StormRaven

I'd like to thank everyone who shared their technique on keeping balance. Today, I found out what the main problem was. It wasn't so much my technique not working, but the clutch was being too fickle to get a proper "friction nudge," leaving me to feeling too wobbly at the low speeds. Yesterday I just changed out the clutch plates for the Barnett Disks (thanks Skydoc!) and BOY what a difference. I can keep her rolling at 1-2 mph for as long as I want, feet on the pegs, with no feeling of wobblyness. Also, the 'zuki hasn't had such power or response since I first got her (though that could be more of a combination of the new clutch and putting the Cobra pipes back on, with baffles this time). Unfortunately, on today's test run I wound up losing a baffle to one of the Cobras on the road. Screw head apparently melted through during the ride after I just put them in yesterday so I've got a bit of a harmonic ring in my ear now. It's going to be earplugs for a while until the replacement baffle comes in.

Vid's clean, no virus attached. Just a standard youtube link.

In the few weeks riding I have a question regarding 4 way stops. There's one such stop on my way to school where traffic tends to be quite heavy going in all four directions, and moves with relative regularity. It moves in such a way that traffic maintains an inconsistent roll of less than 5 mph (speedo isn't even registering at this point) all the way up to the stop sign itself where the lead vehicle can do a 3 to 5 second touch and go waiting for cross traffic to clear the intersection. The problem with the intersection for bikes is that there are rumble strips warning of the stop sign ahead, but at the heaviest times of traffic, the line is already formed beyond the farthest strip, meaning I'm having to go over these strips at less than 5mph. I'm getting used to doing this without having the fear of the bike jarring out from underneath me. My issue is, I'm not quite comfortable with pulling my legs up on to the pegs while doing the line crawl and usually have my boots skimming the air just above the pavement, not touching down unless the bike feels like it's leaning too far one way or the other, which a quick kick off, counter steer, running duck walk, or combination usually suffices to keep things balanced until the speed can come back up a little. Is this the right way to do it? I just get the feeling that there's too much that could go wrong if I stick in this habit, such as a boot bouncing off the pavement and winding up in the wheel somehow, or wedged between the road and the pipe; luckily the 'zuki is a shaft drive so I don't necessarily have to worry about getting caught in a belt or chain while pulling this off, but I'd rather not get into that habit either if I wind up having a bike with one of those in the future. So, is there a better way to do this "stop line crawl", or am I stuck with my method and just have to pull it off as safely as I can? It's not something that was really gone over in the MSF. Yeah they did taking the bike down a narrow lane for about 20 ft at minimal speed, but that was done at between 5 to 10 mph and I do have to say that the knobby tires of the dual sport did help with getting the slow feel of the rumble strips under wraps.

Good Idea until it gets implemented like those cars with the open door alarm: "You're in Fouth Gear! You're In Fourth Gear! You're in Fourth Gear!...." By the time you reach fifth, you're probably ready to put the bike down and shoot the block.

Yeah...GAWildKat & I do this all the time...and we're only between 3 and 12 inches apart, in bed, on separate laptops. Isn't that right Hunni?

