Schwalbe Pick-Up Tyre Review

 Schwalbe Pick-Up Tyre Review 

Hello happy humans. Despite already having way too many bicycle tyres I just bought some more. I think I may have a problem. Lots of photos here, and video below if you would rather:

In my quest for a high volume tyre with reasonable rolling resistance, and excellent puncture protection. I have gone for a pair of these Schwale Pick-Up Tyres in 26 x 2.35 size. 559-60 in euro sizing. 

Th tread pattern is quite smooth centre knobs, with textured shoulder knobs. The knobs themselves are quite shallow so tyre hum is not overly evident when riding on roads.

I have owned around 10 sets of schwalbe tyre over the years and they have all had very good moulding quality, they have (with one exception) all run straight with no wobbles or such like. 

These tire were measured quite thin compared to their advertised size. This is a bit annoying as I quite wanted them to be the size that is printed on the side of the tyre (60mm) but they are in fact 56mm, on 25mm rims. Had similar trouble with Super Moto-X tires. 

Fine with mudguards shown here with SKS bluemels P65s. 

I use these tyres for out and about country riding, on gravel tracks, roads, and light offroad. The main reason I went for these tyres is the "super defence" puncture guard. I am not a huge fan of "green guard" as it affects the feel of tire. 

Schwalbe (c) Owned image of super defence. Which looks like a double thick carcass. This also gives the tyre a very very firm feel when riding. Not firm as in hard, but firm as in reassuring. I should imagine (i am guessing) the structure of this tire is more similar to automotive tyres. 

More pictures of tread. The side knobs / texturing are quite good when riding in wheel ruts. The big apple tyre in particularly slips very easily when trying to get out of a wheel rut ion a track for example, as it has very little shoulder grip. 

More pictures of tread. . . . 

. . . and more.. . . .  

The tire has various markings and the side, and a reflective sidewall. The tire indicates it is e-bike ready. 

The tyre is made from Addix-E compound: "The newly created Addix E-Compound is specially optimized for maximum durability, low rolling resistance and exceptional grip even at high speed." This tyre shown is 2.35" version but you can get 2.15" in most versions. 

The tyre will go up to 4.5bar which is quite high for a wide tyre. 

Errrrr . . .  I like the colour of the writing. . . 

So hopefully many many more hassle free rides to come. With hopefully not many puncture. Or I will be going back to big apples. In summary these are a really nice tyre, but better if they had been measured properly.  

Update 09/12/2021: I have ridden this now for about 200 miles. It is not as light to pedal as the biggle apple, but is is better than I expected. It certainly rolls better than the super-moto-x. However, I have found that I cannot inflate to full pressure and still enjoy the ride. 4.5 bar on a tire of this width is crazy hard. It makes ride too uncomfortable.

Update 20/01/2023

Below are some pictures of the Schwalbe Pick Up Tire Mounted on a cargo bike, I hired in the Netherlands. I suppose this is what they were built for. We did about 100 miles in 3 or 4 days. I think I would have pumped them up a bit harder, but I had no pump (ergo pressure gauge) to check what pressure they were running at. 

The front tire os 20" size. I don't really have much to say about that. I couldn't see it from where I was sitting. 

As you can see I was carrying all of the families luggage, and for some stretch, my son sat on the rear rack and we put his small bike on the front. So we really loaded these tires up and they were very well behaved. 

 

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New Jabra BT2045 Review

Intro

The New Jabra BT2045, is a small, light, inexpensive BT ear piece, that enables you to talk on you bluetooth phone handsfree. I bought mine for £16 delivered from eBay. 

Features

The Jabra BT2045 has the following features:

• Echo Cancellation, 
• HD Voice, 
• Noise Cancellation, 
• Noise Isolation
• Talk Time: Up to 8 hours
• Standby Time: Up to 240 hour
• USB Charging: Yes

Real World Battery

Whilst I have not used ear piece for 8 hour talk time, I can safely say it will not last 10 days on stand-by as I have left it switched on over night (not in use) and battery is dead by morning.

Controls

Part of the reason I often leave this switched on is the button is quite small, and hard to operate with podgy fingers. The indicator light is also obscured by your finger when you are trying to operate the button, so you can not see any of the flashes of lights colour changes. 

Comfort 

Despite not "looking" very comfy. The ear piece is so light and small that it is actually very comfy. I have worn it for a few hours at a time listening to audio books, and my ear does not get sore.

The ear hoops is also detachable, and the in ear bud will wedge in you ear quite well, enabling you to use the earpiece without the hoop, if your ear is the right shape!

Call Quality

The sound coming from the small in ear bud, is free from bass but that is quite good for clarity when talking to people. 

