Another Riding-Free Weekend.

I start to get a little crazy when my bike isn't roadworthy. I'll wander around, apparently doing normal things, but in my head I'm working out thousands of ways I could get my bike going again before I flip out and lay waste to my garage.

When the rectifier went and everything was on backorder, I immediately wondered how I could build my own. I found out, too. They aren't complicated at all. Then I wandered through a weekend of wondering how I could get ahold of some diodes and thyristors before Monday that are beefy enough to stand up to the abuses of the VX's charging system.

I was almost disappointed when I got a new part lined up. Nevermind that I couldn't find a supplier of electronic bits with the specs I needed.

When I got the flat tire, all I thought about was how I was going to get it fixed.

Now I'm down a footpeg, and I don't have a replacement yet. I've considered affixing a wooden dowel to the bike somehow. I've ran through my mental phone book trying to find someone I know who can weld. I've contemplated the various possibilities afforded by vice grips (thanks for the idea Wycked).

I've exhausted my options and now I'm left sitting here wondering what I'm going to do this weekend. I guess I could finally mount the windshield the seller gave me when I bought the bike. Or I could give the beast a tune-up (it seems to need one).

Or I could just sit there and stare at it for a couple of hours, willing it to become complete.

I hope that, whatever happens, I get some freakin' pizza.

It pays to keep a big hammer on hand.

Last night I decided to do some wrenching on my bike. I took the broken foot peg bracket off and examined it. I'm wondering if I can't just get a big bolt and nut and use 'em to hold that sucker together until I get the part I need. Any bikers care to comment on that?

Anyway, way back when I was replacing the rectifier, I broke off one of the bolts that holds the back of the gas tank on the bike. At the time, I thought that I was going to have to drill it out. I just kept putting the bike together so I could get out and ride. After all, there was another bolt holding the tank on!

Since I didn't have anything to do last night, I figured I'd rip it all apart again and get that bolt out. Once the tank was out of the way, I grabbed a screwdriver and my blacksmithing hammer and gave that sucker a few good hits. It made just enough of a groove in the bolt that I was able to turn it the rest of the way out. Hooray! I happened to have a new bolt in exactly the right size (purely coincidence), so my tank is now firmly attached on both side.

So that's one less thing I have to worry about.

Of course, I am still short one footpeg, which makes riding difficult. The bracket itself looks to me like it's already been welded back together once (and not very well, I might add), so I don't know if a welder would be able to repair it. I also don't know any welders, at least close to where I live.

I wonder if I could just mash it with a hammer a few times...

Wow! A Backordered Part!

The bracket has been backordered. Somehow, I'm not surprised.

I was, however, dismayed when I got that message.

Lady Luck says I should buy another VX as a parts bike. Personally, I'm starting to think that I should just SELL the sucker and get a bike that's easier to get parts for. Maybe I can save my pennies for a while, sell the VX and get an SV650. Or a Honda 919, those are pretty nifty too.

It's all so clear now.

It turns out that my mom forbid Noodles from riding my bike. That's why my footpeg broke. It was CURSED.

Luckily, I recently found the ride bell Lady Luck gave me for xmas. When I get my new bracket I'm going to tie that baby on the bike too. After that all my riding should be trouble-free.

No pizza review this week due to technical difficulties.

Sorry folks, but if I can't ride, I can't review.

If this thing ever hits the big time, I'm going to have to get a sturdier bike.

Have a good weekend! Oh, and HI WOLFIE!

Air conditioning is good. So is Metal.

The AC finally got fixed yesterday. Hooray for staying cool!

I went with Baldy-Beard and Noodles to see the Sounds of the Underground tour yesterday. Highlights of the show were Terror, Strapping Young Lad, GWAR (always a highlight), Clutch and Opeth. It was DAMN hot sitting outside all day. Clutch and Opeth made it worthwhile.

We got to meet OPETH and they signed stickers for us. I'll throw up a pic of that later.

Bike-related news: I went ahead and ordered the new part. It's going to take a week to get here. I don't know if I can wait that long. I wonder if I can whip something up with wire and chewing gum wrappers....

Noodles arrives today, and totally decent people I've never met.

My brother Noodles is getting into Phoenix tonight. Hopefully, the air conditioning will be working and he won't melt when he gets into our house.

