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CaseyJ955

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Everything posted by CaseyJ955

  1. Thank you. Your friend is right IMHO. I sure understand choosing not to have pets for various valid reasons, but too just not like dogs is baffling. When in people's homes I was the guy that would always break away from people to befriend the family pet/s. The warmth shown here is moving. I cant thank you all enough.
  2. I had to whitelist this page to visit it, my network objected to force.com, once I got there I was greeted with a box to enter my 17 digit vin, page has analytics and not much else. Maybe this is not the correct link?
  3. Dont piss in the tall grass if you cant play with the big dogs.
  4. I'm not quite sure how to give a motorcycle two to the chest and one to the head haha. It's an old bike and could quit anywhere, I sort of picture myself sleeping in the woods with my leather as a pillow and the 9 for securing my place in the food chain. If I'm not going to town or around people I often don't carry one on my person. I do as a habit anytime I'm riding anywhere out of the way drop it into the tool bag with a few bottles of water.
  5. Factory tool pouch + tire plug kit + universal screwdriver with several high quality bits + hose to inflate tire from CLASS system in a pinch + 9mm handgun + a quality lock-wrench and Knipex slip joint.
  6. I live right near Rapid City, if you need some tools/assist let me know. I'll PM you my number just in case.
  7. Thank you all so much. I had no place else to say anything for her and I know this is a very warm community, I knew it would be understood here. You are all really great and I wont forget all the kind words! Neither will Jenkins. We were super lucky to have had her all these years. I was surprised how much gray her and I picked up over the last decade haha. Her years of faithful service and companionship deserved mention. She is with Jack Jack in the one pic, they were fast friends and now they run together again. A couple happy good-doggy pics of her from 2009 and 10. It's been great looking at all the old pics. Thank you, this has helped!
  8. I've been trying to ignore this and put it out of my head, cant. I didnt want to put this in the memory section as that seems for people. We got her when my kids were 10-11, they are now grown in their mid 20s. She came from the animal shelter and was a young adult when we got her. She was due to be put down some days earlier, but they were keeping her in the office space instead of the kennel area, said she was just too sweet to put down. Indeed she was, but black dogs/cats dont adopt out well and often put down according to them. Kids and I fell in love with her and brought her home 16 years ago. By this I estimate her age to be 18 -/+ a year. She saw me raise kids, divorce one gal and marry another, then go another 11 years after that. She has been turning pretty white for a few years now, the last year she was mostly deaf, blind enough to walk into walls and happy enough not to care much as long as we got our daily walk in the woods (we live in the woods by a creek) and her daily swim in the creek, which she awaited with great enthusiasm. She customarily jumped over a small part of the creek back to land, but the last few weeks she has missed a lot and smashed her face into the rocks or ground, seemingly unfazed all she wants to do when she gets out of the water is run run run. I've been unable to work for the last couple years and her and I have been spending a great deal of time together. For the last few years it was just her and I, and often the wife. I've known this was coming based on her age and her fading senses, she was always looking for food that she thought I threw, or completely missing food I did toss her way, she just couldn't see well enough but didnt want to miss out. She collapsed yesterday and couldn't get back up, I knew what was going on, I carried her outside into the woods and called my kids. My son made it here in time but everyone else was working. She died under the trees in the woods with my son and I holding her, when my daughter arrived we buried her half way down to the creek on her favorite route. Lots of tears shed, she lived a fantastic long life in a super loving family, and her death was fairly quick and exactly where she would have wanted to be, and not alone. As far as lives and deaths go she got pretty lucky. She was gone less than 2 hours after her collapse. Strangest thing though, as my son and I were there consoling her in the grass, two young bucks stepped out of the trees, got much closer than they normally do, within 15'. They stood there still for several minutes, took a few more steps, waited some more,right after Jenkins took her last breaths they turned and slowly walked away. In my grief I choose to believe they came to pick her up and take her with them. I'm a very tough sell on stuff like that but this was so unusual and the timing sure makes it hard to explain. This burns every bit as much as burying a person, I bond quickly and strongly with most animals. This one was my best friend for a decent chunk of my adult life. Now an old dog that was waaay on borrowed time anyway should not move the meter that much, but I cant keep my **** together. This is as much as I've hurt since my nephew passed a few years back. Sorry to rant or bring anyone down, I had to get this off my chest and felt like maybe some other dog lovers would enjoy her pics as much as I've enjoyed taking them. She was sure one of a kind! A couple pics of her with my son 2 years ago, it shows her delicate nature, and his. I have much older pics that the uplaod wont see, but she used to be a jet black lab with no trace of white. She got a whole lot more white since these pics 2 years ago. She brought us all so much joy and love, also she was one heck of a watch dog! I know she cant be replaced, no plans to even try. Her passing was no surprise, in fact I was expecting her to go years ago but she just kept on. Farewell Jenkins, we love you so very much, you are hugely missed my dearest friend!