The volume could do with being a bit louder, but is pretty good even in windy conditions (for listening), however in wind the microphone (and associated noise cancellation etc.) does struggle a bit, but that is the same all round I think.

Conclusions

The volume could do with being 20% louder. But apart from that the Jabra BT2045 is a good no frills option. 

Sequential Test

Soundboks 2 - 2021 Review

Soundboks 2 - 2021 Review - Intro

I have long gazed at the Soundboks 2, wishing it were mine. And after a year of enforced saving (COVID) I have treated myself to a Soundboks 2 Speaker. 

At the time of purchase there was a choice between getting the Soundboks 2 and the "New Soundboks", the Soundboks 3 (?).

However, after watching lots of reviews on YouTube, I decided on the Soundboks 2. The main reasons was I liked the sound better, the secondary reason was that was £300 cheaper . . . .

I watched the above video and, the Soundboks 2, to my ears sounded better. Less harsh I thought. I like a soft mellow bass rich sound, a bit like the kind of sound you would get from an old school valve amplifier. 

Soundboks 2 - 2021 Review - Finding

My Soundboks 2 arrived in early December. I was patient and waited until Christmas Day to open it. The sound was very pleasing at low to moderate volumes, but become harsh at higher volumes. 

In my opinion the bass / treble balance is lost at higher volumes, and the tweeter become jangly and unpleasant at higher volumes also. 

Don't get me wrong it is a great speaker, very well built and the battery lasts for ages (days) for normal listening. It will also likely out last me, and be handed down to my kids it is so well built. 

The switches and the build of the casing is bomb proof. I love that. 

Soundboks 2 - 2021 Review - Context

So you might ask what speaker am I comparing this to? Well it is a home made one, that I have "perfected" over the last few years.

I like to dance to music that is bass heavy, and I like to feel the bass whilst still not hurting my ears, with over inflated treble and mid range. 

The specs of my home made speaker are as follows:

• TPA3116 2.1 
• 24V Power Supply
• 12mm exterior plywood cabinet.
• Salvaged 8 ohm speaker drivers and tweeter complete with original crossovers.
• JBL 2 ohm 10" sub woofer

After a few weeks of listening I can safely say that I prefer the sound from my home made speaker. It quieter in treble and mid range, but still pack mega punch in the bass area. 

I will post a youtube video, with comparison soon:

VIDEO

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Sequential Test

Scientific Web Content

Makita Cordless Strimmer (DUR187LZ) - Review

Ah! Strimming the Garden. One of Life's simple pleasures. And it is a complete, joyful pleasure using this Makita  DUR187LZ Strimmer Brush Cutter. This is one of the most pleasing tool purchases I have made in the last year.

This strimmer works with the familiar bump line head, which you might find a wide variety of 2 stroke powered strimmer and brush cutters. But things are quite different in all other respects.

At the "top" of the strimmer, where the motor normally goes you have the battery housing, and I suspect the motor controller. A small fan keeps this cool I think which is activated when you pull the trigger. The battery is an 18v LXT battery, which can power around 100 different tools (drills, lawn mowers, even vibrating concrete pokers).

The battery will last a good 20 minutes. And that can be doing heavy brush cutter type work (long grass, herbaceous species (cow parsley, doc), and thing woody suckers such as ash saplings. 

The control are simple, yet offer good variety you have 3 speeds to choose from, and also an automatic speed controller, which speeds up and down automatically depending on the type of work you are doing. This function is demonstrated in the video at the bottom of the page. 

The handle is simple in design, and can be held easily. The strimmer comes with a shoulder strap, which I do not use. Some have said this stimmer is very light. . .  I would not agree, it is probably as heavy as my 22cc 2 stroke (husqvarna) strimmer. 

The strimmer comes supplied with some 1.5 mm cutting line, which is fine. Shown here with stihl 3.3mm line. One of the best bits about this strimmer, is that I have not had a single snapped line in the several hours I have used it. My petrol strimmer had a tendency to rev up, to extreme speeds causing the line to snap, when hits a solid object. 

The strimmer head will take commercial grade line, and can handle the implied work load. In use the torque is very high, and especially with a battery >50% charge, will mash up just about any vegetation. 

So to conclude the strimmer is excellent. I can't really remember when I purchased a piece of equipment that I was so pleased with. There are no fumes, when you use it. No need to buy or mix fuel. No starting issues.

Makita also offer, some more powerful strimmers based on the LXT batteries. Which take 2 batteries upping voltage to 36v, likely to allow for higher wattage motor. Whilst I would of course be interested to try one of these more powerful strimmer / brush cutters, this DUR187LZ model provides plenty of power for me, whilst remaining fairly light weight.


