to use epoxy. You already know that I am a fan of the two part wonder and use it anytime I can. But getting the sticky resin to completely fill the hole is difficult. Making sure that top of the hole is sealed is the best you can hope for. I now use hot glue for my old ski hole filling. The hot glue flows into the deepest corners of the hole, and seals up nicely. I apply a healthy dose of the glue and leave a little dome of glue on top of the hole to insure that it is completely filled. Once the glue has dried, I use a cheese grater type rasp to remove not only the extra hot glue, but the ridge of material around the lip of the old hole. This type of rasp, often called a multi rasp, has a cutting surface that is relatively smooth to the touch. The cutting teeth are flat, and require the material to enter voids before they are sheared off. Running this type of rasp over the top of your skis does not damage the top sheets, as only things that sit above the surface will be cut off. Be careful though. If you really hog down on the rasp, it can still mark up the ski; especially if you hit the edge of the top sheet. Do not use a standard type rasp with sharp protruding cutting teeth, as it will rip up the top sheet of your skis. Using a chisel or a razor knife often results in cutting off more material than desired as these type of cutters tend to dive.

Once I have smoothed out the holes, I will go back with the hot glue gun and touch up some of the holes that might need it. Bubbles sometimes form, and the top of the hole, once leveled to the top of the ski, will not be completely filled. You can use to hot tip of the glue gun to melt some of the old glue before pumping more hot glue on top. This is insure that the two separate application of glues are bonded to each other. Wait till it is dry and rasp again.

Now you have a clean ski which is ready for mounting.

Transfer and Auotmatic Punches

Prior to drilling a hole in a hard surface, it is common practice to mark the center of the hole with a dimple. This dimple is usually made with a center punch and a hammer. Having a dimple to start the drill on prevents the drill bit from wandering, and making a hole not where you want. This is not such a big deal when making large holes in soft material like most woods. But it is much needed when drilling holes in metals and other hard materials, including the top sheet of a pair of skis.

When it comes to making punch marks I relay on two types of punches. If I layout my hole locations and need to mark the starting point I will use an automatic punch. An automatic punch looks like a regular center punch. The only difference is that you do not strike the back end of it with a hammer. Instead you push down on the back end till the punch "automatically" punches the material. How? As you compress the punch you load up a spring. At the end of the stroke the stored energy is suddenly released against the punching ram and it strikes the object. Though the strength of the punch is adjustable, I find that these punch marks are on the light side. Some of the reasons to use such a punch is less tools required, better accuracy placing the punch, and single handed operation. Once established, a light dimple can be made deeper with more hits from the automatic or with a regular punch and hammer.

Sometimes a situation arise and you need to transfer a series of holes from a part onto the surface to another. Examples are ski bindings that need mounting or a bracket that you need to pre-drill holes for. The tricky part here is the the center punch is too wide to fit in the hole to make the transfer, or that it will be difficult to determine the center of the hole to be transfer with a standard punch. The solution is a transfer punch set.

Transfer Punches come in a set with many varying diameters of punches. You find the punch that fits the hole best and use it to mark your work piece. Since drill bits come in many different series of sizes (letters, numbers, fractional, metric), a typical hole can be of any size. Transfer punch typically only come in fractional sizes (fraction of an inch). The fit is never perfect but good enough. Transfer punches are not of the automatic variety and thus a hammer is needed to deliver the dimple making blow.

When creating a set of holes never transfer all the holes at once. What I mean by this is do not lay the part down on the work piece, dimple mark all the holes then drill them all out. Instead I typically transfer one hole. Bolt the part down with the one hole, then transfer the next. If the part has more than two hole, I will do the first two holes individually then do the rest at once. Once two of the holes are fixed, there is no chance of that part rotating, and you have a equal chance all the rest of the holes will then line up. I find that this is a much more accurate method of transferring a set of holes.

And there you have it, another chapter in the life of drilling holes. (said with a southern draw, like an instructor I once had did, makes that last sentence funnier)

Save Your Sole!!

