Launching My New Weight Loss Journey and Healthy Lifestyle Blog!

Feb 9, 2018 7:55 AM, - Posted by Tommy Segoro

Hi everyone,

I’m pleased to announce that I have now started a new weight loss journey and healthy lifestyle blog! I will also continue writing my cycling articles there. Please visit:

http://www.procyclistbod.com.au

Please also follow me on the social media platforms below:

Youtube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRuyHleFdBGhEZEis3oZiUg

Twitter – https://twitter.com/procyclistbod

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/procyclistbod/

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/procyclistbod/

Cheers!

Tommy

SharePoint calling 3rd party SOAP – An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host

Feb 6, 2018 7:44 AM, - Posted by Tommy Segoro

INTRODUCTION

I have a custom ASMX deployed to SharePoint, within that ASMX was a code to call an another SOAP service (written in PHP). On my mockup ASP.NET website all works well. As soon as I transferred the code to SharePoint, I get this error even though I’ve tried to add the SSL certificate of the third party SOAP call to “Manage trusts” section, etc it still didn’t work.

Exception information:
Exception type: WebException
Exception message: The underlying connection was closed: An unexpected error occurred on a send.
at System.Web.Services.Protocols.WebClientProtocol.GetWebResponse(WebRequest request)
at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.Invoke(String methodName, Object[] parameters)

RESOLUTION

The resolution as apparently very simple!

1. Add “using System.Net;”
2. Then before you instantiate your web service, you add this line:

ServicePointManager.SecurityProtocol = SecurityProtocolType.Tls12;

MyWebService service = new MyWebService();

….

Done,

Tommy

The Execute method of job definition Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.UserProfileImportJob Generic failure

Jan 30, 2018 11:50 AM, - Posted by Tommy Segoro

INTRODUCTION

My client said to me that their SharePoint user profile is not synching. Upon checking, the “User Profile Synchronization Service” is started, and the User Profile Application Service is also running fine.

However, when I clicked the “Start full synchronization”, nothing happens. The status does not change, it remains in “Idle”. Then I checked in Event Viewer and I get the error of:

The Execute method of job definition Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.UserProfileImportJob threw an exception. More information is included below.

Generic Failure

RESOLUTION

Finally I got it working by doing the following:

1. Clear SP cache
   1. Go to services.msc and Stop SharePoint 2010 Administration service
   2. Stop SharePoint 2010 Timer
   3. Go to c:\ProgramData\Microsoft\SharePoint\Config\[GUID] ** WHERE THE XML FILES ARE, THE OTHER GUID FOLDER CONTAINS PERSISTED FILES AND YOU SHOULD NOT TOUCH THESE **
   4. Delete ALL XMLs including cache.ini.
   5. Start SharePoint 2010 Timer
   6. Start SharePoint 2010 Administration
2. Go to Central Admin > Manage services on server, stop the User Profile Synchronization service
3. Restart User Profile Synchronization Service
4. Re-run User Profile Full Synch

Done.

Tommy

Specialized S-Works Amira Torch First Impression Ride Review

Nov 5, 2017 3:09 PM, - Posted by Tommy Segoro

INTRODUCTION

Some time ago I was chatting with a friend of mine when we were at our coffee stop from one of our weekend morning rides. I would never forget what he said: “Tommy, with bike, there is no such thing called ‘The One’. There is only ‘The Next One'”. Truth be known, that was exactly what happened. Prior to this post I have been riding the Swift Hypervox, and I only own that thing for about 3 months. Mind you, I purchased it second hand. The bike has been great, and as per my review, it was a fast bike, stiff and a lot more comfortable than my AX Vial Ultra.

With it I have also conquered the Letape du Tour 2017 which took us to Stage 18 of 2017 Tour de France (Briancon to Col d’ Izoard). There was definitely no reason why I should be getting a new bike, especially that bike fit me well. However, as my friend told me, there will always be that “next one”, won’t it? And I don’t know about you, but I tend to eventually fault-find my bike. Maybe it’s the comfort, or the stability, or the weight, the list goes on….. Now I can appreciate why a lot of motivational speakers would teach about “count your blessings” or “don’t look at what you don’t have, but look at what you do have” because, you would never be satisfied otherwise.

PS: Luckily for me, this principle only applies to buying bike and not on my marriage. I’m very faithful on the latter 😉

So, to cut the long story short, I started browsing around for framesets. I was very happy with the components I had, therefore, I decided to keep them. Since my purchase of AX Lightness, I no longer was interested in buying expensive framesets. It was north of AUD$8,000 for the AX and yet I didn’t quiet like the performance in general. It was twitchy, stiff and not comfortable. This time I was determined to buy frameset up to AUD$4,000.

