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Space coaster steel ball roller coaster
0Great kit to make not sure a 14 year old could build it lol
Corfu Greece Oct 2011
0A week away in the lovely peaceful island in Greece, Corfu. Staying in the town of Acharavi in the hotel Tzilios. Hired a motorbike, went up massive mountains, walks alone the beach, went on a boat trip to the island Paxos for the day and spent hours by the pool side
Berlin October 2011
0A few days visit to Berlin city, stayed at the magnificent Adlon hotel for a night then with a friend, got a push bike to get around and see the sights.
The K1300s has gone
0The k1300s has finally had it’s day with me, after a trip to France the bike still played up on the way home, every time the bike came to a stand still it would stall. After I managed to rev it home on the euro tunnel, phoned BMW assist to take a look knowing full well it needed to go back to the dealer to be looked it. After a trip to Cannons in Braintree they advised it was bad fuel that was causing the problem but had cleaned the jets out at the same time, mmm was it the fuel really, every one in the group with me filled up at the same pumps and petrol stations and had no problems.The warranty also runs out in the beginning of September and with the rate of faults iv had since owning it in 17 months I’m not sure how long it will be till il have a big bill to pay for.
So I spent a few weeks looking at new bikes, like the ducati multistrader, kawasaki GTR 1400, BMW RT and final the BMW R1200GS Adventure and the only one that gave my a massive grin was the GS. It’s handles likes a sport bike and is comfy as a long tourer it just felt right sitting so high with a good view ahead.
So after a great deal for part exing my K1300s at Cannons Braintree I bought a brand new 61 plate fully loaded R1200 GS Adventure.
Euro Trip 2010 – The Video
0Trip to Italy by motorcycle, across France, Switzerland, the Alps, North Italy, a week spent at Lake Garda enjoying walks, a bike ride, lots of ice cream and day on the lake before returning through Austria, Germany, Belgium and back to Calais, France, to get home.
Amazing new VW Amarok destroyed a 67m tower with ease
0In a quite industrial site in Reading, Berkshire the brand new Volkswagen Amarok pulled down a 67m high steel chimney weighing approximately 140 tonnes and standing at nearly the same height as Westminster Abbey. Four 200m lengths of rope were tied to the top of the chimney and attached to the towbars of four standard Amarok pick-ups, with the vehicles simultaneously pulling the chimney crashing to the ground. VIDEO TO FOLLOW
Website – http://www.volkswagen-vans.co.uk/amarok-range/amarok/overview
Follow on Twitter – http://twitter.com/#!/Volkswagen_CV
Weekend away on the Norfolk broads
0A long weekend away on the lovely Norfolk Broads cruising alone in a Alpha craft Phantom, visited norwich city centre, the Reedham chain ferry and a few pubs on the way.
Multi USB iPad and iPhone charger
0I wanted a charger that could charge the iPad 2, the iPhone 4 and that also had the option to charge 4 other USB devices all at the same time. This is mainly because when away from home there always seems to be a lack of plug sockets.
The main problem with trying to find a multi charger is that the iPad requires 2.1 amps, 10 watts, the iPhone is 1 amp, 5 watts, and the other devices will require about 0.5 amps. In total a multi charger will require about 5 amps, 50 watts, to be able to charge all the devices at once.
I looked at the kinston 4 port USB multi charger but read reviews that this couldn’t charge the iPad and if it did it would be very slow as each port only charged at 0.5 amps. I thought, “all I need is a power supply that had a output of 5v 5amps”, but I failed to find one that wasn’t silly money.
That got me thinking, all I needed was a powered USB hub with the iPad charger plugged into the out/computer side of the hub to give the extra power. With this in mind I set out to test my theory. I plugged the iPad charger in to the USB hub, and the green power light came on, I thought “great it’s being powered” and plugged the USB hub PSU in as well. With both chargers it would be around 4 amps. Next, for the test of the iPhone, using the apple USB cable I plugged both ends in, in the hope I would see the power icon change to charging, but nothing, the iPad was the same, the charging icon just changed to NOT CHARGING. After a little playing around with cables I remembered that apple had changed the way it used the USB to charge, and required low voltage to both data feeds, I made an adaptor plug that consisted of 2 resistors from the +5v to give the required voltage to each of the data feeds.
I decided to open the USB hub up to see what was going on inside and how it could be modified, by tracing the PCB tracks all the USB sockets went to a small chip, I thought “that’s going to be a problem” as that wouldn’t let the voltage through from the iPad charger. I decided that I only needed 2 sockets to be modified for the iPhone and iPad to use. A simple fix, I would just solder cables from the USB socket that the iPad charger would be plugged into, which would have the correct voltage on the data feeds to the 2 sockets, I would use these for the iPhone and iPad. After this I removed the legs that connect the PCB tracks to the USB sockets for the iPad and iPhone Pins 2 & 3 so that the voltage couldn’t go back into the chip.
A quick test with the iPhone, iPad and with 4 other USB devices plugged in, and they all charged. I need to further test my modification now to see how the charging time has changed.
K1300 dented rim by pot hole
0After a lovely trip to Leeds castle in Kent, on the journey home I found a pot hole I’d rather have not of.
As we were coming off the A127, leading to the B186 to Brentwood, on the slip road as the road goes round to the right, in the centre of the road is a great big bloody hole that my front wheel found as we were lent over going at around 60 mph.
The tyre must have slipped on the edge of the pot hole, causing the wheel to fall down the hole, hitting the edge of the rim and denting it. The tyre didn’t blow out or lose any air. I only noticed after a ride out with a group the next day, when they pointed out the dent in the rim, a big failure in my part as I should have spotted this before the ride out.
I was worried that the damaged was to the tyre as well as the rim, and very expensive. The first phone call I made was to BMW parts to find out the price of a new rim in case mine couldn’t be repaired. I nearly had a heart attack when I was told the price would be £495 plus the cost of changing the tyre, sensors and discs.
I looked around on the interwebs to find somewhere that could repair the rim, most of the places I found were not local or only repaired car wheels. Then I came across a company in Maidstone, not a million miles away from me, Maidstone motoliner and I spoke to a really helpful guy there, he advised me that it would cost £70 to repair the rim including removing and reinstalling the discs and tyre and it would be ready the next day, as they already had 3 rims to repair that day.
I set off down there, to take the rim and see what the verdict would be, if the tyre needed replacing or if they could even repair it. When I arrived they said there was no problem fixing it, and the tyre would be fine – they even said they would repair it next so I could take it home that day! Two hours later it was all fixed and looked as good as new. This was a truly great service that I highly recommend if you ever need this done, but I hope not!
