Emerson HD Action Cam

On Black Friday, Menards had an Emerson HD Action Cam on sale for $35.  I've been wanting to take some videos on the bike for some time, so I figured I would give it a try since it was so inexpensive.

The camcorder is much like the GoPro device.  It takes 720p high definition video.  It came with a waterproof case, handlebar mount, and helmet mount.

I used the handlebar mount and tested it out one morning on the way to work.  The video came out very wavy.  The vibration from the engine was coming through the handlebars.  The handlebar mount that was included wasn't doing anything but amplifying the vibrations. 

Here is what the include mount looked like.

Here is the what the video looked like.

I looked online and found a homemade mount that people had good results with.  It is made with a PVC tee, a plug, and hose clamps.  You can find it if you Google 5 dollar camera mount.  The video result was not bad.  

The results with the homemade mount are not to bad.  There still a little vibration coming through from time to time.  I'm going to try putting some rubber between the mount and the handlebar to see if that takes out any more of the vibration.  All in all, not bad for $35!

Coleman Base Cabinet Redo

When I bought my new house 8 years ago, I purchased a bunch of Coleman cabinets for storage.  They look nice, but the drawer bases did not hold up very well with tools in them.  The weight of the tools is breaking the drawer slides.  Also, the drawers are almost 9.5 inches deep, which is not very useful for storing tools.

Here is a picture of the original drawer slides.  They are very light-weight.  I'm not sure what the rating is for them.

I thought I would make new drawers the size that I wanted them and replace these.

I took the drawer out and determined that 4 in deep drawers would work better for me in this space.

I made the new drawers sides out of some scrap pine I had in the garage.  For the bottoms, I just used some scrap OSB.

I purchased some new drawer slides and installed them.  I plan on replacing this slides with some Full Extension slides.  These slides work, but not was well as I would like them too.

After installing the new drawers, I took the original drawer front and cut it in two and attached it to the new drawers.  I have to find some new handles to match the original ones.

I'm please with how they turned out.  I have two of these drawer bases and each one has three drawers.  I plan on doing this on at least two more drawers.  Now, I need to organize the tools in these two new drawers!

1996 Fatboy Headlight Bulb Replacement

The low bean went out on my 1996 Fatboy.  I took the headlight out to get the number off of it.  The bulb that was on the bike was a Sylvania Halogen H6024.

I called the local auto parts stores and the only place that had a replacement bulb was NAPA.  They didn't have a Sylvania, but they did have the NAPA brand.  The cost of the bulb was $10.99 + tax.  ($11.65)

This was a simple fix.  The bulb works fine and the only thing I don't like about the looks is that is says NAPA right in the middle of the bulb!

Fall Ride to J&P Cycles

My neighbor and I decided to take a ride to Anamosa to go to J&P Cycles showroom.  J&P Cycles is the largest aftermarket catalog for Harley Davidson parts and it's in the middle of nowhere here in Iowa!  The round trip will be about 325 miles, which is a great day trip.

At J&P Cycles, we got to see a replica of the Captain America bike.  They said that it took 3 years to build the bike because it took so long to track down the old parts needed.  The bike is pretty cool.  It would be interesting to ride this bike!

On the ride home, we made a mistake and did not get gas in Cedar Rapids.  After Cedar Rapids there is a 60 mile stretch where there nothing at all.  Kirk ended up running out of gas.  I was sitting at 166 miles on this tank and not knowing how much gas was left in it.  I've ran out of gas at 164 miles before, but I have added a Big Sucker air cleaner since then and I knew that improved my gas mileage.  So I had to go out and look for a place to get gas.  I ended up finding one.....16 miles away!  I got 182 miles on the tank!  Not too bad.

The thing that makes this so funny is that my bike has no gas gauge at all.  Kirk on the other hand has two!  As you can see, Kirk doesn't care to much.

Couch to 5K in 7 Days

    I signed up to run in the Principal Financial Group 5K Road Race with a bunch of people I work with earlier this year.  Everyone started to run at least a couple of times a week.....except for me.  Now the race is a week away and I have not ran in at least three years!  Leave it to me to wait until the last minute to do something!

    So I'm going to do the Couch to 5K in 7 Days program!  No, there is no such thing, but I'm going to do it.  I'm going to run once a day (maybe twice) for the next seven days to see how I can get ready for the race.  I would like to finish the race in under 30 minutes.  But right now, if I can finish the race without walking, I'll take it.

DAY 1
    I knew I would not be able to do the full 3.2 miles, so my plan was to do 2.4 miles.  I made it to the half-way point before I had to walk.  I didn't think that was too bad.  In all, I only walked 3 times.  The last time I walked, it was because my knee was hurting and not because I was out of breath.  It took me 30 minutes to do this run.  Tomorrow, I plan on doing the same run.

DAY 2
    Ouch!  I was sore when I got up in the morning, so I didn't go for a run first thing.  I shouldn't have waited!  I got busy doing things and didn't do a run at all.  This 5K may be interesting!

DAY 3
    Still sore, but I got up and ran first thing in the morning.  I did the same 2.4 mile run with the same results.  This time though, my lower back was hurting!

DAY 4
    I couldn't get out of bed in time to go for a run first thing in the morning, so I went after work and kids activities.  I did the 2.4 mile run and I have to say that I'm happy with my results.  I was able to do the run with only walking once!  I cut the time down to 26 mins.  I'm happy with that.

DAY 5
    This sucks!  I hate being an 18 year old in a 45 year old body!  I did my run today, but had to walk a lot more.  My right calf hurt to much when I ran.  It felt like the muscle was torn.  I'm trying to stretch it through out the day to see if it will feel better tomorrow.

DAY 6
    Picked up the race packet today.  I guess this is really going to happen.  It is pretty exciting to see and hear all that is going on.  Unfortunately, I am being lazy and not running.  I guess I will run tomorrow!

DAY 7
    Went for the same run that I have been doing all week.  About 1 mile into it, my calf started hurting really bad again.  I walked for a little while trying to stretch it out.  I wanted to stop all together, but I know I have to force myself to complete it.  I completed the 2.5 mile run walk in 35 mins.  Not good with the race tomorrow!

RACE DAY (Sunday 10/21/2012)
    Well here it is!  I was meeting the people from my work at 7:45 downtown.  In the race packet, there was a sample of Biofreeze Pain Reliever cream.  I used that on my calf hoping it would help.  It did.  I made it through the race without my calf hurting.  I finished the race, without walking, in 31:18.  I didn't make my goal of 30 mins, but all things considered, not to bad.  It was good enough for 448th overall (out of about 1,300) and 20th in my age division.  I'll take it.  I'm planning on looking for another race to run and to keep the running going.  I would like to get down to the 25/26 minute time range.

Spray Gun Cleaning

I have had issues in the past with my spray gun gumming up on me.  Here are a couple of videos on Paint Spray Gun cleaning that I found on YouTube.

Spray Gun Adjustment

I found this video on YouTube that explains how to adjust your painting spray gun.  It seems to explain it in simple terms.