AndyJ

Go out and get some real info about aviation and pilot training, and then head to the airport to learn how to fly. You're probably 50% likely (just my SWAG) to kill yourself flying something you build from scratch without any training. For a helicopter, I'm putting chance for a fatality on the first flight at about 90-95%. You'd probably want the LEOs to know, so they could get the fire dept there, and set up a landing zone for the EMS helicopter. Besides the FAR/AIM, which is painful to read, your best resource is probably the EAA (Experimental Aircraft Assoc.) www.eaa.org. Training for ultralights is harder to get now because the FAA f'ed everything up in that area with the sport pilot regulations, wanting to control two seat ultralights. There are small helicopter kits out there, but they're not cheap. Lots of high precision moving parts. IIRC the rule for off airport landings is that you can land anywhere where it's not prohibited by local laws, provided you don't pose a risk to anyone on the ground. 'course in our fear-mongering post 911 world, everyone's afraid of their own shadow, and light aircraft are seen by the ignorami (and the idiot-operated TSA) as terrorist weapons until proven otherwise.

I've ridden every day this week so far except I had some off-site meetings yesterday that I needed to stay in work clothes for. Cold in the AM but I have heated grips, I haven't added anything other than the zip out vest in my jacket. For me the most annoying part is faceshield fogging at stops.

Keep arguing it. The insurance co. is hoping you'll just give up and pay up so they don't have to. My wife argues with ins. co's about chemo drugs all day; stall tactics are SOP. Ask to talk to a manager/supervisor. No need to answer, but was this something like surgery or a procedure where the precert should have been done by the hospital? I'm thinking if the hospital dropped the ball on that, they should help with this

Not to mention that the local area foots the bill for all the security that goes along with the travelling circus (apart from SS that comes along)

Figured you were smoking crack or something.... (actually I was trying to figure out a way to swing buying it and not have the wife notice another bike in the garage).

Saw a bunch of these looking for a used Odyssey; they give some sob story, say they had to move to Canada and don't have time to meet you, so they'll ship it. Uh, no thanks....

FYI it's starting. Third hand info, so take it for what it's worth: My vendor's nanny got stopped on 10 in Elyria yesterday morning, they had a speed trap set up; ticketed for 70 in a 65, based on the officer's estimate only. Get those letters in. Gotta wonder if some areas are just taking this and running to see how much extra $$ they can get to balance the budget.

That's some major suckish customer 'service', Hob! Not limited to bikes, though. We're trying to find a new Odyssey for my wife, found a decent '06 at a dealer (mistake) called and he said, 'sure come on in and take it for a test drive!". The ad had a carfax link, which showed that the toolbag bait & switch artists had sold it two weeks ago!! I'm actually working my boss about your bike, though. He's looking for a VFR after seeing mine every morning.

Based on that miniscule news clip, there's not nearly enough information to draw any kind of conclusion (other than an uninformed knee-jerk reaction, which is what the news networks are going for). The pneumonia is most likely completely unrelated to the donor's smoking history. I worked as a transplant coordinator for several years; the surgeons are made very aware of the donor's history, for lungs they would come to the donor hospital to evaluate them in person before recovering them, etc. Surgeons are VERY cautious with selecting donors for their patients, and will typically err on the side of caution. I've seen cases where smoker's lungs were suitable for transplant before, and where the recipients did fine afterward.

Missing steps: -Smash some part of car into steel poles protecting ATM machine while driving up -Back up two feet, smash door into ATM machine while opening to survey damage -Drive forward 6 feet (not enough for next car to use ATM) -Get out, smash door into steel pole I've witnessed this twice in the past year, plus a few shortened versions where they skip the door-smashing part.

I just got one of these: http://signaldynamics.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=56&category_id=14&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=77&vmcchk=1&Itemid=77 from Signal Dynamics. It's still sitting on the workbench so I can't say how well it works yet. The display is a single LED that changes color based on voltage. Here's a VFRD thread with some different options: http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/forum/index.php/topic/59684-voltage-monitor/

Congrats on the new ride!!!

This thread is so awesome I really hope it's a troll. As if the utter idiocy of getting a Gixxer for your first bike isn't enough..... no training, no gear, no insurance, just go out & ride, err, crash...then try to figure out how to get the fairings off to weld it. Epic.

My impression (from the media, so it's probably completely incorrect) is that this accident was preventable, caused by greed and unwillingness to slow down and take proper precautions. Yeah they're a major employer, but their major fu^&* up is going to have long lasting effects, not to mention how much oil they just threw away into the environment. This is far larger in scope than a few 'worthless' birds. Some higher ups should be doing some time in the big house with the butt pirates for this, I think.

Those belts that attach the kid to you scare me. I wouldn't want to have them stuck to me in a crash; I think they'd get hurt far worse than falling on their own. My son and I had an incident on a snowmobile last winter, and I somehow ended up on top of him while we were sliding. I had my faceshield up, so my eyeport was packed full of snow, couldn't see a thing when we stopped sliding, and thought I killed him for a second. I got up and saw him standing there laughing his head off. He's 10, weighs about 125, and is used to impacts from football, so to him it was no big deal (that plus the 12-14" of snow rather than pavement). He's been riding with me since he was 8, farthest he's gone is maybe 25mi but he wants to go to Vintage Days on a bike rather than via cage this year. He knows to keep feet on pegs, rules for getting on/off, etc, and we have some hand signals for slow down, I need to stop NOW, etc . I think a lot of it will depend on the specific kid, they're all different with maturity and ability to follow rules.

Dude's probably gonna need witness protection program - I can see a bunch of parents showing up at his house waiting for him. Can't say I blame them. This is going to be expensive for the bus company.

Great work!

Sad. RIP Good job for the dad taking one of them out. Unfortunate that we have to pay the bills for loser #2's hospital stay. I say if you're injured as the result of criminal activity, you're on your own.

Wow, you managed to turn 67/55 into 130/55. At the same time, you managed to reinforce the supertard squid stereotype in grand fashion. Good job!!!

OK that is hysterical.

+1 rode to work this morning for the first time; with heated grips and some extra layering, it wasn't too bad. I need to be at work at 530 tomorrow & will probably cage it; supposed to be like 25 out here in the morning.

+1 I'd really like a 1kR someday; kind of my '80s dream bike. Sanlot that is a clean bike! Does this replace your 4th gen or adding to it?

+1 for tightwad and the VFRness. My '94 never ate an R/R while I had it, but my '98 cooked it and the big wiring connector within 100 miles of my ownership. I also added a secondary fuse box to wire grip heaters at the same time. Worth the peace of mind to avoid hiking home from Coshocton. (PS also get like 10-15 of his plastic rivet thingys for when you break all of them doing your first oil change. The original Honda ones were designed by the same idiot who designed the R/R )

Hey works for me, as long as there's V-Force involved it's all good. I really liked my 500. 'Course I probably have no voting rights since my VFR has only left the garage once this year to date . (That's about to change, hardware I was waiting on just came today)

Pictures with today's paper or it's all lies..... Is someone hiding these things in a bunker somewhere and releasing them one at a time? Lots of awesome 5th gens popping up lately. Somebody on VFRW found one with the original MSO, never titled somewhere out west this winter.