Bubba

SW: Don't think we've ever met--unless my Old-Timer's disease is getting the better of me--but from looking thru your pix, we know a few of the same people and travel the same roads. I'm in SW Ham Cty and lived, worked and rode in the the Colerain/Ross/Miamitown/Shandon area since the 60s, and yeah….that makes me an old guy, even older than you, but I still love ridin' as often as I can. I'm guessing our paths may have crossed at either EBN in Milford, Fuel Coffee on River Rd, or at the westside QSL on bike night. That looks like Mr Tom Witt in one of your pics as well--he's kind'a hard to miss with that big ol' head!!! I love your train trip reports. I haven't been on a train since they folded the Great Northern route years ago. My folks were both from Vancouver and used to take us kids back every 5-10 years to visit when the relatives were alive. They're gone for decades now, but I still got memories of the trips thru the Canadian Rockies, or on one special trip, the route across the desert southwest on the City of LA Vistaliner. Good luck with your recuperation and give us all a shout out either here or on the LocalRiders forum when you get back on your horse!

Put 150 miles on last Sunday (12/22 after the big rains) and rode out to Serpent Mound, 100 miles Friday morning (started out when the temp was in the low 30s) and about 150 miles yesterday. There was a bit of salt around, but I look at bikes as depreciable assets. They're gonna lose money whether I ride 'em or not. Little water will wash the salt off and keep the rust at bay. I do begin to feel like a little kid going out to play in the snow, all bundled up. And just like a little kid, it seems like I gotta pee right after I get the last of my gear on….

>>>SOLD!!!<<< (to CL buyer) 2000 Mazda MPV ES, only 87000 miles, 7-passenger van, 2.5L-DOHC-V6, 170 HP, 4-spd auto w/OD+lockout, silver/lt-grey interior, full leather seating, 4 captain chairs w/fold-away rear bench, P-windows/P-locks/P-mirrors, tilt steering column, rear heat/air, AM/FM/CD, interval wipers, cruise control, fog lights, rear wiper/defrost, R&L sliding doors, roof rack. The Story: There comes a time in every parent/child relationship that you've got to put your foot down and take their driver's license away. Unfortunately, as the son, I've had to take Dad's car away. He's 90 and diagnosed with Alzheimer's and has had several recent incidents where he's gotten lost. And the last few months, he seems to be coming home with other people's paint on his bumpers, only he doesn't remember hitting anything….??? The Good: This is a low mileage, one owner vehicle purchased new from local dealer. Always garaged, newer tires, recent oil/filter change, new battery 5-2013, clean vehicle history. No rust or collision damage. The Bad: Two tires have slow leak and need to have pressure checked weekly. Has a couple of small blemishes on the body corners (some may buff out) and typical parking lot dings (see pics). Right rear taillight lens was cracked but has been replaced w/OEM part. Listed it on CL for serious money (hopefully to eliminate the creeps and flakes).... http://s875.photobucket.com/user/icantdrive55/slideshow/2000%20Mazda%20MPV%20ES

Nope. Suburban SW Hamilton Cty. I can be in downtown Cincinnati in under 20 min. I get a lot of deer traffic because the north end of my property is under a Duke high voltage line and the bucks use the cut the same way you and I use the X-way to get around. Duke right-of-way runs from down near the OH-IN border along the river east to the city. Heavy underbrush for cover, low growth like Honeysuckle for browsing. Perfect for hunting with a bow!!!

Pix from the trail cam in my backyard. This 12pt is from two years ago and currently decorating my buddy's living room wall: Here's a friend's catch from last weekend in SE Indiana: And here's this year's best so far--a 10pt--from the backyard trail cam. Coming in to the yard between 5:30 and 6 PM:

Yup. Trying to convince myself that "want" is not "need"…. What's value of the .38 spec ammo? Has .357/.38 also become hard to find?

What's a decent price for a Taurus 66 7-shot .357 Magnum 6" (blued) with case and approx 100 rds of .38 Special ammo? Had maybe 200 rounds thru it. As you can tell, I'm no firearms expert...

