Stu

I LOVE miso, you should try a miso sauce on venison, it is the BEST :D :thumb:

I also really like tofu now too, but good tofu, the stuff that is a bit chunky and not all soft and gooey :rolleyes: :D

Sashimi, the raw fish, yeah, love that too, but only certain kinds, there is lots of stuff on the plate here that I won't touch with a 12' cattle prod :D
 
I'm sure this is what Frank is talking about......

Funny story :D

I just got back from a pick up, the shop was out of Miso, which is a staple Japanese food product, it looks like peanut butter but is is a paste made from fermented soybeans.

The shop we buy it from is about 5 km/3.1 miles away, not far at all, but the area is rather congested, tons of peds to avoid, so taking the trailer would be really slow and bothersome. I was only getting ten 1kg bags of miso, so I just went on the bike with my messenger bag. I got there in no time, no trailer and I can really haul the mail now :headbang: (for me at least!)

On the way back, man alive, I could not believe how freaking heavy ten kilos is!! (22lbs) but then I remembered that I've dropped 16kg/36 lbs :eek: :D

Also on the way back to the shop there is a longish hill that I used to struggle going up in 3rd gear, today I stomped up it in 5th gear while carrying the extra 10kg/22lbs on my back, and I was NOT wasted when I got to the top either :thumb:

Freaking hot and humid here too!

I'm drinking about 4L of water a day and going through three shirts, but I'm winning the Battle of my bulge!

Cheers!
 
My favorite around the corner shop from work in SF served the best Miso soup (I usually ordered the veggie style to keep it light, because it came in a quart cup). Miss it so much.

Maybe if I could have it around here my little birdie would be closer to the head of the snake.
 
Sharon, I'm a big fan of it in the winter in soup mode, I like mine with green onions and small chunks of tofu, tastes great and really warms the belly. It is very healthy too!
 
One definition I found said it smells, can we say 'stinks?' might bad.
Made from fermented stuff. Whatever floats yer stick. ;)
BTW, I do like some of that 'bait' stuff raw.

It might stink when they make it, but Miso has a very nice smell, it is very salty and tasty.

You might be thinking of Nato, that is also made from fermented soybeans, and it stinks, BAD, but it is very healthy. My wife and daughters like it, but then they eat it, and I'm not kidding, I leave the room, hate that stuff :wave:
 
I don't anything about Miso, but the wife has turned me on to Couscous... we like it with our grilled fish, mixed with veggies.. we can get it at Wal-Mart, but we like the kind we get at a Middle Eastern Grocer in Knoxville.
 
I thought couscous was more like a very small grained pasta... Made out of wheat, I think, but the texture can be like very, very coarse ground grits.
 
Just to fly further off on a tangent..... :rolleyes:

My bike is busted..... :eek:

I've had a squeak on the bike for the last two weeks or so, it was getting consistently louder, and more frequent, so I took the bike down to the Dungeon and tore things apart, looking for the cause, as well as lubing stuff and doing some basic maintenance.

I thought it was in the steering tube, so I tore that down and repacked the bearings, nope, that's not it. handlebars and stem...? Nope tore that down to, and I put anti-seize compound on anything that could squeak, nope, that was not it either. OK, the front hub...?
Nope, I cleaned everything out, I greased it all, and put it back together, same problem.

Check the seat rails, I've had them squeak before..oh no.. :doh:

seat_post_cracked1.jpg


Maybe this is the problem :huh: :bang:

And it is most likely my own fault, I think I tightened the bracket for the trailer hitch too tight, squashing the seat tube, which then split in two places :(

I can really be dumb sometimes :bonkers:

The seat post was about 15 years old.... :wave:

Time for a new one I guess. :thumb:

I might be buying new wheels too, the front wheel, inside the hub, the races that the bearings run on, are pitted quite badly, the rims are about 13 years old and while they are OK, they have seen better days.... Actually I should say that the Monster-In-Law will be buying me new wheels, as the accountant signed off on bike maintenance as a legit business expense :headbang:

but still....my bike is busted :(
 
I had to come up with a way to stop the U-bolts from crushing the seat post.
What I did was use some putty to make a support around the back half of the seat post.

