Looking At The Bright Side Of A Suddenly Dead Battery On A Hot Summer Day In The Desert

I had been worried about not having anything to post today, but my ever-faithful Triumph, as always, provided.

The heat has arrived in Phoenix. It's the time of year when I can count on sweating more or less from the moment I leave the house until just before it's time for bed. Such is life in the desert. I can deal with it.

Of course, the temperature extremes in the desert are very hard on auto and motorcycle batteries. If your battery lasts more than a year here, it's one quality battery. That's why our car has a Die-Hard in it. I'm sure there's a compelling reason why I haven't put a Die-Hard in the Triumph, but I can't think of what it is. Anyway, I've got some other battery the dealer put in there right now.

And it died again. I just got the new one in March.

I discovered the dead battery thusly: After fifteen miles of desert freeway, I stopped at the grocery store to pick up coffee filters and tortillas (why else?). Every one and their cousin had also stopped at the Quick n' Dirty at the same time. I shouldered my way through the hordes of lifeless heat zombies, got my two items, checked out, and put my gear back on.

When I thumbed the starter, it coughed weakly and asked me not to do that again. Of course, I did try again, much to the starter's irritation.

The only reasonable thing to do was to raise my arms to the sky and yell "Today? Here? Seriously?" The other parking lot denizens took this as an their cue to look elsewhere and move away slowly.

Luckily, I remembered there are two things in my favor in these situations. One, my motorcycle has a clutch. Two, a Lucky in motion has a lot of inertia on his own. Added to a rolling motorcycle, well, don't try and stop me. My only concern about push starting the bike was whether or not the thing would run with a dead battery. Some bikes don't. A modern Vespa, for example.

I got the motorcycle rolling across the parking lot, shifted into first gear, popped the clutch, and rode along home. The instrument cluster was not behaving right, of course. The displays kept going blank on me at low RPMs, but the important thing was that it kept running until I got home.

So now I just have to wait for the bike to cool off enough so I can stand over it long enough to pull the battery. Easy as really, really hot pie.

And here I was worried I wouldn't have anything to write about. See? It's not all bad.

Have You Seen This Crazy Crash?

So, two riders crash (they both hop up right away), their bikes get tangled and start spinning in circles. I'm probably a terrible person for this, but watching the rider in black freaking out and trying to catch his bike makes me laugh uncontrollably. He's just so annoyed.

Buell is Back At It

Personally, I knew Buell would be back. You probably did too. Face it, a guy who can do what he did with HD weighing him down isn't going to be stopped by a little thing like the loss of a supplier and dealer chain.

Erik Buell Racing has unveiled the 1190RS, and if I had roughly $40,000, I'd totally buy one. But I don't, so I'm just going to wait until they're mass-producing again.

Here is Motorcyclist magazine's write-up about it.

Yum.

One question for modern sportbike designers, though: What's the deal with the fiddly license plate holders stuck on the back of seemingly all the new bikes. Is that really the most attractive option you can come up with?

It's Ride To Work Day Already?

I had no idea that today was Ride to Work Day until just now. I thought it was on July 15th for some reason. So... if you didn't ride to work today, you need to drive yourself on home, hop on your bike and ride it back to work.

DO IT. I'll be checking up on you.

I think this marks the 2nd time I've actually ridden to work on the official day. It may be the third, I'm not certain. Usually something comes up such as sickness, vehicular trouble, or vacations.

I didn't notice any more bikes on the road than usual, but perhaps I'll see more this afternoon. Have you noticed an unusually high number of riders in your area?

Basic Biker Etiquette

So there you are, you've got a pretty bike, your gear is on and you are ready to go! Unfortunately, no one ever bothered to tell you how to comport yourself while riding. Here's what you need to know.

If you can safely stop to check on a motorcyclist who pulled off the road, do so. Even if you can't quite handle "righty-tighty, lefty-loosey," you might be able to lend a cell phone, tools, water, gum, or just a bit of moral support. Of course, only stop if you can do so safely. If you have to immediately cut across three lanes of traffic and come to a screeching stop, you'll be excused for not stopping.

Do not pass another motorcyclist in the same lane unless he/she indicates that you should. Seriously, passing in the same lane is just a jerk-ass move. If the rider you're passing didn't notice you, he/she is going to be startled when you fly by three feet away from him. It's not just rude, it's unsafe - how can you be sure the other rider wasn't planning to shift to the other side of the lane? Unless you get waved past (I do this all the time if I'm holding someone up and traffic is tight), don't pass in the same lane.

One exception to that rule - in the twisties, if the other rider is hugging the right side of the road and going slowly, you'll be excused for passing in the same lane if you do so as safely as you can.

Wave when you can, and return greetings at stoplights. What? Are you such a bad-ass that you can't even say good morning in return? Don't just stare like you're too tough for such things. Life is rough enough, make it a little smoother by acknowledging a fellow traveller in a small way. Sure, sometimes you just can't wave because you didn't see the other person in time, or it's not safe to do so, or your hands are full of clutch and throttle. It's OK. Just do it when you can.

