McBrush
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Everything posted by McBrush
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Hey, how much beer and toilet paper do I need to offer for maintenance day before you say yes?? And you tell me to bring dry leaves.... ps. Didn't you find the cash envelope I left for you? Or did that darned stray dog eat it?
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OK, so I cruise out to Don's house to have him so generously sync my carbs, and in the meantime I have a potential buyer who lives 30-40 minutes from there. The buyer meets me at Freebird's house, sees the bike, talks to Don, and we walk over to the pond to discuss the deal. Under threat of attack by pond monsters (we were standing next to the 'Beware' sign) we made a fast, no-hassle deal! Not sure if it was the fear of attack or just Don's good nature that assisted the most, but my thanks and gratitude to both. Not only did he get a great running bike in the deal, but hopefully he will be one more attendee at maintenance day. Note to Don - the bike ran tip-top, of course, on the way home. Watched it pull out on the trailer this morning, so I'm back to a one-bike stable with the 1100 Virago. Stay safe everyone! Have a great riding season!
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I think I'll bring some of those dried leaves we talked about!
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Haha, I agree, SHE just doesn't know any better! She says she has seen snow, just never witnessed it falling. I hear Gorge Road is a nice route out of town there.
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Wow, that's amazing! We had temps here 2 weeks ago in the 70's F (22C), and last week in the 60's F (18C) and a thunderstorm came through the other day and lightning hit a landmark church in Cleveland and burned it to the ground! I can't remember when I've been able to ride so many miles during March, but looked outside 15 minutes ago and there's a blanket of snow on the ground! WTF?? Stay safe out there! PS. Annie, I have a friend who lives in the Adelaide area (Crows fan) who has NEVER seen it snow! Quite possibly you haven't either?? I can't imagine...
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My 2nd gen '04 gets over 40MPG consistently. My 1100 Virago got 45 on 3 different trips last year. It's a shame these shops no longer have experienced 'bike' mechanics. -
So how does one feel about it as a red-blooded American AND a native Pittsburgher and Penguins fan?? GREAT to see Sid the Kid score the winning goal, but to see him do it for Canada?? All I can say is CONGRATS!!! What a great Olympics. The only thing I miss is when there was more patriotism and less personal showboating among the athletes. I guess endorsements and media exposure have brought us to that. All in all, Vancouver did a hellova job and it's great to see the host country lead in Gold Medals.
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His was one heck of a trip! I was following along from the Virago site, as he was on a 750 Virago. Amazing the way he overcame obstacles including a broken side case in the Yukon. One post, and a fellow Virago rider express mailed him a spare out of his own garage! Great pics too. Here's another link to his blog. http://vagrantbiker.blogspot.com/
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Exactly my experience. I've been using the synthetic in the Venture, but switched back to the conventional in my Virago (40+K) due to a few drops on the floor. My understanding is that the smaller molecular structure of the synthetic allows it to find more nooks and crannies to seep through. Of course, now that the Virago is marking it's territory as such, I can affectionately call it my YamaHarley. Of course, all my Harley-riding friends have bikes that don't leak at all, that seems to be a symptom of the really old 60's, 70's bikes. As for the Rotella, I love it and even found it cheaper once at the parts store (Advance Auto) than it was at WalMart.
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Someone turned me on to Susan Tedeschi in the late 90's and I got to see her open for...ready for this...Buddy Guy and B.B. King at the Iron City Ampetheater, Station Square in Pittsburgh on my birthday in 2000! I was going to see her, so BIG bonus getting BB and Buddy at the same show!! Always been a Janis fan too.
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The original owner of my Venture had 5 previous Ventures - according to his dealer he would ride 100,000 miles and trade it in on a new one. Unfortunately, just before his 80th birthday he passed on, which is how I got his newest one with 15K on it. Lots and lots of life in these bikes, for sure!
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Perhaps we will see a fund started somewhere for the families of those who were killed. That would be a more deserving cause, IMO. It's still early, maybe we'll see something in the coming weeks with the Holidays approaching.
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Yup, beautiful up here in NE Ohio too, mid 60's and perfect! Got in some good miles on both the Virago and the Venture today!
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Thankfully there was no protest today. Here's a news clip. http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/10/lake_county_marine_22_who_died.html God Bless all the men and women and their families who serve this country. Past, present and future.
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Anyone familiar with the San Jaun Scenic Byway in CO?
McBrush replied to Midrsv's topic in Watering Hole
Have to agree with this, even though I only saw a small piece of 550. I came across 50 to 550 and south where I stayed in Ridgeway, but took a ride to Ouray where the scenery was getting to be breathtaking. Unfortunately I ran out of time and turned around there and went back to Ridgeway, The next day I rode across 62 and 145 to Telluride, then took 145 to Cortez. That was a nice ride, long smooth downhill run out of elevation, but I'm sure 550 would have been the more scenic choice. (Town of Dolores had the most expensive gas I saw on my 5700 mile trip!) I would guess that for breathtaking views and more challenging roads through elevation, 550 is the way to go. Anyway you cut it, it's going to be a great ride through Colorado! Just pick one and go, otherwise your head will do this - -
What about the blonde who bought a thermos... ...and she took it to work the next day. Her boss saw it on her desk. 'What's that,' he asked? 'Why, that's a thermos..... It keeps hot things hot and cold things cold,' she replied. Her boss inquired, 'What do you have in it?' The blond replied..... ...'Two popsicles and some coffee.'