From the looks of your route, I presume you've run these roads before. In case you missed it though, the top of 197 is unpaved for about 2-3 miles. From street view, it appears that it is hard-packed gravel so it shouldn't be an issue even if it's wet, but just giving you a heads up. If you want to avoid the gravel, you can take either Ivy Hill or Holcombe Branch north from 197 to Paint Fork>Hortons Creek>Prices Creek to 19E. EDIT/ADD: Other option would be take 209 north out of Waynesville to Hot Springs, then 70>208>212>352 and pick up 19W to Erwin

What I think is telling--and pretty shitty in the bargain--is that this took place only hours following the fatal shooting of the teacher in NV, and in that instance, the shooter was a 12 yo boy. I agree with most of the posts here that it sounds like an over-reaction by the officers, but I guarantee that incidents like that, especially in close time proximity to each other, must weigh heavily on the minds of the police. It is correct to HOPE that the police be 110% diligent at all times in the use of their weapons, but seriously....if it was you in the uniform and you responded to a report of a suspicious man carrying an assault rifle, would you be able to make a conscious decision to hold fire as a gun was turned toward you...with the possibility that you would never to go home to YOUR family again? Tough call....

Final bump for the season. Plates expire 10/25/13 so it goes in the back of the garage 'til spring. Price lowered to $4995!

I don't text ever. I don't have a smart phone--mine is stupid. That, and the battery is dead most of the time. Mostly, I hate technology because I'm old and grumpy. Hell, I have to pull over to the side of the road to change the radio volume, but that's because I'm afraid to use the buttons on the steering wheel and have to use the little round knob thingy on the dash. I'm still practicing driving along for miles at 10 under with my left turn signal blinking. Gittin' purty good at it, too!

I really like the Angel GTs. Had the PR2s on my '07 FJR and never felt confident with the cornering. Played with the air pressure and suspension settings and just found that it handled like a heavy bitch in the twisties, kind'a like mud wrestling with a fat women. I have heard GREAT things about the new PR3s!

<<< SOLD >>> Finally….to a rider from LSB forum. Congrats!!! The Story:Bought the bike last spring from the second owner because I missed my liter bike power and grins--love my WeeStrom DL650 for almost everything, but it isn't an eyeball-peeling monster. 2009 FZ1 had about 4000 mi on the odo at the time of purchase still wearing the OEM tires, so it's obvious it wasn't hurt. Original owner put all the accessories on according to the seller. Has aftermarket under tail package with LED brake/tail/turn signals, mini-LED front turn signals, shorty levers (believe these are inexpensive knock-offs, not Pazzo), Yosh Carbon slip-on pipe, custom seat (likely done by Eddie on the FZ1OA forum), Yamaha chin spoiler, Yamaha Touring windscreen. I changed the oil/filter and flushed/bled the F&R brake fluid around the time of purchase. Rode the bike for the summer and just never got comfortable with the handling and ergos. Thought it might be the tires (duh!) so I put new Pirelli Angel GTs on prior to the Gap trip in Sept--maybe 2000 mi on 'em now. Went with a 190/55 rear vs the stock 190/50 hoping to get better turn-in. I think I've given the bike a pretty fair try-out since I bought it, but still not in love with the bike, so I'm thinking it's gone. Mid-winter bump for price change! Lowered to $4795 The Stuff:Comes with the items listed above as well as the stock seat, stock windscreen, stock levers, stock turn signal stalks, 1" bar risers (never installed). Current mileage is just short of 7500 mi. The Bad:The right side fairing has a crack around the turn signal molding approximately 1" on either side of the signal housing (see last pic). I didn't even realize it was cracked until after I had bought the bike (late night/dark garage inspection ) and washed it for the first time. PO didn't disclose the crack to me before purchase and when I called him on it, he said he didn't know how it happened. I even tracked the original owner down from the title and called him and he said that the bike was perfect when he sold it to my seller, so somebody is lying. Bottom line, it has a fairing crack and I have no idea how it happened. Given that there is no other damage on the bike, I can only assume it was from a tip-over in a garage against an immoveable object...just so, you get full disclosure from me.

