Søren Larsen Pedersen, Author at Larsen Pedersen

Bought a motorcycle

Hi there – Long time, no see!

As my previous post, this might not be interesting to everyone, but here goes… I recently passed and received my motorcycle license! :D

I’ve been wanting to get my motorcycle license for a very long time, but when I lived with my parents they always told me: “If you get piercings, tattoos, or motorcycles, you’ll get kicked out!” – this kind of stuck with me, but now I finally got it!

After getting my license I was determined to get a motorcycle imidiately in order to get more experience riding and to have a building project.

I looked at a lot of different bikes – both newer and older bikes, but through a Facebook-group I found a rather good deal; a Honda CB 650 from 1981 (or probably more likely 1979).

The bike is not in mint condition but that quite okay – As I mentioned, I wanted a building project.

My plan is to separate the project into different steps in order to gradually learn more about motorcycles – Currently I know nothing! :D

Here is the current plan:

Step 1

Replace bent front brake lever
New throttle
New handles
New switches on the handlebar

Step 2

New clutch lever and perch
New front master brake cylinder
New handlebar
New speedometer
New headlight

Step 3

Rebuild bike frame
Frame paint job
New seat
New tail light
New licens plate light
New turn signals

Step 4

Fuel tank paint job
Rims paint job

I might change this plan continuously, but this weekend I’m planning to complete “Step 1”.

Please let me know if you got any good names for my bike or any tips/tricks for my project.

Bought a road bike

This might not be a topic that is interesting to everyone, but I recently bought a road bike, and I absolutely love it! :D

I’ve never owned a road bike before, and now I actually regret that – they are just so much cooler, nicer, faster and “awesomer”!

I bought a Giant TCR Composite 2 (2013) with a Ultegra/105-mix (more specifications).

Because I’ve never had a road bike before, I never realized the importance of having “extra gear” – This also explains why I only have pedals with toe clips, no bottle cages, no helmet, no bicycle clothes, and no bicycle computer. This setup has been sufficient for the first two weeks of owning a road bike, however when going on longer rides, I’m starting to miss having bicycle shorts…

Until now, I’ve ridden with my Nexus 5 in my pocket and tracked my rides with Strava, but I’m planning to get a bicycle computer soon – possibly a Garmin Edge. Any recommendations would be much appreciated! :)

Below I’ve included one of my most recent rides (actually it’s split into two separate rides) – I know it’s not the fastest rides, but bear with me:

Bike specifications

Frame : Giant Composite Technology
Fork : Advanced-Grade Composite, Composite OverDrive Steerer
Handlebar : Giant Connect
Stem : Giant Connect
Seatpost : Giant TCR Vector Composite
Saddle : Giant TCR saddle
Shifters : Shimano Ultegra double
Front Derailleur : Shimano 105 (double)
Rear Derailleur : Shimano Ultegra (short cage)
Brakes : Tektro TK-R540 w/ cartridge pads
Brake Levers : Shimano Ultegra (double)
Cassette : Shimano Tiagra 12×28, 10s
Chain : KMC X10L
Crankset : Shimano 565 – 50×34
Bottom Bracket : Shimano Integrated
Rims : Giant P-R2
Hubs : Giant Sealed Bearings 24/28h
Spokes : DT Swiss Competition 14/15g
Tires : Giant P-R3, 700×23

Note taking & to-do lists

Before I started using Trello (amazing product – check out my blog post about it), I used be the kind of person who loved taking handwritten notes. Therefore I thought I would share both my reasons for taking notes, and also some great tips on how to create to-do lists.

Benefits of taking notes

Besides being awesome, there are various benefits of taking notes:

Stay engaged during conversations or meetings
When you are taking notes, you’ll find that you are more actively involved, focused, and more alert. This often enables you to make more valid contributions to a meeting and add more value to topics during discussions.
Capture ideas and questions
It is not always possible to solve all problems/tasks during a meeting. Taking notes provides you with a way of capturing ideas, questions and other content during a meeting which enables you to research and process the material after the meeting.
Show others that you are actively listening
Taking notes sends out specific signals. It communicated that what others are saying is important, and it communicates to everyone that you are actively listening. Lastly it communicates that you pay attention and intent to follow-up.

