“New” Bike
I have bitched and moaned on here constantly over the past couple years about my perceived “need” of a bigger bike. While I was living in Fargo, the 650 was decent to get around town. It ran good, sounded and performed well and was easy to toss around in traffic. Last summer out here I rode the bike in to work a few times and it sucked. Given the size of the bike…and my size, any head wind at all pretty much shuts it down. With a fair head wind I can maybe get 80 out of her. That seems like it should be enough, but the problem is with a top end of only 80, if you are cruising down the highway, getting from 70 to 80 takes a few seconds…and then being able to do only 80 you don’t pass very quickly. Also, the bike isn’t a very comfortable ride for more than 45 min or so. Granted my ample ass doesn’t help things, but one of the big deals for me is how the wind hits my legs. As I’m sitting there normally, the wind will constantly push my legs off of the gas tank. With this going on I have a couple of options, I can let the wind push my legs apart until they naturally stop…which isn’t comfortable, or I can hold my legs against the tank…which will eventually lead to some pretty significant muscle fatigue depending on the length of the trip.
I had looked around a bit and found a really nice looking bike at umotors. It was an ’02 1700 roadstar, pretty well setup…within my price range. Since it was after hours, I emailed them. To my disappointment the bike was sold. The wife and I were making a trip to minot for a dr. appointment, and on our way back I decided to check out a few dealerships. The first ones didn’t have much for used inventory. At the last stop, purehonda, we found a 2007 1300 v star with 17k on it. The bike had quite a few of the niceties that I was looking for, hard bags, high windshield and floorboards. It looked sharp and seemed to have lived a fairly easy life. I decided to explore financing options for the bike. Read the rest of this entry »
Year end ordering
It’s year end for the school, and with that comes the onslaught of ordering. I like this time of year because I get a chance to play with a few new things. It also gives me the opportunity to set things up the way I’d like them setup. Like I’ve said before, there is nothing [...]
It Lives!
The rise in fuel prices coupled with the very nice spring has made it easy to get the bike out earlier than normal. This year I didn’t turn off the petcock on the gas tank. Normally I would turn the valve off and drain the gas from the carbs, fill up the tank and be ready to [...]
Season End
I haven’t had the time to post on here like I’d like to. I could probably do some after hours at home…but I’ll get in the middle of a thought and be pulled away from the computer for some reason. Since I wasn’t able to update occasionally, I’ll post one summary of the entire season. It [...]
Set the Tone
Message from Kevin Seitzer - Mike Matheny is the new St. Louis Cardinals Manager. Mike lived with me in Milwaukee his rookie year. He’s one of the most respected, wonderful people you will ever be around. Mike coached his kids after retirement and this is a letter to the parents on his team. This may be [...]
Here we go…
Here we go again… I signed up at the gym in town here yesterday and put 30min on the elliptical. I’ve also adjusted what I eat back to where it needs to be on the quest to drop a ton. I’ve expanded quite a bit and need to get things back under control. The plan [...]
adjustments
I bought a device off a guy that is known as “Jack’s O2 Mod“. This thing is a resistor connected to a couple of couplers. It plugs in line between the O2 sensor and the fuel management system. What it does is “fool” the computer into thinking the mix needs to run a little richer. [...]
