Common Ninja

@commonninja

A garden variety ninja, trying to go unnoticed. Mostly. Likes: Reading, walking, cycles, cycling, amateur radio, music, Hi-Fi Dislikes: Neoliberalism, death by car, death by climate change, prospect of WW3

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Common Ninja@commonninja· 13d

The 52 year old bike? I'm not going to be able to ride it home. So I've bought another even older one! I'll be making a video about that as soon as microphones arrive. Hopefully we will use it to tow the bike that inspired this channel 25 miles home. In the meantime, here's some art work.

Common Ninja@commonninja· Jul 7

Not sure where the picture disappeared to. Here ya go.

Photograph of a Specialized Hard rock Sport, with mudguards, luggage and for now, gravel tyres

Common Ninja@commonninja· Jul 5

Soldered a new USB power connector on to helmet camera/GPS module Y-cable. The old one was hanging on by a thread. Has a proprietary connector on the other end. Used 3 pieces of heat shrink - different diameters sleeved inside each other - as extra strain relief to stop it happening again.

Photograph of my hand holding a USB power bank connected to a helmet camera and GPS module on a cycle helmet. Soldering equipment can be seen in the background

Common Ninja@commonninja· Jun 30

Sadly the child killer 4000's have a habit of showing up in the UK now and then. Apologies for the poor quality photo.

A photograph showing a large, lifted pick-up truck on oversized wheels and tyres parked as to 60% block the footway

Common Ninja@commonninja· Jun 25

The blue on this map is a shared footway/cycleway that crosses a side road. It is inset away from the mouth of the junction. That does not exempt it from highway code rules H2 and H3 right? IMHO a driver should still cede priority to pedestrians and cyclists? Is there anything authoritative ...

A screen capture from Google maps showing Tixall Road as it passes the side road Bays water Square. Marked badly in blue is an inset shared pedestrian footway/cycle path that crosses the side road.

Common Ninja@commonninja· Jun 23

That was a warm bike ride. Temperature, according to the head unit, reached 36°C towards the end of the ride.

A screen capture showing a Garmin Connect temperature graph with values captured from a Garmin cycle computer. The max temperature shown is 36° Celsius.

Common Ninja@commonninja· Jun 17

Staffordshire County Council loves a contraflow cycle lane. The state of the bollards on the traffic island meant to afford cyclists protection really fills you with confidence.

A photograph of the contraflow cycle lane on the 'North Walls' in Stafford. In the background the Traffic lights can be seen for the A34 Queensway roundabout.

Common Ninja@commonninja· Jun 17

Inspired by @rantyhighwayman.bsky.social 's Tron cycle lane, I took these on a ride the other day. This is a contraflow cycle lane in Doxey, Stafford, It's narrow, barely accounts for the turning radius of a bicycle, and within a few years of installation is overgrown.

A photograph depicting a narrow contraflow cycle lane on Railway Street in Doxey Stafford. The lane in on the right hand side for oncoming cycle traffic. on The left are designated parking spaces for cars. The road is too narrow for vehicles to use the remaining space, without driving into the cycle lane.

A photograph showing a contraflow cycle lane in Railway Street, Doxey, Stafford. The lane is at the extreme left hand edge of the road and is completely overgrown from the perspective the photograph was taken from. It also tightly radiuses a 90 degree bend.

A photograph showing the narrow contraflow cycle lane on Railway Street in Doxey Stafford from another angle.

A photograph showing contraflow cycle markings and painted arrows on a one way street

Common Ninja@commonninja· May 2

Every HiFi enthusiast needs a label maker

A photograph showing 8 BS 1363 plugs, 5 of which are plugged into a power strip. The plugs are all labelles for the HiFi components they are connected to

Common Ninja@commonninja· Apr 28

@rega.co.uk Planar 8 with ND7 cartridge, supplied by Cheshire Audio. First impressions are good, very good.

Photograph of a hi-fi rack. A Rega Planar 8 turntable sits on the top shelf.

Common Ninja@commonninja· Apr 27

Someone really hates cyclists

A photograph showing a 'private road' leading to some houses in a new housing development.

A sign on the grass verge reads

"PRIVATE ROAD

Public access for pedestrians only

Cyclists dismount"

Common Ninja@commonninja· Apr 20

What is the legality of this parking? 7.5 ton goods vehicle, left unattended. There is dropped curb in the control zone proceeding away from zebra crossing, presumably for vehicular access across the footway into the park behind.

A goods vehicle parked on the footway along side the controlled zone leading away from a zebra crossing

Common Ninja@commonninja· Apr 2

A screen capture from 'amiatechbro.com' that says 'You are not a Tech Bro' and 0% agreement with tech bro ideas.'

Common Ninja@commonninja· Apr 1

I was getting a bit of bass 'bloom' that was starting to annoy. This appears to have fixed it, at least at day time listening volume. Surprised how substantial these new feet are. #HiFi

Photograph of an upside-down SVS subwoofer part way through removing the stock feet and fitting SVS Soundpath insulation feet

Common Ninja@commonninja· Mar 22

Still looks a bit of a mess, but this is about 50% improved. The two long loops are digital coax cables. Need to swap those for some shorter ones. For some reason I have a choice of really short or really long.