  9. I'm seriously looking at these, my pain levels have elevated to a point where some days getting on the ground is a no-can-do if I have any desire to get back up. Does the app try to do anything besides read and report tire pressures, if so can any additional features be turned off within the app? Are the T fittings heavy enough to effect tire balance?
  10. Sounds like your on the right path. There is a pretty big difference between 117 and 127, if you feel it's a little rich up top try a step down and road test again. I went through this with the Vmax, tried several different mains until I had the most violent pull to redline, only then did I start messing with needle clip positions and lower jetting. I think I tried the same three sets a couple times just to find the cleanest pull up high. Small steps in jetting can have a fair impact. I bought 5 or 6 sets of main jets for the Vmax and it took a few swaps and road tests, it's worth it to find the right main jets, lots of extra yank on tap, especially at highway speeds. Very glad this is going in the right direction!
  11. My youtube is painfully slow. Highway in the Wind is going to be my pick of the day.
  12. Go ahead and put me down on that list, at least an EE would be nice. I've never owned an actual motorcycling boot, never found one wide enough without going a size or two larger. I've been using the same pair of urban blk leather boots long enough to have them resoled twice, easily 20 years. When I find better ones that fit this well I'll pull the trigger at almost any price.
  13. Bud, I like where your head is at! I hope everyone in the path stays safe and dry.
  14. My Vmax pump has been a touch noisy, so I took the liberty of calling this outfit and asking P&A. Priced like a quality unit, but in fact it is straight from China. He got really funny when I asked him if these were Japan made. He admitted it was Chinese stuff, it sounded to me like it's a question he has had to answer before. After he fessed up, his timber changed. I got sort of an "okayyesthankyougoodbye" haha.
  15. Brakes, on mine both front calipers were different sizes so betting on different kit numbers not only for rear but each of the front. For bike brakes I have a go-to guy that also helps with amazing tech support. I did not like the linked brakes so I ended up just throwing on some R6 brakes/EBC pads. When bleeding linked brakes, there is a brake line on the right of the bike with a bleeder valve up high, need to be aware of that during bleeding process, which is also outlined here somewhere. Mark at BrakeCrafters https://www.brakecrafters.com/ I've dealt with him before, none better. Also he wont sell Chinese parts, some OEM and some out of the UK, so you dont have to worry about him sticking you with unbranded junk. Since your new here and new-ish to mechanical stuff, I'm going to say something that should make some folks here roll there eyes "here he goes again" haha. Never use unbranded/Chinese parts on your bike, not for brakes, not for carbs, nothing anywhere. We have reliable sources for just about everything between folks here and that information is a search or an ask away. Yamaha OEM (Orig Equip Mfr)parts are often very spendy but there are quality options for just about all of it. I trust Mark not to give you junk, or misinformation. Brake fluid is pretty nasty and can even damage painted surfaces. Just keep in mind while working with it. If your not sure if you want to try it have a look at some youtube videos of motorcycle brake caliper rebuild. They are very similar between brands so a video of someone removing and rebuilding one might be a good watch to see if it's something your comfortable tackling. you'll need (seriously want) compressed air and some basic hand tools. The Pistons might be a bear to get out after a few decades of service/neglect. Carbs, From what you described and how long it sat with fuel in the belly, smart money is on bowls full of gunk clogging up jets. If it sat with ethanol it's almost a certainty, if the last guy used pure gasoline you may have a chance of clearing the jets with the Shotgun method (carbs on the bike), but I would keep expectations low on that. Here is one of our own treasured members talking about carb synch on youtube, gives you an idea. He's flat out nuts, much like myself, but super knowledgeable and very cool to boot. My youtube works painfully slow so I wont have many links to it as others may. There used to be a video of the Shotgun carb cleaning method on a Vmax (same procedure), but I cant for the life of me find it. You may see some Vmax references when working with Ventures, the engines and carbs are very similar and procedures are often the same. Do you have friends with experience/tools? Congrats on the bike, when you do get it sorted out you should be rewarded with a very comfortable touring bike. WELCOME!!
