Custom in custom...

Bailed out my "custom" stuff from velo-orange.com today, kind of suspected the stuff had got stuck in customs since it has been a long wait, had to pay the Swedish postal services 100sek for the trouble and 101sek (why that last one krona!?) to the Swedish custom authorities.

OK that I have to pay the toll but why the heck do I have to pay the postal services 100sek for something that has already been paid for postage?! And that for something I paid as much for the postage as for the parts...

No time to be bitter about that, now I could finally end the bike build for this time!

First unpacking, Grand Cru bottom bracket, almost a pity to hide something this nice. Notice the word French, it's for french threaded bottom brackets. Read the fantastic story about bottom bracket thread "standards" at Velo orange: http://support.velo-orange.com/#bbarticle.html
The opposite cup(?) looks well sealed.
Side view.
Mounted:
Over to the threadless stem adaptor (another great invention!), now I can fit modern stems (and hadlebars) on the old Crescent!
close up details.

Ordered a rather long and cheap 25.8mm stem from Chainreaction Cycles to use with the handlebars, read the comments and someone wrote (damn you Jimmy from Australia!) that the bars were 25.8mm and not 31.8mm as it looks on the photos but it turned out that it was a "over sized" 31,8mm bar.

Had to cannibalize my commuter bike for a OS stem, it's not beautiful but adequate for the time being.
Only had time for a short test ride before I went to the cinema, but, WOW! What a difference, felt like I could ride for ever without getting numb hands and fingers!

Doesn't look entirely "kosher" on a older bike, but it's for a good cause! =)
I hope the wind calms tomorrow so I can take the bike for a longer spin, after that I can make a final judgment if it was worth the while. :)

One ring to flash them all!

Had a slight Internet mishap last week, was browsing the net after information about a ring flash and ended up on Amazon's web site.

I put the ring flash in the shopping basket and to really check if the shipping was free as they promised I pressed the "One-click" payment-button, still free shipping and when I clicked again I apparently bought the flash! =)



I was a bit tired and thought I would get another screen where I would have to make a final approval. Well, today the flash was delivered (the packet was outside of my apartment door!)

Thankfully it was relatively cheap, it was exactly the same as the more expensive flash I first saw on Cyberphoto.se and that initiated my search of info on it on the web.

It's a Marumi DRF 14 Macro Ring Flash for Nikon with full TTL functionality, also included was four adaptor rings for different lens diameters, the native diameter on the flash is 52mm. I would like to use this on my Tamron 180mm macro but I need a 72mm to 52mm step down ring. Bought one really cheap on eBay, remains to see it the ring will obscure the view too much or if it's usable.

The subject usually is in the middle of the shot anyway...

Few first test shots of stuff that was convenient to shoot.


As can be seen the flash not a full ring but I can live with that.Guess this last one. :)
Slightly over 1000:- sek including shipping to Sweden is in my mind a fair price, I just hope it won't breake down at once!

Hands on hand adjusting.

Noticed that my Seiko Orange/Black Monster started to lag behind with the hour hand, quite annoying since it got hard to properly read the time some times.

Not really sure when this happened but I suspect it was the watch repairman that replaced the black hands with white ones and after which the minute hand got loose and I had to return the watch to get it fixed (for free but anyway...)

So one evening when I had let the watch stay still for a few days til it stopped moving I opened it to try adjust the hour hand.

I had found a service manual on the net for the movement that is in the Seiko Monster, 7S26B: http://forums.watchuseek.com/f365/seiko-calibers-technical-repair-manuals-299038.html

Here's a video of the process:


I have no clue if this is the correct way to do it but it worked for me! =)

Took the opportunity to blow away some dust that the watch repairer had left in my watch, I later saw a video how to replace the crystal and there he covered the movement with a small glass that prevented dust from getting in.

The video did not turn out as I wanted, I used the new Windows Live Movie Maker that comes with Windows 7 and it was pure crap! 4GB memory was apparently not enough to be able to save a 5 minute long video in HD-quality and of course I find that out after I did all the edits. Do I need to get a Mac to be able edit movies without major effort?!

2010 Photo retrospect part 2.

Part two, still in no particular order. :)