Monthly Archives: January 2010

Sad Loss, Happy Beginnings? New Bike Bought

By 9 commentsReviews, Rides, ,

A Sad Loss…

I’ve been agonising for a while about my lovely old Haro.  She’s been complaining and displaying all the signs of her old age.  A couple of months ago I took her wheels in to be trued and they couldn’t do it.  At that point I began to accept that her days were drawing to a close.

So, it is with a heavy heart and a much lighter wallet that I have to tell you I’ve ordered a new companion.  This weekend’s ride will be my last on my trusty Haro.

Haro Escape 7.0, My companion for the last 10 years.

RIP My Faithful Haro Friend, Out To Pasture After 10 Years

The frame’s still bombproof, but the wheels, brakes and bottom bracket are knackered.  I’ll pass it on to some deserving soul or put it on Freecycle, unless anyone has any better ideas…?

…A Happy Beginning?

I’m a bit scared.

I’m a bit scared of how easy it was to spend my money with Wiggle.   I simply used the affiliate link from Fight Bad Driving and was logged into my Wiggle account automatically.  The bike I’ve chosen was already on my wish list so, what seemed like 4 nanoseconds later, I was looking at the “Thank You From Wiggle” screen and experiencing early-onset-post-purchase-dissonance.

Here’s the beast:

My new pearly-white steed.

Focus Fat Boy 2010, My New Steed

Why A Mountain Bike?

I thought long and hard about getting a road bike, but I need a family-friendly ride.  We live alongside a canal so we ride as a family along the towpath, regularly.  Everyone else has an offroad-style bike: even the young girls have fat tyres.

The roadie option was to buy a decent road bike, then get my Haro updated with some inexpensive new wheels and a new bottom bracket for the family rides.  This would’ve cost the wrong side of £100 on top of a new roadie for sure.  Shed room would also have been an issue.

So, the MTB won the day this time.

Why The Focus?

I’ve read reviews on Focus’ road bikes and MTBs, from last year and this year.  Focus bikes are German, and those Germans are pretty good at engineering, whatever you say about their sense of humour.  Wiggle are selling a lot of their bikes (which must be a good sign, surely) and the more recent reviews have been very good.  On the 2009 models, it seemed that they were trying to cut costs by providing lower-priced components.  OK, this year’s Fat Boy is £100 more than last year’s, but the components are good.

Oh, and I loved the paint job.  How cool is it? Really? I mean, How Cool is THAT?  I’m a sucker for a nice white frame, me. 🙂

Let me know what you think … and if you know any good cause that’d benefit from a Haro Escape 7.0 which squeaks a bit, let me know.

Cycling GPS Test

By 5 commentsReviews, Rides, ,

As you might know, I got my shiny new HTC HD2 last week, and promptly installed some of my favourite applications on it.

Possibly my favourite app is the GPS Cycle computer. I downloaded a new version (for free!) and installed it easily.

On Saturday, I spent the afternoon tinkering with the family’s bikes:

  • Bottle holders for the girls
  • A kickstand for one of the girls, since the other already had one pre-installed
  • New, lighter & shorter bar ends for my boy and myself
  • Towbars removed from Other Half’s & my bikes

This took me a little while.  Just long enough for it to start raining. Pah!  Nevertheless, I was already wearing my eco-ninja cycling gear, so I decided to set off regardless.  I switched on the tracker, zipped it into my pocket and off I went.

It was only a swift pootle along the canalside in the fading light, following some of the route taken by Rooley earlier that same day with his daughter.  With hindsight, it’s a shame I didn’t bump into them, that’d have been a nice surprise.  For me anyway, maybe not them 🙂

I’ve just got round to uploading the kml track that the computer recorded and I’m most impressed.  The accuracy is far superior to what I had got used to with my old Vodafone V1615 (Kaiser; TyTnii, whatever they call it) and I’ve had to do hardly any editing of spurious tracking points.

So far, I’m very happy with the new phone and this is just one of the reasons.  On the other hand, my Trusty Steed, she’s struggling.

I love ths bike, butshe's 10 this year and knackered.

My Faithful Haro, 10 this year.

She’s spending most of her last days languishing in the shed, but I don’t want to draw out her farewell, so in the interests of palliative care, I’m looking at replacing her with a newer model.  Watch this space…

Here’s the map as recorded by the phone’s tracking software on Saturday:


View Smithy Bridge First new GPS Track in a larger map

HTC HD2 First Impressions

By 17 commentsReviews,

Yesterday I took delivery of a brand new HTC HD2 at work. Everybody else in Utility Masters is having an iPhone, but as a proud nonconformist I’m plumping with the Windows Mobile option.

Why Did I Choose The HD2?

