Bicycle Camera Mounting Hardware

I'd been thinking of some more ideas on how to mount my camera when recording footage for my Bicycle Quests series, and in general so I don't have to take my tripod with me on my bike.

Here's some modifications I made to some stuff so it can hold a camera.  On the left is my bike mic stand, and a home made C-clamp on the right.  Simply by drilling and tapping 1/4"-20 threads in them, they become camera stands with the addition of a short 1/4"-20 rod and some knurled 1/4" nuts I made of aluminum.

Here the camera is attached to the C-clamp, now it can be clamped to anything and become a camera stand.  I'd drilled tapped holes in 3 sides of the clamp for more versatility.

Top 10 Greens and Machines Projects from 2018 -- A Year in Review

Wow 2018 has come and gone, have you forgotten all the amazing things we've done so far? Here's a list of our favorite posts in no particular order!

Raise The Roof! - Building My Own Loft Bed

I've been wanting to build a loft bed for a while.  Not only would it maximize floor space, but it would also offer me the opportunity to create my dream "computer lab" underneath similar to the fortress I had built years ago, except bigger.  I mean, look at all this wasted real estate under the original bed frame!

Hiding stuff under the bed is a poor excuse for organization.

My opportunity finally arrived when they were going to throw out 2 massive 8-foot 4x4 beams at work.  I quickly sprang to action dragging them home with my new bicycle trailer (emphasis on dragging).  This trailer isn't nearly as large or strong as my original one, but nonetheless got the job done.

Details on new trailer build available here!

Learn how to Bake Churro Cheesecake [Video Recipe]

I've been baking this recipe for a while ever since finding it. I decided that this time I'd record myself baking it so readers like you could replicate this delicious creation.

Brewing my Favorite Beer Recipe on the Craigslist Setup | Rye Stout 2018 -- Brew Day

After the success with the first batch of beer with the Craigslist equipment, it was time to make the most of it and brew up another. Of course, I had to use my favorite recipe this time, Rye Stout.

For those who prefer watching videos, here's a full video to capture the length of the events of brew day. Don't forget to subscribe and enjoy!

Bottling the first Beer Brewed on the Craigslist Equipment | Dunkelweissen Bottling Day

So after getting past all the different misspelling variations for this brew, the Dunkel was ready to bottle.

Bicycle-Mounted Recording Studio | Bike Mic Stand

I was intending on making a mic stand to attach to my bike so I wouldn't need to carry around my full size one when doing outdoor recording.  I was originally thinking of some complicated c-clamp mechanism to attach to the seatpost, but then I remembered the light mount I made has a pretty generic rectangular attachment which I could take advantage of.

The new design utilizes a top half of a half mic stand I had lying around, and I made an extension rod from some 3/4" diameter aluminum.  Pretty simple design compared to what I had planned originally.

Fire up the big kettle! | Dunkelweissen 10 Gallon Brew Day [Recipe Guide]

Following the announcement of acquiring new brewing hardware, the only logical thing to do from there was to make some beer with it. Idle hands are the devil's plaything, so let's get to work.

Making an Annual Homebrewed Favorite | Pumpkin Cider 2018

Before I get my next batch of beer going, I decided to get started on a classic holiday tradition; Pumpkin Cider.

This time for the juice I went out and grabbed the stuff Costco sells. Only ingredient listed is Apple Juice (not from concentrate), so I know this is some good stuff.

How's that for a north-facing garden?

Through a stretch of summer degree weather through the beginning of November, the NFT has been growing well. The mixture of Basil, Kale, Swiss Chard, and Bok Choy is not only doing well, but it's thriving, even with the minimal light. I can only imagine how well this setup would do if it is able to get 10+ hours of sun per day.

Top 5 Winter/Fall Homebrew Favorites

I've gotten a few requests to compile a short list of some good recipes for the later half of the year. Here is a list of our favorite recipes of brews we've made for the fall and cold winter weather:

#5: Graff (AKA Apple Ale)

Graff was one of my favorite experiments to do to see how viable making apple ale at home was. I especially like that this can be brewed on an extremely small scale, but finished at normal quantities. Give it a shot if you've got a bucket and a small stove top.

An Extraordinary Craigslist Haul | Homebrewing Setup Upgrades

While browsing Craigslist, I came across quite the deal. I met up with the man and acquired more homebrewing equipment than I could possibly dream for... all for $100.

Steal of a deal!

The Concept | Part 1 | 72 Plant NFT Vertical Hydroponic Build DIY

Part 1: The concept
I've wanted to build one of these systems for a while. Somehow my browsing of Instagram led me to several Indonesian/Malaysian accounts, who have been building, running, and selling these systems. I got inspired by seeing some of their designs. It was time to reverse engineer a garden.