On the other hand, he claims he wants to live in the desert, so this'll be a good trial run for him.

Regarding the totally decent people I've never met, one of the UTMCers (Gumby) took it upon himself to call around to junkyards looking for the part I need. He may have found one for me (waiting to hear back from the junkyard.). That goes beyond decent into "whattaguy" territory. When I finally get up to Colorado, I hope I get a chance to meet this fella.

You gotta be f*cking KIDDING me!

Today I was riding home from work and feeling PARTICULARILY GOOD about motorcycling, and especially good about my motorcycle.

Naturally, something had to go horribly wrong and ruin my FRICKIN' MONDAY. Let's recap the last 14 days or so: Flat tire, lots of swearing, Lost license plate, lots of swearing, AC went out at home, You'd better BELIEVE there was a lot of swearing... and now the coup de grace!

I stood up a bit as I was going over a bump in the road, and "CRACK!" one of my damn footpegs broke. The good news is that I didn't lose control of the bike. The bad news is I had to ride home one-legged (on the shifting side, OF COURSE), and the new part is right around $90. FUCK rare bikes! FUCK foot pegs! FUCK FUCK FUCK!!

Aww hell. I'm going to fix it, and I'm going to love it all the more once it's up and going again. I bet Coop knows exactly how I feel.

Here's a pic of the broken mounting bracket.

Here's a pic of the gimpy footpeg:


Here's a couple pics of the other side, to show how it SHOULD look:




Here's the part where you tell me how much this sucks, and send me money and candy. Or better yet, the mounting bracket for the left side footpeg for a '91 Suzuki VX800.

HOT!! TOO HOT!!!

The air conditioner went out in my house. It's ridiculously hot. I was planning to make a ride this weekend, but when it's this hot INSIDE, it's hard to motivate myself to go outside.

The good news is, it's supposed to cool down some this week (only 107 on Thursday! Woo hoo!). So my commutes should be ok. My brother Noodles is coming down to visit this week, so I won't be getting too many recreational rides in. With any luck, though, I'll be able to get him on the bike and turn him to the dark side.

...He'd better not crash my bike.

Sorta official Pizza Review - TC Luigi's

This is only a SORTA official review, because I go there all the time, and I can't figure out their level of corporate-ness. I mean, they're definitely a local chain, but they're trying to expand (and have a restaurant in Texas now) and have the word "franchise" on their website.

That said, I go there ALL THE TIME. I'm still working on my rating system (I'm thinking 1 - 5 Crying Luckies, or "how upset am I when it's gone?"), but for this one I'm going to stick with the thumb system. Leave me a comment and let me know what you think of a 1 - 5 kinda system.

The Restaurant: TC Luigi's
Location - Ocotillo, primarily. I've ordered from a couple others before as well.

So, the ride to get there is good in that it's exactly long enough for me to go there, get lunch, and get back to work before an hour is up. But it's still just city streets. As always, any ride is better than no ride.

Crust - Thumb up. They have a really good "regular" crust. It's very, I dunno, crusty. Not only does it hold toppings well, but it tastes good as well. That's pretty tough to beat!

Sauce - Thumb up. I'm crazy for sauce and wish they'd put more on their pizza. Someday I'll order one with extra sauce... Anyway, it's tomatoey, it's spicy, and it doesn't detract from the crust or toppings.

Toppings - Thumb up. Good cheese, good pepperoni/Canadian bacon/pineapple/jalepenos/mushrooms. Really, this place does it right.

Ambiance - Sideways Thumb. It's ok. It's not the kind of place to bring a date you want to impress with your hipness. The cool thing is that they have garlic powder and oregano at the tables, along with the industry-standard crushed red peppers and parmesan cheese.

Still, the great thing about TC Luigi's is the pizza. I've gotten it delivered several times. It's just good.

I'd be happier if they were some hole in the wall, but if you HAVE to go to a chain, it might as well be a local one, and it might as well be this place.

Ok, so the NEXT review will be chock full of awesome ride pictures and details, and the pizza place will be cooler than "where I go for lunch."

Photos of Bruce Campbell. Also, Pantera photos.