I had my eyes on Cannondale Supersix Evo Hi-Mod (~AUD$2,700), Fuji SL 1.1 (~AUD$1,500), Specialized S-Works Tarmac (~AUD$3,500), Canyon Ultimate CF Evo (~AUD$5,000), and, (just because it looks sexy) Pinarello F100 (special Giro edition of F10 ~AUD$8,500).

On another note, I am a very “color” person ie. Frame color is the number one thing I’m attracted to. Plus, my components so far have been mostly orange. Yes, I somehow love the color orange. This often limits the my choice on frames. I was almost closing a deal on the Fuji SL except it was black/yellow and it wouldn’t go nicely with my components. The Canyon was perfect but it was slightly beyond my budget. As for the Pinarello, it was definitely way way way beyond my budget, and knowing myself who can never settle on just ‘the one’ bike, it would just be a total waste of money. It now left me with the Cannondale and the Tarmac.

I almost went with the Cannondale until I found out that the seatpost was 25.4mm meaning that I could not use the lightweight carbon Dash seatpost-saddle combo which I bought for an astronomical price of north of AUD$900. Thus, I was left with the Tarmac. The color available was black/red/white or the black/white. Again, I did not decide quickly because I didn’t want to be disappointed.

The website I normally use for frame search is bikeexchange.com.au and within it you can filter frames based on sizes. The options above were results returned from filtering based on size “XS” or “S”. I thought, “It wouldn’t hurt to try size ‘M'”. When I turned on size “M” filter, the results were refined and then it showed the Torch Amira S-Works! That orange color immediately drew my attention. And the price was $2,800 which was $700 cheaper than the Tarmac.

I thought, “Perfect…”. The only thing was (see, when you look for negatives in life, you will always find one) it was a woman-specific frameset. From novelty emotional value perspective, I’m not sure if my heart will be fully satisfied riding a bike specifically designed for women. Please don’t take this as a sexist statement, it was just my personal preference. Further to this, women-specific bikes have women-specific geometry so I was not sure how well it would fit me either.

Thus, I did not make the move immediately.

For the next few days I would try to read more reviews about it. I must say there were not that many new reviews on the Amira. A lot of them were for the 2012 model. One time I also stumbled upon RIDE magazine who did a review on Amira, and even though all of the testers were males, all of them would not mind to ride Amira just because it was so good. That’s when my heart started to melt.

I gave the shop a call and the shop owner insisted that “bike fit is bike fit”. So long as bike fits you, it no longer matters whether it’s a women-specific or male-specific bikes. I then created an Excel spreadsheet and tried to compare the geometry of the Amira vs the Hypervox. From what I could see, the Amira was slightly lower in stack and reach. Everything else (eg. seat angle, etc) was similar. That’s when I was even more convinced that I should buy it.

I gave the shop a call and bought it.

PURCHASING EXPERIENCE

I bought the frame through a shop called R&D Speed Shop in Claremont. I dealt with the owner Dan and he was very friendly and helpful. He also gave me further $100 discount on the frame, making it down to AUD$2,700. The price also included parts swap from the Hypervox over to Amira. So I thought what a good deal I get.

Dan managed to get the parts swap finished all in one day. I took my Hypervox in the morning and he was finished by the afternoon. Overall, the build was excellent. I could not be happier. If you are looking for a trusted bike shop I would highly recommend R&D Speed Shop. They carried mostly Specialized and BMC.

BUILD DETAILS

Groupset: Sram Red
Chainring: FiberLyte 50 and absoluteBlack Oval 34
Cassette: Shimano XTR M8000 11-42
Chain: Shimano Dura-Ace
Handlebar: Deda Elementi Superleggera 44cm
Saddle: Dash
Seatpost: Dash
Brakes: eeBrakes
Bottle cages: Chinese Bontrager RXL
Pedals: Crankbrothers Eggbeater Ti MTB
Wheels: Chinese unbranded 35mm carbon clinchers
Stem: Extralite 100mm -12degree
Total weight with bottle cages, pedals and Garmin mount: 6.67kg

INITIAL RIDE REVIEW AND IMPRESSION

As mentioned earlier, the only complaint I had with my Hypervox was its weight. With bottle cages, pedals and Garmin mount, weight was 7.4kg. While it was not heavy, I would be very happy if I can get it down to 6.8kg. When I look at my current components, there is not much I can change to make it lighter unless I want to go to tubular which wouldn’t be practical for daily work commute. I can also possibly change the crank to something like THM Clavicula (a saving of ~100gr) and change my cassette to 11-28 or lower, thus would be a saving of weight around ~350gr in total. This would be a very expensive exercise and yet it wouldn’t bring the weight down below 7kg.

This was not the case with the Amira. As soon as I saw the figure of 6.67kg I was just happy….like being-content happy…genuinely happy. Yes my AX was 600gr lighter but the ride quality was just not good.