Good Guav Peeps All Guav

Mid October in southern California brings a wonderful fruity smell to the streets.  After grapefruit season is over and the figs have come and gone, the spotlight is on guavas.  This year, I've come across three types of guavas growing in the local area; pink, yellow, and pineapple.  We turn to my trusted source, the side of the street, which is especially prolific in older neighborhoods that have massive fruit trees!
Firstly, the pink.

Yellow:

DIY Indoor DWC Hydroponic System Build FULL GUIDE

Since moving into a condo with no real land to garden in, I've really been dreading not having fresh vegetables right outside. I did manage to bring one of my containers, but there is very little space in the little "front yard". Not to mention, it being northfacing, it receives minimal sunlight. There's other problems too, such as some local pests. I've caught frogs chomping on my Chard and seedlings, and aphids have colonized the Kale plants I have inside it.

In my new place, I did have quite a bit of real estate in my bathroom, which I was previously using to store the fermenters for my Kolsch. I figure there would be enough space here to do some indoor gardening.

The Joy of the Harvest | 2018 Estate Blend | The Harvest and Crush

New phone who's this??? I'm impressed with the picture quality of my phone.

Harvest time for the grapes has come and gone. This year I waited until the last possible minute to pick my grapes as the previous harvests had always finished acidic.

This year's main harvest

An even larger hydroponic garden build is coming

I've been working on a new hydroponic system for the past few months. Let's just say that I was very ambitious and didn't have a plan of where to put it. Now with a potential site in mind, this build will be completed in the very near future and put into use. Here's a few photo previews of what to expect.

How to stop birds from eating your grapes -- Grapevine pest management Year 4

A few days after visiting the vineyard and counting my chickens before they hatched, my buddy sends me a photo of the Pinot Noir vine. The birds had stripped that plant clean! Time for action...

DWC Growth Log -- Week of 7/28

Growth in the deep water culture system for the week starting July 28. System is regrowing basil after a heavy cut back.

July 28

Grape Harvest Preview Year 4 | 2018

Checked in on the grapevines this Sunday. I took a look to see how they've been ripening up and to predict the date of the harvest. This analysis was performed using both color of grape and a taste test if the cluster looked ripe enough. From some lessons learned the past two years, I'm leaving the fruit on the vine longer as the previous estate blends (2016, 2017) have turned up very acidic.

DWC Growth Log -- Week of 7/21

Growth in the deep water culture system for the week starting July 21. The system has recovered from the previous harvests and has started producing a lot of greens.

Came back from a weekend trip to see the newest lettuce looking scrawny. Topped up the reservoir with water for now.

July 23

DWC Growth Log -- Week of 7/14

Growth in the deep water culture system for the week starting July 14. The system slowly begins recovery from last week's heavy harvests.

July 14

DWC Growth Log -- Week of 7/7

Growth in the deep water culture system for the week starting July 7.

July 7

DWC Growth Log -- Week of 6/30

For the week of June 30 (Week 7), some photos were missed for the beginning of the week.

July 2

Swiss Chard, lettuce, basil, and some branches of Bok Choy were snipped from the system on the second and the third. More harvests are expected throughout the week.

Why hard tap water can be good for your plant: A hydroponic fertilizer study

In the past my usual solution of 15-30-15 Fertilizer and Epsom salt has been sufficient when mixed with tap water.

In my latest build, I did the same blend of nutrient solution for my plants, but I began to notice slight tip burn on my bok choy and lettuce. The first few days wasn't concerning, but since it started appearing on all the bok choy within time, I decided to do some research.

Yellowing of the leaves

Growing Plants in unlikely locations -- Indoor Deep Water Culture Hydroponics (DWC)

As I had teased before, a new project is finally here! I've started growing some vegetables in my bedroom as I have very little land to work with at my new place. Follow the images below to find out how this system was built and to see the growth of the plants over time.

System Build Plans

Nutrient Blend Troubleshooting

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Growth and Harvest Reports by Day
Daily growth and harvest updates will be provided on a weekly basis. Check out how well the system grows from seed to harvest.

Week of May 19, 2018

The Grapevines are flourishing Year 4

A few days ago I took a visit to see how the vineyard was progressing this season.

DWC Growth Log -- Week of 6/23

Week 6 of system growth progress. At the beginning of this week, I noticed the reservoir solution was beginning to run low. These plants are thirsty! The reservoir was topped up twice this week.

June 23

Bike Light Mount 2

The light mount I made 2 years ago for my main bike has been working remarkably well.  The only problem is that my other bike, the San Antonio Smuggler has been seeing less use due to the the inability to mount my Niterider light on it.  I had been using the 1990s incandescent Cateye light on it, but it hasn't been doing much justice for illuminating the road ahead.  Time to build another mount for the Niterider.
I intended to make an exact replica of the first one.  The problem was I didn't have any blocks of aluminum big enough to match the original dimensions.