  16. Thank you! I've pushed bikes, paid for gas from random people and been genuinely stuck in the middle of nowhere. Late teens, I hitchhiked while pushing my out of gas XL500, between Rapid City and Nemo SD, and a guy delivering bread and baked goodies to grocery stores stopped and we loaded my bike into this bakery delivery van full of stuff. I figured on leaving the bike and getting a ride to the gas station and walking back, but he insisted we just snag it and go. He dropped me off at a gas station w/the bike, I had .35c to my name, he shook out a couple bucks and a handshake, I couldn't thank him enough. He just said to pay it forward. I was so broke, it was the 80s here and no jobs, but I so wanted to ride. How far can I go on the .72c I found between the couch cushions? I'd find out. I would love a 300+ range. I have an FZ which has a small 3.7 gal tank, but in most other regards should be able to be sport/distance ridden. If it passes the tour muster test I'll have to fix that with another couple gallons at least. I'm going to check but I think this one is a 1.5 or so US gallon. That would have saved my ass so many times over the years, not even kidding. Walking miles under the blazing hot sun gives a person time to reflect on things like this. I did a lot of this before cell phones and GPS, I really often had no idea where I was, where I was going or how far until gas. Sometimes I still dont pull out the phone, I just want to go. If I start to see a bit of traffic I go another way, thats my GPS. You can get these in other shapes and might be able to pack 3 gallons and still have some trunk space. This one is round because I thought it might be in character for the Vmax more than a rectangular fuel cell. I just never used it. Some of these sellers will make the size you want, with the necks/fillers where you want then and it's not that expensive considering what you get.
  17. I had an 86 Hyundai Excel. Man was that something, the right rear window worked, only door handle that had not fallen off so that was the way in! They have improved dramatically over the years. Anyone that can rank with Toyota and Honda has proven themselves at least highly competent. I'm still gun-shy on H/Kia, knowing folks that have also had checkered experiences with them. I would not be afriad to buy one today, for the price how can you go wrong? I see myself going back to BMW with a Toyota backup. Someone just destroyed my cosmically reliable 25 year old Lexus sedan, wife and I both heartbroken over it and we'll probably get another. BMW has something the others are missing, cant really put it into words. I'm willing to do the increased maintenance to enjoy what BMW has to offer, but not w/o a backup Toyota/Honda. BMW makes a car I want to drive. Toyota/Honda and probably Kia make cars I can drive if all else fails. I'm still not quite sold on Kia, but it's hard to deny that they are making a much better product, and in many reviews are competitive with Honda and Toyota. Thats huge. For me to leave Toyota someone has to show me a better product. Kia has not really been at the grown up table that long, in my mind they are still on probation, but I cant help but respect their turn around. H/Kia has the undisputed advantage of being economically priced and still being reviewed so highly, and we are indeed living in interesting times. I'm glad the choice exists to spend less, and I hope that H/Kia enjoy a lot of success. They sure earned it going from where they started to where they are now. As great as Korean and Japanese cars are, they do leave a massive void that BMW has filled quite nicely. Best of both worlds just means two cars, at least for now. I'm cool with that, and those are the choices that have served me exceedingly well over the years.
  18. I've never seen it on the street, just on CL. Pretty cool indeed. It's been listed for quite a while now. I have no doubt he has 25k worth of fabrication and parts, if not more. If he did it right he probably has a good chunk of that just into the engine/trans. Sadly, what we often discover is that the $$$$$$ we shovel into cars and bikes is not recovered when it's time to sell, sometimes quite the opposite. Still it's cool and unique, fun to see.
