I Hear Crack is Cheaper

Since the last post there were a couple bike events that I attended. The first was the Annual Fellowship of Christian Riders bike blessing and ride. On this ride I got to "ride safety" that means started up front and stopped at an intersection, held traffic and waited for the group to pass. Then ride around the group back to the front to do it again.
The other event was the American Legion 2012 Bama Southern Romp. This is where I met Greg Williams. Greg was at this event as a vendor. His company Light One Up, sells LED kits for motorcycles.I had him install one on my bike. He did say that I would want more.
He was right.
As of today the bike looks like the top picture.

Original install

I Guess 4s

In January I posted that I had decided to stick with my venerable iPhone 3Gs and with Apple's iOS 5.1 update, I was happy with that decision.
It seems that someone else also liked my 3Gs, in it's nice red Mophie Juice Pak, with four awesome looking blue LED battery indicators...

Well Poo.

What to do now?

Do I make the jump to Android or not?

Not.

For these reasons, in random order.
-There are too many android models to choose from.
-I have legacy apps for iOS.
-I bought a mount for a mp3 player and it was for an iPhone 4/4s.
-I had subscribed to iCloud  so all of my music is not on the phone

Well ain't that exciting

I commute on the bike, although this year I have decided to drive the car at least once a week. That's the plan. However I expected to pick the days or drive because of weather. Not so much yesterday.

Well, while I was downtown, I pulled up to a stoplight, down shifted to first and pop the clutch lever hits the grip. Great! I took this weekend off to ride. I've invited several people to a motorcycle event. Grrrrr! I called my dad and he came with my trailer to pick me up. I think I'm going to get a front wheel chock for my trailer. I think there will be less stress in moving the bike this way with a chock. Anyway, I called the dealer and ordered the parts. The guy said that it would be there Friday. Tuesday to Friday without the bike? No. I had them sent Next-Day-Air because if there was a problem, I would have time to rectify it. 

Today, I am on the bike again, $116 later and it took about 10 minutes to replace. Sigh...

On (Engine) Guard!!

A little while ago, I bid on and won an engine guard and a drivers back rest  for my bike on eBay. The backrest arrived first. I carry some tools with me so I can do minor repairs(usually, popping the seat off so that i can jump-start the thing!) When the back rest arrived I popped the back seat off and intended to install it quickly. I thought that it would be simple, after all the instructions had for lines:

1. remove side cover
2. remove passenger seat
3. remove latch mechanism and install bracket under mechanism. 
4. reassemble

Simple right? NOT! 

 Epic FAIL!

There was a telephone number on the piece of paper with the aforementioned instructions. Upon dialing this number, I speak to a young lady that sound as though she was recently hired. After some time on hold she asks me to email pictures to them. Right. But, I do as I am asked, and the email bounces back. Well, I wait for Monday and this time i eBay Message them. They respond with some story that they recently changed the mount. Well their new mount doesn't work. I begin the process of returning it. Yay! I get to spend money to ship something back.

About the same time I bid on an engine guard for my bike. I wanted one so that I could install highway pegs and driving lights. I waited and waited for it to arrive and when it did, I was excited. I opened the box and held the new (to me) engine guard  up to my bike imagining how nice it was going to look. So, I grabbed my tools and sat down to install my new piece. I took the radiator shroud off, put the clamps around the down tubes of the frame, and my heart sank. the description on the eBay post said that it used the stock bolts. Did I miss something? Maybe this was for a regular VN2000, and mine was a Classic LT, and somehow it is different. I contemplated fabricating mounting tabs and brackets. I also posted these pictures in a Facebook Group for Vulcan 2000 owners, and asked for their opinions. Mariano Vincent de Urquiza one of the members of this group came to the rescue. Not only did he explain the situation but due to a recent accident he had to replace his engine guard and he had the necessary hardware. He offered to ship me the mounting hardware if I paid the shipping. Let's see how fast I can operate PayPal. Mariano's parcel arrives and again the excitement brews. I get started at 4pm on Good Friday, not one of my smarter moves. I had to abandon the project after 30 minutes because I had to be at the church at 4:45 to run sound for the 6pm church service. Mariano's also had some advice for the installation. Start with the lower left side. He is correct!

Sqeak-no-more!

If you have read any of my blog, you may have picked up on the fact that I ride a motorcycle. If you are an enthusiast, then you may want to know the brand and model of my bike. It is a 2006 Kawasaki VN2000F6F. The reason I bring this up is there are unique issues with these bikes. One of these issues was driving me nuts lately. The final drive belt on these bikes occasionally makes noise. It has to do, I think with a slight misalignment of the pulleys. Everything has been dandy until this wet weather and the final drive belt started squeaking when it was damp. On the recommendation of someone that I met in a Facebook Vulcan Owners group, I when to the local Harley-Davidson Dealer. I purchased "Poly-Lube" this is supposed to be used on the primary drive belt. awesome advise!

DeICEing - the first step

Well, I started it. I have wanted to make my old bike electric. That poor bike has been sitting for years. I finally  took the first step. One of the blogs that I found about this called this de-ICE-ing (Internal Combustion Engine).  I did finally get the motor out but it was too dark to take a photo with my phone. There is still more work to do, removing cooling reservoirs and other non essentials. I have no idea how long this is going to take.

Perspective...

I got this in an email. I thought it was cool.




Need a perspective, try this on for size.

I certainly thought this was enlightening.
Did you even realize we knew much beyond our sun?


It's a big universe.

Antares is the 15th brightest star in the sky.

It is more than 1000 light years away.
1 light year is 63240 AU(Astronomical Units)
1 Astronomical Unit = 92,955,887.6 miles



The universe is so vast it is not comprehensible by the human mind.
It would be like an ant trying to understand the wonder of the internet.
It can't be done.

The universe humbles us, as it should. (How much more ought we be humbled by the creator of such a universe?)