The solution was to modify the design to utilize 2 smaller pieces, and have it clamp on the handlebars sideways instead of vertically.  Genius! now it even has the added benefit of weight savings since all that material in the middle is missing.  The catch was I had to machine 2 spacers to go between the blocks while machining (bottom right corner of above picture).

Beers of the World Cup: Group H

It's world cup season, so we went out and bought as many possible beers from as many countries in the tournament we could find. In Group H we have Poland, Senegal, Colombia, and Japan. We acquired a Polish and a Japanese beer for tasting.

From Japan we have Asahi Super "Dry" lager. This rice beer is reminiscent of traditional American adjunct lagers that use rice (Budweiser). The rice made this one very smooth. 2.5/5.

Beers of the World Cup: Group G

It's world cup season, so we went out and bought as many possible beers from as many countries in the tournament we could find. In Group G we have Belgium, Panama, Tunisia, and England. We acquired a Belgian and an English beer for tasting.

From Belgium we selected Grimbergen Blonde ale. At 6.70% ABV, this is an all around tasty and  balanced ale. 4/5.

From England comes Samuel Smith's Organic Pale Ale. An orange tinted ale with full body, this was tasty. 4/5.


Check out our Instagram feed to see which other beers we managed to snag as each group stage match goes live!

Beers of the World Cup: Group F

It's world cup season, so we went out and bought as many possible beers from as many countries in the tournament we could find. In Group F we have Germany, Mexico, South Korea, and Sweden. We acquired a German beer for tasting.

Germany has a wide variety of different beers available. We selected Erdinger Dunkel for tasting. This is a very malty dunkelweizen balanced by the roasted malts and hop flavors. 4/5.


Check out our Instagram feed to see which other beers we managed to snag as each group stage match goes live!

Beers of the World Cup: Group E

It's world cup season, so we went out and bought as many possible beers from as many countries in the tournament we could find. In Group E we have Serbia, Brazil, Switzerland, and Costa Rica. We were only able to acquire Brazilian beer for tasting.

From Brazil comes Xingu Black Beer. This Schwarz beer is dark with a slightly roasted taste. It isn't as smooth as the Coopers Stout we reviewed earlier, but is still tasty. 3/5.

Check out our Instagram feed to see which other beers we managed to snag as each group stage match goes live!

Beers of the World Cup: Group D

It's world cup season, so we went out and bought as many possible beers from as many countries in the tournament we could find. In Group D we have Croatia, Iceland, Argentina, and Nigeria. We were able to acquire all but Nigerian beer for tasting.

From Argentina is Quilmes Cerveza, Argentina's favorite beer. A traditional lager that went down smooth. 2.75/5.

DWC Growth Log -- Week of 6/16

Week 5 of growth progress in this system. That lettuce I had harvested last week looks to have already recovered.

June 17

Big Bicycle Bell Ringer

I had always fantasized about putting a train bell on my bike, but since those things are made of cast iron, it would be an unnecessarily heavy addition to my bike (like, even more heavy than the stuff I already put on).  I decided to settle for second best when I found this bell at a garage sale that looks like it goes on a boat.

Ring my bell!

I began work designing a new ringer that wouldn't rattle all over the place while riding.  I used a spring that I found in the street connected to an aluminum tab and bolted the original striker to it.  For the handlebar mount, I modified a bicycle shifter lever mount I had to accept a 1/2" bolt which I tapped a hole in to accept the bell's 5/16"-18 eyelet piece.  To ensure adequate clearance between the bell and handlebars, I turned an aluminum spacer to go in between the bell and mount.  See details below:

Beers of the World Cup: Group C

It's world cup season, so we went out and bought as many possible beers from as many countries in the tournament we could find. In Group C we have France, Denmark, Australia, and Peru. We were able to acquire all the nations' beers for tasting.

From France is Kronenbourg 1664. This is a pale lager with 5.5% abv brewed in the city of Obernai, France, near the German border. It went down fairly smooth, slightly smoother than the Baltika #7 from Russia. 3.25/5.

Beers of the World Cup: Group B

It's world cup season, so we went out and bought as many possible beers from as many countries in the tournament we could find. In Group B we have Iran, Portugal, Spain, and Morocco. We were able to acquire Spanish and Portuguese beer.

Beers of the World Cup: Group A

It's world cup season, so we went out and bought as many possible beers from as many countries in the tournament we could find. Group A is Russia, Uruguay, Egypt, and Saudi Araba. Unfortunately, we were only able to find beer from the host nation, Russia.

From Russia we have Baltika #7 Export Lager. At 5.4% ABV, it tastes like your typical lager. Went down smooth, but nothing too special about it. We rated it at 3/5. Cheers!

Check out our Instagram feed to see which other beers we managed to snag as each group stage match goes live!