At some point in our lives we feel that hope might be lost forever. That the path we have chosen, might have left our sole in poor shape. Well not to worry, it can be repaired. No I am not a priest, nor will I direct you to your local place or worship. Instead, simply head out to the garage with your damaged sole and let's get to work.

The sole in question today is from a pair of The North Face approach/bowling/hipster shoes (not mine, I would never wear faux bowling hipster shoes). The heel area began to peel away from the foam shortly after they were new. Though not terminal, it was annoying for the owner.

The secret to shoe repair is choosing the correct type of adhesive. After all the only thing that is really keeping your sole in place is the glue! Ok, some boot soles are glued, stitched, and sewn in place. I have attempted to repair this sole one epoxy night, however epoxy is not the right type of glue. It is too stiff and does not flex with the rubber and foam. Without the ability to conform is breaks its bond between the two surfaces. Instead Barge Cement should be used when making sole repairs.

First thing to do is to remove as much of the old glue as possible. Next wash the two surfaces that you are planning to glue. Apply the glue to both sides, allow to dry and "tack" up, 10-15 minutes depending on air temperature. My garage was close to freezing and required about 25 minutes before the glue would tack up. Press the two surfaces firmly against each other, wiping off any excess glue which might ozzzes out.

Here is the trickiest part. Since the two halves do not want to stay together on their own, you need to apply pressure till the cement is fully cured. Holding the soles of these shoes together for 12 hours was not an options. With this type of thing, I usually use clamps or weights. However in this application neither of those options would have worked out. The curves surface needed varying degrees of force applied at different angles. The solution: TAPE. I used electrical tape and "tape the hell out of" the sole. Seemed to work out pretty good. I left the shoes in this state for two days before removing the tape and returning them to their owner. I do not think that this was nessary, just happened that way.

And there you have it, another sole saved!!

Leaking Air Compressor - Check Valve Repair

This last summer I rebuilt my deck. A friend of mine came over to help install some seismic reinforcements. This included a bracket which tied the deck to the house. The bracket was held in place with many Simpson SDS screws. Since the bracket was located between a set of joists, space was limited when selecting which tool was to be used to drive the screws. Cranking each of the screws by hand with a ratchet was too labor intensive. The solution was a pneumatic ratchet. Pneumatic ratchets however use alot of air. While driving all the screws in, my air compressor must have continuously ran for 30-45 minutes. After this particular job my air compressor developed a slow air leak. Though not terminal, this leak was annoying. Not only was there a constant high pitched hiss, but the compressor would fire up often, even when not in constant use as it would keep the pressure in the holding tank to level.


What I suspect had happened was the prolong running of the compressor overheated a component, most likely one of the valves. So I decided to investigate. At first pass it appears that the unloader valve was leaking. This is a mechanical valve located in the electrical switch area. The valve is a pneumatic/mechanical valve that triggers the electrical switch to turn on, when it senses low pressure. Though leaking, this valve what not the culprit.

Pressurized air is supply to the storage tank through a feed line. This feed line enters a check valve prior to the storage tank. Though it looks like air from the compressor enters the check valve, from the thick brass line, then goes out through the smaller line; the check valve is actually a three way valve with air entering the storage tank at the base of the valve. The thin brass line goes to the unloader valve mentioned earlier.



By removing the cap on the end of the check valve the inside working can be removed. Check valves are relatively simple; consisting of a spring and rubber cap, or seal. The picture of the check valve spring is not the same type as the one I took apart. It is simply there to show the basic make up of such a valve. The overheating of the check valve, over heated the spring. Like taking a torch to your cars suspension coil springs to lower your ride. The heating of the spring weakened it to the point that it no longer sealed the pressurized air from the tank. The air would leak back through the check valve and would enter both the compressor and the unloader valve. That is why at initial inspection it appeared that the unloader valve was leaking.

