About a year ago, I tried using AI coding assistants. The results were disappointing — occasionally there'd be a magic moment, but most of the time the code didn't work and required extensive debugging. I walked away and wrote it off as hype.

Then, this February, two things made me reconsider. My sister mentioned her company was exploring AI to automatically resolve JIRA tickets. And a blog post described building real applications in vanilla HTML/CSS/JavaScript — no frameworks — with AI assistance. Something had changed. I decided to find out what.

A Brief History: 25 Years of Bookmarks

LinkaGoGo went live in May 2001 — before "social bookmarking" was a phrase, before del.icio.us existed, when storing bookmarks online so you could reach them from any computer felt genuinely futuristic.

Over the years, the codebase accumulated layers. Features were bolted on. The UI got tweaks but never a rethink. The underlying Java servlets worked, but it was the kind of code you're afraid to touch because you've forgotten why half of it exists. By 2026, I had more than 6,000 bookmarks across 300+ folders and a loyal user base — but the product was showing its age badly.

I'd attempted rewrites before. REST APIs in XML, then JSON. Different frontend frameworks. I even built my own reactive framework, Reken, to make a rewrite easier — got a working prototype I used for years — but never made it public because it couldn't match the scope of the original. AI hadn't helped much there either; it struggled with a framework it had barely seen.

The Rebuild: Claude as Co-Developer

The turning point came during a walk, where I got the idea: what if I ditched all the old code and started from scratch — keeping only the database and its schema?

I installed Claude Code in an empty directory, added a markdown file describing the schema and UI paradigm (semantic HTML5, JavaScript, CSS — no frameworks), and started iterating. We landed on Python FastAPI for the backend, fronted by nginx. Within a week, 80% of LinkaGoGo was rebuilt with a responsive, modern UI. Within two weeks, I felt confident enough to ship it.

What came out the other side:

- A completely new UI — clean, fast, single-page app with light and dark mode, multiple views (folder tree, timeline, rating-sorted), and a customizable dashboard. The classic interface still runs for longtime users who prefer it.

- Advanced search — operators like `url:`, `visited:30d`, `created:1095d+`, `sort:visit_count_desc`. The kind of power-user syntax that makes managing 5,000 bookmarks tractable. Claude helped design the query parser, write the MySQL queries, and catch edge cases I'd have missed.

- Browser extensions — manifest versions, content scripts, background workers, cross-browser quirks. Claude handled the boilerplate and, more importantly, helped think through the UX.

- AI integration via MCP — LinkaGoGo now has a Model Context Protocol server that lets you manage bookmarks by talking to Claude, ChatGPT, or any MCP-compatible client. Say "find all my AI bookmarks I haven't visited in six months" and it just works. The irony of building an AI feature with AI, for an AI to use, is not lost on me.

- Email-to-bookmark, dead link detection, duplicate finder, reminder system, shared public folders — feature after feature, built faster and with fewer bugs than I'd have managed alone.

What Actually Changed

A year ago, AI coding felt like autocomplete on steroids — useful for individual lines, but not for the kind of thinking that goes into architecture.

What I experience now is closer to having a senior developer available at any hour: someone who remembers everything in the session, can context-switch between your database schema, your frontend JavaScript, your nginx config, and your marketing copy without losing the thread, and will push back when your approach has a problem without lecturing you.

The single biggest productivity unlock wasn't any specific feature. It was being able to think out loud. I could say "I'm not sure whether to handle this in the backend or the frontend — here are the tradeoffs" and get a response that genuinely extended my thinking rather than just agreeing with me.

That wasn't my experience a year ago. Something changed — in the models, in the tooling, or in how I learned to work with them. Probably all three.

The Product, Today

LinkaGoGo in 2026 is faster, cleaner, and more capable than anything I could have built alone in a reasonable timeframe. It's also the same service that has been running continuously since 2001 — the oldest registered users have 25 years of bookmarks intact.

- www.linkagogo.com — the rebuilt app, 7-day free trial

- www.linkagogo.com/screenshots — new UI screenshots

- www.linkagogo.com/mcp-setup] — MCP integration for AI clients

- The old UI is still at www.linkagogo.com/go/Home

The lesson I keep coming back to: the tools got better, but so did I. Learning to work with an AI collaborator — what context to give it, when to trust it, when to push back, how to break problems down — is a skill. I didn't have it a year ago. I do now.

That skill is probably worth more than any single feature I shipped.

Cycle-Smart Northampton Cyclocross Day 1

The Cycle-Smart International is one of the marquee New England CX events. I raced the 55+ Masters Men/Open Category 1-4, a deep field of 48 racers. Finished 16th with a time of 41:05 over 5 laps (lap times: 8:36, 8:09, 8:05, 8:13, 8:03 — negative split, getting faster each lap).

I'm not a big fan of the 55+ plus races, too many younger racers. I guess this is how the 60+ field will look like in 5 years. Not a front row start for a change, and based on Stephen Hyde's clinic from the day before picked the left side to start. This worked out great with an upcoming left turn had space to maneuver. During the race I just focussed on the regular 60+ racers in the field. With a relative good start and with my consistent attack on the tarmac straight was soon battling it out with Dave for "first" place in the 60+ field. We were going back and forth, but he had a little left for the last 3 turns and beat me by 10s as I ran out of gas. My usual 2nd lap dip did not happen, perhaps because I took my gel 25 minutes before the race instead of the normal 10 minutes.

https://www.crossresults.com/race/13415#r116643

Shedd Park Cyclocross

Shedd Park is a recurring race on the New England calendar. I raced here many times going back to 2014. I raced the Master Men/Open 60+ category, field of 34 racers. Finished 19th with a time of 52:03 over 7 laps (lap times: 8:04, 8:11, 8:33, 8:54, 9:21, 9:01). Started fast but faded through the middle laps.