  1. I am afraid of “The Cult Of Apple“.  I don’t want to be forced to use iTunes.  I don’t want to become one of those bores who plays with his iClone all night when I go out.  I don’t want to join the self-righteous “aren’t we all creative and interesting because we follow Apple” brigade.  I love what Apple have done for design – they’re a bunch of genii (is that the plural of genius?) – I just don’t subscribe to the notion that using their products makes me, by association, a genius too.
  2. I have some Windows Mobile apps I wanted to keep.  I might blog about them some other time, but I use an interval trainer application, a GPS tracker for my bike rides, and the wonderful TomTom for windows Mobile.  I didn’t want to have to start again on a new phone platform.

First Impressions

I’ve had this phone less than 12 hours so far.  I told Dave that I loved him when he brought it downstairs to me.  I realise now that I don’t actually love Dave: that was just foolish infatuation.  I actually love my new phone.

It’s incredibly shiny and black, which I am a big fan of.  That’s why the people at Samsung have enjoyed so much of my home entertainment budget.

  • The front screen is very simple to use, and wonderfully customisable.
  • Setting up Wi-Fi and my Exchange Server details was a doddle, as was…
  • Adding a few bookmarks and…
  • Selecting my favourite people for the phone’s dedicate “People” screen.
  • Installing my apps was easier than I expected and they all work beautifully.  The GPS tracker is actually better, with extra functionality to take advantage of the phone’s better touchscreen capabilities.
  • Web browsing is is fantastic, thanks to the “pinch scroll”, nicked directly from Apple.  You see, I love Apple’s ideas, so Im glad that people outside the Cult can steal them 🙂

So far I have two gripes that have spoiled my experience a little:

  1. You only get one compatible USB cable, of the new, more fiddly type.  This is supposed to help you at work, at home, and plugged into the nifty little mains charger?  i think not.  Give me at least one more please.
  2. The phone automatically leaves everything running until you find the Task Manager and end the programs.  This will doubtless result in everything running incredibly slowly once the phone gets a few miles under its belt.  To rectify this, at the moment, you have do a soft reset by taking the back off, finding a toothpick and prodding where it doesn’t hurt.  Install a shortcut from the phone’s menu to close everything down easily, please.

Overall

I adore the phone.  I suggest you buy one, although SIM free they’re the wrong side of £500, so find a good contract provider.  Mine is on Vodafone and the prices are pretty competitive although it’s part of a group order for Utility Masters.

Tell ’em Phill sent you!

Personal Goal Setting

By 19 commentsRides, Tat,

Goals, Not Resolutions

As a marketing manager at Utility Masters, I’m quite used to setting business goals.  I don’t subscribe to the notion of New Year’s Resolutions because they seem to be used most commonly to rationalise failure later in the year.  They are also so woolly as to be useless – how exactly do you define sucess against your “be a better person” or “get fitter” resolutions?

Instead, I decided to set myself some personal goals instead this morning, using good old-fashioned business cliches.  Objectives have to be SMART:

  • Specific – stating exactly what you intend to achieve
  • Measurable – so you know what defines achieving it
  • Achieveable – so you actually have a chance
  • Realistic – make sure you can do it – it can be hard, but you’ve got to get there
  • Timed – when will you aim to do it by?

So, the box that’s been published in my sidebar this lunchtime is my own measurement of how I’m doing this year.  My main goals are two events I intend to complete this year, plus a fundraising target for the Hospice where my Mum was so wonderfully cared for.

I’ll also be tracking my cycling and running this year, for you all to poke fun at by way of encouragement.

Please let me know what you think, and offer any additions that you think will help me in 2010. Thanks! 🙂

“Thank God For The Rain, Dad.”

By 4 commentsPhotography

Don’t get me wrong.  I love living in a temperate climate.  The changing seasons bring me enormous and unceasing pleasure as the months roll by each year, offering photo-opportunities; fashion choices; beautiful changes to our daily outlook…

…but Jeeeees! What’s With All This Snow??!

My daughter is 6.  She loves sledging; she loves snowmen; she loves snowballs; she loves her pink fluffy woolen hat and her big comfy pink sequined gloves.  She is also very bored of the snow now, thanks.

This morning on the way to school she sighed and said simply, “Thank God for the rain, Dad”.

I didn’t have to respond.  We just exchanged a knowing smile and stared into the hazy brake lights of the car in front as we trundled through the morning rush hour.  It was a blessed relief to be watching cold rain trickling down the blackened hillocks of packed ice and snow by the roadside, which for the past week have been rendering our pavements unwalkable.

The BBC pomised me a “dirty thaw” over the weekend.  I, for one, don’t care how dirty it is – as long as it’s a thaw I don’t mind.

So, from me: Thank You, God.

Where is your business growing to?

Find out how Phill Connell Marketing Solutions can accelerate your business growth. Practical, realistic steps to improve your revenue generation.

Contact Us Today

%d bloggers like this: