How To Use A Chain Tool

Once your mountain bike chain becomes damaged, you
should immediately replace it with a new one. It
is possible however, to repair a broken chain using
a chain tool. For this very reason, most mountain
bikers travel with a chain tool.

Your chain has three basic components – the metal
side plates, the rollers between the side plates,
and the rivets, or pins which go through the rollers
and help to hold the plates together. These pins
allow the rollers to freely turn as the chain
moves around the cogs.

If your chain happens to break, you’ll need to remove
the broken link and replace it with a spare link.
To do this, simply reattach the two ends of the
broken chain and ride on a shorter chain until you
can get it replaced.

To remove a broken link of chain, place it in the
chain tool. Now, turn the tool counter clockwise
until the rivet pin of the chain tool touches
the chain rivet. Continue to turn the tool until
the pin pushes out of the roller. Be very careful,
as you want to stop turning when the pin is right
at the edge of the roller, before it moves through
the outer side plate.

Now, turn the tool in the other direction, and back
it out of the roller. Set the tool to the side,
then work the chain very gently from side to side
and extract the inner side plates and roller.

Now is the time to re-route the chain through the
bike. You may want to have a chain retaining tool
or some to help you hold the chain in the right
spot as you route and repair it.

Now that the broken link has been removed and
you’ve re-routed the chain, you’re ready to insert
a new link or simply connect the links that were
beside the broken one. The process here is the
same – align the two ends so that the link with
the inner side plates will fit inside the link
with the pin and outer side plates. Now, use the
chain tool to push the pin inward until it’s
positioned evenly between the side plates.

The easiest way to learn how to do this or feel
comfortable doing it is to have someone show you,
then actually practice with a chain and a chain
tool. You’ll have no trouble at all making a
temporary repair in a mountain bike chain once
you’ve seen it done by a professional and practiced
it yourself a few times.

(word count 424)

PPPPP

How To Use A Breast Pump

Just like breast feeding, pumping is a skill that you
learn. When first trying a breast pump, most mothers
are only able to express a few drops of milk. With
the proper practice and knowledge, the mother will
be more efficient at pumping.

Preparing the breast pump
1. Read all the instructions in the kit
very carefully.
2. Every part of the breast pump will need
to be sterilized before you begin using it.
3. After use, all the parts of the pump will
need to be washed in warm, soapy water, then rinsed
with hot water and drained on a clean towel. The
plastic tubing doesn’t need to be cleaned unless
you get milk into it. If you do wash it, it should
be hung to allow time to dry and drain thoroughly.
4. If your doctor feels the need, the
entire kit can be sterilized every day.
5. When you first start with an electric
pump, the suction level should be on the lowest
possible setting.

Getting started
– Warm compresses, gentle massages of the
breast and gentle nipple stimulation will help to
stimulate a quick let down.
– You should always relax while doing
breast massages during pumping. Some mothers prefer
to close their eyes then think about nursing the
baby, imagining the baby in their arms. The more
relaxed a mother is, the better let down she’ll
have and the more milk will be dispensed.
– Your first attempts at pumping should be
considered practice sessions with learning to use
the breast pump as the goal, not how much milk is
actually dispensed.
– When you use a hand pump, quick, short
pumps at the start is stimulating and will imitate
more closely the way a baby breast feeds. Once
the let down occurs and milk starts to flow freely,
long, steadier strokes are more effective and
less tiring.
– When you learn to pump, you should
practice for 5 minutes on a side at least once or
twice a day. Always pick the least stressful part
of your day for pumping.

Relaxing and realizing that the pump is your
friend is the single most important thing that a
mother can do. There are several things that a
mother can do to help herself relax, such as
putting a picture of the baby on the pump, playing
cards or a game with friends, watching television,
read books, or talk on the phone. Simply watching
the collection bottle is not helpful and will
probably put more stress on you than you actually
need.

(word count 426)

PPPPP

How To Test A Boat

If you think you’ve found the boat of your dreams,
it’s time to test it. Testing your boat is more
than just taking it for a test drive around the
harbor. You should look at everything closely, as
a professional boat tester would.

Sometimes, it can be hard to tell a top quality boat
from one that may have problems later on. To an
untrained eye, both can look good on the surface.
When you start to break everything down and give it
a careful inspection, you’ll be able to tell a great
boat from a not-so-great boat.

