Scruit

Only after they are fully inflated (assuming you don't sit 6" from the wheel) Watch crash test videos on youtube and you'll see. If you were hit by one while it was still inflating then you're gonna have a rough time.

Ooh. Looks like he got BURNED on that deal.

I rode this morning. 29F. Even the heated grips couldn't keep my fingertips warm throughout the full 45 min commute. My cutoff just became 32f.

When Obama was sworn in the operations center I work in put the live TV news feed on the big screen and a couple dozen people came to watch. The senior manager sat down and told us all he wanted to watch "The end of my country."

I'd be up for a group ride to show him support. Is he still in the hospital? Could he see the bikes from his room?

No complaints from me.

My bike at the Goat Island parking lot, Niagara Falls, US side: The falls: A statue of Nikola Tesla that everyone kept climbing up into so they could have their picture taken sitting on the newspaper in his lap...??? My GPS is set to skip tolls, so when I plotted a route from Goat Island to Delaware, OH it skipped the US portion of I90 (tollway) and ran me through this way instead: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=US-219+S&daddr=42.22212,-78.843+to:NY-394+W&hl=en&geocode=FXoejQIdQO9N-w%3BFShChAIdiPNM-ynVt14NHo7SiTEGkCaFOG4uPw%3BFYhbgwIdwgxK-w&mra=pr&via=1&sll=42.417374,-78.381958&sspn=1.399084,2.90863&ie=UTF8&z=9 It added an hour to my already long journey (made 15 hours into 16 hours :-P ) And also it didn't match the printed google maps directions I had for a backup, so if my GPS would have crapped out halfway through then I would have been royally screwed. Lesson learned: Take a map!! At times during this journey through Deliverance country the GPS signal was on 1 bar out of 5 due to heavy cloud cover. If I lost that last bar I'd have been really messed up because I was relying on the compass on the GPS! Also, being that far in the middle of nowhere I was worried that a flat tire, GPS fubar, running out of gas or breaking down would mean I was stuck in the middle of nowhere and through most of that country there was no cellphone signal! I had my bike's GPS tracking set up so my family and work buddies could follow my progress. After getting home I found my work cellphone lit up from a ton of phone calls from work.... ONe of the guys has a problem with the website for my GPS tracker and said it looked like I was doing 0mph off the side of the road in some woods in the middle of nowhere for over an hour. When he saw that he started calling me in a panic. You know who your friends are when they do that... It was just a lost signal right after I had been at a stop sign and the GPS fix was about 100' off. That road, although it was a blast to ride, scared me the most of that whole journey just because I'd have been pretty much helpless. I'm glad I chose to fuel up in Springville. The bike's range is about 125 miles before the fuel light comes on. My own range is about 125 miles before the bladder light comes on. 125 miles is approaching 2 hours of riding... Also I set off at 5am / 32F. The roads were dry so I figured I'd go slow until it warmed up. I greeted the dawn in Michigan, and didn't warm up until I was in Canada. It was low 60s there so the ride was great. No problems with cagers the whole trip. The last few hours I was trying to keep up with the setting sun knowing the temps would drop if I couldn't keep up. The lat 2 hours were dark but it didn't get cold so I was ok. All in all it's given me some much needed experience riding a long day. I did some stuff right (the windshield is set up PERFECTLY) and I did stuff wrong (didn't review the GPS directions before heading into hillbilly territory so I was to stressed out worrying about fuel level to enjoy the twisties). I've learned some stuff and found out a bunch about myself that I didn't know. Yes, I CAN go 16 hours sitting on a bike and not be bored. WTF? I never even cracked out the mp3. Next trip will probably be heading south so I can ride later into winter. I think the Minnesota trip will have to wait until spring.

