redkow97

Those are hardly "cruising" engines.

What are your basic preferences? Based on the style factor, I assume you want air-cooled. preference for twin or 4 cylinder? are you set on 4-stroke? Do you want to keep it Japanese, or would a Duc motor be workable?

Brandon - I was reading on AFJ that you're looking at 1 WERA round (presumably to get things sorted out) and then 3 AMA rounds. Is that all due to budget, scheduling, or something else? If you don't do more than 4 race weekends, the AFJ crowd might start making fun of you for posting more than riding ;-)

anyone know the torque figure off-hand? Interwebs say 114hp at the crank, which is plenty of top-end. A big twin shouldn't be lacking in grunt though. sewing-machine exhaust note, but oh well. The neighbors would appreciate that.

Looks like a fun way to spend some serious coin

It's not that it CAN'T be done, it's that it's unnecessarily risky. Without expounding upon the issue a ton, a more powerful bike adds more ways to screw up. - you will never accidentally power-wheelie a 250 - you will never accidentally spin the rear on a 250 - it would take a LOT of effort to endo a 250, and that's pretty easy to do on a 1000 - a 250 will never have to brake from 160 to 60 when someone changes lanes in front of you on the highway, because it's not capable of such speeds. Granted, the choice to do 160 isn't a smart move to begin with, but taking away the potential reduces your stopping distance exponentially if you make the same poor decision on the smaller bike. In general, everything on a liter bike is "sharper." Throttle response, braking response, etc. The 250's mechanical inferiority provide a welcome margin for error. You can whack open the throttle or grab a handful of brake, and the results are far less dramatic. Again, I'm not saying that it's impossible to get a liter bike or a hayabusa as your first bike and come away unscathed, it just increases the likelihood of a crash by adding to the litany of ways a new rider can already end up on the ground.

I have not built, so I have no first-hand knowledge here, and the fact that your parents own the land is a good incentive to build there, but all that said, I have never met anyone who build a house that enjoyed it, or said they would so it again. Lots of headaches.

I was being serious about using that as a general guideline for what the brakes would handle. And always remember, the "maximum" rating on any piece of equipment is what the legal department insisted they publish to avoid liability, NOT what the engineers decided was the maximum capacity, load, pressure, speed, etc. We have all gone more than 50 miles and more than 55 mph on a "doughnut" spare and lived to talk about it. Towing beyond the "maximum" recommendation by a couple hundred pounds is roughly the same. Yes, your stopping distance will increase, and your transmission wear will increase, but if you stay relatively slow to begin with and plan properly, the stopping distance isn't a huge deal. Neither is the trans wear if you're not tackling massive hills and only towing every couple months.

900 lbs isn't much. Ask yourself, "would three 300 lbs passengers fit in this car with me?" It's a sonic, so probably not...

I could go to almost every concert in town and not equal my track day budget... Alice in Chains, even without Lane Staley, is worth seeing live. I'm considering tickets.

Yeah, I have gone the last few years, but I wouldn't pay full price. I try not to pay at all Progressive usually has free tickets, if you know anyone who works there or have a policy through them. My dad and I went for free last year. Only paid or parking and beer. That was worth it.

The fact that 20 yr olds make shitty decisions isn't news.

I just don't consider it a "school shooting" when the parties are legally adults who are not planning the event. It sounds like this was a non-planned dispute that escalated into a shooting because one guy happened to be armed. The fact that it occurred at the school was coincidence.

Soo.... let's call this what it really is: a shooting that happened to occur near a school. NOT a "school shooting." Two morons who couldn't get into A&M went wild wild west on each other, probably in some dick measuring contest, or over some remark about the other guy's girlfriend. That's hardly the severity implied by the media labeling it a "school shooting." <demonstrative eyeroll>

have you ever kept a bike for more than 2 years? You had these, what, 8 months?

I'm making a late withdrawal. Simulated MBE from 9-4 Saturday during the day, and got roped into going out for someone's birthday later in the evening. You guys will have to find some way to carry on without XR engine parts spread all over the garage.

At the very least, I would include a basic (and binding) arbitration clause to keep expenses reasonable if things do go south.

It's good that UP chummed in with a firsthand account. I have seen court cases where tenants did $7k in damage and were a couple thousan in default On utilities that the landlord got stuck paying. The landlord won in court, but it took nearly a year to evict the people, and he gets a whopping $22/week in garnished wages from the tenants. If you KNOW your tenants, and can trust them, then renting isn't as scary, but your place is pretty nice. Honestly, I would jack up the price so that only tenants you want can afford your place... You want a federal employee with an incentive to lease, or someone similar. A couple of single guys in the mitary, etc. There are good tenants out there. Most of us have BEEN good tenants at some point on our life. But one bad experience really ruins it for you. I can read over a lease and let you know what is likely in enforceable in OH. There are a lot of things landlords throw in that a court would laugh at.

I wouldn't bother telling tenants what's been replaced. They don't care if the furnace is new or 50 years old as long as it's working. that (along with bad credit) is why people rent - so they don't have to worry about shit breaking.

Let me guess, none of those kids actually HAVE a bike yet.

We used little crab apples from trees in the neighborhood. Slightly safer. Slightly.

Health problems stand to offset most or all of those reduced expenses. Plus some people are accustomed to a higher standard of living. That's why I advised calculating current expenses and then multiplying, rather than a simple $x/year you plan to live. My wife and I live off $40k a year right now. Have for at least a year while I finished school. By the time I retire, I plan to have enough to live a lot better than I do now.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0083TXXZ4/ref=mp_s_a_1?qid=1358438456&sr=8-1π=SL75 There it is.

That was a nerf knockoff. The legit nerf guns are crazy awesome these days. My buddy and I went out shopping for his neighbors who are 7 and 4. We debated on which nerf guns to buy them for no less than 40 minutes. They run on batteries now to power a small air compressor and will shoot 50 feet easily. 6 dart magazines (yes, they have magazines!) are standard, but you can buy much larger ones! (Not regulated yet) The biggest model has something like 6 six-round magazines that you can rotate into the firing position. They also sell a "hell fire" upgrade or something that swaps in 6 fifteen-round mags!!!

Estimate your bare minimum yearly living expenses, and then double them. Multiply that number by the number of years you plan to live beyond retirement. That is your MINIMUM number. I would triple the expenses before multiplying to account for medical expenses in your later years, and general fun while you're 55-too tired for fun.