Back to a front row start came second through the holeshot, and during the first lap worked my way to first place. Had a nasty slip on one of the off-camber turns but kept everyone behind. Unfortunately the effort costed and started to fade hard after the 2nd lap and almost the whole field passed me. Not a good race.

Turned out that night after I came home I had a fever and was sick for two weeks, that explained this under par performance. Also that slip; it caused my saddle to several bruise my tailbone. Ouch!

Link to results: https://www.crossresults.com/race/13565#r116643

With only 2 races November was a quiet month, with lots of training, unfortunately got sick at the end of month for 2 weeks which turned out not to be a good prep for Nationals in Deceember.

October was a busy month with three double race weekends. A win at Keene, podiums at BOSSCROSS and Tree House, and a pair of top-six finishes at Really Rad on the Cape.

BossCross

BossCross in Westford is a race that suits me — pretty technical with lots of corners, roots, and nice short power sections. My friends Alexa and daughter Mirabelle came out to cheer me on.

I won the holeshot, but during the start sprint realized I still had my huge water bottle in my jersey pocket. After the first corner I tossed it to the side of the course — or so I thought. Turned out I threw it on the course. Oops. Found it back after the race. After the second turn I eased up to let someone else take the lead, and the eventual number two took the opportunity. I sat on his wheel through the first lap.

In the second lap I dropped to fourth after a mistake on the technical ride-up where I had to tap a foot down, then fumbled the same section again in lap three and dropped to sixth. Lap four I gained a position back but fumbled again on the technical section when the rider in front lost momentum. Riders behind me were not happy, but what can you do — it is a race. There was now a big gap in front of me, but with some smooth cornering.

I worked my way back onto number four's wheel. In the fifth lap I moved to third as the others tired and number three stumbled on the ride-up. In the last lap I closed the gap to second, overtook him just after the barriers, and finished in second place.

https://www.crossresults.com/race/13216#r116643

Keene Pumpkin Cross

The next day I had a race at Pumpkin Cross in Keene, NH. I have had some good races there before, but the sand section is always challenging.

I started with a holeshot and shortly after the barriers eased up for other riders to take the lead. I hit the sand in third place and made the mistake of looking at a bucket marker — promptly rode into it and had to dismount. In the second lap I worked my way back to the leading two, but again the sand section was not ideal and I had a gap. I moved to second in the third lap and kept yo-yoing back to number one, losing time in the sand and making it up on the uphill. In the last lap I was close to getting back on the uphill when number one made a mistake and I jumped ahead. Another mistake in the sand — but fortunately I was not the only one — and I won the race with just over 10 seconds to spare.

https://www.crossresults.com/race/13225#r116643

Tree House CX

After a weekend off, it was time for Tree House CX in South Deerfield, MA. Tree House Brewing is a great venue — their huge flyover bridge and the beer garden off course.

Saturday — NE Championship

Saturday was the New England Championship, which drew a big field of 35 racers in the Men Master 60+ category. After a bad start, where my left pedal unclipped still ended up in a reasonable spot. After one lap I settled in and tried to stay in Rusty's wheel for a top 10 place, but it was too much and I had to let go of his wheel. I then tried to ride within my limits, but kept having to give up positions. Not sure what the issue was, perhaps I trained too much. Anyway, finished a disappointing 16th. What was cool was getting passed by former National Champion Jeremy Powers, who had jumped in the race for fun.

https://www.crossresults.com/race/13301#r116643

Sunday — RVCX Series Finale

Sunday was the River Valley CX Series finale, and I was looking to bounce back from Saturday's result. The field was smaller at 20 racers but still competitive.

Definitely had a much better start than the day before, and I was following Michael Parent for a while, until I couldn't. Ended up third and basically rode the race mainly by myself, securing a podium spot and 2nd place for the overall RVCX Series.

https://www.crossresults.com/race/13303#r116643

Really Rad Festival of Cyclocross

The last weekend of October took us to the Cape for the Really Rad Festival of Cyclocross in Fallmouth, MA. We drove down with the camper van, and stayed for two nights.

The Really Rad course is known for its sandy sections, and the long straightaway finish. Main differences from last year were the extended sand sections and the hotdog turns up a bank.

Day 1

Day 1 drew a big field of 32 in the Master Men 60+ category. My start was good went 2nd through the first corner after Michael. In the sand section we got overtaken by Harry, who ran the whole section. I kept my 3rd place until I made an error in the sand section in the 2nd lap, and dropped to seventh position, got back to fifth during the race, but lost the sprint for fourth place from Kevin. I finished 5th, a respectable result in a deep field.

Really Rad Day 1 Results

Day 2

Day 2 had 27 starters. I was feeling a little tired, the reverse flow of the course felt a little better. The sand section continued to give me issues, but did win my battle for 6th. Althought was disappointed as we were being pulled after the 2nd last lap when I had number four, and five in my sights and gaining on them.

Overall a pretty good racing weekend, although slightly disappointed about the results, as last year I finished fifth and fourth.