The proper repair for this job would have been to order a new spring and possible a new sealing cap. However I simply pulled the existing spring apart and stretched it out. This increase in spring tension was enough to return the check valve to full functionality. Though this type of cold working of the spring metal is not recommended, this is a low risk part. If it fails again, I might consider a new spring.


As my friend's grandpa once put it, "Good enough for the girls we go with!"

Hot Springs Spa - I'm back in the saddle again!

Soon after my Labor Day party I decommissioned my inflatable Spa 2 Go hot tub in a fanfairless ceremony attended only by my dog and I. Actually the dog left half way through the events. However this was a blessing in disguise because it forced me to begin working on the abandoned hot tub that came with the house.

When we moved into the house, a none functioning hot tub made by Hot Springs Portable Spas sat in the yard. I am not sure about the "portable" part of the name, this thing is not going anywhere, easily. The only information we were given on its condition was that they thought it needed a new heater element. Opening up the access panel I found that the heater element housing was coated with a patch material that looked like plaster. With some help from my father in law, we poked around the electrical controls and concluded that everything was functional. I filled the tub and fired it up. The heater element was getting power and after several hours a noticeable increase in temperature was observed. However the heater element housing repair was not holding and was leaking. Thus the system was shut down and the tub drained so that additional sealant material could be applied to the housing. Once the system became water tight a tub of 102 degree water was produced. I was slightly troubled by this success, since the thermostat control was maxed out. I did not complain too much as I enjoy a beer in the tub after our first snow storm of the season. A weekend of hot tub soaking was all the spa would muster and soon the temperature dropped to 95 degrees.

Upon opening up the panel I was quickly able to identify the various components of the spa. I was greateful that the spa system was pretty simple. The experiance gained from the S2G was very handy.

1-Flow sensor

2-Jet pump

3-Heater

4-circulation pump

5-high limit sensor

6-temp control sensor

7-tub light

8-controller

Cracking the control box I was greeted with a slew of electronic components. Once again it was a relatively simple controller. Rather than have an all inclusive circuit board that does everything, this controller was old school; a bunch of relays, switches, potentiometer, and a few circuit boards made up the brains of the spa system.

1-sensor inputs

2-relays

3-thermostat controller

4-light switch

5-power in

6-power out to either circulation pump, heater or jet pump

7-power out to light

8-power out to either circulation pump, heater or jet pump

9-jet switch

10-jet on indicator light

My first inclination was to change out the heater element, since that is what the previous owners thought was wrong with the system. However based on some of the "johnny homeowner" repairs I found around the house, I was not so sure that PO thoughts were very reliable. At that time the voice of my old boss popped into my head. He use to say: do not use the "shot gun" approach to repairs. Shoot blindly and hope to hit something. Instead of just replacing parts and hoping that one of them solves the problem, you should figure out what is wrong with the system. I never thought the term "shotgun" approach was very appropriate, instead I think "machine gun" approach paints a more accurate image.

The first thing that I wanted to check was to make sure that the heater element was functioning properly. Messing with the temperature controller yielded clicks from the relay. A relay is a mechanical switch that turns power on and off. Signal voltage from a sensor is very low, and can not power the desired device, thus a relay is needed to handle the power demand of the device when a switched signal indicates it to do so. Tracing the wires back from the heater, I found the particular relay which powers it. This typical relay had six leads, or three pairs. In each pair a lead is for the positive terminal and one for the negative. One pair was for the signal voltage, one for power in and one for power out. I approached the system at a steady state with the thermostat set to max and temp of the tub at 95 degrees. I then took a volt meter and probed the leads. One set of leads showed 120 volts (the spa is a 120 volt system), and the other two showed nothing: the relay was off. Wiggling the temp setting switch around would result in a click. At this time two sets of leads showed 120 and one set show something like 12 volts: the relay was on. Setting the thermostat lower and allowing the system to reach steady state yield a 85 degree spa, turn the controller up would click on the relay. This meant that the heater was turning on and off and that most likely the heater could heat the tub past 95 degrees if the controller told it do so: the heater was good.

