Finns Happy and Least Corrupt

I like surveys and world maps. Here's a couple of interesting ones showing Finland scoring very high on both:

• Corruptions Perceptions Index (high score is less corruption, more transparency) and
  
• Quality of Life (Happiness Scale)(pdf).

Corruption Index

Winter is Really Here!

Wow! What a difference a week of really cold weather makes. The bike riding is much easier on the hard snow as it becomes a little more consistent. The mud is gone and the lakes are starting to freeze over. I spent all day yesterday outside pretty much riding and skating with the kids on the lake that is a 5 minute walk behind our apartment. There's so many winter sports to do and so little sunlight you really have to get out and take advantage of any sight of the sun you can get because you don't know when you will see it again.

Some photos from the ride before my derailleur hanger snapped off: http://personal.inet.fi/urheilu/pekka.lindvall/kuvaalbumi.htm

PSA - Don't Fool Around with Frozen Water

Public Service Announcement from Finland -

Don't Fool Around with Frozen Water - If you do you could fall into the cold water and die immediately. LOOK - TRY - DIE. So you see, frozen water can be dangerous.

Looks like our little talk about the dangers of frozen water were clearly understood. But we were too late for these guys:


Well, we got onto the ice safely on some shallow areas after seeing a big fishing party, several skaters, and a couple of kite surfers on the ice.

Maailman Lapset Mix

Sweden has Abba, Iceland has Bjork and now Finland has Isabelle (still working on a stage name), Here's the the Maailman Lapset Mix (Children of the World) [mp3, 1:26]

The Adventures of Flat Justin

When it's cold and dark most of the time you have to get out and find creative things to do. So this Father's day in Oulu (Father's Day is 2nd Sunday of Nov in most northern europe countries) we made a movie:

Hi-Tech Bottle Return

Lot's of high-tech in Finland, like this bottle return machine at the Prisma.

Guy-Lussac’s Law & Exploding Tires

I got my new Kenda Carbide-tipped front studded tire on (no, not that Carbide) and ready for a nice snow/ice ride tomorrow. I aired up the tires outside when it was really cold. Later on in the evening I decided to bring the bike inside to let the hub and bottom bracket grease warm up. Riding in the cold, cold morning can be quite a stiff experience even without having to get the bike parts to thaw out.

About 5 minutes after I brought in the bike - KER BLAM! The front tire blew out with a loud pop.

I inspected that this wasn't an issue with a pinch or studs poking through so I figured it was the temperature change. But having been through this before in the Texas heat and bikes in cars with exploding tires I had to figure out how much perssure change there actually was. So I found Guy-Lussac’s Law explained pretty well by Fix Werx and they suggest that you get about 2 psi pressure change for every 10 degress F of temperature change.

My case:

T1 = 24.8 F
T2 = 72.5 F

Add 460 to T1 and T2 for absolute temperature change and you get:

60/484.8 = P2 / 523.5

.12376 = P2 / 532.5

P2 equals 65 PSI. So only about +5 psi change for brining my bike inside for a tire rated from 50 - 75 PSI. However, in the Texas heat if you are running 120 psi and put your bike in the car you can really see how you could blow out a tire.

So I figure I attribute it to old tubes, lots of riding and really crappy rim tape that the manufacturers always put on stock bikes.