Hmmm. Actually, I would have preferred it if you had knelt in one of the stalls, put your head under the water in the john and held the lid down until you drowned, to save me from reading your idiotic post...

Threads on this subject are a lot like "What brand of oil do you use?" or "Will switching from dino oil to synthetic oil make my gaskets and seals leak and dissolve all the old sludge in my engine?" Everyone has an opinion....backed up by a statistical significance of 'n=1'. If you're riding enough miles to empty and refill your tank every month or two, it's not likely you'll have fuel stability issues in that length of time. All major brand gasoline suppliers put cleaner/additives in their fuel nowadays. For winter storage or for periods of low use where the gas would sit in your tank longer than 2-3 months, it's probably wise--if you use fuel with 10 % EtOH--to add a stabilizer product to minimize phase separation. As for the fuel injector cleaner products, I suspect it's a waste of money, but if you're adding it every 10-20K miles as the product specifies, the additional $3 or $4 a year isn't gonna send you to the poor house.

2TT: I haven't 'abused' Google this morning and it sounds like you've done yer homework, but I was always under the impression that the highest paved road in the US was Mt Evans in CO. I know that is a 14er, so was wondering how high is Mt Whitney? EDIT/ADD: Here ya go! http://byways.org/explore/byways/2112

Dude, that's awesome! I'l take that kind of encounter with a Statie ANYTIME. My experience with them is that they're ALL BUSINESS when it comes to tix.... Glad you got to keep your $$$ in your pocket!!! And props to the State Trooper who understands that boyz gonna boyz every now and then.

Hmmm. I think I win for the oldest/smallest first bike: 1965 Honda S90. Rode the wheels off that thing and kept it for decades after I stopped riding it. And following after in some sort of approximate order: 1965 Honda 305 Superhawk 1975 Kawasaki Z1B 1972 H-D FX kicker with 6" over tubes 1974 Honda CL175 1983 Honda V65 Magna 1985 H-D FXRS 1973 Kawasaki Z1A 1995 Kawasaki GPZ1100 1991 Honda CBR600F2 (still in the stable) 2008 Honda CBR1000RR 2007 Yamaha FJR1300 2009 Suzuki DL650 (still in the stable) 2009 Yamaha FZ1 (still in the stable) Also a few dirt bikes along the way: 1971 CZ 360 1991 Kawasaki KDX200 1996 Honda XR250R 2002 KTM MXC200 2008 Suzuki DRZ400

Steve: Your friends ever heard of spaying? Would solve a lot of the males' aggression.

Zero play is probably unrealistic in a real world mechanical sense. All parts that move relative to other parts require clearance, otherwise they wouldn't move. That being said, a noticeable/measurable amount of play in lower fork legs would indicate that your slider bushings are seriously worn, maybe even perhaps non-existent. Are you positive the play is in the lower fork legs (relative to the upper legs)? Possible that the movement you feel is in the steering head bearings?

I'ma be there. Camping at the reservior Fri/Sat and rollin' in the north gate. If you wanna look me up, I'll be the fat, sunburnt guy with a cold beer in hand, sweating profusely. I mean, how many of us can there be...? BTW, good luck, Brandon! Kick some a$$.

Harleyguy: PM sent.

S'matter of fact....I do. PM sent.

Based on the bikes in your sig, you could put at least any two of them in the rig and still be under 3500#, which is prolly within the limit of your vehicle's tow rating. As long as you have a brake controller, the thing tows as safe as a lighter trailer. With the trailer fully loaded, I can adjust the controller to actually lock up all four wheels at the high settings. Biggest issue would be if your Envoy was a V-6--might be just a bit short on grunt. Was hoping to avoid the f'n special circus that CL has become lately, but I'll prolly list this on CL in a few days.

Well, it was on there when I bought it, so I suspect that even if you took a heat gun and peeled it off--it is just a vinyl sticker--the H-D crest would still be 'burned' into the finish as a result of 5-6 years of sunlight. Be easier to just cover with another sticker of choice! Ducati?