Things and things, continued

[rebeccmeister]

After the sewing machine debacle yesterday, my ambitions for the weekend have petered out. So then it was time for a restless night of sleep where my mind wanted to work away at all of the projects I have on my agenda - not so much the personal projects as the academic ones; I need to start applying for future postdoc positions and jobs soon.

I did manage to do a couple of things, when all was said and done. First, I watched a couple of videos on how to hand-baste a quilt. Man, people on the internet know how to do everything! And some of them even know how to explain things well! Altogether, it was a great reminder that the internet makes a lot of expertise readily available. I like the method this woman uses, and it's clear that she's speaking from a lot of experience and from trying out many different methods. This sends me back to the stage of needing some additional supplies, but hopefully I can stay motivated to get them today. This project won't need the sewing machine at all, so the sewing machine situation can wait and the projects that require it will be back-burnered in the meantime.

I wish I'd watched this video before I went and found myself some cotton batting. The wool batting she recommends looks fantastic. Useful for any future quilting projects, I suppose.

I've also been busy ordering replacement things. I finally ordered a replacement mp3 player, in place of the iPod Nano that broke and then got stolen some six years ago. Of course, then scrottie informs me that he'd offered me the same one, for free, not too long ago. Sigh. I suppose if I like it, that means I'll have a backup available, too. This is fallout from getting to spend a bit more time with Ubuntu, and getting irked with iTunes, which is always wanting to update and manage my life for me. No thanks, iTunes.

I also ordered a replacement machine belt online for the sewing machine, and then ordered a new rear derailleur for the Jolly Roger, an old Shimano Deore LT 9-speed. At the moment, the derailleur is fine overall, but the derailleur pulleys no longer have gears inasmuch as they have pointy teeth. It seems like it should be possible to simply replace the pulleys and not the entire derailleur, but when I asked about that on the Book of Face I got no responses or help. Life in a small town without a bike co-op, I guess. The largest effect I've noticed so far is when I go to reposition the pedal at a stoplight, the chain won't backtrack properly, so I find myself in the same situation as a lot of fixed-gear riders where I have to start pedaling from a non-optimal position. There's also some skipping when I try to run things with too much crossover (large ring in front, large [easy] gears in back). So maybe the new derailleur will resolve that (and that would probably be a good time to replace the chain and give things a good cleaning anyway).

I also tracked down a replacement watchband, but haven't yet committed to buy it - it will get added in with whatever other miscellanea I decide to acquire from that Brazilian jungle website sometime in the near future.

Whee.

Comments

[randomdreams.livejournal.com]

Belated, but there are _piles_ of good replacement derailleur pulleys out there. Ideally you want to get a pair, since the upper one floats, and ideally you'd get ones with sealed bearings since they'll last far longer than the current ones. These are ridiculously over-designed: http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-BIKE-BICYCLE-ALUMINUM-7075-T6-REAR-DERAILLEUR-PULLEY-11T-FOR-SHIMANO-BLUE-NEW-/230686561226?pt=US_Derailleurs_Rear&hash=item35b5fd93ca since they have aluminum bodies as well. 11 teeth is neat because they wear more smoothly than the stock 10 tooth ones, as they don't repeat the wear pattern of the even-length chain.
So if you want to find a replacement pair you can hang onto the rear derailleur with new pulleys in case you gack another.

[rebeccmeister.livejournal.com]

Oh man, those are cool! Very, very tempting...hmmmm...

[randomdreams.livejournal.com]

I think you should be able to find something in the $10 range without a huge amount of trouble. I'll keep looking. The only important thing is that the upper pulley needs 3mm of side-play and needs to be built well enough that it'll maintain that side-play indefinitely. But actual bearing balls, rather than the bronze bushings that most pulleys have, does a lot for reducing maintenance, noise, and drag, and if you go for aluminum bodies, then the bearing balls also mean significantly longer lifetime. (Polymer bodies wear out before the bushings, so lifetime's not a selling point for ball bearings.)
This is the stock set: http://www.niagaracycle.com/categories/shimano-slx-m663-derailleur-pulley-pair-upper-lower and you see how long they lasted (at some point you have to ask how much you want to pay for something that's likely to outlast the bike) but these: http://www.niagaracycle.com/categories/tacx-ball-bearing-shimano-9-10-derailleur-pulley-set-shim9-10 should last for 15 years, without having quite the gratuitous bling factor of the gold aluminium ones.