When my Spa 2 Go was not able to sustain temperature, the culprit was a failing temperature sensor. So I went to pull the two sensors. However this was a little more involved since I recently epoxied the sensors in place to stop the leaks. So now I had to remove the entire heater housing and bring it into the shop. Once inside I took a Dremel with a small cutter, and with the precision of a dentist went forth cut the the sensor free. With both sensor out I proceeded to test their resistances. Experience from the S2G told me that both sensors of a two sensor system do not fail at the same time and the same rate. The resistance of the sensors were the same at room temperature, a few hundredths of an ohm off, but that is nothing to worry about. Placing the sensors in a bucket of hot water yield an identical drop in resistance. The senors were most likely good. However I eventually found a graph of the sensors that plotted resistance vs. temperature. There was an off chance that the sensors were failing at the identical rate and was causing my problem. But based off the the graph my sensors appeared to be in great shape.

The next logical component that might be the source of my low resulting temperature was the thermostat controller. I however did not have a good test to identify if the current unit was functioning properly or not. All indications pointed that this was the culprit: consistent temperature (I was able to set it to a lower temp and have it stay at the lower temp), wiggling the switch would cause the relay to turn on. Though I was not 100% confident in my diagnosis, base on the process of elimination I was 90% sure. I found a replacement part on-line and speaking with the very helpful tech support, made me feel even better that the part in question was bad. All said and done a new thermostat controller was in the mail and my bank account was $80 leaner. I was taking a risk by not confirming the part was bad, since electronic parts are non refundable, however a house call from a spa repair person would typically incur a $200 bill for the first hour without the cost of parts. A few weeks had also elapsed and the need for the hot tub to be functional was beginning to become dire.

http://www.backyardplus.com/proddetail.php?prod=71340

A few days later the part came. I finished epoxying the heater housing and reinstalled all the various components. In a day and a halve's time the tub was filled with 108 degree water.

Bang bang, mission accomplished.

I felt quite a sense of accomplishment and the punch line for old joke about the enigneer and the chalk came to to my mind. One dollar for the chalk, $499 to know where to put the "X".

Now to get the tub up onto my deck.

Headlight Polishing

Back in the day, the headlight of your car was a sealed unit. A glass enclosure the size of a box of tissue, which contained the reflector, and the bulb, made up your headlight unit. Often times this sealed unit contained two bulbs, one for the low and one for the high beam. My 1996 Nissan Pickup truck still had sealed units. When your headlights burned out, you needed to replace the entire unit. However most modern cars stopped using this type of headlight set up. Instead most auto manufactures opt for a replacement bulb type of set up. My 1990 300zx was this type, so it is not just based on year. Why did this switch occur? Let's list the pros and con's of both type of headlights.

Sealed Beam Pro: Robust pre manufactured unit. Damaged headlight easily replaced.

Sealed Beam Con: Wasteful, perfectly good lenses, and reflector replaced when only the bulb is burnt out. Sometime lamp replacement requires the re aiming of the head light.

Bulb type Pro: Easier to replace burnt headlight. Though the bulb is not always cheaper than the a sealed headlight unit. More integrated headlight design. Auto designers have more freedom to design a headlight that fits the car. This has almost completely eliminated the pop up head light. Ability to use different types of bulbs.

Bulb type Con: Damaged headlight cost alot to fix. Headlight lenses often discolors with age.

This last issue is the topic of our post. When replaceable bulb type headlights first came out the lenses were made of glass. However that trend was short lived and almost all cars use plastic these days. Over the years (sometimes not even many years) the headlights become hazy or begin to turn yellow. This really effects the amount of light thrown out onto the road by your head lights.

(This is the headlight before polishing. It is not too bad however the difference was noticeable in light output.)

The solution: polish your headlight lenses. Almost all plastics can be polished. That includes eye glass lenses, and headlight lenses. Polishing is usually accomplished, by a buffer using a series of decreasing grit polishing agents. A fine wet sand followed by a fabric or foam polisher with a liquid polishing agent. The foam polisher to the right is what I used. However if you do a search on-line there are many different ways to accomplish this task.

