Bubba

Not many OR folks close to Cinti and who have a weekday free, but here's a link to a LocalRiders post for today. Posted in case there's any interest….gonna be a gorgeous day for a ride! http://www.localriders.com/forums/showpost.php?p=165027&postcount=16

I'm not criticizing your right to buy whatever you want, but why so insistent on using a lithium battery? As far as I know, the only reason to go lith is to drop a few pounds, i.e., like if you're tracking a Gixxer or other featherweight sport bike. Save yourself the money and headaches and just get an regular AGM battery. They work much better when the temps drop below freezing and don't require any special charging needs.

2Ts: You got yourself a mess there! I'm assuming your quilted liner is nylon (= organic) which is gonna reach equilibrium with the organics in the oil. You pretty much have a molecular bond there. I doubt that anything water based is gonna get that smell out. You might try dry cleaning, which is sort'a like dissolving organic with organic (Chemistry 101 = like dissolves like). Or you could just say f'it and buy new. Or, in the overall scheme of things, hypoid oil doesn't smell THAT BAD….

Sweet mother!!! Those aren't wasps….those are birds. Angry birds. Shit in my helmet….those things in my helmet….same effect….don't need it anymore. I'm buyin' a new one!!!

Ummm, guys, it's just a wee bit more complicated than how much surface area of polar ice is melting or freezing…. The main issue with the increase in hydrocarbon emissions is an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide. First, CO2 is obviously a greenhouse gas, although not necessarily one of the big actors--methane is a much better compound for trapping radiant heat, and the major sources of methane are organic bio-degradation, termite activity and bovine flatulence….ahem. However, CO2 is mostly absorbed by our oceans, which act as huge, nearly infinite sinks for the gas. Problem is that the oceans no longer have a near 'infinite' capacity to absorb our excess HCs. As the oceans have become more saturated with CO2, it has acidified the water. As the pH of the oceans drop, the ability of the water to absorb CO2 also diminishes, so it's very much a double-edged sword. At some point, the theory is that our oceans will stop absorbing CO2 and may even begin to out-gas, which would lead to a rapid increase in atmospheric CO2 and corresponding rapid increase in world-wide temps. This isn't even taking into account the effect ocean acidification has on the life balance in the ocean's eco-system, which is still one of the primary food sources for the world's population. I readily agree that the science of global warming is still far from being 100% predictive, but you'd have to be totally uninformed and uneducated about the effects the industrial revolution has had on carbon dioxide emissions over the last two centuries to ignore the potential for environmental and economic disaster caused by rising global temps. I doubt that my generation will live to see the compounding effects of our choices, but my children, your children, and our grandchildren will most certainly experience the effects.

Steve: I disagree--it's not worthless. It's been interesting and strikes a chord with everyone from believer to non-believer. We're human, and the one over-riding quality of being human is to question. I always learn something by listening to people with a different point of view than mine.

Damn. It must almost be winter…. ;o)

I understand your comment. I've got a friend who was raised in a fundamentalist christian family whose father was a minister. My friend attended college and got his B.S. and M.S. in special ed and worked with the profoundly handicapped in Hamilton County. He was an extremely intelligent person, and yet he truly believed that the world was only 7000 years old (approx) and that all the scientific evidence in the fossil records and the C14/C12 ratios were simply man's imperfect attempt to explain the world and universe, almost as if God was pulling a great joke on humanity by leaving him bad clues to the pursuit of knowledge. I've worked in science for my entire career and still don't understand why the realm of science and the supernatural must be exclusive vs inclusive. That the universe was 'created' by the big bang and that life eventually bloomed on earth and has evolved from primordial slime to the genetic diversity we see today is fairly well accepted by the scientific community. Why is it unacceptable for christian believers--or any person who holds a belief in a greater power, for that matter--to understand the story of creation as told in the old testament can be consistent with modern astronomy and current gene science? Or conversely, why can't a scientist wonder at the possibility that at some point during the eons of evolution, our human life form was imbued with an god-given soul and that our spiritual lives are as immortal as the universe is infinite? I wonder…. ADD/EDIT: Saw some of the post above. I DO NOT BELIEVE that christianity is THE EXCLUSIVE PATH to follow for 'salvation'….if I can use that term. Strength of belief in a power greater than one's self is something that leads to growth of the soul, whether you be Catholic, Baptist, Buddhist, Muslim, or other. As for a true atheist, I admit I don't know what will happen at death. If you are a true non-believer, you cannot believe in an immortal soul and thus, no life beyond death of the organic body. My guess, if this is your true belief, is that you won't be punished--merely that your lack of belief in immortality will come to pass and you will no longer exist, in body or soul.