My first ride took me to the hills around my house which I often do hill repeats on. I was also planning to take it to some flat section just so I could feel what it was like on flat. I was planning to just do 2 hours max because my work has been so busy lately that I just simply don’t have time for a 5 hour ride anymore.

The Strava entry is as follows:

https://www.strava.com/activities/1260023190

To date, other than AX and Hypervox, I have also ridden Roubaix S-Works SL3, Merida Reacto 909S, Giant TCR Advanced Pro, Trek Madone 7, Tarmac S-Works SL4 and Guerciotti Eureka SHM50.

So, how does the Amira fare with them?

First thing’s first, let me get this off my chest, the Amira was THE BEST bike I’ve ridden so far, full stop, hands down. This is a very big statement coming from someone who has not been happy with just one bike; and who have ridden several high-end bikes. Seriously, I have never had such a “revelation” until I rode the Amira.

When I first bought the AX, I was very excited prior to riding it. However, after riding it, I did not have that sense of “revelation”. The sense of “revelation” is the kind of sensation you feel after you receive your “aha” moment. I did not have that with AX nor with Hypervox. However, it was different with Amira.

The moment I rode it, I knew it was an awesome bike. On the way to my hill repeats, there were a bit of undulation and this bike was just flying. It is stiff, balanced, comfortable…just simply the best all-rounder bike I’ve ridden to date. The ride quality is just the top of the top.

Sprinting

The Hypervox felt like there was a turbo lag, while the AX flew but twitchy and slightly flexy on high power. The Amira was just perfect. It felt as if the bike was just synchronised with you. If you have watched the movie Pacific Rim, it is similar to that which your body is just synched with the equipment.

Mind you, I’m not a big rider and I can’t put in 1000+ watts. However, as far as my riding experience is concerned, there is no hint of flex whatsoever.

Climbing

Standing or sitting down….this bike felt good and it just responded to whatever request you gave to it. I kept coming back to that sense of “synching”. You can certainly feel how light this bike is. The AX felt too light and flexy, but not the Amira..it just felt right.

Comfort

This is the part which I was very surprised about. I thought the Amira would be less comfy than the Hypervox, but oh how wrong was I. This thing soaked bump really well. I still remembered how the Tarmac rode and the Tarmac was certainly a lot harsher.

The road near where I live was not highway smooth, rather it was a bit rough, possibly because it was hilly therefore for safety reason eg. during descending, the road was done that way. Amira truly soaked up the chatter. It felt muted. If I can put a number on it:

AX – 2/10
Tarmac S-Works SL4 – 4/10
Hypervox – 5/10
Amira – 6/10
Roubaix S-Works SL3 – 7-8/10

Descending

Descending was very stable. You did not feel the weight of the Hypervox, and yet you did not get the twitchiness of the AX..it was just perfect. Steering was very natural…man this bike is good!

Bike Fit

This bike fit me straight away, I would argue that it fit me even better than the Hypervox. On Hypervox, I felt that the stem needed to be 1cm longer…my position was not stretched enough. Not with the Amira..it felt right.

I’m still curious however, to still increase my stem length to 110mm or even 120mm and goes even lower at -17degrees.

CONCLUSION

I don’t care what you say, yes I’m riding a women’s specific bike however this bike fits me like a glove. I will be doing a long ride on it soon and I’ll keep you posted how it goes.

This is the first time for me, too which on my first ride there was no niggles. Normally there will always be niggles such as seatpost slipping, handlebar slipping, etc. Not this time. I truly feel like that this bike is meant to be, and since it’s named ‘feminine’ I can call it my 2nd wife for real.

Chinese Carbon Clincher OEM Ride Review

Aug 15, 2017 9:44 PM, - Posted by Tommy Segoro

INTRODUCTION

I have been reading a lot of mixed reviews about the Chinese OEM carbon clinchers. Some praised the value and the quality, while others swore to never use them again.

Some of the issues raised were spoke tension issue, de-lamination during hard braking and stiffness issue.

I for one have been owning few Chinese carbon clinchers. The very first one I owned was in the year 2011, then year 2013 and finally in 2017. The one I owned in 2011 and 2013 did not last that long because I was so tempted with branded wheels hence decided to sell them instead. I probably owned them for about 1-2 months max.

From my memory, the issue I had with the 2011 one was spoke tension issue. I remembered one of the spokes would be so wobbly that I decided to stop mid-ride (lucky I was close to home at that time) because I was so concerned about my safety.

I did not have any issue with the 2013 one.

Finally, I tried to purchase again in 2017. This time I purchased through AliExpress from a shop called C-razy carbon Store. The wheelset was 50mm with 27mm width.

I would like to share with you my purchasing experience and the performance of the wheelset.

PURCHASING

I purchased the 50mm deep, 27mm width with Powerway R36 carbon hubs.