I bought a prepackaged headlight polishing kit from HF tools.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=65938

Rebuilding Rechargeable Battery Packs

Now a days it seems that you can get a cordless anything. From electric razors, drills, to even lawnmowers. Life seems grand, taking your drill out to the far corner of your yard to drive a few screws into some loose fence boards. But what happens a few years later when the battery dies and it is time to replace them. Well it depends on what device you have. If you went for some for some of the high end name brands, you might choke when you discover the replacement battery for your De Walt or Makita will run you $75 or more. Some of these devices cost barely over $100 for the drill, charger, case and one or even two batteries. Some times the most cost effective thing to do is to throw everything away and buy new. DON"T DO THAT!!!

Instead let us dive into what makes up a battery pack. If you are like me, you have probably attempted to take apart an alkaline battery when you were a kid. When I took apart a 9volt, I was surprised to find several smaller batteries within. When I asked my father, he simple said, "How else do you think they get up to 9volts." Well the same is true for a rechargeable battery pack. A 14.4 or 18 volt battery, is built up of several smaller cells connected in series till the desired output voltage is created. As you can see from the picture, this battery pack is built up from what looks like a bunch of smaller "c" type batteries connected by little tabs, and covered with a small piece of cardboard. One can remove and replace each individual cell dead cell with fresh ones and voila, a new battery pack at a fraction of the the price.

Replacements cells can be sources from various Internet sites, or from your local batteries plus. http://www.batteriesplus.com/ However there is a tricky part to all this. From the factory the batteries are connected to each other via a spot welded tab. When you DIY, you will only be able to solder the connections back together, since most of us do not have a resistance spot welder. I also fear that welding a battery might have detrimental effects to its performance. Getting a good soldered connection on the smooth tabs of the battery is difficult. Scoring the surface is a must, but even that is not a guarantee for a solid connection. This is where ones soldering skills are put to the test.

Instead I opted to have my local Batteries Plus in Reno rebuild my De Walt 14.4V XR battery. It cost me $35 and was turned around in less than a week. They have two options, a lower mA rated battery build for ~$28 or the higher one I got for $35. Since my "XR" (eXtended run) pack was originally the higher output battery I opted for the same.

Taking apart the battery is a bit of a trick. Like the pictured battery, mine had a single screw holding the cover plate in place. However the edge was glued down and required some prying to free.

When selecting power tools we look at price, specs, performance rating and reviews. However most do not look at cost of replacement parts such as batteries. I have found that Ryobi tools have decent performance, but the replacement batteries only cost about $20. This has made the the Ryobi line of cordless power tool very popular. In fact I think that Ryobi subsidizes the cost of the batteries in order to sell more tools, just to capitalize on this fact. One would assume that their marketing strategy would be to slowy ramp up the cost of the batteries after the brand has gained popularity, but they have yet to do so.

Ski Pulk

So I told you it was coming. My gear sled in all of it's glory, and its associated story. Just look at it schlepping heavy loads across vast frozen distances. This whole thing started at the very place this picture was taken about five years ago, some ideas take longer than others to fully cook up.

My wife to be told me that she had never been winter camping. "What you grew up in Colorado, don't your parents make you survive a week in alpine conditions with nothing but your underwear, britken stocks, and a pack of rice cakes." I guess not. So I decided to take her back country camping and skiing. I have gotten lost in this area enough to know it well, and was comfortable taking her. So armed with my 1.5 seasons of skiing skills and her 1.5 seasons of tele, we hit the back country.

While thinking that this was going to be a gnarly wilderness adventure, I was a little shot down when I saw the well established tracks across the lake and the many people out. I was most impressed by a group of four skiers. They all had the fattest skis and skated across the lake with dazzling speed. They each carried a day pack and one guy dragged a sled, which they would switch off dragging.

A few year later on a hut trip in Colorado, a member of our group had a nice sled which he used to carry his load. OK now I got to try this. So I started construction of my own.