Really Rad Day 2 Results

October Wrap-Up

October was a strong month — six races, a win at Keene, podiums at Bosscross (2nd) and Tree House Sunday (3rd), and consistent top-six finishes at Really Rad. The NE Championship at Tree House was disappointing with 16th, but the 2nd place in the RVCX overall was very cool.

Three single race weekends, with a weekend off after Deer Farm.

Deer Farm CX

Deer Farm is always a fun race. It takes place in West Newfield, Maine on a former deer farm. Since it is a bit of a drive, 3+ hours, we left Friday early afternoon with our Camper Van. This also allowed me to preride the course Friday afternoon. Greg the organizer outdid himself, it was his best course so far. My race started in the early afternoon. I prefer these later in the day races, warmer and gives body some time to wakeup. However in this case a huge storm was heading our way, and was forecasted to start just around our finish time. The 40, 50, and 60 masters raced together with a 30s start difference. There was a slight hickup with our callup as they accidentally called up based on registration date instead of cross results points. Surprised me a little as I was predicted first, and was not called up first. Fortunately I did end up on the front row. My race started with a holeshot up the hill. Was briefly overtaken by later number 2, but when he made a small mistake, it brought me back in the lead.

I was able to keep the lead for the rest of the race and build it out to over a minute. Paula was very helpful by giving me realtime lead data. After the race we had some time for the podium ceremony, a quick dive in the lake, and some pizza and beer. Just after we left the rain and t-storms started, and we drove to our next destination Sebago State Park where we camped for 2 additional nights before driving home.

Deer Farm CX Results

West Hill Cyclocross

After a weekend off, it was time for the next River Valley race, West Hill in Putney Vermont. My last few races here had not been very succesful with me blowing up. The course was slight different then I remember, but there were still prolonged power sections without a lot of recovery opportunities. And off course the long runup.

I did get the holeshot, and almost lead to whole first lap, until I crashed in a technical off-chamber section, and basically had blown myself up again. From here on I was struggling to keep my speed up, and felt fortunate to get lapped, meaning a shorter race, and finished 6th, which was pretty disappointing.

West Hill CX Results

KiloWatt Cross

Kilowatt in Northfield was the last race in September and the 4th in the River Valley series. The Friday afternoon before I went up and did a number of preride laps. With my friend Mike and another Stephen Hyde coached athlete we checked out the various lines, which turned out to be very helpful.

My start on 2nd row was a bit bumpy as my left foot unclipped and I dropped back.  Within one lap I was able to work my way back to 3rd position, but was shortly after overtaken for 4th. We battled for the rest of the race, and my plan to attack on the last barriers failed. In the rideup in the corner before the barriers, I had to get of the bike and was not able to get back on his wheel. As a result the sprint for the finish never materialized, and ended in fourth place.

KiloWatt CX Results

With consistently showing up at the River Valley races I had climbed up to 2nd place with 1 more race to go.

A new season with races at Blunt park and Hydra cross in Holyoke. I was well prepared as I worked with my coach Stephen Hyde all year. The training focus had been on improving my explosive power.

Blunt park

Blunt park was a good first test. I had signed up for my regular race category 60+, but also signup for the 40+ race just before. I used this first race as a warmup and would also allow to learn the cours better. I ended doing a number of laps, one at race pace and the others at endurance pace. This prepared me well for the 60+ race.

At the 60+ race I had a front line start, I botched the start a little, but did make it as 2nd to the first corner. The pace was really high. The leading rider apparently had not done a good course inspection and kept missing turns, hence in the 2nd lap I ended upfront for a half a lap. Probably not wise as I started to blow up, in the 3rd lap I made an error in a turn and got overtaken by number 3. He would end up winning the race. After the blow up did not have a lot of power left and limped home, lost one more position and finished fifth.

Blunt Park CX p/b Competitive Edge Racing Results at crossresults.com

Full results from Blunt Park CX p/b Competitive Edge Racing on Aug 24, 2025

Hydra Cross

Hydra Cross takes place during Labor day weekend. We always hang out with friends at the Bike barn in East Burke, Vermont. This year I wanted to do an attempt to do well in the River Valley series. The series consists of race at Blunt park, Hydra Cross, West Hill, Kilowatt, and Treehouse. With the race on Sunday, I rode back from Vermont on Saturday afternoon.

I was able to get 2 inspection laps in, before starting my warmup. I blew the start, could not clip in but worked my way up to 5th position shortly after. With a clumsy but successful turn I moved up 2 more positions, and soon was in 2nd place behind the later winner. I planned to stay on his wheel as long as I could, as we were creating a big gap. Then at the end of first lap I ended up in first position by taking a faster higher line, a little unexpected. After leading for a half a lap crashed and lost contact with the leader. By this time my energy started to fade and soon got overtaken by number two, and number three. I did manage to hold on for fourth position until the finish.

With two race completed I was now 4th in the River Valley series, and allows me to start upfront at the next race in Putney, West Hill.

NCC Hydra Cross Results at crossresults.com

Full results from NCC Hydra Cross on Aug 31, 2025

For my RAM Promaster Van build I needed to a device that connects the battery with 2 inputs, and 2 outputs. The inputs are a Lynx Battery Charger, and a Renogy DC-DC On-Board Battery Charger with Solar-2-DC Charger. The outputs are a 12V FuseBlock, and an Olteanp 2200 Watts Pure Sine Wave Inverter DC2AC inverter.

