ReconRat

I seem to remember that there is one patrolman on the North side that does this regularly, for some unknown reason. Every once and a while a story comes around. And those violations, for the most part, are only enforcable/impoundable by federal law. Which states don't enforce yet, but there's been consideration to do so in the future. Except the license plate. But it's hard to prove if a plate is or isn't readable. I mean the judge would have to go down to the parking lot and make a decision. That probably won't be happening...

No, it's not normal. Did you get a name?

I like parking on sidewalks, but I'd never block anything. It's ok, except for the occasional person spitting on your seat...

Welcome. 45 years here. Restored a couple of Nortons and a bunch of Hondas. Never got my hands on a Triumph...

It was pretty much the bikini that did it, yathink? You'll run into her around central Ohio. She actually gets out and rides often. Impossible to miss a Lady on a Busa...

First........... punks .. and punkette.

I came across three like that, crossed in front of us, on the way to a hospital after some one crashed. The other guys never saw them, and I wasn't leading... Won't always see them. But those deer crossing signs? Yeah, I slow down for those...

It's the "i" in front of your name. Mac only...

And they're playing funky music for them... I think it's one Russian, one American, and one French astronaut? edit: NASA astronaut Joe Acaba. Crewmates Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin, both Russian cosmonauts. edit: This launch info brought to you by Samantha Cristoforetti. Italian astronaut on Google+.

NASA TV Soyuz TMA-04M Launch Launch is at the Russian launch site, televised live. http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

Do a compression check. Check plugs condition. Check air filter, if engine can't draw air in past the filter, it will draw in excess fuel and oil instead, and try to burn it. Pull pipes and look in exhaust ports. Isolate whether it's all cylinders or just one. Also check for oil in the water, and water in the oil (gets milky/murky). Basic signs of head gasket problems, mostly, but not always. Stick hand in the white smoke coming out of the exhaust, and see what you get. Either water or oil. Oil smoke at idle, would be oil past the piston rings. A broken or bad oil scraper piston ring will make a nice putt putt amount of whitish smoke coming out the tail pipe. Plug(s) oiled, compression(s) not normal. Water vapor could be getting past the head gasket. Plugs and compression might not look too different. A plug might look too clean. Another possibility, would be a water jacket crack in or around an exhaust port, letting water out into the exhaust. Exhaust port can look like it's been steam cleaned. That one is expensive, it would probably mean a cylinder head needed. Plugs normal, compression normal. A rare situation is to have hose or pipe connections push oil or water into the exhaust/combustion. Say for instance, pressure above the cylinder head, around the valve train, pushing oil out the blow by tube, and into the air intake. Which would show up as oil smoke out the tail pipe. Sometimes the air filter or intake will be oiled up as a result. Plugs would be oiled up, compression normal. Not all bikes have a connection like that. It would also mean a cylinder head R&R, either a crack or bad valve guides or something.

Sudden thought at the mention of "non-chlorinated"... Should some one actually have titanium parts (like a muffler can), NEVER use anything chlorinated on the bare titanium. Not even tap water. Chlorine and chlorine compounds will make titanium brittle. Result is failure of the part, as in cracking, breaking, etc... Also, touching titanium with aluminum, even briefly, will result in the most amazing corrosion ever seen. Max, I use mineral spirits, from Lowes in a quart can. It's proper to clean a chain with. I figure it removes chain gunk from other parts. I also use kerosene. I'm cheap and lazy and kerosene is always around. WD-40 should work, it's majority (51%) Stoddard solvent (also known as hexane type mineral spirits) with a light oil. All solvents can remove a bit of paint, so be careful. But on the other hand, mineral spirits are used to clean/prep painted surfaces for painting. The Bike Brite and a similar S-100 work good, and I sometimes use them first to remove most of the crap. Expensive. Seems to work well on the engine, but not so well on heavily gunked wheel rims.

I suspected this. But didn't say so. I could give you lots of stories of similar situations riders got into. It's pretty common. I will say this, OSHP is good at being able to tell who the newbie is by just looking. One little newbie blunder can get you checked for license and motorcycle endorsement. (And now days insurance card.) Wasn't me, it was one of the others in a group of five, I think. Back-in-the-day. He had a Kaw 500 triple 2-stroke. One of the girl passengers had her license, but didn't want to ride it too far. He rode home on the back of another bike. We parked his at a gas station and picked it up later in the day. The OSHP was very nice about it. Probably could have impounded it. Simply made us promise not to cheat and let him ride it anyway. (edit: He did watch us park it and head on out.)

Value went up on all used vehicles last year. Bikes went up quite a bit.

I noticed today that the Dunlop tire website says you can inside patch a tire safely. But then maximum road speed is limited to 75 mph. Tire should be inspected in general and in terms of whether a patch will actually work. I'd get a new tire...

heheh... to complete a balanced color scheme, add a touch of orange for an analogous color scheme, or a bit of blue for a triadic color scheme. But not both...

That was back-in-the-day (dawn-of-time) when people barely wore helmets. And helmets were generally very simple devices. It was a BUCO half shell with sunglasses for shades. I switched to a full open face BELL with flat shield, but back then most still didn't flip up. Full face helmets didn't exist yet...

Ever take a helmet off with one hand? While in traffic on the freeway? While trying to pull over and stop? Because something large is threatening to sting you on the back of the neck? Because your helmet scooped it up? Which would knock you out or near kill you? Only once, never again... All because I didn't have or didn't use a visor/eye protection.

There will always be "oh shit" moments on a motorcycle, no matter where it might be. Group riding teaches, but concentration and mental gymnastics is maxed out by the flood of data and information. Not really for beginners or even those that haven't gotten comfortable with basic groups. And that's a lot of people. Best of all worlds is to ride with a skilled buddy of similar or better skill level. It just takes time and effort to develop skills for all the surprises that can happen.

oops, it's Caryn, not Karen.... tsk

12,000+ special operations troops are in Jordan for a joint "training" exercise. On the Syria border. US, British, French, Canadian, Saudi, etc, 19+ different countries. It's actually an annual event that Jordan sponsors. Eager Lion 2012 American amphibious ship Iwo Jima berths at Jeddah port

buckeyetraffic.org shows normal traffic flow both ways. freeway webcams confirm that it's open again

10TV - Crash. Multiple vehicles rolled over. 270 south closed near Gahanna. Dispatch- Crash is just North of Port Columbus. Traffic diverted to 670. abc6- Four vehicles. Unknown injuries. Road opened by 9pm. nbc4- three vehicles. traffic on 62 diverted to 270north.

It will have to be tight or it will move. Smaller than the tube is typical, so it will be tight. Larger than the tube, with rubber or something in between is also done. Prevents scratching the frame. It will have to be tight also. I've done it both ways. Smaller = scratch the frame. Larger = might move. Opinion, it's a clamp, it's probably going to move anyway. But Kuryakyn is a good name brand.

Yeah, seen that a lot. I had somebody blowing their horn at me last week (on the bike), because I wouldn't close up on a dump truck full of asphalt in front of me. I think they wanted to get a WHOLE car length ahead by changing lanes a few times in heavy traffic. I ignored them. When they got the chance to accelerate, I cut them off and took off. Decelerated back to the speed limit about a mile ahead, where I knew a speed trap was, and they blasted past me well over the speed limit. The speed trap was there, but failed to entertain me... darn...