Like any good project research is the first step. I was a bit disappointed with the Internet. I know gear sleds or pulks is a standard piece of equipment for Arctic travel, and from what I have seen those sleds looked professionally built. But I never found a company that made them. I also knew that my hut trip mate's sled was purchased at his local gear shop. Yet no mention of it. The only lead I got was from the Ski Pulk Man from skipulk.com. He sold his homemade sled or any part of it. It seemed well built, but it was pieced together from fancy hardware store parts, and a lot of time and effort. He also has a PDF book that tell you how to make your own. You got to love guys like that who share their knowledge so openly.

From my research and observations there are five main parts of a good gear sled: The sled itself, Fins to help it track, pull poles for control, brake to keep it from pulling you back, and a tie down method.

The Sled- Any toy sled will work. However some are better suited than others. My sled is a local drug store spacial. It was in fact given to me at the seasons end, when a friend of mine was cleaning out her ski lease for the season. The Ski Pulk Man recommends his favorite brand. The ideal sled is wide. This will help with the side hill roll over.

Fins-For the last few years, every time I saw a sled of any type I paid special attention. This included rescue sleds used at ski resorts. If you look at the bottom of these sleds they have large fins or skegs, that run almost the entire length of the sled. Not all gear sleds have them though. The reason being that a gear sled is best used on relatively flat surfaces. A fin helps the sled track on side hills. The fin also adds "noticeable drag" according to Ski Pulk Man. I did not get a chance to compare with and without. An option is to have a retractable fin.

I made mine by simply riveting a 6 inch section of aluminum angle iron. The leading edge was beveled to aide in snow penetration. The sled was pre-drilled for each pop rivet and I used rivet backing (or small well fitting washers) for each.

Since I want this to be an all terrain sled I opted to include fins.

Pull Poles-If a sled was limited to flat terrain poles would not be needed, and cord would have sufficed. However a rigid connection is required to transmit drive input into the sled. It also keeps the sled from running into the driver on the downhills. This is where things can get really fancy. Instead I opted for a very simple cord within 1/2" PVC pipe system. Upon initial test I found that 5' of pipe was just not enough. Five feet because I cut a 10 foot length in two. You need about 6' otherwise your sled hits the back of your skis. So in total I have to buy three 10 foot sections. If you have snow shoes a shorter section will be OK.

I cord I used at first was switched out with webbing. I found the stretch of the cord I was using to be unacceptable.

I spent some working out the attachment for the webbing. Simply drilling holes in the plastic sled and hauling heavy loads through it did not seem like a good idea. So after many trips to the hardware store I came up with this: an eye bolt and two cable clamps. This would distribute the load of each pull location to four holes. The clamps need to be enlarged a bit with a grinder in order to allow the eye bolt shaft to seat correctly.

Brake-I imagined climbing a steep grade while towing the sled, slipping and having the sled drag you down the hill. So I devised an uphill "parking" brake. Of course this is actually pretty standard and I have seen it done before. I had a section of aluminum diamond plate, which I fashioned into a cleat. Then mounted it to a hinge and the hinge to the rear section of the sled. You can see it in the first two pictures. When traveling forward the cleat simply drags over the snow, the hinge allowing it to flow over uneven features in the snow with ease. but when the sled starts to slide backwards, the cleat digs into the snow until it is vertical and acts as a brake. Quite effective. I drilled a hole in the cleat so that I could tie up the brake when traveling on flat surfaces.

Tie down- Even more options exist with securing your cargo to the vessel. Either with bungee cords, or webbing, this is critical. I found this out, not only on my test run, but when I flipped the rig a few times. I found a small dock cleat , which I used to secure my lashing cord. I drilled many hole along the top edges of the sled and fished the cord through. Nothing fancy.

To finsih off the set up I pulled off a hip belt from a pack and secure the webbing to it.

A tip is to load the heavy stuff along the bottom of the sled. This helps keep it from being tippy..

