New chain

After 34000km of loyal and 3500km of erratic service, my bike's chain has finally been replaced. And not a moment too soon either. At the end, it was clearly well past it's best-before date: it was tightened at the maximum and still it rattled and even hit the center stand.

Not only was it too slack, a few thousand kilometeres ago I noticed some of the chain links were stuck at the angle they're in when running along a sprocket. This has the nasty effect of constantly tightening and slackening the chain. So my chain was effectively pulled at many times per second when driving, which of course increases the rate of wear even further.

A chain is always replaced together with both sprockets. You can see why from the picures below: the teeth on the old front sprocket are eaten away almost by half.



On the rear sprocket, the difference is less pronounced, but it's still noticeable. That's because the rear sprocket is larger and does less revolutions than the front one.



Interesting note: according to my garage, some people only get about 15000km out of their chain, which underlines the importance of a good driving style. A chain and sprocket set is quite expensive.

Jaarebees

Gisteren heb ik eindelijk nog eens in mijn tuintje gewerkt. Het was dringend nodig: met al die regen was het onkruid goed opgeschoten.
Ik heb ook de pompoen- en courgetteplantjes die ik eerder gezaaid had uitgeplant.


Pompoenen en courgettes centraal op de foto, mijn compleet gummi geworden, doorgeschoten aardappelen van deze winter staan links, met erboven mijn aarbeien.
Aardbeien die bovendien goed vertrokken zijn. De eerste is al bijna rijp:

Haspengouw

Today, I went for a bike trip in Haspengouw with some friends. Lots of small country roads and picturesque villages, most with their own mansion. Remarkably, a lot of the roads in the middle of the fields run quite straight; while others have hairpin bends, like one near Kanne.


A scenic view from some vantage point in Berg, near Tongeren:



Lying around and photographing my photographer:

Picasa

I just installed Picasa. I've only used it for one minute and already I don't like it. Why? Because the first time you start it up, it asks to scan either your entire computer or 'just' your My Documents, My Pictures and Desktop folders. No other option. And the dialog is not cancelable.
I probably have a few thousand photos on my computer, having them all scanned takes too much time; at least when the only thing you want is to quickly share one tiny little album.

So I choose the My Documents/Images/Desktop option; there shouldn't be too many photos in there I guessed. Wrong! (of course)
So then the thing starts scanning and goes on scanning and keeps scanning and here's me trying to find a way to get it to stop. Not a chance.
According to the instructions on the download page, you can choose which folders Picasa should manage from the Tools > Folder Manager menu. Well ... possibly, but certainly not while it's still busy with the initial scan.
Why the hell include an option for me to select the single folder I'm interested in (for now) to share, but first having to sit through a huge initial scan which I will have to undo entirely the first time the Folder Manager option becomes available?

Seedling growth

A while ago, I planted some pumpkin and courgette seeds. At first they didn't germinate very well, but when I put them in my workhouse (a non-insulated place that gets over 30°C when the sun is shining), they shot up like rockets.
The movie below is a time-lapse recording of the progress over a 24 hour period (2008-05-08 1700 to 1700 today). Note the explosive growth when the seedlings are in full sun (and the picture is over-illuminated).

Exhausting paintjob

Yesterday, I have occupied myself with the respraying of my exhaust manifolds with heat-resistant paint. As you can see: it was urgent.


I had already resprayed them partly last autumn, but I only had time for one coat and even then only on the parts I could reach. This time I decided to take the whole thing off, sand it down properly and give it a thick coating of paint.
Actually, taking off the pipes was surprisingly easy: I only had to loosen up the radiator (two screws), unscrew the four bolts with which the pipework is connected to the engine block, and unscrew the two support points (one at the end of the manifold, one on the silencer).


Sanding took a few hours, but the end result was gleaming steel, ready for a few coats of paint. After one 400ml can, I decided it was enough. According to the instructions, you must heat up the paint for it to be baked solid. Normally, one would do this by starting the engine and let things take care of themselves. However, my exhausts wen't connected to the engine anymore.
For that reason I had borrowed a heat gun. Unfortunately, the heat gun didn't warm things up enough, so I had to put the pipes back onto the engine and start it up. During the process, I did make some scratches; they'll have to be resprayed later.


My next bike will have stainless steel exhaust manifolds! It turns purplish blue when used, but at least it doesn't rust.