By opening up all doors and access plates, you can
get great insight on the the construction of the
boat. You should also stick your head into the
anchor locker of any boat you are considering to
buy, as if they’ve cut any corners you’ll normally
be able to see it here.

Looking into the anchor locker also lets you look
at the hull to deck joint. If there is light
coming from through, or if the fiberglass around
the joint can be seen through, it normally means
the boat has poor construction.

When you buy a boat, you should put it through a
rigorous visual inspection. It’s also equally
important to conduct a vigorous test on the water
as well. A private seller or dealer will
normally want to stack the deck, ensuring that
the boat will perform well.

Normally, this involves a near empty gas tank,
no gear or extra passengers, and keeping the
boat in sheltered water. Therefore, it’s up to
you to insist on a more realistic test. Think
of the test as an actual day out on the water,
and you’ll find out if the boat is indeed something
you should spend your money on.

During your water testing, you should determine
if the boat performs well and meets all of your
expectations. You should determine if the boat
travels at the right speeds, and whether or not it
is capable of doing everything that you plan to
do with it after you buy it.

When test driving the boat, you should put it
through all paces in open water, cutting waves at
all angles. If you plan to test a saltwater boat,
you should bring along a 5 gallon bucket and try
throwing some water onboard. Any boat you plan
to use offshore should quickly shed water through
the scuppers. Some boats will pool water in the
bow and drain slowly – which can be very dangerous
in rough waters.

If a seller or dealer balks at the mention of any
requests you have, simply find yourself another
dealer or another boat. There are plenty of great
quality boats available, ranging in prices. Make
sure to check everything very carefully before
you make any decisions.

(word count 469)

PPPPP

How To Make Money

With affiliate programs, it really pays to work well
with others. Also known as referral programs,
affiliate programs are normally commission based
sales. You’ll recommend a site to your visitors and
then pick up a percentage of any sale that those
visitors make. You’ll benefit from the commission
and the merchant benefits from the sales.

If you already have a website set up, you can run
an affiliate program from it, or you can simply
build a site to promote a particular product or
service. As long as it brings in more cash than it
takes to build or run it, you’ll be fine.

With any marketing program, you’ll need to be careful
when you select an affiliate program. The benefit
of an affiliate program will give you another way
to make money from your users. Instead of selling
them a product, you simply send them to a partner
then take a cut of the profits.

Even though it may seem tempting to go for programs
with the highest commissions, those programs won’t
pay you anything if your visitors don’t buy them.

Below, you’ll find some tips to help you select an
affiliate program that’s right for you:
1. Do not accept any less than 25% with
commission. You can find many programs with great
payment structures and high percentages of pay in
just about any field.
2. Look for statistic pages that list the
number of click throughs, sales, and earnings so
you’ll be able to see how you are doing.
3. Always look for programs that offer a
wide variety of tools to put on your web site,
including banners, text links, and of course graphics.
4. Find out hwo often you’ll be paid and
be sure that the payment schedule meets with your
own expectations. Some programs will pay monthly,
while others will pay quarterly.
5. Be sure that top level support is
included. If they can’t answer your questions in
a quick and timely manner, you don’t want to work
with them.

Once you learn what you are doing with affiliate
programs, you can make a lot of money. If you
are just starting out, you should always use common
sense and not rush into anything. As you become
more familiar with how things work, you’ll be well
on your way to making a lot of money – and
enjoying making it. If you have to work hard, you’ll
be glad you did.

(word count 407)

PPPPP

How To Lube Your Mountain Bike

A mountain bike is a lot of fun although it does
require some maintenance. You should always lube
your bike 15 hours or so before riding, as quick
jobs right before you take off normally doesn’t
get everything lubed. Some lube jobs will last
for more rides, although if things get loud or
shifting gets sticky, it’s time to lube.

Here is how to lube your bike:

1. The chain
Apply a generous amount of mountain bike lube to
your chain as you move the pedals around backwards.
It also helps to find a spot to steady your hand
such as the frame while you move the pedals around
and around. Make sure you watch out for the cranks
and chain rings as they move around.

2. Front Deraileur
On the front defaileur, lube the pivots. Use a
spot of lube everywhere you can see movement when
you move the shift lever.

3. Rear deraileur
Just like the front deraileur, lube the pivots.

4. Pedals
There are some types of clipless pedals that will
need to have the release mechanism lubed. You
should only lube this mechanism if you have this
type of pedal.

