Freebird
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Everything posted by Freebird
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Really sorry to here this Monty but glad that everybody is OK. There is never a good time for such things to happen but this time of the year is especially bad.
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I've never owned one but if it runs and you can get it for $150.00 with a title, I I would buy it in a heartbeat.
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Very good. I may need to borrow it to get to the airport tomorrow morning.
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Not the news I wanted to hear. I'm flying to Minneapolis tomorrow for our semi-annual sales meeting. Will be in Cannon Falls until Tuesday evening then driving to the Hayward, WI area for the rest of the week. I assume the Hayward area is getting hammered also. Sorry, no time for meeting up with anybody. They have us scheduled almost 24/7 it seems.
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I don't remember exactly but it was either an individual or a group of people at the Venturers site. Maybe one of our members who is also a member over there can find out. The company that I work for now does extensive vacuum forming and injection molding. Our primary product is dimensional letters for sign companies but we could easily vacuum mold these also. I suppose they could also be injection molded but the tooling gets expensive. I don't know if they would be interested in doing it though and have my doubts that they would. I know that they would not do it in violation of a patent though.
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Well folks, I know that Robert DID have a patent on these pods. After he passed away, his wife eventually sold the remaining inventory and sold the patents that he had. Robert had several other products also. I know he had a tank bib and a windshield and he also had an air filter relocation kit. I don't remember the exact details but it used pod filters to relocate the air filters and he made storage compartments that installed where the existing filters are. He was a great guy. I met him a couple of times at the VDaze Rallies that are held by the Motorcycle Touring Association (previously the Venture Touring Society). Now the thing about patents is that they are very easy to obtain. It's not that difficult to get a patent on just about anything you can imagine. The difficult part is DEFENDING that patent should anybody ever copy your product and you end up going to court. It is fairly easy to have a patent thrown out. Being the first person to patent a product does not mean that you have a good patent. If you end up going to court to defend it, all somebody has to do is show that the product was designed before you obtained your patent. The product never even had to be manufactured or patented. If you can show artwork, design notes, just about anything and can validate that the drawings were done before the patent was issued, that patent will be thrown out. I know this because I have been involved in a couple of such cases all the way through the court cases. I worked for a company that designed and manufactured automated electroplating equipment. We had a patented shielding system that would improve the current distribution and create a more even distribution of copper and tin on circuit boards. When a competitor copied our shielding system, we took them to court to defend our patent. It turns out there there was some artwork discovered in Japan that was done many years ago that was essentially the same design as our shielding system. It was never produced nor patented but just the fact that it existed was enough to invalidate our patent and we lost the case. So, the pods were patented but first of all, it would be a matter of whether or not the person with the patent cares about spending thousands of dollars to defend it in court and then it would be a matter of whether it could be successfully defended. I have my doubts that it could be.
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That's interesting Mel. I lived in the Muscle Shoals area of Alabama during those years. There was a father and son team there who raced at Bowling Green in the 750 class on Hondas. Their names were Elvis and Roger Landers. Roger was the son and did the riding. I think it was about 1976 when I was wanting another bike and had them build a 750 Honda for me. I don't remember all the details now but I know that they milled the head to raise the compression, installed a different cam, cut the transmission and etc. There was other stuff done also but I don't remember what. It was finished with a smaller fiberglass gas tank and a drag type seat. It also had a 4 into 1 header. It was built for me to ride on the street but it ran like a scalded ape. I had a lot of fun on that bike. I'm not sure but I think that at some point they moved to a different class and started riding 900 Kawasakis.
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Well, as expected, I did not win the auction. It's for the best though. It went for about $125.00 more than what I had put in as my maximum.
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Well the good news is that there is almost zero chance that I will get it for the amount that I bid. If I do, it is one heck of a deal. The auction ends later tonight so I'll know soon but I'm about 99.9% sure already that I won't win it. That would be a GOOD thing because I much as I would like to have it, I sure don't need to buy it right now.