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Feider BRE24V Review & Assembly

Feider BRE24V Electric Wheelbarrow Review & Assembly

Introduction

Some have reported this to be a good product, but for me the Feider BRE24V Electric Wheelbarrow
lasted 3 loads before it stopped working.  Either a problem with the motor, motor control or demand side BMS. I suspect motor controller.

My reason for purchasing the Feider BRE24V. I am 3 weeks in to a self build project, and I needed to quicken up shifting around 2000 concrete blocks for our house extension . I can cope with 3 or 4 blocks in a regular barrow, if I could up this to 6 or 8 blocks (I thought) then this would speed things up.

Cheapest half decent looking powered barrow on web, was Feider BRE24V Electric Powered Wheelbarrow.

Despite being well built, and well specified my experience with this product was overwhelmingly negative.

Subtle Changes in Geometry make this wherl barrow very hard to use. 

Assembly

Assembly is not too bad. The instruction are poor and in french. But provided you assemble the parts in the right order you should be OK. There are diagrams in the istruction book showing the write order to do things, and that is all you really need.

You will need a large screw driver (phillips / pozidriv) and an adjustable spanner. And around 1 hour of time, maybe a bit more. Watch a video on assembly:

You also need to allow some time for charging the battery.

The electronics go together nicely, and can only be put together the correct way, so no chance of mishap there!

The lower frame comes in 3 or 4 parts, and I thought this might affect the rigidity of tghe barrow, but the assembly works in such a way that all parts are bolted to the skip, and in the end the structure is very rigid.

Problems

Beyond the electronic fault which quickly developed, the geometry of the wheelbarrow is perhaps the most disappointing aspect :

Breakdown

I had a load of concrete in the wheelbarrow, I would estimate this load to be around 100kg. The motor was struggling and stopped half way up slope.

Workings using approx 66% of 75 litre capacity = 50 litres. 2 kg per lire density = 100kg. The advertised load capacity is 150kg.

I was going up a short (3 meter) 8 degree slope. Advertised max slope is 15 degree slope.

It may not be the motor that was struggling, it could have been the motor controller or the BMS. I suspect motor controller. As since failure there is resistance in wheel indicating short in phase wires. I would be very surprised if the motor failed, it seams very heavy duty.

Drive Wheel is Too Large

The drive wheel used is too large. To accommodate this the skip has been moved backwards, moving the centre of gravity towards the rear.  If you are are on hard smooth ground then this is not a problem, the small rear wheels will take the weight, but if ground is rough or soft, and your are forced to take weight on arms, it is very hard work (reasonably fit 40 year old bloke, conditioned by 3 week of "normal" wheelbarrow use).

Handles Too High

The handles have been raised too, no doubt to help when using rear wheels, but this makes tipping the barrow very difficult when carting heavy material.

Nose Too High

The nose of the barrow is also too high meaning the barrow has to be tipped up very high before is stops rolling forwards. If you are tipping in to a hole then, this can result in the wheel barrow rolling forward and ending up in the hole.

Good Points

This wheelbarrow would be good if you had a long distance to haul material, but the ground surface would have to be smooth and hard. A stable yard, or a garden with hard paths would be ideal. For heavy work on rough ground with lots of tipping, look elsewhere.

Conclusions 

Even without the breakdown, this is a very poorly conceived product. I doubt the people who designed this has ever used a wheel barrow. It is almost as though the barrow has been assembled around a collection of electronic components.

There are instances where this barrow might make you life easier (hard smooth ground) but for me it was a relief to get back to a "normal" wheelbarrow.

Lots of Pictures

The Hub Motor seams like a nice bit of kit, I expect this is worth around £150 on its own.

The thumb throttle and tacky grips are functional

Terrible small rear wheels are a serious limitation. 

Long, high handles make for hard work when tipping. 

Large front wheel is grippy, but upset geometry of whole barrow.

Weird grips. 

Box containing controller and BMS and battery pack. Nice chunky switch. 

Cabling attached with zip ties. 

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Sunlight and Daylight Assessment

Viper Special Ops Boot Long Term Review

Viper Special Ops Boot Long Term Review - Intro

I have just received my 2nd pair of these in the post, I have replaced my original pair after about 5 years, as they have become a bit floppy and the grip is nearly gone. But They have been the comfiest pair of boots I have every owned.

The boots are 5 years old, but I only wear then during the spring, autumn and summer, as they are only splash proof, and opt for wellies the rest of the time.

Old Meets New

These are NOT TO BE CONFUSED with boots labelled "COMBAT" which are similar is design, but made from inferior materials.

