All-Seeing Eyes of the Knee-Down Mind

I have a small confession to make: as much as I bring it up, I have never actually gotten my knee down (not counting my many bicycle crashes). I'm familiar with the concept, and why one would want to drag a knee (if you don't know, by shifting your weight out that far you don't have to lean as much, resulting in more grip and thus higher speed through the turn). I'm just not that kind of rider. I love to carve up the road, but no one will ever confuse me with a MotoGP rider.

Getting a knee down is a great metaphor for riding solely for the pleasure of riding, though. Sometimes a fella just has to get out and ride with no particular destination, and sometimes without even picking a direction. Of course, sometimes a fella is just riding home from work and is overcome with moto-goodwill.

When you've got your knee-down groove going, everything seems to go away except for you, the machine and the road. You're aware of everything going on in traffic without feeling like you're paying attention; you just know what's happening. You find your ideal pace, and hit green light after green light. Every turn is smooth and graceful.

I've begun referring to this state of riding bliss, to myself at any rate, as Knee-Down Mind. I don't get into it everytime I ride, though I wish I did. I do believe it's as close as a rider can get to Nirvana, at least while riding.

The funny thing about the Knee-Down Mind is that, at least so far, I can't get into it deliberately. It seems that some days I get there, and other days are just good riding days. I'm hoping I'll be able to train my brain to acheive Knee-Down-itude any time I get on the bike. I'll let you know how that goes...

Nothing to say

But this is awesome.

I don't care if it's real or not.

This is awesome, and I want one. I'm tired of buying an expensive blender and having it start smouldering and stinking my kitchen up with that funky "burnt blender" smell within a week.

So that didn't happen....

Yeah, I didn't get a new bike today. Maybe some other day.

Damn, these things ARE dangerous.

Sometimes, you're just fucked no matter what you do.

What the...

This evening as I was leaving work, I had a new experience. As usual, I set my helmet on the seat, attached my tank bag, put my gloves and shades on the tank bag, picked up my helmet, turned on the ignition and hit the starter button.

Nothing happened. The headlight and other lamps all worked, but the starter button didn't even blow a raspberry.

As you can probably imagine, I was not pleased. I tried flicking the kill switch on and off a few times, as well as the ignition. No joy. Wiggled the wires coming from the starter button. Nothing. I had resigned myself to push-starting the bike, and was actually starting to move the bike into position when it occurred to me that a fuse may have burned out. I popped the seat off, removed, inspected and reinstalled all the fuses (they were all fine). Seat back on, I hit the starter again, more for giggles than any real hope that it would start.

The darn thing started. Crazy.

Woah

Man, so far the insurance quotes for my soon-to-be new bike have been pretty expensive. Stupid Comprehensive and Collision coverage, adding $1000 to my premium.

Anyone got a good "cheap insurance" suggestion?

86 hours until I go get my bike.

Might be good...

Since some people want pictures, and won't just use their imaginations...

Here's a pic of the bitchin' BMW K1200R which is rather expensive.

Here's a pic of the Vespa GTS.

Here's a pic of the Triumph Speed Four. It will be mine, oh yes. 5 days, or approximately 120 hours and counting...

The New Hotness

Lady Luck and I stopped by a couple of dealerships today. Some guy keeps telling me to check out BMW's. I thought I might as well, just to be fair.

Generally speaking, I do not like the way BMW's look. I appreciate that I'll probably never ride a more comfy bike, but... yuck.

Anyway, they had a couple of the K1200R models in stock. I like them a lot. I was duly impressed by the Mad Max stylings and of course, the gigantic motor. Alas, I cannot afford such a bike (Even if it was a smokin' deal at $16,000 out the door), and the rest of them just don't appeal to me.

But the trip wasn't a waste, because Lady Luck discovered the new Vespa GTS (250cc!). It's pretty nifty, and she's finally decided which scooter she most definitely wants.

Better yet, I've decided which bike I definitely want. We went over to the friendly Triumph dealership, and I checked out the Thruxton and Bonneville again. Still nice. True to form, after carefully weighing my various options on the two bikes, I noticed and decided upon something completely different.

Hiding in plain sight was the bike I'm going to get: the Triumph Speed Four. 97 hp, mighty comfy, and most importantly, it's black on black with an extra helping of black thrown in for good measure. Seriously, the bike is so black it seems to just absorb light. And did I mention "affordable"? Lady Luck and I could get a matching pair for less than the BMW.

I'm going to buy it next weekend.

Stupid Temp Light

My temp light came on again just after I was got off the freeway on my way home tonight. What the heck is it doing? There is plenty of coolant in there, so far as I can tell. The radiator fan runs, and I know that the fan on the VX does not turn on if there's no coolant in the system. So something else is wonky...

To the shop manual!

These Things Are Funny

Ok, so I'm a little judgemental. I still find the following things hilarious, and deeply saddening, about certain riders in Phoenix.

• Guys who don't ride in the summer.
• The same guys who don't ride in the winter either.
• Guys who ride wearing those goofy knit beanie hats in the summer. I hope they keep warm.
  
• Riders who ask what I do when it rains (hint: I get wet). But seriously, it never rains here.
  