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Yea...some seem to be taking a long time arriving. 'Tis the season though.
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Yea...I was born in NE Texas. Eileen convinced me about how WONDERFUL it is in Ohio though so we moved here about 11 years ago. I was duped...DUPED I TELL YA! Naw....I like it here just fine. There are things that I miss about Texas but I sure like the summers better here. I can be happy pretty much anywhere I suppose.
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Now I'm starting to wish that I hadn't even started this thread. It got me all excited again and I just put a bid in on another guitar that I absolutely should NOT buy. Oh well....I doubt that I'll end up with it and if I did, it would be one heck of a deal. Won't know for a few more hours.
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Yea, maybe it's time to open that up for discussion again.
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Yes, his name was Robert and he was a long time member of the Venture Touring Society, don't know if he was a Star member or not. Nice product. I actually have one sitting on my shelf in the garage that I have never installed. I went with the gauges from Ponch. Have thought about using it for some other things...maybe a clock and something else but haven't done so. I just have the housing, no gauges in it. Robert sold it with your choice of gauges or just the pod that you could install your own gauges in. He was a good man and was taken from us by cancer several years ago.
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The first thing that I would recommend would be to flush and replace the fluid. Sounds like it has air in it an probably moisture also.
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It might be fun to have a little jam session at Maintenance day. Like I said, I have 3 acoustics here so if some can't bring their guitars along, you would be welcome to use one of mine. I know there it won't be the same as playing your own but the Seagull plays very well and the Epiphone should also when I get it back from the Luthier. The Yamaha is a cheapo but will do in a bind. The Seagull is an acoustic electric but I don't presently have an amp. I could probably borrow one from somebody if any of you want one available though, just let me know. I tell you what. These guitars to me are almost like a sickness comparable to the motorcycle. Though I'm not worth a darn, I love the instruments and would probably own a dozen of them if I could justify it. I would love to have a Les Paul and also a nice hollow body jazz electric on the lines of a Gretsch or something. Would also like to upgrade from my present Seagull to an artist series. I've told myself that I would not buy another guitar until when and IF I improve to the point of thinking that I deserve to reward myself with another one. At the rate I'm going, that may never happen.
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Just after Christmas last year, there was a discussion where at least a few of you had gotten guitars and were starting the learning process. So...how goes it? How many of you have stuck with it and how many of those guitars are sitting around collecting dust now? I slacked off a bit but have gotten back into it over the past few weeks. I took too long a break from practicing and let my fingertips get soft again but they are getting back into shape now. Still playing my Seagull and have taken it on the weekly trips for the past few weeks again. I also finally broke down and took my old Epiphone to a highly recommended Luthier and he is in the process of setting it up and making some repairs on it. I bought it new back in 1971 or '72 so it is almost 40 years old now. He is resetting the neck, repairing a couple of loose braces on the inside, dressing the frets and various other things. It still looks great but needed some attention to get the action improved. I'm probably spending as much on it as it is worth but I guess it has some sentimental value to me so I told him to go ahead with the work. He did give me a GREAT deal because his business is a bit slow this time of the year. So..how about it...are any of you experts yet? I know that I'm not. It just doesn't come natural to me and I will have to work at it a lot harder.
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OK....whatever you say. Remember though....you may fool me...you may fool everybody else here...but Santa...that guy knows EVERYTHING.
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You could always bring her here to perform at Maintenance Day...the pay's not good but the company....well.....never mind....
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Very nice indeed. Maybe we should be getting autographs now.
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I seldom close mine during the riding season but I do turn it off during the winter months. Never have a problem in the spring. Just turn on the petcock, hit the starter and off we go.
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Well...if that is true...who are you and what did you do with Naugh-T?
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Oh yea...I'm sure there is....maybe not actually IN Ohio..but nearby.
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Oh yea...I like. I would love to try one out.
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Nothing here either and we have no members with that username.