  19. I've tried it a couple times with the Venture, only to turn back. Not where you are/wanna go, but I got some silty slick dirt roads in NE, and some heavy gravel. Venture did not appreciate any of that, almost dropped it a couple times, ended up turning around. I also know that others have used these obese giants as ADV bikes, I'll bet puc has a few dirty miles under his belt haha. I think the Dunlop E3 tires not being suited for offroad use were a big factor. This bike just not designed for that sort of thing, BUT, I'll bet with a good ADV tire choice it might be passable. Personally I would be comfortable choosing a different tire and sticking with easy double track or plain ol' dirt country roads. With 100% street tires I would think real hard about how far into the trees/across the plains you really wanna go. Packed dirt roads or light gravel I can pass, nothing more with current tires, at least not for any real distance. I've never ridden in CA, I was only 11 when we fled to the Midwest, but I hear tell that where your headed is one of the most splendid parts of the whole state.
  20. When I first got my VMX, I wanted to take it distances, but a fuel range of, I dunno, NOTHING, stops that pretty quick. So I found these on Ebay and asked the seller to custom make one for me narrower so it would not look to stupid on the Vmax by sticking out. But, I figured touring a Vmax would be like drag racing an 883. Bought the Venture to tour and put the extra tank away a few years ago. I snapped a few pics just for fun, I'd pass it along, or now that I have an FZ09 that I would like to distance ride it might end up on that. Here is a pic of how it fills a Gen1 trunk. If I were keeping the Venture I would hard mount that right in the trunk there and plumb it in a way that I open the valve and it drains into the service tank. It's would be a little slow, but a helluva lot faster than walking through death valley. When I ride, I ride with the goal of finding cool VERY small towns isolated away from civilization, just generally being as far from everything/anything as I can get. Extra fuel is a real plus for this sort of touring. Even on the Venture there were a few times where I was SURE I was gonna be hoovin' it. I would imagine that for interstate touring the Venture has adequate range, but interstates are not all that much fun, now are they? Those red Jerry-type cans get lots of love from folks too, I've read many praises.
  21. I've been noticing this on CL for awhile now and thought you guys might get a kick out of it. I have no idea who's it is, I figure at this price he will probably own it forever, but it's pretty cool, esp for the HD partial among us. Aside from engine choice and placement it reminds me of an old 7. My first thought was, spin that transaxle around and mid-mount a GL1800 mill in it with F1 style header/collectors. Kudos to the builder, sure dont see this sort of thing around often. https://rapidcity.craigslist.org/mcy/d/rapid-city-custom-built-racer/7173096743.html
  22. I believe next time there is an update you will have a handful of times you can postpone it, it buys you some time. I used to take my comp to my sons place in town to use the FAST "city boy" internet, for downloading games or heavy patches. I cant anymore, if I take my PC somewhere with an unsecured internet I know MS will lean me over the back of the couch in short order. I believe a VPN will solve that too, and that is my next project. VPN with Pi-hole takes a little setup. So if you DO find an effective non-pihole workaround I'd like too hear that too. I suspect MS patches also include counter measures for known patch avoidance methods. Also in my experience (limited tech smarts) if you get the reminder to postpone, the problem still exists, and the update WILL come. There is a medic/rescue package that runs to fix the update process should anything go wrong there. I had both of those disabled. Checking for updates rendered a blank screen. Update still came. Another thought, there was somewhere on reddit an explanation of all the domains used by MS/Windows and if you could select the correct ones to stop the problem of forced updates you might be able to just set those domains as blacklisted right in your modem/router. I have a zyxel 5000 modem and it has some places to blacklist domains. I failed at this, probably an older list of what to block, but someone with more tech smarts might be able to make that work with no further spending. With the Pi-hole I got fed up and blocked ALL MS/Windows domains, except one for time, which gave me my first and only success against the update issue. Also, nothing broke, at least nothing that I use. I'm feelin' ya on the no income part, I served my last client two years ago.
  23. I just love his work, also yea, makes at least a little sense.
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