First I sanded off all the paint on the back of the thick steel plate, and then I drilled some shallow holes to "Dimple" the plate, this will give the putty something to hold on to.

hitch_fix_dimples.jpg

Sorry for the lousy pic, I was in a bit of a hurry.

I then put the old seat post in place, the non-oval section that was in the bike frame (I did check it too, it was still round!) I first wrapped the seat post with some clear wrap stuff, in retrospect I should have just waxed the seat post, that would have worked better.

I used this putty, it is a two part stuff, comes in a stick, the outside and inside of the stick of putty need to me melded together, then you have about 5 minutes to work with it until it gets rock hard. The putty stuff is very good, I've used it on motorcycles before, when something broke, I've drilled and tapped this stuff and it has held up for many years.

I melded the putty, and then I put a blob of it on the back of the hitch, I put the seat post in place, and tightened (lightly!!) the U-bolts, I then pushed the putty into the shape I wanted, making sure it got pushed down into the dimples on the steel. After about 5 minutes when the putty was hard, but not rock hard, I removed the U-bolts and did some adjusting. Once the putty is set and cured, it is almost like steel, thus working it a bit when it is still somewhat soft, has it's advantages.

I removed the old seat post and then I put some #240 grit sandpaper on on it and sanded the inside of the putty a bit to make it smooth and to enlarge it just a touch. I let that set a side and harden for about an hour, then I put a thin piece of rubber around the seat post.

hitch_fix_rubber.jpg

(you can see the hitch with the putty on it sitting on the rack of the bike, the pic makes the curve in the putty look oval for some reason, but I assure you, it is round)

I am hoping that this will take up any slack in the hitch to seat post connection and might even provide a bit of a damper to the clackity clack of the connection between the hitch and the trailer.

I mounted the hitch, and I carefully tightened the U-bolts. I do not own a torque wrench that goes down to a very low number (on my Christmas list!) so I was careful and consistently tightened them down in a crisscross pattern. When I had it tight enough that nothing moved, I turned each nut an extra 1/4 turn. To make sure I was not crushing this new seat post, I checked the post above and below the U-bolts, front to back, and side to side, with my vernier caliper. It measures 27.2 front to back and side to side, so it is still round.

The old seat post, in the area that it was clamped, now just sitting on the bench is certainly NOT round, it is 27.8 side to side and only 26.4 back to front, so I certainly squished it.

Here is how it looks now.....

hitch_fix_installed.jpg


Time will tell if this holds up, or if I have to go something else.

I also bought new wheels :D

The Shimano WH-M505 wheel set....

wh505_wheel_set.jpg

I know, budget wheels, but they are strong and should last a while, that is what is important to me. I haul around a trailer full of beer for deliveries and I still weigh 266 pounds, so I'm not what you would call "Concerned" about the wheels being a bit heavy.

This is the fourth set of wheels I've had for this bike, let's see, 22 years and three sets of wheels, that is over 7 years a set, not bad I guess. To be fair, the first set only lasted about a year (cheap, and I did lots of off-road riding at that time) I paid about $177 USD for the set, including tax, I think I got a good price.

Now I just have to wait for the spacer for my 7-speed cassette to come in, the wheel is designed for 8 to 9-speed cassettes, but I'm told with a spacer the seven speed cassette I have will work fine. I sure hope so, because the shifters I have are also 7-speed, I really don't need or want to upgrade to an 8 or 9-speed cassette and also have to buy new shifters, no thanks.

This bike will continue to see daily use as a workhorse, one day, down the road, when I get down to say 185 lbs, I will most likely celebrate and buy my self a new bike, but the old Cannodale will keep on being used.

Cheers!
 
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