欧州自転車レース追っかけ日記

Joker Corzo Cr25
I have been looking for some good-looking knife that I can bring on my camping tour. I often travel in my beloved Mazda Miata (MX-5) with my beloved Hannah (female cat). To save money, I stay at camping sites as much as possible and I don't eat out.

A handy knife is needed to cut open some packages (containing salamis or others).

I recently bought a small (but heavy) knife that I found on Amazon. It is a nice knife but I could not help keep looking for another.

I kept watching YouTube videos about bushcraft (or hunting) knives. I learned about the grinds and some materials. Now I found this one.

A Joker Corzo from Spain. Luckily I live in EU and getting it is easy and the shipping charge is almost nothing. Should I get it?

This one is not too expensive. The blade material is not a high class alloy metal. It is small. And most importantly I will never hew some logs with it.

In English: 続きをどうぞ [Joker knives, are they good?]の続きを読む

テーマ:アウトドア - ジャンル:スポーツ

1. 2025/01/13(月) 23:45:48|
2. Camping in Europe
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Repairing the JetBoil SUMO's policarbonate cup
I bought this JetBoil SUMO this year (2024). I wanted this for some time. I used a Trangia cooking set for many years for my camping tours and it never let me down. I still like it.

For the first several years (since around 2008?) I used the alcohol burner and was happy with it. I wanted to get the gas burner for its ease of flame control. It (the genuine gas burner) was a bit expensive and so I did not buy it. I found cheap compatible burner made in China later and bought two of them. It worked fine, actually OK for several years before the first one broke. I then started using the second one but it did not work too well.

How did it not work well? It did not burn smoothly when the burner head once got hot (seemingly). Why did I like the Trangia? Because the pans are big enough to cook some pasta (like spaghetti or penne) or cook rice. One has to start cooking them with a lot of water inside the pan.

I like my JetBoil Flash (or simply the first generation of JetBoil, I belive it was not called Flash at it debut) but it is not really big enough.

So naturally I had my eyes on its bigger brother (or sister?) SUMO for years. I finally found an inexpensive used set on eBay this year after years of seeking.

It worked very well. The burner has evolved and works way better (stably) when (it is) simmering.

During the last Tour de France camping tour, the cup developed a crack. The crack was around 4 to 5 centimeters wide. After returing home, I fixed it with a plastic repair kit (acrylic power/solution kit). I thought it was fixed. It was not really. The crack reappeared.

I quickly researched on the Internet if acrylic power/solution was a valid solution. It turned out that it seemed not so.

I think the policarbonate is way flexier than acrylic material so when the cup bends, the acrilic material can not catch up. The acrlic material does stick very well to policarbonate surface but can not bend or warp together.

It seems that I need epoxy glue to fix it if I want to fix it.

I found a replacement cup on eBay from the US. It costs after paying the shipping fees and all but it can be cheaper than paying for the glue and a small grinding tool (as I have to get rid of the acrlic material accumulation along the crack which I had applied earlier). What should I do?


OMG! My USB wired keyboard has been destroyed!
I was using a USB wired mini Keyboard (US layout) for my Mac Pro Late2013. It broke. I came home to find it was in a small pool of coffee. I wiped the liquid quickly but obiviously it had been like that for hours. It did not respond at all.

I left a mug beside the keyboard. It was not full but slightly contained leftover coffee. Obviously Hannah toppled it and what happened happened. It was my fault and she (my beloved Hannnah) was not to be blamed at all.

Luckily I also had a Bluetooth keyboard around, which saved my day. I am writing this with this keyboard now.

I have to buy another USB wired keyboard soon. I need it. A wired keyboard works better than a non-wired Bluetooth one when one needs to interrupt the booting process (of a Mac or others) to boot from other sources than the usual (internal SSD or so).

For example, holding down the Option key (or alt key) while the computer is booting on a Mac makes it possible to interrupt the usual booting process and select the medium (USB connected disks, flash memeries or others). On typical PCs, holding down the ESC key or one of the function keys make it possible to enter the BIOS menu.

One can obtain the same result with a Bluetooth keyboard with some luck but if the computer is not capable of handling Bluetooth function at all, no chance at all.

That's why a wired keyboard is a must.


The USB wired Keyboard came back from the grave

This cheapo USB wired keyboard was spattered with coffee from the mug that I left near it on the desk. My Hannah tripped it over. It was my fault and not hers.

I actually thought it might come back when the soaked coffee was once dry. It did after 4 or 5 days. I tried it to see if it was back almost everyday since the accident.

I ordered the same keyboard from Amazon along with other small items. I hit the order button just 10 minutes before I realized the keyboard was OK again.

Had I realized that this once dead keyboard rose, did I buy the new keyboard?

It's OK. It was just around 15 Euros. The keyboard might go down if the residue of coffee corrupts some circuits inside the keyboard.