• Shorts and Flip Flops. During the summer, I bet they smell like a fried chicken with sore legs by the time they get off the bike.
  

100 things 35 - 40

Here are things 1-5, 6 - 10, 11-15, 16 - 20, 21 - 25, 26 - 30 and 31 - 35.

36. I really like cheap nachos, with the crappy cheese sauce. I also like good nachos, but I have a special place in my gut for melty cheese product.

37. I hate it when my bike does weird things. Like today, when my temp light came on just as I got off the freeway. That always drives me batshit. I love it when my bike still gets me to work after doing weird things, though.

38. I will drive halfway across the state to ride someone else's new bike home for them.

39. I work with a plethora of bikers. Life is good.

40. I want a bike with whitewalls.

Make the Decision Right

An amusing story that has made it's rounds on the internet claims that motorcyclists and fighter pilots make roughly the same number of decisions every second. Unlike accountants and file clerks (for the most part), a high-speed and rather messy death awaits the indecisive jet pilot or motorcyclist.

Clearly there isn't room to make a wrong decision. Instead, one has to make his choice, and make damn sure that decision becomes the right one. A rider can not afford to say "oops" and plunge towards the result of his decision. In the case of a poor decision, action must be taken to make sure that choice does not end one's riding career.

Case example: a rather intelligent and handsome operator of a motorized vehicle is approaching a stoplight. Suddenly, a significantly less intelligent motorist decides that the laws of physics no longer apply, and turns left in front of our hero. After calmly yelling "oh shit!" our favorite motorist applies maximum braking force. It rapidly becomes apparent, however, that maximum braking will only reduce the force of the impending vehicular impact.

At this point, a lesser mind will accept it's fate and make quite an impression on the dim-witted motorist. The superior mind of our protagonist will not go gently into that good t-bone, thankfully. Instead, this awe-inspiring specimen looks for an alternate escape, releases the brakes and swerves around the gasping, slothful interloper like a ninja dodging a steamroller and rides on unscathed.

If there's one thing that riding teaches a person, it's to never accept fate until firefighters are shovelling your remnants off the street. You must keep taking action until your problem is resolved (or until my brother's coroner friend is telling stories about you).

I have to admit that I have been guilty in the past of staying in an unpleasant rut because it's more comfortable to stay than to break free and pursue what I really want. Sure, I made the decision to get into that rut, but I can't accept that any longer if it doesn't take me where I want to be.

We live in a world full of people deluded into thinking that mediocrity is ok, even as it eats away at their souls. It's crazy because all anyone needs to do, really, is decide to stop accepting and making excuses for their fate, and start really living. Leave mediocrity to the fools who need it, go out and become a tremendous success, or an utter failure, or anything - but don't waste your life tolerating the unacceptable without protest and action.

One year!

Can you believe it's been a year since I started this blog? I can't.

Thanks for reading, and send me some beer!

Ok, Today Was Weird.

This morning, someone left horse chunks (this site asks for an email address and such, sorry) all over a couple freeways here in Phoenix. Thankfully, they weren't freeways I have to ride.

This evening, I saw a chicken cross the road, hop up the curb and start walking down the sidewalk. I shit you not.

Too much weird, I'm going to bed now.

The Pod People

I've mentioned many, many times that getting parts for the VX is a colossal pain in the ass. Not only are they comparatively rare, but everything on them is expensive as well. Case in point: the air filters. There are two of them, and they are $40 each. Worse, they aren't compatible with any other bike, so there isn't an aftermarket airfilter available. Nope, us VXers just get to shell out $80 for air filters, or else rig something up.

Naturally, I chose the route of rigging something up. There is an air filter made by UNI (part number UP4152) that fits the bill fairly well, though it isn't a pop-in replacement. This isn't my idea, by the way, but the info on the web about this is woefully lacking in witty commentary and pictures. So, on to the description!

Step one is pulling the entire bike apart. There is one air filter under the seat, just in front of the battery. The other is at the front of the bike, under the gas tank. Here's what the VX looks like in this wholly undignified state:
Please note my handy tank-stand.

Now that I've got the air filter out, I get to rip that sucker apart to separate the base from the paper filter element. That would be a lot easier if there wasn't a wire mesh screen protecting the paper. Noodles and I found that the easiest method was to use a wire snip to cut the mesh at the base all the way around. There is piece of thin metal holding the screen together, we used the snips to grab on and kind of tear that thing apart. Next, cut the mesh up to the metal plate at the "top" of the filter. Peel back the screen (carefully, there are lots of sharp little bits) and then use snips to cut through the filter element. Ignore the scissors on the floor by the way, they were pretty useless.

Once you've got that crap off, you have a base that looks like this:

After that, just oil up the UNI filter, slip it on the base and tighten the clamp.

Piece of cake.

Speaking of pieces of cake, I have a small rant. I've read a lot of stuff about how hard it is getting to the sparkplug for the rear cylinder on the VX. I'd just like to state for any future VX800 wrenches out there: it's not that tough. If you want tough, try changing the sparkplugs in an 1986 Nissan 200sx. THAT is a hard job. Changing the plugs on the VX? Total cake.