The tyres that I had on my red hybrid bike were getting a bit thin, and since pushing them to their limits the back tyre was showing the nylon threads. I decided it was time to get some new tyres, but as with most things kept putting it off.

When cycling to my sisters a week ago, I head a very loud ‘phftt’ which sounded like a gunshot, and my back tyre went flat. It didn’t surprise me, but was slightly annoying.

Once back home (after walking the remainder of the way) I looked on ebay for some more tyres. The ones I had put on there a couple of years ago for my land end to John ‘O’ Groats trip were still available, but I decided to go for something a bit more stylish, and so opted for Schwalbe City kevlar lined tyre. I found it cheaper from an online shop (link) than on ebay, and so promptly trusted an online retailer that I had never seen before with £8.50 of my hard earned cash, and awaited delivery. It came very promptly, and I put it on with a new tube, and cycled 12 miles to Manchester and back. One of the concerns with this tyre is that it can slip in the wet, but the road was wet and in places snowy, and it didn’t seem to have any problems. Over the next few weeks if the road is deserted I might try to make it slip to find it’s limits, and until then I hope it doesn’t.

Since I had gotten rid of my T-Mobile contract for my laptop data card, when I needed internet on the move I needed to either rely on the browser and applications on my N95, or connect it to my laptop. Connecting in windows turned out to be harder than I expected, as the Nokia PC Suite really didn’t like my cheap bluetooth dongle. Ubuntu, however turned out to be a lot simpler than I expected. Here is a quick guide to what I did in case I ever need to do it again, or in case it helps you. Use it at your own risk!

Step 1: Check that GPRS data connection works on your mobile phone using the web browser included on the phone

Step 2: Check that your bluetooth dongle works in linux. You might need to install bluetooth utils for this.

Step 3: Turn on bluetooth on your phone. I recommend leaving it off most of the time for security reasons, but now is a good time to turn it on.

Step 4: Pair the phone and the computer: From your phone, go to the bluetooth menu (use the left and right arrow keys to move between tabs at the top) and select ’setup new pairing’. Your phone will search for devices, and hopefully find your computer which will be called <hostname>-0. Click on ‘pair’ and enter a pass code which you can choose. Your computer should then ask you for this pass code which you can enter again in the popup box.

I think that KPPP is one of the best dial-up programs, or at least one of the ones which I know how to use. If you don’t have it installed, install it with

sudo apt-get install kppp

This will add a button in the Application > Internet menu named ‘KPPP’. Click on this, and then you need to add a connection and modem. Click on ‘Configure’ and then ‘New’ (under the Accounts tab). Select ‘Manual Setup’. Then under the ‘Dial’ Tab, enter a connection name. I call mine ‘Vodafone 3G’. Add a number (*99***1#) to this connection by clicking on the ‘Add’ next to the ‘Phone number’ box. Click on ‘OK’ to save the number, then click on ‘OK’ again to get back to the KPPP configuration page. Select the ‘modems’ tab and click on ‘new’. Give the modem a name, I call mine ‘Nokia-N95′. In the Modem device box, select ‘/dev/rfcomm0′, and change the connection speed to 115200. Select the ‘Modem’ tab, and then click on ‘Modem Commands’ Set the ‘Initialisation String 2′ to ‘ATM0′

Click ‘OK’ a few times to get back to ‘KPPP’, and then click on ‘Connect’. If all is well, it should start talking to your modem and connect to the internet.

This could perhaps be a lot clearer, but if you have any questions please feel free to contact me.