Yearly Archives: 2016

10 gram Power Meter???

This entry was posted in Comments about Cycling on by .

There is a company that says that they have invented a power meter that weighs 10 grams.  The company is Arofly and it says that it is going to sell, in February 2017, a power meter that is the smallest and measures power, cadence and speed.  Pretty good,  it seems.

The thing that is hard to understand is that the power meter is just a valve cover cap.  Yep, a small thing you screw to the top of you tire inner tube valve.   It is hard to grasp how that could possible measure the power that a rider is putting into their pedals, right?

I don’t get it.  But I’m not smart enough to say that it is impossible.  There are lots of inventions that didn’t seem possible initially that become reality.

According to Arofly’s website, their technology is “a patented air pressure differential technology based on the pitottube design, from the F-117 combat aircraft.”  

I have no idea what the pitot tube design is.  I’m going to look it up right after finishing this. Okay, I lied, I looked it up.  And I still don’t know what it is.  It might take a little more time.  I think it is a little complicated.

The power meter, if you pre-order, costs $129.  And, for that price, it comes with a holder for your phone.  That is very fair and, by far, the least expensive power meter on the market today.  So, it will be the smallest, lightest and cheapest.  Appealing.

Like I said above, just because it seems doubtful that this might work, doesn’t mean it won’t.  I remember when Jim Gentes walked up to me at Interbike and showed me a styrofoam prototype helmet. He asked me if I would be interested in wearing one.  I said sure, thinking to myself that there is now way that piece of styrofoam would meet the standards to qualify to be a safe helmet.

Jim made the helmet and that is when Giro helmets was founded.  Pretty incredible for 31 years ago.  Revolutionary advance.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see if this works.  I’d love to get my hands on one.  I hope to be riding outside pretty soon and would be happy to test one and give a real review.  Until then, we’ll just hope.

It's the little valve cap below the boxes.

It’s the little woven valve cap below the boxes.

8 Weeks Post Crash

This entry was posted in Just Life on by .

Today is exactly 8 weeks since I crashed and fractured my skull.  Of course, to celebrate, I woke up with a crazy headache after sleeping less than 4 hours.  I’ve been sleeping over 7 hours for the past couple weeks, so this isn’t the norm.   The upside to this is that I’m not too dizzy this morning, which isn’t the norm either recently.

I guess I’m doing pretty well.  At least compared to what I’m reading about.  This is the first bad headache I’ve had for a “long” time, so I had sort of checked that off my symptom list.  Guess I was being premature.

My biggest issue for awhile is this vertigo I’ve had.  I’m pretty sure it is ear related.  And all the doctors that I’ve talked to thing the same. I guess I have BPPV, which is an abbreviation for Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo.  It gets way worse, or better, when I do something to try to realign the otoconia, which are  inner-ear crystals.

I guess that is the biggest issue, right now.  The next problem is I have is that I can’t smell and taste anything.  That isn’t exactly true.  I didn’t have any smell or taste for a long time and now I sometimes can taste things.  Yesterday I definitely tasted some cranberries and lime.  I’m not sure if this is my tongue doing it or I’m actually getting taste back.

Let me tell you, eating isn’t nearly as enjoyable without being able to taste the food.  It is worrying, of course, but it either comes back on its own or it doesn’t.  There isn’t much doctoring to be done to fix the problem.  At least from what I’ve read and been told.  It could take up to a year.

I’ve been riding indoors most every day.  I feel so much better after I ride than before.  I don’t know if it is the extra blood flow or the endorphins or what, but almost all the symptoms, minus the smell issue, are gone when I’m done.   I usually do it a couple times a day just because of this.

All and all I’m doing okay.  It is way too slow for me, but I’m learning this is a slow process.  For sure I could be riding my bike outside now.  The balance issues I’m having aren’t bad enough to make that dangerous. I’m not sure that it would even affect riding.   But, I decided a while ago that I wasn’t going to even think about it until January 1.  I thought that was a long time, but now I’m not so sure.

Anyway, days are pretty longish now.  I’m doing physical therapy 3 times a week, which for some reason, my insurance hasn’t been paying.  It helps, the therapy.   I don’t have another neurology appointment for a couple more weeks.  I have a bunch of questions, but figured I just wait.   I’m thinking about going to another ENT doctor that specializes in BPPV.  If that was fixed, I would feel pretty “cured”.

Okay, that is the, nearly, 2 month update.  I’m going to try to not dwell on all this so much here. It isn’t that interesting, to anyone other than myself, I assume.   It is getting better.  A little slower than before, but that is how this thing goes.

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