I’ve had my Brompton Loki for over three years now. It has served me well. However, it’s had a number of changes to it since owning it after I figured out what I wanted: A dynamo and lights were fitted. The Shimano hub and lights have served me well, but made things easier in terms of lighting - I was never left without lights if I had gone out and I don’t have to worry about batteries at all.

The past few days I’ve been travelling around Europe - through Amsterdam and Berlin. I decided to do the same cycle tour as I’d previously done when I was in Berlin two years ago. I’d done it before but I did enjoy it, and whilst the sights I would see again would be the same, I would have a different tour guide and therefore the tour would be slightly different. Eileen had also never seen the sights, so doing it with her would give us the chance to see things together.

I’ve recently been on holiday and decided that I wouldn’t take my laptop with me, I’d stick with my iPad Mini. I felt that I’d be able to do everything I needed to with just iOS. Turns out, I’m not far wrong. Keyboard Perhaps the biggest bugbear was the keyboard. I’ve got the Logitech Keys-to-go and whilst it’s small and lightweight, I’m not a fan of using it. I’ve found that I have to hit the keys quite hard to get them to register and that isn’t that comfy.

It’s clear that SSD’s are far faster than their mechanical counterparts. Using a computer with a spinning hard drive after you’ve been used to an SSD can be tantamount to torture. Sure, it works, but sitting there waiting for items to load can be real drag. One of the worst contenders I’ve seen is Atom (or Outlook if you happen to be using my work laptop - that is SLOW to load).

It’s been a while since I’ve sold my Mac and have been relying on Windows and Linux - almost a year has gone by since I got rid of the MacBook Pro. I’ve not really missed it since it’s been gone. In general, I’ve been well served by my Windows gaming rig and my Lenovo X220 laptop running Xubuntu. In fact, I’ve tended to prefer open source software and my Xubuntu laptop.

Rack Bag A few weeks back, I looked into how I was going to carry around my spare inner tubes and pump on my cyclocross bike, especially after I’ve ended up with two punctures on the cyclocross bike! Part of that was to move the Carradice saddlebag I used on my commuter onto the Verenti and to find another solution for the Dawes. In the end, I settled for a rack bag, as I thought that with the rack on there, it made sense to have a bag that didn’t leave the rack.

I’ve picked up some new bike bits over the Christmas period that I’ve finally got sorted and fixed to my bike. Brooks Saddle The first part I got hold of was a new saddle. I wasn’t after one, but this came up for a price that was entirely reasonable so I decided to snap it up. I’d been considering getting a Brooks Cambium saddle for the Verenti for a while - it was either that or a Charge Spoon.

I managed to get out this morning for a short ride on my cyclocross bike - it’s been a while since I’ve ridden it as I’m using my Dawes touring bike for commuting and I haven’t had the chance to get out at the weekend for a while due to cadet activities. So whilst the weather was good this morning, I managed to get out and about before the rain that was forecast for the afternoon.

Eddington Number I’m a keen user of Veloviewer as it provides some excellent methods of viewing my Strava data in a way that Strava can or does not provide, whilst adding on additional statistics. I like it enough that I pay for the premium version (£10 a year) and I feel tha this is money well spent. Whilst I’ve said before that cycling isn’t all about the numbers, I do find myself as an engineer enjoying looking at the figures as well!

Pi Hole I had my Raspberry Pi lying around doing nothing. I’ve had a version 1 since they were released and I’ve had a version 2 for a while as well (in fact, I’ve been through two version 2’s). I’ve had this one in the draw for a while now doing nothing - it’s not really seen the light of day since I purchased my Synology DS116 as I had been using it as a home server and accessing my documents via SFTP outside the house.