Your thoughts?

How It's Done: Pinstriping A Royal-Enfield Gas Tank

Here's a little mid-week video treat for you - one of the workers at Royal-Enfield pinstriping a gas tank.

Five Tips For Riding In Oppressive Summer Heat

Living through summer in Phoenix is the reason I've stopped joking to friends and family back in the frozen states about how I'll be kicking back by the pool in shorts with a beer on Christmas: it comes back to bite me every year just as they're getting some decent weather.

Some of you might be glad summer is here. I'm not.

Here in the post-apocalyptic desert wastes - that is to say, urban Arizona - the summer heat rides through you. Starting in late June, the vast expanses of concrete under a relentless sun combine to turn this city into an oven that doesn't cool off until Thanksgiving. It doesn't even cool down at night.

The pavement can get up to 150 degrees Fahrenheit, which combines with the heat coming off the motor and the surrounding cars. Getting caught in slow traffic in those conditions will teach you what heat is.

So, what is an earnest biker to do?

Keep riding, of course. Here are a few hard-won bits of advice for those of you who are new to riding in the heat.

Keep yourself covered - Shorts and a sleeveless Corona shirt aren't ever appropriate clothing. On a motorcycle, however, what you might think is keeping you cool is actually
interfering with your built in cooling system. Heat combined with the wind we encounter while riding can evaporate your sweat almost instantly. If you stay covered up, your sweat will accumulate enough to actually do its job and cool you off. You want your skin to be covered with some kind of material that just lets enough air move through it to be comfortable. Note that in July in Phoenix, "comfortable" is relative.

Drink a ton of water - Did I mention you'll be sweating? In intense heat, you can sweat up to four quarts in an hour. That water has to come from somewhere. Drink drink drink. Stop now and then and drink some more. Really, if you're going to be riding in the heat, you need to drink more water than you think you need to. Your goal should be to piss clear. Stopping for a bathroom break beats stopping for dehydration and heat stroke.

By the way, drink water, not sport-drinks.. You might have an occasional electrolyte-laden beverage, if you like, but what you really need is plain old water.

Avoid riding during the hottest time of the day - Seriously, take a siesta during the heat, and ride earlier or later in the day. If it's so hot it's unholy, we'll all forgive you for waiting until a cooler part of the day to ride.

Get elevated now and then - Higher altitudes bring lower temperatures. When you can't take the heat anymore, go up a big hill. It gets 3 to 5 degrees cooler for every 1000 feet of elevation you gain.

Adjust your attitude - It's hot out. You're going to sweat a lot and won't be entirely comfortable. Accept it, get out there and ride.

A final note - some people just can't handle a lot of heat. It's not wussiness, they're just not built to cope with it. If you're the kind of person who gets sick after an hour outside in hot weather, don't ride in the heat. Nothing sucks as much as struggling to get your helmet off before you barf while sweltering in your riding gear on the side of the road.

LJ's Pizza, We Hardly Knew Ye.

I saw a really sad thing the other day. In the window of LJ's Pizza, there was a sign that said "Closed." Sad enough as it was, but making it worse was the sign underneath that said "Out of Business." Down the road, another pizza joint had a sign up that read "RIP LJ's"

Lucky always cries when a local pizza joint goes out of business.

Apparently they've been losing money, and their lease was up. On top of that, the landlord refused to lower the rent.

Which makes me wonder what the heck is wrong with the landlord. Sorry to get local on you folks, but Mesa's new tag line ought to be "Empty Commercial Buildings - We've Got Them!" Alternate that with "Ever-Expanding Blight - It's What We Do." LJ's was practically the only open business on it's block. I believe that they were losing money, but they always had cars out front whenever I drove by - unlike most places in Mesa. Who do they expect to rent that place now?

Honestly, if you want to be sure your new retail business will fail, open it in downtown Mesa. Every time a new business opens up in the area, I root for them and try to give them some money, but I don't expect them to last long. A couple of them actually seem to be doing OK - finally - but in the 9 years I've worked and lived around Mesa, I've seen a tremendous amount of turnover in the local businesses. And there are a ton of empty storefronts.

I hate it, because the buildings in downtown Mesa have charm and character in bulk. I want to rescue every one of these buildings and put something amazing in them. Unfortunately, the way of retail seems to be "Move to the newest mall or perish." And if there's one thing we build a lot of in the Valley of the Sun, it's new malls.

Grr.

Anyway, there's an article about the closing of LJ's over here. I wish their owners the best in their new endeavors.

New Posts Coming Soon

So I've been struggling with a severe lack of things to say lately. I've been trying to come up with content more meaningful than "Some guy cut me off on the freeway and I was angry for a little while, then I got over it," and it's been challenging.

Anyway, I mostly just want to touch base with you lovely readers and assure you that I've got some new stuff stewing around in my noodle, and it will be posted shortly.