Victron Lynx In does not support Mega Fuse install

Hence I bought a Victron Energy Lynx Power In. When it came to the install, it turned out that this model did not support mega fuses, unlike the Victron Energy Lynx distributor. I was about to return the unit and buy the Distributor (Out) model, when I realized the only thing missing from the 'In' was a 2nd set of bolts for the positive connections where the mega fuse would connect with the out positive line.

Convert Victron Lynx In to support Mega Fuses

After examining the unit more closely it showed holes for the bolts, and it turned out that the plastic section with the holes can be removed by unscrewing 4 little screws. When removed, you can install the bolts in the holes and place the plastic section back on. The 4 little screws did require a special screw driver, called a spanner screwdriver.

With the bolts in place, you need to add a nut to level the fuse install. Don't tighten the nut too tight so the bolt has some play, making it easier the install the megafuse. Then install the positive plus wire on top of the fuse and tighten them down with a washer, lock washer and a nut.

Save money using a Victron Lynx In vs an Out

With this little conversion, not only did did I save myself the trouble of the product return, but also saved myself $80 for the more expensive Distribution unit, which at the moment of writing is actually not available on Amazone. Products with affiliated Amazon linkes mentioned in this post are:

• Victron Energy Lynx Power In
• Lynx Battery Charger
• Renogy DC-DC On-Board Battery Charger with Solar-2-DC Charger.
• 12V FuseBlock
• Olteanp 2200 Watts Pure Sine Wave Inverter DC2AC inverter.
• Spanner screwdriver set
• Mega fuse

The fifth episode started in Ashfield. I had arrived a little earlier to check if there were facilities nearby, fortunately there were 2 opportunities. When I came back the first riders had arrived. And by the time it was 5:30 we had 10 riders gathered: Tim, Jasiah, Meg, Joe, Jeff, Chris, Christian, David, Aimé, and myself.

We basically did 2 loops from Ashfield, first an easterly loop, through the town center up Norton Hill. While I was chatting with Aimé I forgot the route for a second, and erroneously lead us down Creamery, fortunately I realized it quick, and we turned around towards West rd back on the route. We then descended Brier Hill towards Creamery. I had warned folks about the sharp turn in Brier Hiill, and it was extra tricky as it was covered with loose sand and horse manure. Christian who was in front of me, skidded sideways and ended up on the side of the road, fortunately he was able to control his bike and kept it upright.

On Creamery we turned right to towards 116 and with a quick bonus gravel section on Hill rd we made it to Murray rd. Just when we reached the top, a car passed us, and we decided to wait a bit. This way we were not held up by on the gravel descend.

Emmets rd had just been graded, and after saying hello to a curious capoodle, we descended into rt 116. Emmets sharp right hand turn, was now extra challenging with the loose gravel. I heard some riders almost loosing control. Aimé seemed to do a (controlled) back skid around the bend.

We regrouped back in the center of town for our 2nd, now westerly loop, we first bombed down Smith, and immediately had to regain the elevation by climbing up Apple Valley rd. We took it relatively ez until David saw a town line and went for a sprint, I almost wiped him out as I was pointing out Cemetery rd.

At the top of the climb we were treated to an applause from some walkers. We had reached the highest point of the ride. Once regrouped we set our course back east and took Hawley towards Bear Swamp rd. We had a quick stop at the corner to admire the view down on Shelburne Falls.

We got quite the cheering from a family enjoying the beautiful evening on Bug Hill rd. We followed Bug Hill all the way down to rt 112/116, and with a quick detour over Steady we were back in Ashfield.

Strava activity

When gathering for our 4th NCC Gravel ride, we were warned by the Conway pickleball players that it might rain. I had to pass along the pickleball field as some folks had parked at the lower parking spots.

We started out with 9 riders and headed towards Main Poland rd, before we made there, one of our partcipants realized he was not ready for a B pace ride yet, and cut it short. The rest of us, Brent, Jack, Jeff, Joe, Zach, Chris, Christan, and myself continued up on Main Poland. It was a floral affair as the road was lined by narcisses. With a quick regroup at Poland Gate we descended down towards Chapel Falls.

The entrance to Chapel Falls from Main Poland is a washed out road, and required all our focus to not fall into the river. We then turned left on a mountain bike trail, we were greeted and cheered on by 4 teenagers while we navigated the rooty trail up. At the bottom of the falls we regrouped, enjoyed the view, some wafts of skunk (not the animal). We did a hike-a-bike up Williamsburg road, but not before we had a group photo.

We got a wet surprise on Ludwig branch where we encountered a 20 yard long, road covering puddle that was just unavoidable and we all got wet shoes and socks. It was not there 2 weeks ago on my pre-ride, sorry guys.

After flying down Wing Hill (aka Goat path), we soon arrived in Williamsburg where I did a quick detour to show the Tangle Chocolate Coffeshop. From Williamsburg we climbed over Nash hill to West Whately, we felt some sprinkles at the top of the hill. When we regrouped in West Whately, Jamison caught up to us, he had been delayed and fortunately made it to the group.

We were ready for our last climb, Poplar hill, a paved steep climb, that turns into a dirt road. Trying to not to disturb the neighborhood, we quietly descended into Roaring Brook. We were almost done. On West Whately rd we saw a porcupiine on the side of the road (no porcupine was hurt duing this ride), and were welcomed by a beautiful sunset sky just before returning back to Conway.

