Friday morning, I tried to fire up my SuperDuke. Kuh-chug. Kuh. Kuh. Click. Click. “Crap.”
I guess I’m not going to be in the office “in a couple minutes.” I attached my battery tender and fidgeted for another 15 minutes. Kuh-chug. Kuh. Click. Click. <sigh>
Out comes the FJR. In goes the SuperDuke. Back on the battery tender. Not a great way to start my day.
As you probably know, I’ve got a Yamaha Super Ténéré on order. The idea of riding 5000+ miles to Alaska and back sounds rather appealing to me. The idea of riding the Washington Backcountry Discovery Route is also appealing to me. What can I say? I like picking the road less traveled. The woman thinks I’m nuts. <shrug>
Imagine my surprise when I showed her a picture of the Honda Crossrunner. Her response was, “I could see myself riding across country on that.” I could only smile. Her next comment was, “Are we going to be a four bike family?” In silence, gave her a rather blank look. “Four isn’t enough. Is it?” “Not really. If you get another bike, we’ll be at five.” We’re going to need a bigger garage.
Last month, I went to the Cycle World Motorcycle Expo
I’ve been watching Dakar.
I’ve been reading articles on the new Yamaha Super Ténéré and Triumph Tiger 800 and 800 XC.
I started playing with the Giant Loop Great Basin bag I got for x-mas.
I’ve spent hours just staring at my bikes, lost in random thoughts of storage capacity, cold/rain protection, helmets and body armor, mounts for my new Spot II GPS messenger, throttle control and speeding ticket avoidance.
I guess you could say I’ve got that itch. Even with cold and rainy weather we’ve been having lately, I’m itching to get back on a bike. I’m itching for a few days away from everything. I’m itching to disconnect from my hyper-connected life. I’m itching to focus my attentions on lean angles and hitting my corner markers.
Standing in my garage, watching the rain continue to fall, I wait.
In the meantime, maybe I’ll go surfing in Lahaina.
Am I allowed to lust for another bike yet? Probably not.
Italian Sex Appeal: Aprillia RSV4+R in black of course… My latest Cycle World rated it as Bike Of The Year, just like my SD.
I’ve been looking at the new BMW superbike, the S 1000 RR. It looks very interesting and the price is very good. Huge amounts of technology, under $15K.
But hey, if you are going to lust… Which would you rather have a racy Italian or a racy German. A racy German?!? That almost sounds oxymoronic. I think I’d even trade the SuperDuke for the Aprilia. I’ve got the FJR for road trips… Hmm… But what about my commutes? I guess I need all three!
One thing I do know that I don’t need the Factory version. I know the standard is way better than my skills can handle. So, let’s stick with the “cheap one.”
Just don’t say anything to the woman! I promised to not lust after another bike until the KTM is paid off.
| Top Speed: | 134 mph |
| Number of times blew the fiesta curves: | 2 |
| Number of times black flagged: | 1 |
| Number of times “off” track: | 1 |
| Number of accidents/injuries/get-offs/broken parts: | 0 |
Fun? No, not really. Learning isn’t always fun.
Interesting? Yes.
Informative? Yes.
Repeater? Not sure about that. Maybe. Maybe not.
I signed up for a track day at PIR for this weekend. I’m excited but nervous. I know there is a vast amount of knowledge that I lack. I want to learn how to “really” corner, fast, smooth, safely. Anyone can go fast in a straight line. Cornering is defining skill when it comes to riding a motorcycle. If I can learn to corner “correctly” at 90+, then navigating the cloverleaf at 35 should be easy, even when things are not perfect and/or drama ensues. Right?
So how did this come about? Read more…
Recently, I got turned on to Zen by Nate Kohari. Having used a Kanban-style feature management system (poorly). I can see a real need for what Nate has written. I’ve signed up for the free demo to see if I could really use it. If it does work out for me, I know the $9/month would fit into my budgets. Just allowing the product manager (the significate other) to update the item queue from anywhere would be worth the subscription. 90% of her new feature requests come about during the day, when she’s actually using the application (we are only using one app/Kanban to see if this style works for both of us). As it is, we have to gather and stare at the board in our home office. Remote, anytime updates… Nice.
The frame sliders showed up last night. After reading the instructions, they were a breeze to install. There was a warning about cross threading so I took my time. The only “difficulty” was torquing down the lower slider. The slider assembly replaces the stock lower engine mount with a new rod that fits through the engine case. So far, so good? Well, my arms aren’t long enough to tighten a nut on one side of the bike while holding a similar nut on the other side of the bike. I hadn’t thought about this issue… After waiting for the woman to return from walking the dogs, the problem was solved.
Bonus: She learned how to use a torque wrench and that the Craftsman 1/2″ torque wrench I bought a couple months ago does have a real purpose.
Things are moving along with the bike. Here’s a pic from last Wednesday evening. I picked it up on Saturday. Of course, I need to make sure everything worked… 200 miles later, I returned home.
I am still waiting on a couple parts: another bolt for the ignition and a strap for the exhaust. Handguards were added before I picked it. I’ve already reworked the handguard placement and attachments. I need to get the Pazzo levers back on it. That isn’t going to happen until I mail them off for repair. Duh. Framesliders are coming from KTMTwins.com Cali. (upper, lower). Hopefully these will arrive before some bubblehead tags me again.
Windows 7
I have to admit I am totally jazzed about the Windows 7 release. I’m rarely an early adopter and I still avoid messing with betas. My mindset is usually, “I don’t have time to get everything done on my plate as it is. Why would I want to play with something that I know it is (probably) broken and doesn’t include any upgrade path when the full release comes out?” Still I’m really tempted to throw Win7 RC on the netbook.