In researching the definition of the word "Pulk" to satisfy the curiosity of a reader, I have come up with this.

Pulka
A Pulka (Swedish) / Pulk (Norwegian) / Pulkka (Finnish), from Sami language bulke, is a Scandinavian short, low-slung small toboggan used in sport or for transport, pulled by a dog or a skier. The sled can be used to carry supplies such as a tent or food, or transport a child or other person. In Norway, pulks are often used by families with small children on skiing trips (small children being pulled by the parents).

It was not easy to find an answer since "pulk" was not defined in a standard english dictionary.

I also found another site http://picearubens.tripod.com/Pulks.htm. This has a few more links to commercial gear sleds.

Watch Battery Replacement

Don't you just hate it when your watch dies, and you need to change out the battery. When I lived in Ventura I use to go the Seiko Man, in the Vons shopping center, on Telephone and Victoria. He was cheap fast and easy, and he sold stuff like fart bombs and snap caps. Crazy ol perv from Thailand. But then I moved, and it was no longer that easy. So I started doing it myself. Some watches I could pop off the back cap and go the the drug store and get a replacement. Some watches you were not able to pop off the cap, and thus Jeweler time.

That was until I bought the right tool. Like a monkey with a stick, I can now change my own batteries. Woopie.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=91550

I am sure I paid more for this than $3.99. And at that time still thought it was a tool worth having.

More on the "how can they sell it for so cheap" later.


The Seiko Man has since left the Vons shopping center. He now does his kick ass watch repair in the Firehouse (?) Plaza, Telephone and Main. Over the many years that I have gone to him, he has done many battery changes, but he also does some real work, like replaced the crystal on a few watches, and the wind up/time set knob on my non battery watches. It's a shame though, that I have not seen a naked lady lighter at his new shop.

Bob Trailer - Build your own.

If you have been a cycliclst long enough, you most likely know about bicycle trailers. One of the most famous one out there is the BOB trailer.


http://www.bobgear.com/


It is rumored that the name BOB stands for "Bring Own Beer", and that the trailer was designed to carry a keg. I am very familiar with the product. Not only do I own one, but am a sponsored rider. Sorta.


Bob trailers were originally started in San Luis Obispo, where I went to college. At the time of my senior project, I was working in the engineering project lab, the student machine shop. One afternoon, in walks a man who is poking his head around. My senior project was a gas power assisted recumbent bicycle. He immediately took interest in my project. I informed him that this was a restricted area, and he informed me that he was the owner of BOB trailers. We got to chatting, and i told him how I planned to ride my contraption from Ventura California to Las Vegas self supported. Do you want a sponsorship he asked.


My sponsorship included a BOB trailer, gear bag, T-shirt, stickers and pamphlets. The trailer was a broken late model prototype, which after seeing the miles of welds on my recumbent, he was sure I could fix. He told me that I could take this sponsorship as far as I wanted to, and that was the last time I spoke to him. I did however help show off his product on my trek. I wore his shirt and talked up his product to who ever would listen. I also plastered BOB stickers on every flat surface between Ventura and Vegas.


Fast forward 8 years. I get an e-mail one day from my buddy Ralf who did the trip with me. He asked if I still have the BOB, and was wondering if I was willing to sell it to him. Though it gets used only a few times each year, usually loaned to others, I was not willing to part with it, he could barrow it any time he wanted though). The main reason was the shipping to Michigan part; seemed to be a hassle and anti bike trailer purpose: CO2 footprint reduction.


These trailers are not cheap, with a MSRP of $289 for the basic trailer. Ralf decided to build his own.

Though almost all homemade, a critical part was needed to be purchased from BOB. The skewer. Also upon test rides it appeared that the skewer to trailer connection was a little weak, and that it might be a good idea to purchase the entire front triangle assembly.

http://www.biketrailershop.com/catalog/bob-replacement-parts-c-22.html

Last I heard BOB trailers is based out of Bosie Idaho, and they sell way more baby joggers then they do bike trailers.