Stories? Well, I did get yelled at by the border patrol in the US after Rainbow Bridge... Took my gloves off to find my passport from my pocket, and after clearing the border I stuffed my gloves up under the windshield and pulled forward. Rather than holding up people behind me as I get my gloves on I figured I'd pull forward and park in one of the parking spaces about 50' in front of me. As I'm pulling my gloves on this border patrol guy comes marching over and yells at me. I can't hear him because of the engine and earplugs, but it's clear he wants me to GTFO. Oh well. I rode past him and shouted; "Just getting my gloves on, sorry!" Advice: After you clear immigration after Rainbow Bridge you will then exit the are into a downtown type area. You'll have the opportunity to pull over and get your kit back on there. After you clear immigration into Canada at the Blue Water bridge you're right onto a freeway with no pace to pull over, so get your kit sorted before you pull away. And earplugs make it almost impossible to hear them, so next time I'll take my left earplug out right before the crossing. My dashcam recorded the whole thing... All 16 hours. Oh, and I passed a dead deer *in freeway lane* in the dark at 75mph on the way home on I71. I was slightly left of the center of the lane, and missed it by about 6". It would have sucked if I'd have hit it. It was literally 1/2 second between seeing it and being past it. I need better lights for night freeway riding.

I will NEVER use a plug in my tires. I will, however, put a new inner tube in there.

You can't turn the hand warmers off or turn them down. And they cost will eventually catch up. If you put them in your palms they interfere with your grip on the bike. You'd have to put them on the backs of your hands and then that skin is very thin - would you get burned? They won't keep your fingertips warm either. I rode 800 miles yesterday - set off at 32F and the temps never got above 60. The heated grips were perfect. I could tunr them up/down/off. If my hands got too hot then taking them off the grips for about 30 seconds made my hands cold again. My fingertips never got cold. The controller on mine is chrome (well, silver plastic). I've done handwarmers and I've done heated grips - I'll stick with the heated grips.

Sometimes even being a cage with seatbelts and an airbag won't help you. RIP

Set off at 5am. Arrived home at 9pm. 808 miles. My ass has disowned me. I'm going to sleep.

Getting the bike packed for the trip. Should be fun. Setting off at 5am, expect it be be 32F. Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey bike. The heated grips will help a lot. I also am gonna wear a thermacare heat pack in the small of my back to help keep me warm until 8am when the temp is finally expected to climb out of the 30's.

I got the heated grips installed on my bike. The only issue I had is that I angled the power cord on the throttle grip so that it was just short of hitting the brake lever at full throttle. Then I set the angle of the power cord on the left grip to match where the throttle grip cord is at rest (down/towards me about 45deg). Well that means the power cord wound up right where my left thumb needs to be! (Right thumb is fine because I don't ride with the throttle closed!) Luckily the bar ends on my bike are long so I just put my left hand 1/2 further out. If I did it over I'd have the left grip power cord point straight down, symmetry be damned. Also, the power cord takes up 1/4-1/2" from the inside edge of the throttle grip... Consider this when you want to run the heated grip with a throttle lock. My vista throttle lock adds another 1/2"-2/4" to the inside edge, so my right hand is displaced outwards enough to mean I'm resting my pinky on the bar end.

Wouldn't she draw a crowd if she was talking into a cellphone? If they invented a flying car and took one back in time then you'd certainly draw a crowd...

I bought some cat crap at Iron Pony the other day. Rode with it for the first time today. No fogging on the ride in to work but started fogging up again on the way home. Also, don't say to the parts guy at the motorbike shop; "I need some cat crap" unless you're sure he knows what you mean. After an awkward silence one of the other guys came over and explained it to him, giggling all the way...

Looked like he was gonna run... Did he?

Well, fingers crossed we can get the body shop, my insurance etc all on the same page and finally get my car fixed correctly.

Is that the same Eclipse in the magazine article they have hung up in the southeast corner of the reception area? 8.x seconds in the quarter? AWD rocks - which is why my cage is a Legacy GT 5sp turbo AWD

Just got back from First Impressions. We're going to schedule an estimate and see where we go from there.

I spoke to Rife's and they declined the work. They said they only have one paint booth and a full repaint would tie up the booth for too long.

Anyone had any experience with three-c body shop? Good, bad indifferent? What about Rife's in Westerville? Paint work only, no mechanical. Fixing a poor paint job done by another body shop. I've heard good and cad about every body shop out there. I've heard a few bad review of 3c, but they are higher volume so they're bound to have more complaints. Anyone in the industry that can recommend a shop?

Have you been posting on www.PussyAssedBikers.com again? Next they'll be complaining about loud pipes or sumfin...

Put it in your front yard and charge people $1 each swing to go at it with a baseball bat or sledgehammer.

Damn, that socks, bro.