Viper Special Ops Boot Long Term Review - Comfort

The main reason for a 2nd purchase is the high level of comfort afforded by these boots. They are light, flexible, but feel robust. They are very easy to get on and off, thanks to the zips and either side. 

The boots are supremely comfortable.

Viper Special Ops Boot Long Term Review - Wear

The boots are light yet tough, having severely layers of leather, and testile to produce a reslient upper. Even after the leather has perished there are other textile layers underneath to keep the boot functional.

Perished leather. Note secondary layer of textile. 

Zips still work fine after 5 years.

Some fraying around zip araes.

After 5 years of use the cordura side panels look like new, and ykk zips work very well still. The failure pints are perished leather (suede) and worn soles.

One other failure point is the heel, where it can rub through and expose a hard plastic plastic piece, used to shape the heel. This happened around year 3.  A solution here is to pull out this piece of plastic, and you will have your wearable boots back once again.

Rub through on heal.

Viper Special Ops Boot Long Term Review - Uses

These are great for walking as you would expect, but are also good for a spot of running owing to being light weight. The sole being broad a relatively flat is also good on MTB pedals, and these are by chosen footwear if weather allows. 

Trusty Old Boots, Tired but not finished. 

New boots vs Old Boots 

Viper Special Ops Boot Long Term Review - Water Proof

No these boots are not water proof. They are about as water proof as a trainer. Most of the disappointment, which one can read in review regarding these boots relates to their lack of water proofing.

To make these boots water proof would be (in my opinion) be a compromise as they would likely loose some of their breathability and become heavier. 

About 3 years of use (prorata) over 5 years.

As new. . . .

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CEMP

ZTTO 9 Speed Cassette Review & Install

ZTTO 9 Speed Cassette Review - Intro

The old saying goes "you get what you pay for" but NOT in the case of this 11 - 40 ZTTO 9 speed cassette. I purchased mine for around £15 on eBay, and I am very impressed with it.

I sued a Short Cage Rear Mech, and an extender for the gear hanger. All good. 

I also made a video review, if you are too lazy to read this one!

ZTTO 9 Speed Cassette Review - Building Quality 

I compared the quality of this ZTTO 9 speed cassette with the shimano cassette that it was replacing. The shimano one was used of course, but you can still compare the finish of un worn parts.

Comparison between Shimano HG 400 11 - 34

I should imagine that the sprockets are "pressed" in manufacturing rather than cast of machined, the finish is very good. The sprockets are steel: "high tensile steel" apparently.

I mean to the untrained eye this look OK right?

One thing I was very impressed with was the weight saving measures, the sporkets had been designed on the ZTTO 9 speed cassette had been design to incorporate a lot less steele (proportionally) compared to the shimano cassette.

Rear view showing the construction. 

If I had just one improvement comment it would be for a steel lockring. Alloy threads, cringe. 

ZTTO 9 Speed Cassette Review - Installation / Install

I "few" years ago I vested in a short cage shimano saint rear mech. Which is a great piece of gear. I had read that you can use a 11 - 40 cassette with a short cage rear mech, and it works OK. It does work.

On the bike. Works great. 

I had a slight complication in that (unknown to me) my front chain ring was worn, and this was cause a dropped chain when I shifted on the the largest rear sprocket. Of course initially I suspected the lack of chain cacapcity in my rear mech, but no.

Size Difference 11-40 vs 11-34

I did use a sunrace hanger extender, I am not sure if this was required, but I fitted it anyway. For the record I should point out that I do not think my rear mech would take a larger rear sprocket, it may just about stretch to a 42 tooth. But I very very much doubt it would be OK with 46, 50 or 52.

When on 40 tooth sprocket, the chain has just enough slack to operate, but not much.

In summary the install would have been very easy, if it weren't for the worn chain ring.

ZTTO 9 Speed Cassette Review - Extra Photos and Conclusions 

All in all this is a well made product that enables 9 speed drive chain uses to add extra gear range to their machines without breaking the bank. If your old chain and cassette are worn out, then it is a no brainer to upgrade, more range, same price and weight penalty is minimal. 

In use this provide a similar amount of range to my alfine 11 hub gear. It certainly makes a 1 x 9 drivetrain more realistic in hilly parts of the world. 

Close up showing quality of pressings. I think it looks fine. 

Each sprocket is labelled with tooth number. I nice touch. 

Not sure what these bales mean. 

Close up of rear, showing structure. Second largest sprocket shares spider with largest. 

My only complaint: alloy lock ring. Probably fine, bit alloy threads make be nervous. 

Preliminary Ecological Appraisal 

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