And the rain? Besides a few sprinkles, it held off until after the ride.

Why install a heater in my Promaster

We bought our RAM Promaster Van in the beginning of 2024, it is a 2023 model. In order to get experience with camping in it, we temporarily installed a raised bed, kitchen island, lights, and a fridge to do some test runs camping.

Turned out out that while camping in New England during the spring, and fall: evening, night, and early morning temps can get pretty low.

Basically the only option was left was get to bed early, as it was just uncomfortable sitting in the van. When discussing this with some fellow campers, they let me experience there comfy vans with a heater running.

It did not take a lot of convincing to get a heater for our van. Unfortunately these heaters are not cheap, at least the gas-online based ones. There are some cheap chinese diesel heaters. With the Promaster being a gasoline based car, wanted to leverage the gas tank, instead of an additional space consuming diesel tank.

The installation looked pretty daunting, I thought about having it done by a pro installer, but after watching some youtube videos built up the courage to it do the install myself.

Choosing between Eberspacher and Webasto

When exploring the various heaters that were available, I saw some really cheap ones on Amazon, but there were diesel based. For gasoline based heaters I found two options: the Webasto and the Eberspacher heaters.

When I compared the two; the Webasto seems more established, but was older, and the Eberspacher seemed to be more efficient, was capable to operate at higher altitudes with its altitude sensor, and seemed to have an easier install procedure.

Hence I went for the Eberspacher.

Eberspacher features

The Eberspacher Airtronic Heater Kit AS3 B2L has a 2kW / 6824 BTU output, this should be enough to heat an insulated Promaster of 100 square feet (I have the 18 feet long wheel base).

The Eberspacher B2L is engineered to operate in extreme conditions and high altitudes.

It can operate in temperatures as low as -46°C / - 50°F and at altitudes of up to 18K feet. This is possible thanks to its integrated altitude sensor, and unlike earlier models there is no additional wiring or installation required for high altitude operation.

The heater comes with the Easy start controller.

Cut a 5" hole in the floor

The first, and scariest part of the install, is to cut a hole in the floor of the van. Instead of using my jigsaw to cut a kinda of roundish hole. I opted for a 5" hole saw cutter.

It made it easy to determine the location of the hole, using it as guide to determine the location 0f the initial starter hole at the bottom of the van, and then using it to cut a perfect 5" hole from the top thought the 1/2" plywood underfloor, and the metal van floor. The turret plate fitted perfectly.

Heater turret mount plate

There are multiple options for installing the heater, under the chair, against a wall or on the floor. I decided to do a floor installation behind the driver seat.

We needed a platform there anyway, with our turnable seats requiring an elevated floor when turned towards the back of  the van.

To make the install easier I bought a turret mount plate which the installation a breeze.

Install the fuel pump

The heater install kit comes with a fuel pump, which will pump the gas from the fuel tank into the heater. There are some specific requirements on its installation. It needs to be close to the heater and have an angle  between 15 and 35 degrees pointing upwards towards the heater underneath the car. I drilled a hole in the chassis of the car and installed a 1/4" plusnut. I then screwed the supplied rubber mount onto the chassis.

Connect the fuel line

Once I installed the fuel pump, I routed the fuel line into the van. The Promaster has an auxiliary fuel outlet on the top of the gas tank. The auxiliary outlet is located underneath the floor between the 2 front seats. After opening the lid to access the auxiliary outlet, I found that some animal attempted to make nest there, which was also a sign there was access to the exterior.

The access was behind the tank and I used it to run the fuel line to the pump. I bought a Dorman 5/16 fuel retaining clip that fits the fuel outlet perfectly. With the supplied clips and rubber connectors I connected the fuel line to the retaining clip.

I used the same clips and connectors to connet the fuel line to the pump, and the pump to the heater.

I had to look carefully which direction the pump was installed, as there are no markers to indicate the direction of the flow. The side of the pump where the electrical connection is, is where the fuel flows in. I had to slightly adjust this setup later, see the section where I address the "H0 No Fuel line" errors, discussed later.

Electrical Harness explained

The next step is to connect the fuel pump power line. But before getting to that we need to discuss the super complicated looking electrical harness. A giant plug from which 5 different electrical cables emerge.

It looks pretty daunting but in the end is pretty straight forward. The various wire bundles extruding from the plug are as follows:

Battery cable - providing power from the battery to the heater system

Easy start connection cable - providing power to the control unit, as well as sending control commands to the heater.

Fuel pump cable - provides power to the fuel pump.

Altitude sensor - a self contained cable with an altitude sensor, it does not need to be connected to anything.

Analog control cable - not used when using the Easy start controller.

This harness plugs into the female plug of the heater.

Install the fuel pump power line

When installing the fuel pump power line, I had to scratch my head a little on how I would run the fuel pump power line.

In the case of the Webasto Heater it is easy as it comes out the bottom of the heater, and therefor it was already outside the exterior of the van.

With the Eberspacher, it was a different story, after exploring multiple options, I opted for drilling a hole in the cap covering the auxiliary fuel outlet. I used a grommet to make it a safe and tight pass-through.

The supplied fuel pump power line (two green wires) had a plug on one end, but needed the installation of a plug on the other. I needed to crimp the provided pins on the and wires and then pushing them into the connector plug.

Mount the air intake, and exhaust pipes

After installing the fuel line I hooked up the air intake and the exhaust pipe. The Promaster has a number of pre-drilled holes on the underbody.