Store owner’s name was Edwin. As soon as I made my order, he contacted me straight away. We did not have any issue in communication even though English was second language for both of us.

I couldn’t fault the price. It was USD$435 which equates about ~AUD$650. Where in the world could you get branded carbon wheelset at that price?

The wheelset was shipped within 5 days as promised. It took about 2 weeks from the date of purchase to fully arrive in Perth, Western Australia.

When it arrived, wheels have been packed professionally. There were no bits missing. It came with OEM brake pads and skewers.

FIRST RIDE IMPRESSION

I quickly put on the wheels and the OEM brake pads and I went out for a quick hill repeats around my house for about 1 hour.

Without skewers, the weight is as follows:
– Front: 760g
– Rear: 900g

This is way more than advertised. On advertisement it was:
– Front: 665g +- 15g
– Rear: 775 +- 15g

Strava ride is as follows:

https://www.strava.com/activities/908291256

My first impression was very positive! “This wheelset is good”, I thought. It was stiff and did not wobble at all. On flat it felt quick, and when standing and sprinting, it felt stiff.

Even though it is a fairly heavy wheelset, it did not feel that way during climbing. At no time did I feel sluggish. If anything, it felt solid during climbs.

The day was dry therefore braking performance was superb. I have been owning this wheelset for few months now and have gone through some rainy days. I’ll share later on how the braking performance is during wet season.

Perth was well known for its wind. We get about 20-35km/h and 30-40km/h crosswind most days. During that ride, the wind blew at about 20-25km/h with 30-35km/h gust and the wheel was only slightly affected. I had ridden Zipp 404 and it was affected by wind more.

During descend it was less affected by the crosswind gust. It was on the flat would you feel the slight nudge.

The Powerway R36 hub rolled smoothly. I’m not a mechanic so I can’t quiet tell how easy it is to service. Noise-wise, the Chris King hub is way noisier.

All in all, my first ride impression was very positive.

SPORTIVE AND LONG RIDES

Since then I have been taking my wheels to a local sportive and long rides in Perth. One of them was the famous 3 Dams. Strava ride is as follows:

https://www.strava.com/activities/924167232

As per my initial review, the wheels hold up very well. It felt solid on flat, climbs and descends. If anything, it was my legs that limit the potential. It certainly felt comfortable and I did not have any issues spending 6.5 hours on it.

The day was sunny and dry therefore braking performance was good enough for me. Mind you it’s not like I did a lot of braking anyway during the day. Even on the descends, I only needed to do minimal braking.

Again, this event further increased my confidence in the wheels.

During this time I was putting the wheels on the AX Vial Ultra bike.

LETAPE DU TOUR 2017 – THE BIG MOUNTAINS

Finally, I decided to do something crazy with it. What if I take my Chinese carbon clinchers to the big mountains? How would that hold up? It was a big risk because to be honest, there was a part of me that get scared of the durability and safety of the wheels.

I’ve written a blog post on the ride experience itself therefore I won’t repeat myself here. You can read the article here. This section is purely dedicated for my review on the wheels themselves. During Letape I have changed my bike to Swift Hypervox.

Strava ride is as follows:

https://www.strava.com/activities/1086857683

So, how did they hold up? They hold up very fine! I finished the 180km Stage 18 of Tour de France 2017 in 10hrs 20mins and the wheels did not have any issues at all.

The brake squealed if you hold it hard for longer than 15 seconds. It still hold up fine though. There was no de-lamination or anything like that. Mind you, there was no requirements whatsoever to brake hard longer than 15 seconds. The only time I would brake hard was when I was heading towards a hairpin during descending. Once the hairpin was behind, you could release the brake. Just to let you know, I was a careful descender and yet these Chinese carbon clinchers worked fine for me.

Regarding the performance of the wheels themselves, as per my initial review, was stiff in both flat and climbing. I was not sure how comfortable these wheels were because my new frameset (Hypervox) was definitely a lot more comfortable than the AX; and it would have overshadowed the comfort level of the wheels. All I can tell you is that my hands were not numb and if my body was battered, it was because of the difficulty level of the course and not because of the wheels.

As far as crosswind performance was concerned, the wind was blowing at about 20-25km/h on that day and they did not affect the wheels at all. Back in Perth however, when the wind reaches 30-40km/h, you can feel a slight nudge from the gust. But again, the nudge is never at the level where it would give you the sense of “danger” (so-to-speak) especially during descend.

CONCLUSION

So all in all, I can’t fault my AUD$650 carbon clinchers. From now on it would be a very hard sell for me to buy expensive wheelset. OK, to be fair, few years ago the Chinese clinchers could suck. But they’re catching up really fast.

As of writing of this article, I have ordered another 35mm-depth 25mm-width Chinese carbon clincher. I simply can’t fault its value.

Have a great day,

Tommy