I doubt that there is anyone on earth that has an answer for your question. A short answer from me would be that a 'god/God/omnipotent being' exists and he/she/it has the power and ability to intervene in matters such as these--and may on some occasions--but chooses to let the world and the life created on it continue on whatever course has been chosen or set by circumstance. How and why evil coexists with good and why death/unfortunate occurrences happen equally to the wicked, the virtuous and the innocent is beyond human understanding. What I always find confusing is why there seems to be a nearly complete schism between those that espouse natural laws--scientific/physical/biological--and those who believe in supernatural laws, a belief in something greater than ourselves that cannot be proven by any method or scientific evidence currently in our knowledge base. Anyone in the scientific community will tell you without doubt that the universe is infinite, yet that concept is beyond our mind's ability to grasp based on our 3-dimensional reality. I don't know why it's so unbelievable that a power beyond our understanding and beyond proof by scientific knowledge could exist. I'm not one to ascribe a moral judgement about belief or non-belief in a creator/omnipotent being, but I find the signs of a greater power all around us in our world--the beauty, the harshness, the unfathomable, the simple, the complex. I also find myself a bit scared to admit that man and his knowledge is not the most powerful force in the universe. I think it requires a sense of child-like wonder to believe in something beyond human ken. That may be the thing that sticks in the mind of those who cannot bring themselves to believe in a god--an unwillingness to be open to and embrace the things that belonged to the realm of childhood. I guess that if I could characterize my position, I would say I choose to believe--not because I was taught, not because I fear, not because I am naive or ignorant--I believe because I wonder….

Googled it and that Exo is a good looking' helmet. Righteous price, too. H-a-t-e to be a PITA, but any chance you could look and post the mfr date? Should be on the inside of the shell, maybe under the padding. Thx. And welcome back to the center of the midwest. Just in time for the next hellacious winter…. )

Yup. Been doing it since the early 90s when I started racing MTBs cross-country.

Wait a minute….there's video of HOTTIES TWERKIN' WITH THE BUNNY??? Pretty sure that one of the primary by-laws of OhioRiders--and I have no doubt that Casper will weigh in on my side on this one--is that if you have an off-color or NSFW video in your possession, you MUST post it within 72 hours of receipt of said video, or be forever known on this forum as "that politically correct dude". Hmmm?

Pic, courtesy of Tigerpaw. No idea where the bunny guy was when the picture was taken, but you get the idea. I want to assure everyone there were no virgins sacrificed for this event.

Nooooo….Say it ain't so!!! If you still have them on your camera, send 'em to me via email. I need to show some of the LR crew what they missed. icantdrive55atfusedotnet Thx!

Oooo! Tell me more about the F2 stuff….

Glad you guys made the trip south and enjoyed the roads. Total mileage for me was 240 door-to-door, so you guys must be close to 350+ on the day. And of course as usual, there was no extra charge for the dozen or so hot chicks in daisy dukes, bikini tops and cowboy boots twerking with a drunk guy dressed in an Easter Bunny costume on a hay wagon in downtown Rabbit Hash…. No. Seriously, it really happened. Riding roads in NKY is NEVER BORING!!!