Well, I just got back from leaving the bike parked in Walgreen's till the mechanic can pick it up. Roomie is pretty sure it is just the spline since the transmission is going through all the gears just fine without any grinding. and the bike just behaves like it's in Neutral. I'll leave it to the mechanic to make a full diagnosis of everything that's wrong with the bike that I haven't been able to see, then have him fix it up and change all the fluids. Aside from that last few hundred feet, she rode like a dream for the rest of the 60 miles I put on her today. Little bit touchy with how much throttle it needs to start out with from a dead stop, but otherwise she was liquid smooth. At that last intersection I was making a left turn waiting on the green arrow. When the arrow came, I picked up the throttle a bit, let the clutch out slowly....then she bogged and stalled. Cranked it, picked up the throttle some more, let out the clutch slowly....then she bogged and stalled again. Did it a third time after a quick kick to the gear shift to make absolutely sure it was in 1st (it was), put the throttle half way, let out the clutch gently, and she rolled up to about 10 mph before behaving like it was in neutral, made it through the intersection and came to a stop in the bicycle lane about 600 feet from the corner. Threw on the flashers and pleaded with the girl to move...but like arguing with certain stubborn redhead, I was not getting any headway. My Riding partner and I rolled it into the Walgreens that was right there, called the shop to see when they could pick it up, and called my wife to pickup the saddlebags, my gear, and myself. Then I checked in with the manager to make sure it was ok to leave the bike there overnight. And that's where I am right now. Lamenting the break down, and relishing the ride in one fell swoop. And that, ladies and gentleman, is how my first ever semi-long distance ride on a bike went. Please excuse me while I pace a trail into the carpet while I wait for round two. http://www.volusiariders.com/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif Oh, and as a side note, It wasn't wheelies that cause the spline to break...otherwise it would have done it after the first time, or at least the second, third...or tenth time I pulled one. That last time, I was just going normal even keel throttle. For those that can't take a joke:

Yep. Title says it. I've got my first bike. First thing to do is change all the fluids, get new tires and for the Love of Larry, I gotta get rid of those damn flame mirrors. I can't see diddly through 'em. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v281/GAWildKat/Volusia%20Intruder/Volusia-HDR.jpg Here's the best photo I have of it so far. If you want to see more of the baby http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v281/GAWildKat/Volusia%20Intruder/ ^ go that way!

