Category Archives: Bikes

Battery replacement on a NiteRider Swift 500

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1 minute, 24 seconds

A while ago the battery on my NiteRider Swift 500 headlight stopped taking a charge. I looked at NiteRider’s FAQ page and saw no mention of the batteries being user serviceable. Further, when I searched online, I didn’t find any guides or replacement parts for the light. Time to grab a screwdriver and DIY!

I started by removing the strap mount – a single Phillips head on the bottom:

Then I removed the 4 allen screws around the base of the head:

The lens assembly should come off – be careful as the rubber battery cover will fall free now. Be sure to keep track of all the parts!

Remove the two Philips head screws at the top of the LED plate:

You should now be able to slide the LED plate out which is attached to the battery and the main circuit board. You’ll note the battery is both soldered on an aggressively affixed with double sided sticky tape. Peel the battery off, cut the two wires (one red, one black) half way between the battery and the circuit board. Rub the tape residue off enough so you can see the specs of the battery:

There’s no direct replacement part for this, but I found this “CaoDuRen Rechargeable 3.7V Li Lipo Lithium” on Amazon was close enough to work. Only $9 at the time – what a deal!

Cut the JST connector off of the new battery, cutting half way between the battery and connector. Solder the black to black and red to red wires, and seal up the solder connection. I used heat-shrink tubing and then affixed it with sticky Velcro:

Reassemble your light by following the steps above in reverse order. Careful when working with the light as it is quite bright and I had it accidentally turn on while assembling it – yikes!

Now enjoy your light and drop me a line if you have any other tips or succeed in replacing your battery!

5 x 5 Anthem East Trail

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0 minutes, 41 seconds

Ever since Hans showed me the way with his 5×5 of Sibley, I’ve been mildly obsessed with this format. It’s so quick to put together and forces to you to think about what’s really necessary to tell the story. That said, I think I failed in my recent attempt to tell a *good* story, but it was really fun to shoot and even more fun to ride:

http://vimeo.com/57996219

Video was shot just a 10 minute ride from our house in Henderson, NV on/around Anthem East Trail (PDF). I’m spending all my rides (all 3 of them) exploring this area as it’s so close to our house.

Video is 1080/30P and shot on my “Faux Pro” (ya know, instead of a Go Pro), my new Galaxy S3 in an OtterBox. I never would have though of shooting first person cycling videos, but the Otter clipped so nicely on my camel back strap!

Oakland & SF Photos, Coffee and Scotch Whiskey

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1 minute, 25 seconds

Ok, this’ll be a good ramble. In order of the photos below, first up is the PG&E embarcadero substation. Huge buildings that have no windows are not for humans. They seem to always be for some utility company. Weird and cool looking. Next up is a shot of a late I made at work. Microfoam is looking good, latte art, not so much. We’ll get there, just you wait and see. Next up, the shocking truth about the price of a bottle of decent scotch. The first is Eddie’s Liquors which has a bottle for $70. Then Trador Joe’s has the same bottle for $37. Shocking! After than is the 411 30th building in oakland. Some what unassuming until you check out the details (art deco?) of the lobby. I love this old stuff.

Last night I did a ride from our house, through downtown oakland, through china town, past laney, all the way south down to the park street bridge, all the way around alameda, and the double back almost the same way you came. Along the way I went through the defunct airforce base. The next photo after 411 30th shots are the HUGE doors (no street view) on the base. I love ’em! On the way back I stumbled upon The Hotel Oakland. Woah! This building is 1 square block and looks like it’s from New York city. It’s on 13th off of Broadway, who knew?! Wikipedia suggests it’s on the list of Alameda County Historical Landmarks and some random site has this history:

“A residence and health center for the elderly. The building housed the finest hotel in Oakland until it went out of business in the Great Depression; in 1943 it became an army hospital and by the 1960s a VA hospital. From 1963 to 1979 it was vacant, before being reborn into its current use.”

Lastly, a sunset shot of the good ol tribune tower. Hi Modern Cafe!

WordPress Exploit, Fog, Fruit, Plants and Plates

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1 minute, 9 seconds

Here’s a random collection of items that happened over the last 10 or so days.

My friend’s blog got hacked! This is because of a WordPress exploit that allows a user to create an admin user and log into your blog. They can then upload random stuffs to do all sorts of nasties. Your best bet is to first check that your blog hasn’t been hacked and then upgrade to the latest version. Sadly, if you’ve already been hacked, the new admin user in there and upgrading won’t boot this user. Plip has upgraded as we weren’t hacked, but we lost our Plipish theme. That’ll come back soon, promise.

Our friend from twtitw joined us for a commute on the Ferry to SF. It’s a lovely way to commute, they take bicycles and sometimes you get spooky fog! Then, when you get to SF, you’re at the ferry building where you can get tasty treats. See pics below.

I was commuting home from a friends house on Wednesday night and there was a big sign that said “Wet plates ahead”. Just before there was one that said “Dirty Knives on Left” and after one said “Sporks in Road”.

Our fave famers market still has strawberries. OMG, do they! Look at this huge one. Can you believe it’s organic?

With the sunlight fading sooner and sooner each night, I’m going for more and more sunset rides. Here’s another pic for the latest on Thursday night.

Finally, our venus fly trap is blooming! Fun.

Photos: Food, Bikes, Sunsets and Stars

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0 minutes, 16 seconds

The other night we made fried okra. Tasty! This past Sunday I went for another sunseterific MTB ride in Tilden and Wildcat parks. Since taking some initial photos, I’ve since figured how to take long 60 second photos. We got stars on film; this is a first for me since back in my analog film days. Enjoy!

Secret Jumps of Tunnel

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0 minutes, 23 seconds

If you ride off road, you’re always looking for new ways to get from point A to point B and stay on the dirt. Today is Thursday which means that it’s leave work early and ride day! H and K and I were exploring off of Tunnel and found a full on hidden BMX track. I never road BMX as a kid, which makes my MTB skills a bit lacking. BMX skills or no, none of actually road this track. 4′ tall jumps with a 5′ gap? No thanks!

secretjumps

Fixed Gear + Slipped Chain = Thankful for Brake

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0 minutes, 23 seconds

I know a lot of the fixie purists don’t ride with a front brake and just use their mad skidding skills to slalom their way through traffic and sudden stops. However, the other day I was headed back from a trip up to the Oakland hills, hit a big bump and had my chain come off. Now, arguably, my bad mechanic skills are to blame, or possibly my non-horizontal drop outs I’m running with the eccentric hub, but I was very thankful to have a front brake!