Speaking of the netbook. I am falling in love with it. It is a crack up in so many ways. I am doing all of these things that you shouldn’t do to a netbook. I installed Visual Studio Team Edition with all of the add-ons. I installed Virtual PC so I can run a Win2003 Server in the background while I program. I’m plugging in my portable laptop drive then working off compressed versions of my files. All of these action shouldn’t be possible on a XP Home netbook. I don’t know how many times I got warning, but I still plowed ahead and did it. And EVERYTHING works. I can query my Win2003 server, which is running SQL Server 2005. My biggest problem is the small screen. This could be fixed with a higher rez or a larger screen, but then I am leaving the realm of netbooks. It is a challenge to work on such a small screen. At work, I have a 20 widescreen. At home, I have a pair of 20” flat screens on my development machine and a 22” on my test box. So the shift to a single 10” widescreen requires a bit of effort. Still… It works. Yeah, it’s slow. Yes, I coulda/woulda/shoulda done it differently, but pushing this little machine is kind of fun. Tuesday night, I was a PADNUG with everything fired up and running. I had my external drive, my Bluetooth mouse, Virtual PC running and active while I fixed a couple bugs in VS2008TS. It rocked.
Sidebar:
DreamSpark
If you’re a current university or high school student, you can download professional Microsoft developer, designer, and gaming software through DreamSpark at no charge. Yes, students get to download software at no charge.Follow the DreamSpark link
to learn more.
I installed ASP MVC on Wednesday after confirming I had already installed .net 3.5 SP1. It dropped in without any issues.
Which brings me around to the original topic… I am thinking about digging up another laptop hard drive so I can install Win7 on the netbook without mucking about with the default OS install. I know where I’ve got a 100 gig drive lurking someone where around the house.
Moto Crash: Update
The KTM should be back on the road next week. My new helmet might arrive today. I need to pick up some new armour on my way home from work tonight. I’m already lining things up for a shakedown run through the Cascades.
My body is starting to re-align. Muscles are less sore or sore from PT as opposed to sore from muscle spasms that last for days. I am back to tapping my foot at work. I tend to thump out the bass drum lines to the music I listen to while I program. I’m on the second floor of a steel reinforced building. When I get going, the monitors on the workstation next start to bob. It’s kind of funny for me, but I’m sure it annoys my co-workers beyond measure. I usually smile and stop as soon as I notice or someone points out the shake. I don’t mean to do it.
Guilty as charged.
100 Basic Geek-Skills for Geeks
View Klickitat Run in a larger map
I’m slowly gearing up for a run up to Klickitat. I want to get up there and take a look. It can be a very relaxing place. There is a really nice turn out above the river where the sunsets are really pretty. The turn out is about a mile up a canyon. The sides are not steep drop-offs but steep grassland. The river isn’t visible nor is the upload plateau. It’s quiet with a big shade tree. It’s a nice place to stop, eat an apple and sip some water. Read more…
The craving is growing. Pieces are lining up. Maybe this summer will be the one to complete the quest: a Saddle Sore 1000 certificate. My conditioning isn’t near where it needs to be, but I still have time and I do have experience on longs days in the saddle having completed multiple 500+ mile days and one 800 mile day. It is all about pacing and knowing when to take breaks (early and often). Scott mubbled something about pushing on the second day to score the Bun Burner.
Saddle Sore 1000 / Bun Burner 1500
It looks like we will do the attempt on the FJR and SuperDuke. That in itself presents a few logistical issues. The FJR range is 300 miles. The KTM fuel light pops on around 150 or 160. Storage. Highway stability at speed. Effort expended in the canyons. Etc. Everything is a trade-off. The basic idea is a hard push at the start to score the cert(s) then an easy cruise back home. Maybe I should mail a few things up to the motel in advance?
View Maywood Park, OR to Stewart, BC in a larger map
BTW: Stewart, BC is just across the border from Hyder, AK. There is no official crossing and Google maps can’t seem to map directly to Hyder these days. It could do it last year.
Now, I need to start burning some miles to get back into shape…
After a relaxing weekend, I had a terrible night last night. All of the pets are in ‘spring-mode.’ The dog wouldn’t lay down. The kitten was racing through the bedroom and the pushiest of our cats decided that I was paying enough attention to her… at 4 am. Needless to say, I didn’t get much sleep last night. Read more…
I’ve noticed this (One of ‘those’ days…) is a very popular page. Today I re-read it. I saw a couple more typo’s and places where I wasn’t very clear. But more than anything else it was frustrating and disappointing to revisit that moment.
I know the guy had a life before all of this. He made a bad choice, but his choices had consequences far beyond his limited world. I had multiple conversations with the insurance companies. I learned his name, Mason Andrews. I learned that the driver he hit was terrified to get back in a car and was vowing to never ride again. I know that it took me almost a year to stop thinking about what I saw when I got back on a bike. Maybe that is why I still feel that tightness in my chest when I think about it. It was a brutal moment. Exceptionally fast and infinitely slow.
Spilt blood, bent steel, torn carbon, shattered glass, falling tears, and bare feet.
I still ride, obviously. The SuperDuke is in the same class as the S4R. And I have been seduced by carbon, ti, and steering dampers. But I try not to make those kinds of mistakes. I know what I don’t know. I don’t know the KTM well enough yet to really push it. I do know that you don’t push in rush hour traffic, at least not like that. Sure I break the laws and occassionally lane split when it suits my purposes. I use the power of that v-twin to scoot past the cages that would block my progress. But I also know what happens if I make a mistake…
Live. Ride. Breathe. Feel every moment. And understand that one choice will cause those ripples to move away from you and impact other’s in ways that you never imagined.
