Shoop

I had the only bike in the parking lot at work today. Now hoping that we thread the needle on that big low pressure arc that will pass through tonight so I can get one more day this week. .

I'm planning to build the Harbor Freight trailer. I've seen quite a few happy stories about it and none that describe real problems, other than about poor directions for electrical wiring. The main caution seems to be to change out the grease in the wheel bearings with a good quality bearing grease. Here's a link from the FZ6 forum. http://www.600riders.com/forum/the-bar/50851-2-days-hard-work-frustration-but-here.html?highlight=harbor+freight Please see the link he's embedded to the Sportsbike.net site for a build story. To secure the bike, I plan to use the Tyre Down that secures the rear tire, plus a simple front wheel chock, probably from Harbor Freight. http://lockitt.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Store_Code=Lockitt&Screen=PROD&Product_Code=TDTD1502 Eric, "Erci" on the FZ6 forum, uses a Pit Bull. But that's almost $300 vs $120 for the tyre down. Plus with the Pit Bull you need to use mounting spools on the axles while the tyre down fits most modern bikes. Good Luck - and let us know how it works out! Chris

Casper - Is it the three headed dog? Or the SPIDER? I think somebody is skeerd of spiders....

Welcome and Congratulations on the new bike! Now begins the worrisome second guessing of the weatherman's predictions. from now till spring.

Update: Hey Jack! Two weeks ago I cancelled my order for the Transitions shield when I called and they (Shoei) still do not have an availability date.I found sites on the internet that showed that Shoei has been saying they were coming out with this shield since October 2013. It does not take more than a year to fix a quality problem when another company has been shipping these for several years now. On a different note, I bought the Windjammer 2 helmet skirt. Tony Blaze had one at the Epic Fall ride. The skirt really quiets down the helmet, up to 70 or so. I will probably take the thing off next spring as it is very snug around the neck and I suspect will make the contact and the interior of the helmet pretty hot. Also, it is no fun removing the helmet with this thing on. I've learned to move the skirt over my nose before the big pull but it still pulls hard n the ears and eyebrows. No problem going on - at least.

Boom!

I did about 10 miles, mostly across town. I would have been out for a much longer ride but a friend needed help doing a complete replacement on his bathroom floor, down to raising the joists to get it flat and level. Gonna be stiff & sore tomorrow! Tuesday's supposed to be clear but cooler.

Thanks ped.

Hi, I do environmental regulatory work for a chemicals/polymer facility in WV. I have learned that the Ineos facility has an environmental issue similar to one at my facility for "Leak Detection And Repair" (LDAR) and I would like to compare notes with somebody at Ineos - preferably somebody who is involved with the LDAR program. If you work there or know of somebody, please reply or send me a PM. I am not a consultant, an undercover agency inspector, or a news reporter. This is not a social engineering attack - I am a chemist, not an engineer! Thanks, Chris Shoop

Still collecting these?

My wife has a 2013 Outback with a 2.5 and CVT. She loves it. I love it also and like features of the CVT though I prefer my Mazda with the manual. While the CVT DOES NOT jump off the line, it does great on on-ramps and on hills where the transmission is able to make best use of the available power band. It also does well with cruise control on hills since it just slips down the band and maintains the speed instead of losing speed until the automatic drops a gear. We pass lots of cars on the hills of US-50 & I-68. BTW, my wife told me to get the manual (on my Mazda) ! She's building major cool wife points.

Where do you enter a route? I don't see any panels for destination, etc. I'm using MS Explorer 9. In the help section, I noticed they talked about Chrome a bit. I use Chrome but I've not been able to get it running since I updated AVG Free last week. Any tips on where I can enter routes? Chris Ahhhh... Loaded Firefox, and everything works!

Thanks for the ride Jack. Loved that pickup with the dual flapping mattresses.

on my way there. just in case.

Lenny. How about 2:30 in Panera Bread pk lot? Decide on ride from there. Txt my cell at 304-488-9128 if that's too late etc

Well Lenny, the season for longer rides might be over. Bill, my neighbor will not want to go tomorrow, Sunday. I'm going to take at least a short ride, probably at about 1 or 2. I'll check here to see if you want to meet up. Chris

Will do.

Lenny - I'm finally finished with with the project for work. But the weather is NOT looking good for the weekend. I'm going to take off tomorrow, Friday morning to ride before the rain gets here. If you just happen to be off. let me know. I'm going to check in at work then go somewhere. Saturday if it dries off and isn't too cold maybe we could take a sort spin, maybe on 26 towards Woodsfield. Let's see what the weather brings.

Lenny - We'll have to play it by ear and see what the weather/temperature does. Today is my big deadline. I'll start doing the warm weather dance right after I put this thing in the mail!

Justin, I'm not trying to talk you out of going along, but the weather forecast for Saturday is for clear and cold, high of 49. Glad you had good weather though for your trip to the gap. Please let me know if you ARE going, and we'll talk details. I am going a longish ride somewhere even if it's 40. I've been captive to this project at work for the past month and I need to get out!

Have a great ride. Actually mean it this time! Looks like the weather will be nice for it. Monday and Tuesday will be killer days for me because of the big deadline I was telling you about last month. So I should be recovered by Saturday to take a long ride south to Hawks next and maybe the New River Gorge. Ride Safe! Chris

Jenny / Justin, I talked with my neighbor Bill today. He's free for Saturday 11/1, Sunday is a possibility. We talked about routes, aiming for a reasonably long one with different return options. The likely route would be US-21 to Charleston then 60 to Hawks Nest down near Gauley River, about 10 miles from the New River bridge. http://goo.gl/maps/qvYxW The return shown on the map is 16 to 119 to 14 back to Mineral Wells. 235 miles and about 6.5 hours. Once there, if we don't do too much sight seeing, we can take a longer loop and can take 19 to Sutton then back on either 5 or 47. We'd want to meet up between 10 or 11, probably at the Pifer's BP, or across the street at the GoMart - for an easier rt hand turn. I think the pace will be near the speed limit with some sections a bit fast. I'll be the slow one because I was out of riding for 25 years. Been back a year now. Bill likes the twisties and rides a Honda ST1100. Let me know if this sounds good or you prefer a different or shorter route. Chris

^^ With both these guys!

The route and the length will have to depend on the weather that day. I was going to ask my neighbor, Bill, to suggest something for the route. But both of you (Lenny & Justin) are also from 'round here so I'm sure we'd be open to your suggestions. Bill has been talking about going out 47 to Weston then either north or south. He commented that the last time he went that way and north he found a lot of trucks on the road hauling water for the fracking sites. Anyway, if north, then 19 to Shinnston, then 20 to New Martinsville. If time & weather permits we'd cross the river to get to 526 to 26 to get back to Marietta. Google maps says that would be 7 hrs and 250 miles which is a pretty long day. More to the south and shorter would be 47 to Glennville, then 33 to Ripley, then 21 back to PKB, which would be a bit over 4 hrs and 170 miles. Another of Bill's favorites is to go down 21 to Kenna then 34 to Fairview to stop at McD. That's a bit over 2 hrs and 75 miles to get there. Rt 34 is really twisty and is the treat at the end of that leg. Return options are to just backtrack (4 hrs and 150 miles), or to take the river scenic, flatter ride on 60 to Point Pleasant then 2 to Ravenswood, then 68 back to PKB, about 30 minutes and 20 miles less than the backtrack. We should probably start a new thread in the Rides/Routes part of the forum.

Lenny, My neighbor thinks he'll be available that weekend, 11/1. So now if the weather shapes up we'll have at least three. I feel like we've been paying ahead to get good weather that weekend. Sure has been rainy the past few weeks. Chris