EECCIS 2014

My alma mater (Electrical Eng., Brawijaya University) holds an seminar bi-annually on various subjects on electrical engineering: electrical power, electronics, telecommunication, control system, computer engineering. This year's EECCIS 2014 is the 7th time, and the first time it's held joint committee with Universiti Tun Hussein Onn.



In the plenary session of the seminar, I had a chance to ask Prof. Dato' Mohd. Noh Dalimin after his lecture on superconductor applications for environmental sustainability. The presentation material wasn't that far from 1st year Electrochemisty on superconducting material (no 3rd order integral on temperature gradient and such; thx, God), still he gave us many enlightening insights.

I asked him about the feasibility of implementing superconductors as power line infrastructure considering that cryogenic cooling system is dire expensive; let alone that heat from the sunlight is enormous all year long in tropical countries. His answer was simple:
as the system deemed cost-ineffective at the moment, it means that there is a lot of room for improvement. And making those improvements that later yield tremendous benefit will surely cost huge amount of [sacrifices/]resources, too.

It gets me so damn hard.

___________

thank you so much for the pen case , it's made from recycled paper (the pen too); reminds us to be environmentally friendly.

Oldie Beauty

I've been riding with this utility bike for quite some time. She is an old bike (from late 80s or early 90s, I suppose) which I already broke the fork she came initially with. The original paint is purple but already covered with black layer by the time I purchased her from local flea market.

About the group: the brake-shift levers are old Altus, the rear derailer is A050, front mech is Tourney. The wheel is Nova Rigida with local-made Delitire tire. The latest addition is messy bluish-black paintjob (which is a big mess done by me personally) and the invert-installed fork.

I had to install the fork inverted because I messed welding the headtube (the original one simply tore away), putting it way too reclined. Given the stem is already too short, the handling is hard and nippy, thus to compensate this problem I had to invert the fork so the front axle is closer way back.


 
simple black beauty

Retirees

I've finally retired my faithful KMC Z9 and 3 sprockets (2300's 15T and 13T, Deore's 11T). All of them have gone through considerable abuse (by me personally). May peace be upon them.

The chain: KMC Z9, beaten up pretty good













The chain is elongated way too much. It makes squeaky noise under heavy pedal stroke. Not that I am a powerful pusher-sprinter, I just forgot to replace it sooner (it's been around for 2-3 years already if I remember correctly).

Let's get technical: 15.5 links are 20 cm long (the tile is 20 cm wide). The math is: 15.5 links x 1.57 cm (standard chain pitch) = 19.685 cm is the way a good chain should be. So how abused my chain has gone through? 20 cm / 15.5 links = 1.29... cm/link; 1.29 x 20 cm = 25.8... cm. Sheldon here said that it is way over the tolarable length (25.7 cm for 20 links--10 links if you count inside-outside links as a link).

I guess I am pretty stupid not to change it sooner.

top 3 sprockets













I rode all-odd 8-speed 25T-11T, and the top (smallest) three are my favorites. On commuting rides, I mostly went with 50/34 at front 13T at the rear, occasionally switching to 15T or 11T for extra acceleration or extra 'push' rescpectively. To make things worse: I'd like to do some climbing on 34T compact front and 15T in the rear. Yeah, you may call me pussy now.

The sprockets are probably heavily dammaged by the over-elongated chain. As I replaced the chain (with another KMC Z9 of course), it frequently 'skipped/jumped' if I am on 34 in the front. So I need to change these sprockets too. Now I am riding 26T-23T-21T-19T-17T-15T-13T-12T. Yeah, you may call me pussy again now.

The moral is: always inspect your chain regularly, 2 weeks or so will do.

---update
Forgot to include my loose bottom bracket's bearings too (Sora's Hollowtech II)
the left bearing is super-loose, the right is so-so