5. Everything into motion
Pedal around, shift your gears, and bounce your
bike around. If you hear anything squeak, there’s
a moving part there are it should be lubed
immediately.

6. Wipe it all clean
Once you’ve lubed everything and wiped it all
around, simply wipe it all back off. Use a rag
to wipe away all the lube you used, including all
the lube off the chain. Wiping it away will leave
the lube in between the parts but clean it away
from everywhere it isn’t needed. This will keep
your bike from collecting dirt while you ride.

(word count 293)

PPPPP

How to get videos onto your iPod video

The iPod video is known as the last generation of iPods, which surprised the market and the sales since its appearance. Basically, this new device is able to play videos. If this seems like fun, the technical part might need some guidance.

Firstly, you should know that both the PSP and iPod can play H.264 / MPEG-4 encoded videos with AAC audio tracks. Due to this fact, the resolution is rather limited, together with the limitation of the bit rates that you can use on the device. For the new iPod video, this limits means (for the H.264 video) up to up to 768 Kbps, 320 x 240 and 30 frames per second. For the MPEG-4 video, the limits are up to 2.5 mbps, 480 x 480 and the same 30 frames per second. Even more, the AAC audio bit rate is around 160 Kbps. After establishing these limits, the next step is to establish the source of the video, which can be either from a DVD or a video of the computer.

In other terms, the company Apple claims, in a purely informative ad which is posted on the official website, that the new iPod, as they call the new iPod video, can store 15, 000 songs, 25, 000 photos and not less than 150 hours of video.

If wanting to get a video from a DVD, then the first thing you should do is to insert the DVD in the device. After this, you should open (in case it doesn’t immediately open by itself) the DVD, using file and open DVD from the menu. Check the options in the DVD menu, to set up everything as you like, meaning language, subtitles or chapters. Begin playing the movie, using the DVD menu to navigate. When the movie begins, you should press the record button and select the folder in which you want to store the recorded files. When you want to end the recording, simply click the stop button and if the recording goes well, there will be a screen confirmation that you have converted your file successfully.

If you wish to convert a video from your computer to your iPod video, then the first thing that you should do is go to the menu file and click open video file. After this, your video is supposed to begin to play, the perfect moment to adjust the video as you like. Also, you can set the perfect moment to start the recording, using the bottom playback controls. When you decided this, click the button record and feel free to stop it at any time. After recording, just like in the case of importing videos from a DVD device, there will be a message on the screen saying that everything went on successfully.

If respecting these basic rules, the videos and movies will be stored carefully in your iPod and you will be free to watch them, at any time. Still, be aware of the fact that the iPod offers limited space and resolution, which means that you should be picky when deciding what to keep and what to delete. The new iPod video is a challenging and innovative product that combines music with images, offering, for the first time, the possibility of playing video on such a small digital device.

PPPPP

(word count 560)

How To Copy CDs

Copying CDs is something that is very popular now more
than ever. When CD burners and duplication was first
introduced, people caught on although it wasn’t nearly
as popular as it is today. These days, millions of
people throughout the world copy audio, data, and
even video to CDs.

To make a copy of a CD, you’ll need a master to copy,
a blank disk, a CD-RW drive, and the proper software.
Most newer computers include either a CD-RW or DVD-RW
drive. If your computer is older, you’ll need to go
out and buy the drive, which doesn’t cost much money
and is very easy to install.

If you have a DVD-RW drive, you’ll be able to copy
both CDs and DVDs. The rate of copying will vary,
with 4X being the slowest and up to 48X being the
fastest. If your drive supports 48X, you can duplicate
a CD in a matter of minutes.

Once you have the CD-RW or DVD-RW drive and some
blank CD-R media, all you need is the software to
duplicate. Nero is among the most popular, as well
as Sonic Record Now and Easy CD Creator. There are
many different types out there, from those that cost
money to the freeware software that doesn’t cost
anything to use.

Once you have everything you need, simply run the
software and create your disk. You can copy many
types of media, including pictures, video, audio,
and even data from your computer. Depending on what
you want to copy, all need to do is select it from the
software menu and let it rip.

CD duplication is a lot of fun and easy for everyone
to learn as well. You can back up a lot of things,
or just save pictures of your special memories – the
choices are entirely up to you.

(word count 306)

PPPPP