I used these and installed 1/4" rivnuts and with metal pipe strap attached the pipes to the underbody. The Eberspacher install kit comes with an exhaust muffler which install on the exhaust.

There are air intake mufflers(not part of the kit), and if the noise is too loud my install it later. I also made sure to keep the air intake facing backward and gave it enough space from the exhaust.

Connecting the Easy start controller

The easy controller has a short cable with 2 connectors, you can ignore one, but the  connector with the 4 ports is the one to connect. The line from the harness does not have a connector on it yet. I guess to reason is to be able to route it through some tight spaces.

The connector to install comes with the kit and even though the manual was not clear on it, I made an assumption that to match the colors. The wires come in four colors: red, black, blue with red, and blue with black. Now getting the pins hooked up, and installed is the connector comes very precise as we will discuss in the No heater error paragraph.

Hooking up the Harness to the Battery

The last step to make the heater operational is to hook it up to a 12V battery. From the harness comes a long 2 wire line that connects to the battery.

Included in the kit is a breaker, which I didn't use as a had 12v breaker box, where I connected the harness power lines to. After connecting came the moment of truth, was the heater working. The easy controller display lit up... and displayed after a few seconds: "No heater". Well that was disappointing...

Solving the No Heater Error

I did some research and found that Eberspacher released a youtube video on how to debug the "No Heater" error. First you needed to check 2 pins on the harness adapter and verify there was a load, if that was the case you needed to check if there was a 60 ohm resistance on 2 other pins.

I had a some trouble verifying that with my voltage meter. So I went ahead tried their ultimate solution by swapping the blue/red and blue/black lines. When that did not solve the problem, I thought about plugging the pins (without the male adapter) directly into the female adapter.

Now the "No heater" error disappeared and I could control the heater. Basically I did not install the pins in the connector correctly, looking at the other connector, I saw how deep the pins needed to be inserted. Once I fixed that the connection worked.

Fix the H0 no fuel errors

The next problem was that despite the heater blower starting and the fuel pump engaging the heater did not generate heat. After a few minutes the heater blower would stop and the controller display would show and error "H0 no fuel". When checking the fuel line under the car it was clear there was no gas coming through the line.

Seemed the pump was not strong enough the pull the gas from the tank. So I disconnected the fuel line, and sucked until the gas came out and reconnected it. Now the heater engaged and generated heat. Yes!

Unfortunately the next day, the same problem. The fuel got pulled back into the tank. After some research, I learned about a one-way fuel valve that I installed just before the fuel pump. This fixed the problem.

Fix the Service Error

When I installed the one-way valve I thought I could let the pump get the fuel, without sucking on the fuel line. I restarted the heater 3 times, and it kept coming back with the H0 No Fuel error. So I decided for the last time to suck the fuel into the line.

But when I started the heater again there was a Service required error. This error just would not go away, even disconnecting it from power for a whole night did not resolve the error. After some internet research, it turned out that after certain amount of errors the heater no longer starts working and requests to be serviced. Fortunately there is a way to clear the errors. The steps are:

• On the controller select Settings.
• Then long hold the top right back button
• The workshop menu appears.
• Use the arrow keys to navigate to error memory.
• You read them, and once done you can delete them.
• Then can to the control unit and do the same.
• Once all errors are cleared, the heater should (in my case) work again.

Conclusion

Overall I am happy with my install, the heater heats the car by 10 degrees within a half an hour and gets the chill out.

However I was a bit disappointed with the installation instructions. My Eberspacher heater install kit contained a few photocopied manual instructions. The installation comes with a CD-ROM, but who still has a CD ROM reader. The links to the website manuals are dead.

In the end I had to hunt down the installation instructions from a third-party. And even the manuals were not the clearest. In the end I made it work but it took much longer than I had expected. So hopefully by reading this post, the install will go smoother than in my case.

Affiliate Links for Products and Tools:

• Eberspacher Airtronic Heater Kit AS3 B2L (Gasoline) 12V
• Universal Stainless Steel Heater Turret Mount Plate
• Five Inch Hole Saw Cutter
• Dorman 800-123 Fuel Line Retaining Clip
• Fuel Line Check Valve
• Galvanized Metal Pipe Strap

As an Amazon Associate, Henry will receive a small commission from any qualifying purchases made through these links, at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support!

Despite a remote start at Stillwater in Deerfield, we still had 11 riders for this episode. Our start was a little delayed as we were waiting to hear if a rider would make it. So we departed at 5:45 with David, Meg, Brent, John, Joe, Gus, Chris, Rob, Jacob and Kate. WIthin a mile we were riding up Hawkes, it starts as a beatifully paved road but slowly turns into gravel with ruts, and you have to find your way for a good line. Where last week there was a tree blocking the road, this week it had been cleared and we had free passage. At some point I went back to check on Jakob and Kate. They took it a little easier and continued by themselves.

When I caught back up to the group we finished the last sections of Hawkes and continued on to Taylor road. When we passed the pond we were greeted by a big blue heron, flying up from the edge of the road; a mighty sight. We then worked our way into Greenfiled by descending South Shelburne Falls rd, which had some potholes and a cool 180 degree switchback near the end of the descent.

