Close Calls and Cameras

It's been almost 3 years since I began regularly commuting by bike. After a bad crash in early summer last year, and some close incidents, I purchased an action cam and bolted it to my handlebars. Some of the footage from it has been funny, some frustrating.

However, I'm still trying to decide whether the footage is useful. All that exists after the incident is a short clip. Where someone driving a car does something stupid, followed, usually, by too much loud swearing from me. Every close call just sits on the hard drive of my computer. Where I can watch, rewatch, and only just feed the rage back into myself. Why? I don't know. Is it mentally healthy? Definitely not.

So, with that out there, I'm just going to share a moment from my night time commute. It's probably the closest miss. Mostly because of the speed, and how much I had to actually react to avoid it.

It's those moments, where I wish autonomous cars were here long ago. And then, I'm reminded that even systems designed to keep cars from running into things have problems.

Product Review - Planet Bike Superflash Micro

Welcome to the cycling side of the blog. Where, instead of what coffee I'm drinking, you are subjected to me talking about bikes, and bike related things. So let's begin.

Up for review today is the Planet Bike Superflash Micro rear bike light, pictured below.

Wait, what? A product review of a disassembled product? Mhm. That's exactly what's happening here. This is going to end up being a mix of review and teardown.

This light was purchased for my girlfriend's bike about a year ago. It was used occasionally, and as far as lights go, put out adequate light for letting people know you were in front of them.

But then, it died. I've not disassembled it and looked far enough to determine if it was because of a bad lithium ion battery, or a lack of adequate charging protection, but either way, the battery now reads 0V from positive to ground. There's burn marks between the two where the battery leads were soldered to the board, so it looks like it overcharged, then arced across, killing the battery, and potentially other parts of the circuit.

Build

So, now that we know it's dead, let's talk about how they built it.

The lens and body of the light were glued together, requiring the use of a knife to get in and pry the two apart. It certainly was not designed to be disassembled.

The circuit and battery assembly are held in the body by a rubber gasket, which also serves as a cover for the USB charging port. It's possibly designed like this to help limit the circuit board from being vibrated apart. A very real possibility if it's attached to the frame of a bicycle.

The on/off switch sits in the middle of the lens, attached to a spring. There is not a rubber seal or anything around it, so I wouldn't try submerging this light in water, since that is just about the only entry point (unless you left the USB port cover open.)

Final Thoughts

Would I buy this light again? Maybe. It's one of the least expensive rechargeable rear lights on the market, and I can't guarantee any of the other ones have better overcharging protection. Instead, I'll stick with a warning about charging batteries. Don't leave them plugged in overnight and unattended, because you never know if there's nothing there to prevent them from frying themselves.

Spella Caffè - Ethiopia Guji Kercha

When my brother saw this bag of coffee on the counter, he got all excited, thinking that I was in the know about Spella Caffè. The truth is, I wasn't. I'm not sure what it means to be in the know, other than the fact a friend told him the place reminded him of an Italian Caffè, and now he wants to go visit.

Anyways, now I'm in on the secret too. Accidentally. And only because I forgot to buy coffee at Tailored over the weekend, and then worked too late on Monday to make it to Coffee Plant Roasters before they closed. So, now, a desire to buy something I hadn't had before, as I stood before the coffee choices in the aisle of the local grocery store led me to this.

The coffee itself is a dark roast, darker than I normally drink, and darker than most seem to roast these days. It makes sense though, if they are Italian. As for taste, I still know nothing, other than the fact that I think it tastes good. But I've also yet to find a coffee from Ethiopia that I didn't like.

Tailored Coffee Roasters - Colombia La Chorrera

Tailored Coffee Roasters is another roaster local to me, and, like Coffee Plant Roasters, is also surprisingly easy to reach by bicycle on the way home from work. They aren't exactly new, I just never bothered stopping there and picking up a bag from them before now. That's not to say I haven't had their coffee before. There's a coffee shop a short walk from my house that uses them for their beans.

So, now that the coffee shop introduction is out of the way, on to the beans. These come from Nariño, Colombia, but I couldn't tell you if that means the department or the city within it.

Like the last coffee on the site, I apologize that, to my taste buds, coffee is usually just coffee, and tastes as such. That being said, I do have something resembling notes for this one. Most importantly, is that this is a fairly light roast, and because of this, it threw off my brewing slightly.

My usual routine can be best summed as 4 mins in a french press, but the first few times I brewed it, I was left with the distinctly mild sour taste of under extracted coffee. It's a problem I hadn't really had with the french press before. Not unless I was tired and accidentally added water to whole beans. Adjusting the grind a few notches tighter has now helped, but it wasn't something I was expecting. I'll probably forget the change and end up over extracting the first cup of whatever's next.

Making Coffee Outside

Ever so often, the need to make coffee outside of the home arises. This could be a backpacking trip, bicycle tour, a regular camping trip, or a quick morning adventure to the top of a mountain or similar.

It's important then, to have something easily packed and light weight to take with you. In my case, that includes the following items:

• A titanium backpacking pot
• Alcohol stove - made from an aluminum can
• Kalita Wave dripper and filter
• Mug
• Coffee

My brewing setup, on it's maiden voyage in the backyard.

This combination has now seen two Sub-24 Hour Overnight bike trips and a backpacking trip. It works well. The stove nests in the mug, and the mug in the pot. From there, an aluminum foil windscreen, and lighter also get added to the pot.

As for the coffee, I usually try and pre-grind enough before the trip, especially if the trip will be short or if you'll be backpacking and trying to minimize the weight. For a long bike trip, and fresher coffee, a hand grinder can be packed as well.

Coffee Plant Roasters - Guatemala La Esperanza

This coffee should win an award. For what, you might ask? For the prize of being the first coffee to be posted to this blog while I'm still consuming it. Yay, give it a round of applause, it's earned it.

Anyways, this is another one from CPR, and the fourth from Guatemala. It comes from La Esperanza, in the Quetzaltenango department. I've got no facts about it. It's wikipedia pages are sparse, and most searches just bring up coffee roasters selling their wares. Though that does mean other people also consider it worth drinking.

Now, since I'm currently working my way through this bag of coffee, it'd be safe to say I have tasting notes of it. And...I don't. If nothing crazy stands out, it gets listed as "tastes like coffee." It also doesn't help that it is consumed at work, where my priorities are not detailed tasting notes, but, rather, work. Maybe I'll remedy this, maybe I won't. If I do, it'll end up being an edit at the end of the post.

Coffee Plant Roasters - Light Vienna

After a short break, we're back, and with stuff that, while still being consumed in the past, is certainly being consumed in a much more recent past.

The coffee here comes from Coffee Plant Roasters, still just as accessible by bike as it was before. However, as a bit of a changeup, this marks the first blend I've purchased from there. It's origins are listed as "Sumatra and our favorite Latin." Whether that means a blend of Latin's too, or a single favorite, that's up for debate.

Also up for debate, is their name and description. They've named it after a level of roasting, but then tell you it is only barely in that category. As a follow-up, it then gets described as a "medium to dark roast." So it's a light, medium, dark roast. Got it.

Since it's recent, and I remember something about the taste, I'll actually speak to that here. One flavor description CPR gave was earth. The first few days of drinking this, that earth tasted like dirt. That's not hyperbole. I guess I should just remember that earth = dirt, and shouldn't expect the flavor to be different. That being said, that flavor mellowed out (or became ignored) the further into the bag I drunk.