Upon her arrival on March 4th, Annie has been [safely] introduced to the household critters with less than enthusiastic reactions. (More akin to "What the crap is this thing?") http://kosovmd.ravenrosecomputing.com/annie/IMG_0001.JPGhttp://kosovmd.ravenrosecomputing.com/annie/IMG_0003.JPG http://kosovmd.ravenrosecomputing.com/annie/IMG_0005.JPG After which she was a bit overwhelmed with the amount of DVD movies we had, and a bit underwhelmed at the number of TV channels available. http://kosovmd.ravenrosecomputing.com/annie/IMG_0002.JPG Then on Saturday (5th) We took Annie to see the Museum of Aviation in Warner Robins. http://kosovmd.ravenrosecomputing.com/annie/IMG_0006.JPG After Being shown the massive underside of the B-1B Bomberhttp://kosovmd.ravenrosecomputing.com/annie/IMG_0009.JPGhttp://kosovmd.ravenrosecomputing.com/annie/IMG_0007.JPG she wanted to do her own in-depth inspection of the landing gearhttp://kosovmd.ravenrosecomputing.com/annie/IMG_0008.JPG coming to her own conclusion that it wasn't as sturdy as her Venture... She also got to do an inspection on the A-10 Warthog...but she seemed to be a bit less than enthused with that. http://kosovmd.ravenrosecomputing.com/annie/IMG_0010.JPG Unfortunately, despite WildKat's best efforts to keep between Annie and the uniformed gentleman we just couldn't keep her from flirting with said gentleman, so we had to cut the visit to the F-15 short.http://kosovmd.ravenrosecomputing.com/annie/IMG_0011.JPGhttp://kosovmd.ravenrosecomputing.com/annie/IMG_0012.JPG At the Next exhibbit Annie felt a great awe as she was dwarfed by the great Ferocious Frankie http://kosovmd.ravenrosecomputing.com/annie/IMG_0016.JPG ...and couldn't help herself from wanting to play with all the wonderful toy planes laid out before her http://kosovmd.ravenrosecomputing.com/annie/IMG_0017.JPG She then wanted to get down in the barrels to see what life would have been like on the frontlines of 1943...but it just didn't have the feel of what she experienced in Afghanistan http://kosovmd.ravenrosecomputing.com/annie/IMG_0018.JPG So, in light of this, she felt she needed to log in some administrative time and optimized the Sortie Schedule for the Local Squadrons. http://kosovmd.ravenrosecomputing.com/annie/IMG_0019.JPG After verifying that her work was adequate by sitting in on the Flight Briefing, we had to move on yet again as we just couldn't keep Annie from interrupting the briefing with little innuendos and flirtatious musings towards several of the pilots. http://kosovmd.ravenrosecomputing.com/annie/IMG_0020.JPG http://kosovmd.ravenrosecomputing.com/annie/IMG_0021.JPG Passing through on the way to the next exhibit, Annie wanted to catch a better, bird's eye view of the F-15...and try to flirt with the guard...Again. http://kosovmd.ravenrosecomputing.com/annie/IMG_0028.JPG ahem... MOVING ON!.... Next we stopped off at the AWACS radar station, and Annie Felt like she needed to see how that all operated. As she looked over the myriad knobs and blips on the instrument panel one could just see her eyes gloss over, to which she flipped one particular switch, and all heck started breaking loose. Annie wasn't allowed to touch anything else in the AWACS station. http://kosovmd.ravenrosecomputing.com/annie/IMG_0029.JPG Next, Annie felt like going for a trip in the F-4 Flight Simulator. She did pretty well up until the instructor gave her engine a flame out at 99,000 feet (for in-appropriate flirting, go figure)...then it was a one-way down-hill trip to Ohio... http://kosovmd.ravenrosecomputing.com/annie/IMG_0030.JPG Next Annie saw the ECM modules and wanted to inspect their internal systems to make sure everything was going to work properly. http://kosovmd.ravenrosecomputing.com/annie/IMG_0032.JPG After giving her thumbs up to GE they went to go mount the modules on the F-16. Then, Annie wanted to take a quick movie break to watch the Robert L. Scott Jr. Life story on the big screen http://kosovmd.ravenrosecomputing.com/annie/IMG_0034.JPG http://kosovmd.ravenrosecomputing.com/annie/IMG_0035.JPG Then after admiring the Australian Sweat Suit Mr. Scott wore, she decided she needed to walk the great wall of China. Unfortunately for her, she couldn't decipher the Chinese writing to know that we were going the wrong way on a one way trip. http://kosovmd.ravenrosecomputing.com/annie/IMG_0037.JPG http://kosovmd.ravenrosecomputing.com/annie/IMG_0038.JPG http://kosovmd.ravenrosecomputing.com/annie/IMG_0039.JPG So she decided to take a moment to brush up on her Chinese http://kosovmd.ravenrosecomputing.com/annie/IMG_0040.JPG After Arriving back in Georgia, Annie took a moment to Relax on the porch, and take a moment to stop and smell the roses (and other assorted flowers) on until the late afternoon.http://kosovmd.ravenrosecomputing.com/annie/IMG_0041.JPGhttp://kosovmd.ravenrosecomputing.com/annie/IMG_0042.JPG http://kosovmd.ravenrosecomputing.com/annie/IMG_0043.JPG Ahem...yes. The F-15 guy...again. MOVING ON!!!!! http://kosovmd.ravenrosecomputing.com/annie/IMG_0047.JPG OK! That's IT! We've had enough of Annie's Flirting for one day, and this dude in uniform was the last straw. We headed back out of the First Building and practiced safe traveling back home to get some rest. http://kosovmd.ravenrosecomputing.com/annie/IMG_0050.JPG http://kosovmd.ravenrosecomputing.com/annie/IMG_0052.JPG Next Week on "Little Aussie Annie Tours the US": Annie Visits Helen, GA!

