First glimpse of Spring
A sunny day at the end of the week inspired me to get out on my road bike, once essential bike maintenance was completed.
Saturday Park Run was the first in over a year and it was very challenging. My time was 39 minutes and 25 seconds, around 9 minutes slower than my personal best so there is a long road ahead to a reasonable fitness.
April is the start of a new tax year in the UK so time for a personal financial review.
This weeks digital music organisation included The Cranberries, an excellent Irish rock band. The Mission and Fields Of The Nephilim unleashed my inner Goth. Nine Inch Nails finished the week of with industrial rock.
The Gorge movie on Apple TV was excellent. I really enjoyed the characters portrayed by Miles Teller staring Anya Taylor-Joy who gave a fantastic performance in The Queens Gambit. Some excellent music in the movie, including a very unexpected track from Twisted Sister xmas album (yes it does exist).
Digital Musicλ︎
ffmpeg is a versatile tool for converting audio and video formats and has a huge amount of options that I dont really want to keep looking up for common tasks.
Using *.{wav,flac,mp3,opus} in the for expression will fail as it expects to find at least 1 file for each of the file name extensions listed in the collection, e.g. if none of the files end in .wav then the for expression will fail even if there are files with one of the other file name extensions.
*.(wav|flac|mp3|ogg) uses the Or pattern (|) so will succeed if there is at least one file that contains one of the file name extensions, e.g. if there is a .wav file then the script succeeds even if the directory does not contain any of the other file name extensions.
Convert music file to Opus format
#!/usr/bin/zsh
# Convert audio files (.wav, .flac, .mp3) in current directory to Opus format
# zsh specific parsing of current directory
# `*.(wav|flac|mp3)` matches file name with any of the wav, flac or mp3 file extensions
#
# libopus uses variable bit rate by default - https://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-codecs.html#libopus-1
# 96 to 128k bit rate recommended for Music
# 128k variable bit rate encoding provides near transparent encoding
for x in *.(wav|flac|mp3|ogg) ; do
ffmpeg -i "$x" -b:a 96k -c:a libopus "${x:r}".opus
done
Financesλ︎
Its that time of the year to review my tax position for the 2024-25 tax year. I earned sufficient to pay tax in the highest band, so I am reviewing if I need to increase my personal pension contributions to offset the tax paid for the year.
I should review the performance of the respective pension pots to see which have performed well. I have several pensions which have sustainable investment portfolios.
For the UK state pension I need 6 more years of National Insurance contributions to qualify for the full weekly allowance. I may be able to pay to make 2019-20 a qualifying year when I worked self-employed.
Cyclingλ︎
I have a Ribble Endurance SL Disc road bike for long distance rides and navigating the very large hills of the North Downs in Kent. I've done covered many thousands of kilometers since the last bike maintenance (new cassette and chain), so before I start riding again its time to do more maintenance.
Trace Vello recommends the SRAM PC 1110 11-speed chain which is available at a very reasonable price from Sigma Sports (12 GBP).
GNC recommended the Park Tool Chain Checker to assess the wear of a chain. Measuring my chain it had a good amount of wear so was ready to be replaced (hopefully it hasnt worn the cassette).
Removing the worn chain with a 
Park tool quick link pliers, finding the quick-link on the worn chain and squeezing together with the pilars, the chain pops apart.
After taking off the worn chain it was definitely time for a deep clean. The gears were fairly easy to clean although the jockey wheels in the derailleur arm were thickly coated with dirt. An old knife was required to scrape the most hardened dirt.
GNC video on replacing a bike chain including how to correctly size the new chain for the specific bicycle gearing. New chains have several more links by design to ensure they fit all gear ratios. When replacing a chain the length of the new chain should be trimmed to the length of the chain being removed. Or wrap the new chain around the largest gear at front and back (not within the derailleur) and pull the chain tight, adding two full links gives the correct chain length.
Using both approaches to determine the new chain length give the same result, removing two links from the new chain.
Fitting the chain was nearly as easy as removing the chain. Once the chain is threaded through the derailleur and around the smallest chain rings, fit the quick link parts and gently pull the chain until the quick links snap into place.
In a quick test ride the chain felt very smooth and chaining gears very smooth. I assume this is mostly the chain as well as having a cleaner bicycle.
Future bikesλ︎
I would eventually switch away from mechanical gears to electronic shifting. Or I could save 1,000 GBP or more and re-learn how to adjust the gears when they go out of alighnment.
I prefer the SRAM eTap design for electronic switching which seems far more sensible than the Shimando Di2. The Di2 design requires a substantial sized battery and connecting wires inside the frame of the bike, which seems and expensive repair if the wires come loose or degrade over time.
SRAM instead have a battery directly on the levers to change gears, i.e. front and rear derailleur. Each battery can be removed for charging separately from the bicycle and therefore easily replaced when they eventually degrade.
Converting an existing bicycle seems to be a waste of components and buying all the kit required would be very expensive. So what kind of bike would I like to get in the future?
The Planet X EC 130 SRAM Force AXS road bike seems a promising bike of the future and its currently available in Purple.
If I get a job with a cycle to work scheme then that would be an excuse to get a new bike.
Carbon wheelsλ︎
The promise of carbon wheels is to lighten a bicycle and provide a significant upgrade. There are tradeoffs though and Zipp range of carbon wheels are designed only for tubeless tyres at low pressures.
Cycling weekly has a review of many carbon wheels that goes into more details on individual review pages.
The Zip 303 Firecrest looks great and is very light at 1410 grams. Unfortunately the rims are hookless so only designed for tubeless tyres and have a maximum tyre pressure of 73 PSI.
Since 2019 I have used Continental 5000 tyres size 28 and the tubes are inflated to 95 PSI. For the decade before that I used 23 tyres at 120 PSI, so the thought of running at 73 PSI seems too bouncy.
Parcours Ronde are reported as very aerodynamic whilst being a relatively low price (1,000 GBP).
Parcours Ronde Computer Weekly review
I am intrigued by Carbon wheels as a major upgrade to the bike but something for the future. The best way to reduce weight is not from the bike but from the rider (apparently I should loose about 20 killograms or more).
Thank you.