We had do some manoeuvering to get across route 2a and find our way to Greenfield Community College. Once we passed the college we quickly find out our way to Old Greenfield rd, which is in a bad state, few sections are just one lane as it was washed out.  Folks had fun climbing up, there was even a town sprint (well David was sprinting, impressive he had some energy left after the effort up). We regrouped a few times before we descended, and via Zerah and Lucy Fiske worked our way back to South Shelburne road that took as to Old Albany rd. Just after Fiske, John turned right for an alternative road home. On Old Albany Joe suddenly upped the pace, to “build up some distance”, until we all felt a little lightheaded by the exhaust fumes of a old pickup truck that passed us shortly before.

It wasn’t clear if that was the pickup truck that blocked us on the first part of the Old Albany descent, but fortunately halfway down, realized, he had a group of eager beavers behind him, and let us pass The upper part of Old Albany had been grated, but the bottom part was still sketchy as Gus remarked when we completed this section. From here on it was all Upper and Lower rd back to the finish. Even though it got quite cold, we still made it with enough daylight.

The sky looked pretty ominous, and we expected snow flying any minute, gathering for the start of the 2nd episode of the 2025 Hilltown Gravel Series. John, Jason, David, Jack, Chris, Steve, and myself gathered at the Conway Ballfield parking lot and departed at 5:30pm sharp. We headed north via a nice descent down Emerson, and took Shelburn Falls road towards our first climb up Truce rd. After a quick regroup at the bottom of the hill, we continued on Reeds bridge and took a left on Boyden, where we had a stop and had a look to the hills of our next destination: Roaring brook.

Shortly after, we crossed rt 116 and turned onto Roaring brook. If you haven’t been on this road yet, you should definitely try it out. It starts with pastoral views of cows, farms, farmlands and hills(all the way into Vermont), and then turns into a roller coaster of three dimensional winding gravel through the woods and then dumps you on Whately rd. With the road in good condition, we soon made it through. Jack, who was on his mountainbike, did not seem to have any trouble keeping up.

With 45 minutes before sunset and two more climbs to go we headed towards Cricket Hill, this is the longest climb of the ride. After gathering at the top, we turned around and halfway the descent we stopped to have a view that included mtn Monadnock.

After a quick regroup back at Whately rd we went to our last climb of the day, Fields hill, shorter but steeper than Cricket, we made it to top and rode to the field wih a view of Conway, its surrounding hills, and even Patton hill. After a quick group photo, we made our way back to the parking lot and the end of the ride. Fortunately the snow kept away.

See Activity on Strava for more photos. Route on RideWithGPS.

Next week’s Gravel ride will start at Stillwater in Deerfield, and will explore Hawkes and Old Albany.

After a cold and wet start of the day, the weather cleared up and it was in the sixties by the time we lined for the start of the first Hilltown Gravel ride of the season. Tim, Brant, Chris, Steve, David and myself had gathered at the Conway Ballpark parking lot. Most of us were dressed in shorts with an extra upper body layer.

The route brought us to the first gravel section on Emerson in Conway. A road that sneakily gets steeper and steeper, hence a good wamup for the long and steep climb up Pine Hill. We had a regroup breather at the MacLeishes house. After a quick peak at mtn Monadnock we continued our climb. The gravel was still pretty wet from the rain earlier in the day.

Once we came down Pine Hill we headed towards Ashfield via Persick and Baptist corner. Persick’s gravel section had some wet dirt, which sucked, literally. We then turned into Bellus and I pointed out the Christmas tree farm. It was mentioned that DAR was a good source for Christmas trees as well, I think/hope it was meant as a joke. Before bombing down Bellus we did a quick detour to look a the powerlines vista.

The dirt section of Murray was in pretty good condition and we were rewarded with a view of 6 deer in the fields on the top, Steve was suspicious about them not moving at all, and mentioned something about cardboard cutouts, but once the deer had seen enough of us, and showed us their white tails, we agreed they were for real.

We finished Murray with a rt 116 crossing up Bullet. Which is always a fun climb especially the first 100 yards, The descent last year was tricky with parts of it washed out, but today the route was in great shape. This set us up for the last major climb of the ride, up and over Main Poland. There were some sections regraded, but traffic had already packed it down nicely. And while regrouping at the top, we were discussing how the rocks were split to make the road go through: drills, sticks of dynamite and glaciers were suggested.

The descent down was fun and fast as usual and with a quick stop at Conway wooden bridge we wrapped up our ride along Ives and Pleasant. We had a quick at the stone/bird statue at Academy Hill, we decided against riding into its field, as it got dark fast. Instead we wrapped up our first edition of this year.

Next week’s NCC Hilltown Gravel route will start again in Conway and amongst others will include Roaring Brook road.

See activity on Strava. This is a cross post from the NCC website

Anzac cookies keep well as they do not contain egg-based ingredients.

Some of Paula's touches are to substitute the Maple Syrup for Golden Syrup, and bake them a little longer for a crunchier bite.

Ingredients for a 2 person serving:

• 1 cup of rolled Oats (not quick oats)
• 1 cup of Flour
• 3/4 cup of Sugar
• 1/4 cup of Coconut Flakes
• 1/4 cup of Pepitas
• 1/2 tsp of Salt
• 1 stick of melted Butter
• 1 Tbsp of Maple Syrup
• 2 Tbsp of boiling Water
• 1 Tbsp of Baking Soda

Steps:

• Mix dry ingredients (Oats, FLour, Sugar, Flakes, Pepitas and Salt)
• Melt the Butter and Maple Syrup
• Dissolve Baking Soda in the boiling hot water.
• Add Melted butter, Maple Syrup, Hot Water and Baking Soda to the dry ingredients.
• Mix ingredients well.
• Make 1"-sized balls of the cookie batter.
• Place the balls a parchment paper covered backing sheet.
• Flatten the balls with a hand or spoon.
• Then bake in the pre-heated over for 20 mins at 350F
• Cool on baking sheet until hardened.