Hey look, it's Bruce Campbell and he posed for me. I didn't actually see that happen, I was too busy trying to get the photo and get out of the way. Who's the smiley bald guy? I'm guessing he was with Bruce. Nice of him to smile for the photo.

Hey look! It's my back and Bruce Campbell! Gosh, that's a nice shirt I'm wearing. Let this be a lesson: NEVER let one of the theater staff take your picture. Seriously, anyone know who the diabolical looking bald guy is?

It's the back of a Pantera! Cool! The owner of this one talked to me for a minute, but I'm afraid I didn't listen to him very closely, due to my excitement over seeing a Pantera UP CLOSE and in person. How rude of me!

It's the side of a Pantera! Cool!

Ok, so I dig Panteras. Lady Luck thinks they're ugly, but she doesn't like ANY sportscars. I've wanted to check one out for around 5 years. I finally saw one on the road a year ago. And this time I got to see 2 of them. The other photo didn't turn out very well. Our digital camera has a weak flash, and to be honest I haven't figured out how to work the camera very much yet. I'm used to my fancy 35mm which takes such good photos that when there's a BAD one in the bunch, I have to suck it up and admit I goofed.

Hot at 7 am, Panteras and Bruce Campbell

My least favorite part about the summers here in Phoenix is when it's already hot outside at 7 am.
Last night we went to a book signing/movie premier for Bruce Campbell. His new flick is "The Man with the Screaming Brain." Didn't see it, but we got his autograph. In the 10 seconds we got to talk to him I got the impression that he's a good guy. I can't say the same for the jerks running the autograph line.

The signing happened to be near the restaurant where the local Pantera owner's club meets. So I strolled over and took some photos of their cars, and talked to them briefly. They seemed like decent guys, even if they didn't offer to let me take their cars out for a spin.

I've got pictures of all this fun, I'll try to post them later tonight!

116 degrees Farenheit

Today it's supposed to hit 116 here in Phoenix. That is DAMN hot.

Luckily for me, I just got a Joe Rocket Phoenix jacket. This aptly named jacket is made of mesh, with some armor in the elbows, shoulders and back. I'll put up a picture of it later on.

Now I just wish that I'd brought a stupid t-shirt with me to wear under it on the way home.

Ever lost your license plate?

So last night I noticed the license plate on the VX800 was gone. That was great. I don't know when or where it disappeared.

Fortunately, I was able to go and get a new one right away this morning. Hooray for riding to work!

My wife, the wrench.

On Friday night my wife drove me out to where I left the VX, and hung out with me while I tried to put the wheel back on. I had a great deal of difficulty getting the spacers back in place. After I struggled, swore and threw things around for about an hour, she asked me why I didn't just use a screwdriver to pry things open just a bit. Five minutes later the wheel was on and I was on my way.

A friend of mine (HI WOLFIE!) digs ancient German culture and told me about a particular practice at "tribal" meetings. Basically, one night, the men would all get drunk, and then discuss the issue. Then they'd go home, discuss it with their wives the next day, and go back and discuss it again sober. Obviously, a major point of that story is that your wife's input is pretty valuable and you should listen to her advice.

So True.

As an aside, Mrs. Lucky will be known as Lady Luck from now on.

Another aside: There will be a pizza review this week.

Look at this Monster!!

So I think you can appreciate how shocked I was when I pulled this sucker out of my tire. The good news is that my new tire is mounted and now I just have to go put the wheel back on my bike.

In other news, Baldy-Beard found TWO nails in one of his tires today. I guess it's raining nails in Phoenix. See? Even the RAIN down here is spiky and dangerous.

Monster Nail

Last night I pulled the back wheel off the bike. I pulled the chunk of metal sticking out of my tire out, and discovered it was a nail that is close to 5 inches long. I'll try and post a photo of it tonight.

I had more fun trying to find a tire for my "rare" VX800. Suzuki just HAD to put on an oddly sized tire. It's ok, the place I'm getting it (Eastside Performance) was able to order it yesterday and should have it today. So I oughta be able to get back on the road by tomorrow night at the latest (because I have to work instead of just tinkering with my bike all day.). Hooray!

For you biker-types, I'm getting a Metzeler Z6 tire. I'll probably have to order one for the front too, but I think that's going to have to wait until the next paycheck. The word on the street is that they are awesome tires. We shall see!

