Dumb Stuff

 Sometimes dumb stuff just happens and other times its more a result of laziness or stupidity. You're wondering what I'm talking about so I'll give you a few picture examples.

 Using a fire extinguisher for a wheel chock is just dumb especially when you're jump starting another vehicle, an act that could actually require that fire extinguisher should something go wrong.

 This just pisses me off. A bag of grass seed was left in a wheel barrow and then left to be rained on. Oh well, they're just an employee and it won't cost them anything to be lazy. What happened to when people used common sense and actually gave a shit.

 I went to a big box electronic store yesterday and picked up some batteries for the key fobs of my Ultra. All I bought were those batteries. Can you see them? They are about the same size as the "U" in BUY. That's the bag the wonder nerd put them in. A: I didn't need a bag. B: Are you sure the bag is big enough?

 This is a property where we have four Husqvarna Automowers cutting the grass. We didn't get the weed control and fert contract because they were still locked in with a large national contractor for this year. We had really hot and dry weather and anybody with any common sense stayed off their turf but not these guys. Look at the damage they did. Is this laziness or stupidity or more a case of greed?

 This pic is of my garage rafters. Some stupid knucklehead (me) was walking around up there yesterday while trying to run some wires. That broken particle board is whats left of where I was standing when it gave out. Lucky for me my wifes BMW was there to break my fall and lessen the distance to the ground. Who knows, I may have broken a hip. The car and I both suffered scratches and the car has a dent to boot. That dent is inches from the sunroof. Oh well, dumb stuff happens.

Later.

The Search Is On

 I still don't know what my used car budget will be when a profit sharing investment matures later this week but that hasn't stopped me from poking around at whats available out there. I've looked at hundreds of vehicles online and have cruised most used car lots in a fifty mile radius. Those vehicles range from pickemups, big ass suv's and some regular size suv's. To this day I've only test drove one.

 I don't know why this is the only pic I took of it or even why I took it. There are plenty of pics online. This one is a 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee with the 5.7 v8. It fits all the basic requirements of what I'm looking for and did fine on a test drive. I guess because its the only vehicle I've test driven that its currently my top choice.
 I saw this window sticker yesterday. Yikes. I don't think my house is worth that much. Certainly out of budget but a nice looking truck.

 So the search continues. Theres a v10 powered f250 I want to take a closer look at and also a Yukon. I wonder if I'll find something I really want or if I'll just settled for a fair deal. Either way, the search is fun.

Later.

Time For A Battery

 My Ultra is just over three years old now with something like 36k miles on it. Lately I've noticed that when hitting the starter button the engine doesn't always crank over with the same gusto it once did. With a nine day out of state bike vacation coming up I figure some good preventative medicine would be to replace that battery with a fresh one. I mean this bike has an awful lot of electronic gizmos including the air compressor I've added for the air ride suspension so I'm not gonna take a chance.
 Or am I? Five or six years ago, I had the same idea when I swapped out the battery on my Aprilia Futura right before a bike vacation. At work we are a dealer for a popular line of batteries and I can get a fair deal on them so why not, right? I did the swap, rode the bike locally for a week or so and then went on vacation. One day while on a ride with my buddy Bill my bike wouldn't start. The battery wouldn't take a charge and I was SOL. To us we were in the middle of nowhere but Bill and I removed the battery and he loaned me his bike so I could venture off in search of a replacement. I found a service station with a suitable replacement and left my junk battery with them as a core which is pretty standard. Besides that I had no intention of hauling a dead battery back home nine hundred miles away. I returned to the scene of the crime, swapped in the new battery and enjoyed the rest of my vacation trouble free as far as the battery is concerned. In the end that replacement battery lasted years in the bike so we know the bike wasn't the issue.
 Upon return to work the following week I told the battery supplier about my problem. He had no desire to credit me for the bad battery because I couldn't produce it. I guess this is where good or bad customer service is decided. A reasonable person would understand someone not wanting to deal with hauling a dead battery around while on a motorcycle vacation. Hell if I had enough room to pack a dead battery then I might have actually packed clean underwear or deodorant. As a reasonable person myself I know companies have policies and employees don't always get to do what they think is right. I wasn't gonna get a credit for my defective battery until my boss found out about the story. Bottom line was this. He told the battery supplier to credit me or get all his shit out of his store. I got my cha ching back and we still sell a shit ton of that brand battery. In fact I ordered this battery from the same guy that sold me the first one and he even gave me a little break on the price.
 So the short version of this post is to tell you that today I'm gonna swap a new battery into the Ultra.