A few days after we returned from our trip to Louisville, it was time to fly out to Salt Lake City on Wednesday, December 18th. At the airport, Margot picked us up after our trip from Hartford via Atlanta.

It was the first time we saw their new 2-bedroom apartment, which was further away from the city center but closer to the ski areas, and more importantly, great hiking trails just 2 blocks away. Right after arriving, we went out to see an NHL hockey game, as Brendan had gotten free tickets from a friend. We saw the Utah Hockey Club win after a great comeback from a 2-goal deficit.

The next day, Margot was busy with work, so Paula and I explored some of the city. First, we went out for coffee at the Coffee Garden, and after a short walk and some shopping, eat lunch at the Vessel Kitchen. In the afternoon, we went for a walk in Memory Grove Park near the State House. Afterwards, we got some beers at Proper Brewing.

On Friday morning, I joined Margot, Brendan, and Moose for a run in the hills near their house. It was still frosty in the morning, and the trails were still hard and frozen, but the vistas were beautiful, across the valley and downtown.

Later that day, we did some Christmas shopping and ended up eating Swedish meatballs at IKEA.

The next day, Paula and I hiked the same route we had done the previous day. We got some great sunrise photos.

In the evening, we saw a concert of the Salt Lake City Pops in the Maurice Abravanel Hall. Afterwards, we went for some beers and entertainment in the Piano Bar. It was great fun, with two pianists playing song requests with witty texts.

We visited the Natural History Museum on Sunday and spent the whole morning exploring the origins of Salt Lake. In the evening, we went to the well-rated restaurant Log Haven for a great dinner.

On Monday, I went out on Margot's hybrid bike on some of the bike trails, with lots of ups and downs, but still managed to get 10 miles in.

The next day, Margot took us out to Antelope Island State Park, where we hiked on the trails along the Salt Lake. We saw some buffalo and visited an abandoned Mormon farm.

On Christmas Day, we unpacked our presents. Later in the day, Paula and Margot made a delicious 7-course meal, including a Bourbon / Chocolate  tasting course

We woke up on Boxing Day to a snow-covered city. Paula and I did another hike on the pristine, snow-covered trails.

It was also our last day in Salt Lake City. The next morning, Margot brought us to the airport early, and we flew back to Hartford via Atlanta, arriving home in the late afternoon.

I follow a number of web development related blogs and one of the blogs I like a lot is Go Make Things by Chris Fernandini. He posts very regularly and like me is not a fan of big frameworks and tooling with a lot of dependencies.

In one of his latest posts he shows how web components can share state with eachother and is using Custom DOM events to do that.  He uses an eCommerce based example with a Cart-link and a Cart-Item Web Component.

How would you share state between Web Components?

Yesterday, I had an interesting chat with a friend about how I would share state between Web Components, and get them to talk to each other in a web app.Today, let’s explore what that might look like!An ecommerce platform An example I like to use for this kind of thing is an ecommerce platform wit…

Go Make Things

That got me thinking on how I would implement this usecase in Reken. It would also use components, but Reken based.

<template data-component="cart-link" data-arg-cart>
  <a href="/checkout" data-text="🛒 ${cart.size()} Items">
  </a>
</template>

The cart-link component is a link to a checkout page. The link text displays the number of items in the cart based on the cart attribute.

<template data-component="product-listing" data-arg-uid data-arg-price data-arg-cart>
  <div>
    <em data-if="cart.has(uid)">This item is in your cart</em>
    <button data-if="!cart.has(uid)"
            data-action="cart.add(uid, price)">
            Add to Cart -
    		<span data-text="$${price}"></span>
    </button>
  </div>
</template>

The product-listing component displays a product based on the uid and price attributes. It displays an Add to Card button when the product is not in the cart yet, but if it is already in the card it states so, instead of the button. The cart attribute is used to determine whether an item is already in the cart, and if not to add it to the cart.

To keep track of the cart state we create a cart class to has an add, has and a size method.

class Cart {
  constructor(val) {
    this.value = val || {};
  }

  add(key, val) {
    if (!key || val === undefined) return;
    this.value[key] = parseFloat(val);
  }

  size() {
    return Object.keys(this.value).length;
  }

  has(key) {
    return key && key in this.value;
  }
}

We create a cart instance in the application state, based on the Cart class.

const app = {
  data: {
    cart: new Cart({}),
  }
}

The main HTML code that displays the cart-link and product-listing looks as follows.

<cart-link cart="app.data.cart"></cart-link>
<product-listing cart="app.data.cart"
                 uid="tshirt-jolly-roger"
                 price="39">
</product-listing>

Now you may have noticed that the Reken based solution has two major differences with the solution Go Make Things provides.

1. The Reken-based solution is based on Reken component definitions, as opposed to Web Components shown in the Go Make Things example.
2. There are no events needed in the Reken based solution, as the Reken framework automically rerenders HTML when the application state is updated.

Here the full demo of the above presented Reken based solution.

Here an a slighty more eloborate Reken-based example, where we initialize the product list based on an array of products, and we can also empty and show to contents of the cart.