The Blog of Sheltron

Bicycle Running Costs: How Much Does Your Bike Cost To Run Per Kilometre?

sheltron — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:00:26 +0000

I have 2 bikes: a road bike that I used for triathlons in 2008/2009, and a mountain bike for commuting (with road slicks).

Road Bike Costs (3 years)

Initial purchase (second hand): $600
Initial upgrades: $600
Servicing, tyres, cables, brakes, innertubes, puncture kits: $460
Residual cost: -$400
Total Costs: $1200

Kilometres travelled:

9 months x 100km/week = 4,000 km

Cost per kilometre:

$1200/4000 = 30.0c/km

Mountain Bike Costs (6 years)

Initial purchase (new): $500
Lights, night gear: $300
Tyres: $80 x 6 = $480
Innertubes, puncture kits: $10 x 16 = $160
Servicing, cables, brakes: $400
Residual cost: -$100
Total: $1440

Kilometres travelled:

3 years commuting = 50 weeks x 4 days/week x 15km/day = 3000km
3 years casual = 150 weeks x 5 days/week x 6km/day = 4000km
Total: 7000km

Cost per kilometre:

$1440/7000 = 20.6c/km

Conclusion

The bicycle running costs overall are $2640/11,000 = 24c per kilometre

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I Got So Fed Up With The High Prices, I Abandoned My Shopping Trolley

sheltron — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 20:00:43 +0000

This one time I got so fed up with the high prices in the neighbourhood supermarket (Woolworths), that I abandoned my half-full shopping trolley in the middle of an isle and drove 10km to the nearest Pak ‘n’ Save instead.

I ended up saving about $15, but spent $4 extra in petrol and 25 minutes commuting.

But I just hate being ripped off, no matter what the cost.

I wonder how long it took for the Woolworths staff to decide that the trolley was abandoned and I wasn’t coming back?

Maybe they checked all the freezers just in case it belonged to an old lady who had fallen into one and couldn’t get out?

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I’d Like The Challenging Of Losing 100kg, But I’m Too Lazy To Put On 100kg First

sheltron — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 19:00:53 +0000

I quite enjoyed the first season of The Biggest Loser (but didn’t bother watching subsequent seasons).

I’m quite a competitive person and I would really like to do a challenge like losing 100kg of weight.

If I could snap my fingers and become 186kg, I’d do it right now.

But the thought of all that work of over-eating and under-exercising for 6 months to get there?

No way.

I’m too lazy for that.

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How Does Insulation In Your Roof Keep You Warm In Winter And Cool In Summer?

sheltron — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 20:00:04 +0000

This doesn’t make sense to me.

Is it magic?

I just got the ceiling of my house re-insulated this week so I asked Sam at InsulationPlus how it works.

This is how he explained it to me:

On a hot summers day, the air in your ceiling gets very hot and if your layer of insulation (eg PinkBatts) is thin or has gaps, that hot air gets pushed down into your living areas, making your house hot. On a cold winters day, the air in your ceiling is cold so when your insulation is thin or has gaps, the warm air from your living area gets sucked up into the ceiling cavity.

So it seems to me that air doesn’t like to have hot and cold patches it likes to be an even temperature in whatever space it occupies.

A lot like my wife actually.

P.S. Thank you to the New Zealand Government for the EECA “Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority” EnergyWise programme, through which we got $2381.56 of ceiling & underfloor insulation for just $952.62.

Booo-ya!

And thanks to the team at InsulationPlus Limited, Tauranga:

Sam who did the initial inspection and will be coming back in the next few days for the final sign-off. Really nice guy who explained my options clearly. A real pro.
The 3 guys who did the actual installation on the day (can’t remember their names sorry). They worked fast, finished ahead of schedule, and performed a top quality job
And especially to Bob, the owner, who rang us several times to make sure everything was going smoothly. Amazing service.

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How To Nap: The 4 Ingredients of the Perfect Nap

sheltron — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 20:00:41 +0000

After much research and experimentation I have developed the perfect recipe for Napping.

Sometimes 8 hours of sleep just isn’t enough, and you might need a “Power Nap” or “Nana Nap”.

The 4 Ingredients of the Perfect Nap:

1. Nap between the hours of 2pm to 5pm

Napping in the evening is too tempting to sleep through the night
Napping in the morning is just ridiculous, you’ve only just got up!