Hard work is good for the soul.

You don't really ever appreciate how far 500 yards is until you have to push a bike with a flat tire that far in the midday sun in Arizona.

Then you start to get it.

It's just not right.

So my morning was going pretty good. Got up, had a biscuit for breakfast (Mrs. Lucky made biscuits and gravy for the 4th. She is SO good to me.), started riding to work, some punk in a bright yellow rice-racer wanted to drag race, I took him to school (dude, you can't beat a bike in that thing!)... Things were good.

And then a turn felt mushy, and shortly after that, the tell-tale thumpita-thumpita-AWWW FUCK! of a flat tire.

My poor VX800 is sitting in a parking lot at a MacDonald's right now. I'm going to go rescue it during lunch, but I won't be able to fix it's feet until this weekend probably. The best I can do is bring it somewhere more hospitable.

It's just not right.

It was a long weekend?

I spent this weekend working my ass off. We rented scaffolding, and I got to climb up it and paint our ridiculously high walls. Repeatedly. I'd like to say that I've always been a climber and that hopping from ladder to platform on a scaffold is my idea of fun, but that would be a filthy, contemptible lie.

I did have pizza this weekend, but it was pretty miserable, and the route to get to it wasn't even a little interesting.

On the other hand, I managed to sneak a quick ride in. I took the Bush Highway, which is only about 10-20 miles long. It's not particularily challenging, though there are some fun twisty bits. Mostly it's just a nice ride with good scenery. The exact route I took was East on 202 -> exit and go right on Greenfield -> left on McDowell -> left on Power Rd. Power turns into the Bush Highway. Eventually you hit 87 and can head back to civilization. Or you could go the other way and head out to Peyson. Or, you could turn around and run down Bush Highway again. Anyway, I went about 60 miles.

Thanks for trying. Also, a good frozen pizza!

Last night it occurred to me that almost every non-rider I talk to has a story (or several) about someone they know who crashed on their motorcycle and got mangled. At first, I assumed that I was getting a "be careful out there" kind of speech. After all, a lot of people DID tell me to be careful out there. They're right to tell me to be careful. There are a whole lot of freakin' nut jobs out driving around.

The consistency of the horrible crash stories started to get to me though. Not only did everyone tell ME about their uncle Hubert who accidentally turned the wrong way on a one-way and got fed into a log chipper when he triple-flipped over an suv that dropped out of a tree, but people tell Mrs. Lucky all kinds of stories about it too.

I started to think that maybe people are trying to convince me to stop riding. Well, that's not going to happen.

The stories didn't stop, though. Are they just enjoying telling a gruesome tale? The same way one tells a ghost story? Well, that doesn't seem likely, because EVERYONE (that doesn't ride) has a horrifying motorcycle story for me.

Now, I know that some people don't like motorcycles the way I don't like sparkling-clean SUVs driven by one person in a business suit talking on their cell phone. But I think the reason most people tell me their motorcycle story is because they want to talk about motorcycles and contribute to the conversation, but they only have a story about Uncle Hubert to tell. I'm sure that if they had a story about the awesome time they had riding with their dad, or a great twisty road, they'd tell that instead.

So, from now on, I'm not going to worry about it and just tell them one of my own crash stories. After all, I've walked away from a couple with only a few scrapes and a bruised ego. And then they'll have more than one story to tell the next biker they meet.

Any bikers out there care to comment?

All right! So, wanna hear about the frozen pizza? Of course you do!


At your favorite purveyor of natural foods, you might find "American Flatbread" frozen pizzas. They are really, really, REALLY good. Especially for a frozen pizza. The deal is that it's pretty much pre-cooked, so you just slap it in the oven for around 5 minutes (how awesome is that?) and out comes a pizza that tastes like it was just pulled from a wood-fired pizza oven.

Seriously, if I pulled this guy out of a pizza box, you'd never know it wasn't from a restaurant. Of course, it's still a frozen pizza, so it isn't exactly the same as going to a place and getting a fresh pizza, but it's still darn good. Plus it includes instructions on how to grill the sucker. So, if you want to go for that "I cooked my pizza with fire" kind of approach, you can.