Photograph of a HiFi rack showing interconnects and power leads being about 50% less untidy than they were

Common Ninja@commonninja· Mar 15

Analogue sandwich with a digital filling. Bottom shelf installed, having been repainted to match the others. I do need to rationalize somewhat. I don't need two CD transports and two DACs.

Photograph showing a hifi system comprising several components on q stand, and a free standing shelving unit to the right full of CDs.

Common Ninja@commonninja· Mar 11

Staffordshire Police practically condone dangerous drivers. Awful victim blaming. No #visionzero here.

A screen capture from Facebook showing a post from Staffordshire Police.

The caption reads:

"It’s important to remember that there is no such thing as ‘right of way’ in The Highway Code.

You may have priority for a situation, but do not treat it as a right.

If you do, you are putting your life in the hands of an unknown person with unknown driving capabilities.

If you’re a motorbike rider, you’ll know that you often have to do the thinking for other road users in order to stay safe.

Although it can be frustrating when others aren’t following the correct priority, it’s not worth putting yourself and your bike at risk to prove a point as you are more vulnerable if a collision does occur.

The number one thing is to ride to get home alive #LookAgain"

Common Ninja@commonninja· Mar 4

A piece of Rega HiFi history arrived today. This Rega Mira integrated amplifier, manufactured in 1999 (was introduced 1997). It seems to work and sounds lush. Will be plumbed in whilst the Elicit-R is away for repair.

A photograph showing the front fascia of a Rega Mira.

A photograph of a Rega Mira amplifier on top of a Yamaha Cassette Deck

Common Ninja@commonninja· Feb 8

Turning this HiFi shelf from 'cherry wood' to black. Because I am too stingy to spend £250 to get one in the right colour. This one was £36.

Photograph of a Quadraspire Q4 hifi shelf clamped vertically in a work bench, unsanded

Photograph of a Quadraspire Q4 hifi shelf clamped vertically in a work bench, sanded

Common Ninja@commonninja· Jan 1

Not particularly big numbers. Just shy of 3000 km dog walking. 4300 km cycling. 2400 km driven. 800 km of which was covered by just two trips in December. I reckon there were at least 345 non-driving days.

Common Ninja@commonninja· Dec 3

This is where we are currently at. Recently snagged the speakers from a friend clearing out his HiFi gear. Not even dusted them as yet, but they are incredible. Carbon Fibre ftw!

A photograph showing recently purchased CDs laid out in their cases/sleeves on top of a Denon turntable.

CDs are More by Pulp, From the Pyre by The Last Dinner Party, Moisturiser by Wet Leg, The Wall by Pink Floyd, Wicked (soundtrack), Guts by Olivia Rodrigo

A photograph of a HiFi stand with a turntable, network streamer, CD player, amifier and on the bottom shelf a laser printer

A photograph showing a Wilson Benesch ARC speaker and an SVS subwoofer

Common Ninja@commonninja· Nov 9

Our roads are congested with cars full of fridges?

A post reads "when you next need to get a fridge delivered, please pick it up on your bike"

Common Ninja@commonninja· Oct 1

Now playing ...

A photo of Starsailor's album 'love is here' case on CD in front of a CD transport playing said album

Common Ninja@commonninja· Sep 28

Every morning is an adventure. Followed by a nap.

Photo of a dog lying on a beige carpet, struggling to keep his eyes open

Common Ninja@commonninja· Sep 16

Decommissioning domain controllers. And listening to some Bon Iver whilst waiting for Active Directory to get its shit together. Because that's better than doom scrolling.

A photo showing a CD case for Bon Iver's "for emma, forever ago" leant upnin front of a CD player

Common Ninja@commonninja· Sep 7

Finally I am getting around to digitising some albums,which are on vinyl with this crude setup. Fairly sure having the laptop on top of the record deck is sub-optimal, but this good enough for who it is for. Apologies for anyone who is upset by this.

A photograph showing a crude set up for recorsing vinyl LPs. On the left is a record player with its lid down. On top of the lid is a towel. On top of that is a laptop recorsing with Audacity. On the right is a Hi-fi system, the receiver shows 'phono' on the display. Out of ahot is a cheap USB sound interface connected to the record output of the receiver. The USB cabale can be seen connected to the laptop.

Common Ninja@commonninja· Aug 23

E-bicycles are very dangerous and should be outlawed immediately ...

A Ford Fiesta situated vertically, having landed on its nose following a collision with a parkef car. The Fiesta is situated next to the Drakehouse retail park sign, it's rear end supported by a tree.

Common Ninja@commonninja· Aug 21

As a cyclist, I am much more concerned about about the dangerous atituded exhibited by a large proportion of car drivers than I am about resurrecting an 8 day old thread to have an argument.

Common Ninja@commonninja· Aug 10

Cycled along National Cycle Network Route 5 to Stone. That's as far as I have been. Towpaths make for a very dusty bike.

Photograph showing canalside residences in Stone. Four narrow boats can be seen moored up in front of them.

Common Ninja@commonninja· Aug 9

Sun bathing.