2. Nap in an environment as similar as possible to your normal sleep

In your own bed, curtains drawn, no noise etc

3. Set an alarm for 45 minutes. Get up when the alarm goes off

This time includes an allowance of about 15 minutes for falling asleep
Make the decision before you nap that you will get up within 2 minutes of when your alarm goes off
Don’t be tempted to keep sleeping
This is very important to avoid sleep inertia which is when you feel groggy and want to keep sleeping, this state kicks in after about 30 minutes

4. Don’t worry if you weren’t asleep during the entire 45 minute nap

Even just resting with your eyes closed is immensely beneficial
Don’t extend your alarm (or ignore it when it goes off) if you think you didn’t get enough sleep

More Napping Resources

What About You?

What napping technique works for you?
What’s the most inappropriate place you’ve had a nap? Wedding? Funeral? At work?

Write your comments below.

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What To Do With Free Post Envelopes

sheltron — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 20:00:27 +0000

Even thought most of my household bills come as pdf’s via email these days (Genesis Energy, Vodafone Internet), some still come via snail mail (Telecom phone line, Kiwibank MasterCard).

Those snail mail bills often come with a freepost envelope included.

Next time I get one, I’m going to:

Cross out the address on the front
Write my brothers address on it instead
And put a post-it note inside that just says “Cher!”

What are you going to do with your next freepost envelope?

Write a letter to your aunty perhaps? Or to yourself so you can time how long the letter takes to arrive?

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I Noticed A Patch Of Dead Grass Outside My Dads Bedroom Window

sheltron — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 20:00:01 +0000

The one time I was walking around the back of my Dads house when I noticed a large patch of dead grass just outside his bedroom window.

It was almost a perfect circle about 40cm in diameter.

I thought it was curious but I didn’t think much of it, until I walked around to the other side of the house and saw a similar, but smaller patch of dead grass.

This window was in the hallway just accross from my dads bedroom…

This really got me thinking.

The answer came to me out of the blue. Piss.

My dads house is actually an old office building that used to have about 10 people working in it. It is very long and between his bedroom and the toilet there are 2 hallways and 2 large open spaces which are at opposite ends. One of the hallways has a cold linolium floor and is lined with concrete block so it can be very cold in the middle of the night.

So Dad was saving himself the walk by pissing out his bedroom window.

I challenged him and he confessed.

“Dad, one thing I can’t figure out though – why the secondary patch?”

He explained “Ah, yes, well I noticed that the primary patch was becoming quite large and thought I better give it a rest so every alternate night I piss out the window in the hallway opposite the bedroom”.

Aha, that explains it!

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How Come The Price of Pizza Has Been The Same For 15 Years, When Everything Else Has Doubled Or Tripled In Price?

sheltron — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 20:00:45 +0000

I guess they are only “regular” size rather than “family” size.

But still, $4.90 for each pizza?

Wow.

That is less than I was paying 15 years ago.

Surely I can’t even buy the same quantity of cheese that’s on top, for cheaper than that from the supermarket?

How much has the price of petrol, milk, flour, salt, bacon, chicken… EVERYTHING gone up by in the last 15 years?

Double?

Triple?

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Why Does My Wife Think She Is Entitled To 50% Of The Bed When She Is Only 42% Of The Mass?

sheltron — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 20:00:08 +0000

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Growing Vegetables In Your Own BackYard, Does It Provide A Viable Return On Investment?

sheltron — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 20:00:47 +0000

I have felt guilty for a long time about having a raised vegetable bed at the back of my property (that the previous owners installed), but only using it for grass clippings.

After months of “encouragement” from both sides of the family we finally agreed to get into it.

I was a little shocked at the pricetag of the first trip to a garden centre at about $80 and wondered even then if we were going to get a return on investment.

Here’s is a break down of our expenses and our harvest over the 3 month period.

Expenses

Bag of Compost: $20
Pots: $20
Seedlings: $3 x 15 = $45
Pesticides: $6 x 3 = $18
Water: 300 litres x 90 days = 27 m³ (27,000 litres) @ $1.24/m³ = $30

Total: $133.00

Harvest

Bok choy x 9. Value each $3 x 9 = $24
Lettuce x 5. Value each $3 x 5 = $15
Brocolli x 2. Value each $3 x 2 = $6
Cabbage x 2. Value each $3 x 2 = $6
Potatoes x 1.5kg. Value $5
Silverbeet/Spinach x 2. Value each $2 x 2 = $4
Cauliflower x 1. Value each $3 x 1 = $3
Beans x 150grms. Value $0.50

Total: $63.50

Return on investment = $63.50 – $133.00 = -$69.50

Conclusion

Backyard Vegetable Gardens of this size are not viable based purely on the expenses and harvest, without taking into account the opportunity cost of the labour component, which can be calculated as follows:

Labour

Watering: 20mins/day x 60 days
Sewing/harvesting: 60mins x 10 days

Total: 1800mins = 30 hours @ $100/hour = $3,000

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