Unfortunately, Microsoft considers XP a "Downgrade" from Vista/7 (IMHO I think it's the other way around, but again, that's just my personal opinion from my experience with the back-end of Vista and 7). There's only 2 ways to install XP after 7's been installed: 1) Re-partition the drive to a zero state with fdisk and use the XP CD to install, or 2) Use Control Panel> Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management (I'm not sure if Administrative Tools is available in Home Edition, but it is in 7 Pro and Ultimate) to shrink your Windows 7 partition down to just big enough to hold all your files on the partition plus 15% and use free space to install Windows XP(i.e. if you have a 40 Gig physical drive and 27 Gigs are used for Windows 7 and personal files, shrink it down to 31 Gigs and that will leave you with about 9 Gigs that you can use for windows XP). Both methods require a boot-able Windows XP CD or DVD. If you are going to do either method, I highly recommend Method 1. Method 2, while it can be done, has been known to leave the Partitions unstable and can place all your data on both partitions at risk. In order to use fdisk, you may have to make a boot-able CD or DVD with Control Panel > Backup or Restore > Create System Disk or download a system toolkit like Rescue Linux that has disk tools available. Also, WildKat just told me that a lot of the pre-built manufacturers are not providing XP drivers for their newer hardware. This could cause a problem. If you're still wanting to install XP, I'd recommend making a complete backup of your current system so in the event of a problem, you can just re-image your disk back to how it is now. This can also be done under Backup or Restore in Control Panel. For this I'd recommend having a spare hard drive to copy to. Dave's suggestion would also be viable for this. Or...you could always try Linux Mint 10.

Now I'll be able to go on base and bully.....er... Wait...Wut? Motorcycle Permit??? Daylight only? No Limited Access Highways/Interstate?? NO PASSENGERS??? What a ripoff. I thought I'd at least be able to cause heck on base. Oh well. At least I can get on the two wheelers. Sorry Kat, can't come along for the ride yet. But, anyway, Yep. I'm on the first step to getting that nice long road cruise under my belt. Next up, Taking the Motorcycle classes up in Lawrenceville. Better and more thorough than the DDS classes. Soon it will be so.

Although the few times I've test driven some newer cadilacs and impalas with the on board computer readouts that have listed tire Type, Performance rating, and pressure... The caprice computer was reprogrammed in-shop (I'm assuming this...though considering that I read somewhere that the 9C1 Caprice [police package] IS supposed to be able to sense the tire performance rating and adjust its top speed accordingly...there's no telling.)

A couple of things I wanted to elaborate on with my wife's post... With the Caprice, I'm about positive that there's carbon buildup on the pistons that's causing pinging with Mid-grade, which is causing the OBD-II Computer to retard the ignition timing to prevent the ping...and thus reducing my mileage to the low 20's (between 21-23 MPG). Going to High Octane will bring that up to about 25-26 MPG. Right now we're running single Prong AC Delco plugs on it at the recommendation of the mechanic... and I'm regretting it. When I had the car running on the 4 Prong Bosch plugs and High octane I was getting between 25 and 33 MPG depending on how often I brought the thing up to 160 MPH. (only once when I had performance tires on her... Last few sets of tires I bought are only rated for 118 so the computer is now shutting off the fuel flow at 110 max.) What I'd like to do once I can retire the baby to part time transport (once I get the bikes) is take off the heads and carbon scrape the pistons. It'll also give me a chance to see how the walls are holding up and see if I need to think about getting a new engine for her (doubtful).

Actually, the simple answer is...we didn't. I nicked one of the pieces with the left front fender...but it was such a light nick it didn't leave any damage to the car. I swear that's the weirdest thing I ever saw on the road to date tho. There was no sign or warning that there'd be a sofa strewn about the road. No damaged cars, no pickups around with missing furniture waiting around for the pieces to be collected. No Semi around (only thing I can figure that could spread stuffing, cushions, and 2x4s across 3 lanes of traffic for about a quarter mile) Not even debris cleanup crews or police cruisers. I still have no clue how I managed to get through that without losing control (of either the car or my bowels:starz:), running over a board, plowing head-on into any of the in-tact sections of sofa (there were several), jumping a cushion, or puncturing any of the tires on a staple/nail. I think I'll make it a point to avoid riding that section of 247 at night once I get my bike. Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.....nor the chaise they leave behind in the roadway!