I completely understand. You're 2.5 hours from the ride start and less than 45 minutes from the good roads in SE Ohio. I wouldn't do it either. I'd love to do some miles out in your neck of the woods but find it hard to justify 1.5-2 hours each way riding crappy roads to get to the good ones. I can be in NKY in under 30 minutes, so it's a no-brainer for me.

Sorry you can't make it. We'll do it again. Good weather isn't done for the year….I hope. See you there. Dug all my winter gear out of storage this afternoon, checked tires and lubed the chain. Should be a nice day once the sun warms things up. Nice thing is that a small group can move a bit faster than a large group….not that we'll be speeding or anything.

Brrrr! It's gonna be a cold bitch in the morning. Bundle up and ride safely. I'll check in the morning to make sure you guys are still planning on heading south. If the consensus is to bail, please post up here as early as possible, by 9 AM at the latest. Otherwise, I'll see you at MickieD's at 10.

Oooo! I like that. Thinking about the moat option, are ya? Hell, with global warming and rising sea levels, you could own ocean-front property in southern AL in about 20 years….

Hmmm….the force is strong with this one.

Sounds like you've got a great job--congratulations!!! I'm not aware of anybody that has anything against unions per se, as long as the unions don't tip the balance of power so far toward the worker that the stranglehold they have on the corporation kills the goose-that-lays-the-golden-egg. When too much power is held by the corporation, similarly bad things can happen, too. The problem with many of the large auto unions in Detroit is that they became too powerful and complacent, believing they couldn't be replaced by other workers equally talented and eager to do a better job of building quality automobiles. Once the unions adopted the stance that the company paying their workers' salaries had to be negotiated with on an adversarial basis, all cooperation ceased and the union essentially arranged for and caused their workers' termination notices. Same happened years ago in the US steel industry and is still happening in the commercial construction industry. Unions have figured prominently in the advancement of workers' rights since the early 1900s, but the way they wielded their power with oblivious egocentricity in the last few decades has decimated the US manufacturing industry to the point of near-death. At some point, the pendulum will swing back to center and hopefully wiser heads will prevail….

I tried that. They got married and moved out of town….

Welcome. Hopefully, no dogs this time!!! Some of these, you rode on Dice's route earlier this year, but I promise there will be some you haven't ridden. Hell, there might even be a few that aren't on a map!!! Dice likes to refer to them as my goat paths. Nothing that a set of good aggressive knobbies can't handle…. OK, I keed, I keed.

Not sure if this was a response to my post, but I really didn't mean to imply I'm living the life of a lonely pauper sipping crap beer by myself on the back deck. Far from it!!! Deck is a screen porch that overlooks my 9 acres of hardwood forest with some of the purtiest 12pt bucks you've ever laid eyes on (you can find pics on some of my old posts here). I've got a 3-bay garage and workshop full of paid-off toys including 3 bikes and a convertible Vette, a late-model Ford PU in the driveway, and nice middle-class annual income in qualified dividends from stock investments over the last 3 decades--no guaranteed pension here. Unless the the SHTF and zombies invade Hamilton Cty, I don't foresee needing to file for SS until I'm 70. What I was getting at was that, when it came time make the choice to pull the plug on the job or fight to stay, I looked at what I had, evaluated what could be gained financially by working another 5 years vs retiring, and decided that enough was enough. What's sad is that I can honestly say that while I made some very good choices down through the years, I'm not entirely convinced that much of it wasn't pure blind luck. The opportunities to be both lucky AND good with respect to investments going forward from here are significantly reduced when compared to the era of the 60s through the 90s, and I'm not sure that my kids will have a 'better life' than I do when it comes time for their golden years. Sad, but likely. I'm gonna try my damnedest to leave a useful pot of cash for them when I die. As for working after retiring, I agree wholeheartedly. Rather than telling people I'm retired, I usually refer to myself as under-employed. And I still plan on getting that golden years job just for fun….as soon as I figger out what I want to be when I grow up. Gotta remember, though--if I'm working at a great fun job, one of you millenials has to be flipping' burgers at Mickie-D's….