It is better to have a spare keyboard.

Streamlight JR™ and other flashlights
I am waiting for the arrival of this new face, JR™. I think it is being in transition to Europe, most likely to Amsterdam, the Netherlands?. It will be here by me in a week.

I am crossing my fingers that it is complete (meaning that it has all the internal parts) and works. If not, I have to seek for needed parts and source it (or them) mostly from the United States of America with some hefty shipping charges.

It would be nice to find a way to inplant a LED bulb into it. So far I haven't found any solid methods described or actual pictures of successful conversions of the first generation JR™.

Is it possible to bend some pins and grind some edges of some LED parts meant for Mini Maglites and stuff it into the JR™.

In Japanese:続きをどうぞ [JetBoil SUMO and a USB wired keyboard from hell]の続きを読む

テーマ:日記 - ジャンル:日記

1. 2024/09/24(火) 20:09:45|
2. Camping in Europe
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UCO Mini Candle Lantern Review

I bought this mini candle lantern. I thought it would be useful while on a camping tour staying in a tent. I have never light it on till now. Now I have, I have something to say about it.

UCO has several models of candle lanterns. As far as I see (through google search) there are a tall thin model, chubby model and this mini model. The tall thin and chubby model seem to use the same chunky candles specifically one and three respectively. Chunky candles with a thicker candle wick are likely to produce more candle power, thus brighter than ones with a thin wick.

The Mini models use a tiny cup candle typically found on cafe / bar or restaurant tables in a glass. They (those tiny cup candles) flicker and emit a gentle beam not to blind or distract people sitting at the tables.

I should have known. Or I knew already that this UCO Mini candle lantern would not be bright.

I was a bit disappointed by my own stupid decision to get one.

Would it be a useful in a tent? I don't think too much so. Would I take it on my next camping tour? I am not sure.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [UCO Mini Candle Lantern]の続きを読む

テーマ:アウトドア - ジャンル:趣味・実用

1. 2023/03/22(水) 21:07:06|
2. Camping in Europe
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Trangia compatible gas burner

I have used a Trangia cooker stove for years. I guess I have used it since around 2006 or so.

I switched to the gas burner around 2009 or so. I had long wanted to get one, the genuine (Trangia) burner but the price kept me from getting one.

I then found seemingly a compatible burner on the internet. "Seemingly" compatible as the seller on ebay did not specify the compatibility anywhere. I thought the compatibility was obvious.

I ordered two sets as they were cheap. They were way cheaper then than they are now (2023). I repeat that I bought 2 sets thinking that I would still have one more when one goes unusable.

So I have been using one since its arrival and it worked very well until a couple of days ago.

Its burner head is made of some stainless steel and has numerous holes. It also has stainless steel mesh sheet lining in the back of the burner head. It is a typical construction for a camping gas burner head, I guess.

Over the course of use, the heat and oxidation begin to corrode the material, the mesh lining has deteriorated and crumbled off partially. When this happens, the flame goes inside the burner head and further burns the thin mesh sheet lining making the oxidation/corrosion process accelerate.

The burning (small explosion) noise reveals the symptoms and eventually the use of the burner becomes unbearably uncomfortable.

One remedy for this is to reline the burner head but this head construction makes it virtually impossible.

The other remedy, although not really proper one is to make the air intake holes before the burner head smaller to choke the burner.

The latter hack kinda works because choking makes the gas mixture (butane and the air, in other words our atmosphere, 20 % oxygen and 80 % nitrogen) too rich or too much butane and makes it harder for the mixture to burn until it meets more air at the burner head (on the surface of the burner head).

Of course I will eventually use the other spare burner that has been kept in the bag for over 10 years.

I guess or I can guess that the primary air intake holes are a tad too big (there are four of them) judging from the burnt mesh lining. So I will choke the holes of the new one before using it.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Trangia cookware and gus burner]の続きを読む

テーマ:アウトドア - ジャンル:趣味・実用

1. 2023/03/17(金) 18:33:15|
2. Camping in Europe
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As far and long as I can

I have an idea. The last time I checked (last year amidst COVID-19 fiasco), it was perfectly OK to just put up my tent out of nowhere in Norway to overnight as long as you keep certain distance from the private properties. I think the situation is similar in Sweden and Denmark.

How about Finland?

I have an idea. How about just I drive as far and long as I can (physically and mentally possible) and when I get tired, I stop and put up the tent and sleep only to resume driving the next morning.

Is it possible to drive across those four countries (Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland) in 2 weeks (of course I have to drive across Germany to get to Denmark in the first place).

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Drive as far and long as I can ]の続きを読む

テーマ:海外旅行 - ジャンル:旅行

1. 2022/05/22(日) 22:28:14|
2. Camping in Europe
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