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This was sent to me earlier today, just passing it along...I have no idea how accurate it is. SO..you took FEDZILLA up on its offer of $4500. dollars to trade in your old "Clunker" (interesting choice of words)? Well, let's see who got the best of that "deal"... If you traded in a clunker worth $3500, you got $4500 off for an apparent "savings" of $1000. You could have gotten $3,500 if you had just traded the car in. So you really are $1,000 ahead (depending on your clunker's value) at this point. Not too bad... However, you WILL have to pay taxes on the $4500 come April 15th (something that no auto dealer will tell you). If you are in the 30% tax bracket, you will pay $1350 on that $4500. So, rather than save $1000, you will actually pay an extra $350. to the feds. In addition, you traded in a car that was most likely paid for. Now you have 4 or 5 years of payments on a car that you did not need, trading in a "clunker" that was costing you less to runthan the payments that you will now be making.. Even if you save $1,000. d ollars a year in gas due to better mileage, you're still gonna be in the red for five years....hello? But wait, it gets even better: you also got ripped off by the dealer. For example, the month before the "cash for clunkers" program started, every dealer here in LA was selling the Ford Focus with all the goodies including A/C, auto transmission, power windows, etc for $12,500. because competition was stiff due to poor sales from the stalled economy. When "cash for clunkers" came along, they stopped discounting them and instead sold them at the list price of $15,500. So, you paid $3000 more than you would have the month before. Honda, Toyota , and Kia played the same list price game that Ford and Chevy did. Now let's do the math.... You traded in a car worth: $3500 You got a discount of: $4500 --------- Net so far +$1000 But you have to pay: $1350 in taxes on the $4500 -------- Net so far: -$350 (that's minus...in the red) And you paid: $3000 more than the car was selling for the month before ---------- Net Loss: -$3350 We could also add in the additional taxes (sales tax, state tax, dealer prep, etc.) on the extra $3000 that you paid for the car, along with the Five years of interest on the car loan; but let's just stop here while you kick yourself. Suffice it to say that those costs will be much higher than any savings you get from "better mileage". So who actually made out on the deal? FEDZILLA collected taxes on the car along with taxes on the $4500 they "gave" you. The car dealers made an extra $3000 or more on eve ry car they sold along with the kickbacks from the manufacturers and the loan companies. Manufacturers got to dump lots of cars they could not give away the month before. Lots of good or repairable used cars got taken off the market, crushed and sold as scrap metal to (ready for this?) CHINA ! (Look it up...) And the poor consumer got saddled with even more debt that they cannot afford. FEDZILLA'S merry men (who promised that people making less than $250,000.. would pay "not one red cent more in taxes") will make millions in new tax revenues after convincing Joe Consumer that he was getting $4500 in "free" money from the "government" In fact, Joe was giving away his $3500 car and paying an additional $3350 for the privilege. Chicago politics gone global...with an agenda. If you find errors in this math, please let me know...being a simple guy, I'm always willing to learn new things; and if you took "advantage" of the Clunkers deal, I have some swamp land down in Florida that's for sale...
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Well, I was born In Beaver Falls, in Beaver County PA (home of Joe Namath). In Western PA, up near Cook Forest along Rt. 208 is a small town named Lickingville. There used to be a bar owned by a guy named Ziggy called the Zig Zag, and it was on 69 Beaver Street, Lickingville. Honestly, I used to stop there all the time, and still have a sweatshirt (see pic). It was a biker bar by summer, campers and hunters year round. Too bad, it was torn down/converted into a few apartments. Can't make stuff like this up!
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Just curious, which Meet-n-Eat does this refer to? Shouldn't this thread just be moved to the Made-in-America-Bike-Riders-Bashing section? If I had a place to store a trailer I'd have one. I could take more trips across the country and establish a 'home' base with friends while I take off to ride for a day, days, or a week or more at a time. I can think of at least 5 more reasons I would trailer on occasions.
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Everyone I know (including me) enjoys the ride up or down Rt 100 through Vermont. I've never stopped anywhere to enjoy the local places, but the roads sure are nice!
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I went there when it first was opened to the public, and you're right, it's a very emotional time. Here's a few pics from then, I can't remember the year, but it may have been 2003 or 2004. Watermarks on the pics from where I had them developed (I took pics of the pics to get them online). We didn't have the pleasure of a guide back then to give all the details, but was still worth the trip since we were in Johnstown at the time.
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I don't know about restoring, but I had a 1980 XS 850 special & loved it. Big enough for road trips, nimble enough for around town.
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Since I was on a Virago when I bought this, I refer to it as 'The Beast'. My Virago riding buddies call it 'The Big White Sofa'.
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Different dealers handle parts differently. I would try to call a few other dealers to see if just the part you need can be ordered. I'm always surprised with the dealer I use, as he carries some of the smallest nuts and bolts, even for my 95 Virago.
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Yeah, but I bet you didn't get the neato groovy cassette deck....nyuk nyuk nyuk...those are great rides, I'm sure it will serve you well.