How to do to-do lists

See what I did with the heading?! – Funny, ey? ;) Here are some great tips for doing to-do lists – Pretty simple, but very useful:

New item: Draw an empty circle to start a new task on a todo-list.
Next important item: Put a dot in the center of the circle to categorize it as important.
Item started: Cross the circle with a diagonal slash when you begin the task.
Item cancelled: Cross the circle in the opposite direction to cancel it the task.
Item halfway done: When halfway through the task, fill in half of the circle.
Item done: When a task is completely done, fill it in all the way.
Item delegated: If a task is delegated to someone else, draw a arrow from the circle.

LG Nexus 5 from Google

Recently I made a radical decision to go form iOS to Android; from iPhone 4S to LG Nexus 5, to be more specific.

For those of you who don’t know me, I got my first iPhone (iPhone 3g) in 2008, and I have been an avid Apple users and advocate ever since. This also explains why a bunch of my friend after my purchase of the Nexus 5 were like: “What the heck happened?!”

I’m still really happy with my various Apple products, but I am also extremely happy with the purchase of my first Android phone.

I always thought it would be a bit difficult to go from iOS to Android, but after having used my new Nexus 5 for a couple of weeks, it is somewhat the other way around when I have to use my iPad or my old iPhone.

Google and LG did a really great job with this phone, and the experience using it, is best described with words like: fast, clean and efficient – No lagging and no delays.

One really great thing about the Nexus 5 is the display which is particularly impressive – It is a 5″display with the resolution: 1080 x 1920 pixels. This results in a pixel density of 441 ppi (the iPhone 5s is 326 ppi). For those of you who don’t speak “nerd”: This is a really crisp and sharp display!

The phone is currently only available in black and white, but a red version has been available earlier. There has been rumours about a yellow version too, but it hasn’t been released yet.

Please let me know if you got any questions about the phone, and stay tuned for tips and tricks for Nexus 5 and Android in general.

If you are an iOS-user, you might find these iOS tips and tricks handy.

Trello

For those of you who read my earlier post about Sublime Text, here is another amazing tool that you absolutely need to get familiar with instantly, Trello.

Trello is one of those really intuitive tools, that once you get to know it, you can’t live without it. Some might call it a “project management application”, but I think it’s so much more than that! It is a web-based collaboration tool for organising and managing almost anything.

Trello is developed by Fog Creek Software, it is free(!), and according to their website, it is going to stay that way:

“Yup, Trello is free, now and forever. That means we’ll never take away everything you love and put it behind a pay wall. So feel free to fall in love—it’s here to stay. If only more of life were like that!” (source: https://trello.com/tour)

I first started using Trello while working as a web developer for one of Denmark’s largest tabloid newspapers. In my team, we used it both for organising and managing within the team, but also for sharing and collaborating on projects with external developers.

Trello was the perfect tool for this, and it was really easy to manage projects, assign tasks, create checklists, but also to review what we as a team had earlier agreed upon.

Later I started working as a web project consultant for one of the largest banks in Denmark. In the beginning I used to have a whole bunch of handwritten to-do lists all over my desk, but then I remembered Trello. I quickly plotted my to-do lists in and presto! Everything became so much easier!

Now several of my co-workers have joined in, and we have created various different organizations, broards and cards, where we are both managing own projects and assignments, but also collaborating on larger projects – Thanks Trello!

Last week I even started working with the Trello API in my spare time – and by now I’ve already created a dashboard for monitoring one of my organizations with latest activities, custom notifications and general metrics.

So my question to you is: Why haven’t you signed up for Trello yet?!

I could give you a recommendation link to Trello and earn Trello Gold free for a month or so, but this would diminish the validity of this post (that I really like Trello!). Therefore you’ll just get this clean link:

https://trello.com/

Stay tuned for various tips and tricks for Trello – and maybe a post about their API.

Is there anything particular you would like me to write about? – Please let me know! :)