Later.

Dans Ride

 So yesterday coworker Dan comes up to me and he says his bike is effed up but he's not sure whats going on. The description started out like a possible clutch issue or maybe something in the primary but as more questions were asked and answered it became obvious it wasn't something simple.

 A test ride was in order. At first I wasn't sure if I'd need to take it out on the road and torque the crap out of it to find a problem but when I gave it the first little twist I noticed right away that the back wheel wanted to go in a different direction than the front. Its funny how a half inch of movement can feel like the wheel is exiting the fender. I went less than a hundred yards and nursed it back to the shop. He'd been riding it this way so long he didn't even notice the issue. Or...maybe because I'm so spoiled on the Ultra that any little deviation from normal is grounds to question whether or not I can take advantage of that extended warranty I paid for.

 It looks like the transmission is cast with a long hole that the swing arm bolt passes through. This hole is completely broken in half lengthwise and the arm is allowed to flop around between the frame bushings. This looks terribly dangerous to ride and I'm surprised he has gotten away with it for this long. I couldn't stick around long enough to find out if any other problems were found but I did learn something else that shocked me. Here we are with ten guys standing around shooting the shit and the subject of using the front brake comes up. I felt alone on an island preaching about front brake use and only hearing back that the front brake will cause you to drop the bike or whatever. Come on, its 2018. Aren't we all past that? The news has been out for decades. Yes if you lock the front wheel in a slow turn you could have problems but thats not what we're talking about. In an emergency you need that 90% of your stopping power to stay alive and you'll never use it if you have trained yourself to always use the back brake. The harder you apply the front brake, the more weight you transfer to the front tire. The more weight on the front tire means you have more braking grip with that tire and the road. Do it. Practice it.
 Yes there are times when the back brake is appropriate like greasy stop sign intersections, some rain situations, slow speed maneuvers and gravel. Some squid type riding in the twisties may also call for feeding in a little rear brake but that's something completely different. If you need to stop from hiway speed in a hurry and you don't step hard on the pedal then odds are good you'll hit whatever you wanted to avoid. If you do step hard then odds are good you'll lock the rear and go into a skid. I guess then you'll be able to say "Dude, I couldn't stop and had to lay it down".
 Do yourself a favor and train your muscle reflex to include squeezing the front brake lever when you want to stop. Using both the front and rear is acceptable also but remember as the back end gets lighter from using the front, it will want to lock easier and you'll have to ease up on that rear brake. Your concentration is better used focusing on how hard you can use that front brake without locking the wheel.
Lecture over.

Later.

4th of July/Princeton Flea Market

 What a screwed up week this was. For crying out loud we had two Mondays this week. The second one being Thursday after having Wednesday off for the holiday. Thursday really did suck in so many ways and Wednesday felt like a Sunday. Here's the deal. Its Independence Day so lets drop the whole 4th of July monkey business and celebrate Independence Day on a Monday or Friday so more of us can do a three days in a row vacation. This work two, take one off and then work two bullshit has got me constantly checking to see what day it is. I was surprised when I got a paycheck on Tuesday because it was actually Friday. I totally missed out on a fish fry because I thought it was Tuesday. After all this I'm sure next week is gonna feel like a nine day work week. Yesterday, (Saturday) I felt like I was playing hooky because I normally work Saturdays but had this one off and it felt like a Wednesday due to the 4th feeling like a Sunday. There was no Thursday and I can't even tell you what happened on the actual Monday or Tuesday.
 On top of all that, this entire summer is flying by so fast I can't keep up. Every time I blink its a month later except next week of course which will feel like an eternity. OK, rant over.

 So I told you that I had Saturday off. What did I do with it? Not a dang thing. At least nothing productive. The Day started out with my wife and I taking a stroll through the Princeton Flea Market.

 Its amazing the time some people will take to set up and display some of this crap. Don't get me wrong, there is some cool useful stuff to be had but much of it is pure dumpster material. I guess they're taking a chance that the initial shock of a piece of crap will trigger a purchase. I admit that some of the pieces in the following pics made it back to our home.

creepy

Monkey business

Cheese curds for breakfast? Yep!

High tech.

No thanks. Too much of a chance of zipping up something important.

These are now on display in our home. My wife says its art. I say creepy.

A twisted drive shaft. I wonder what the story is behind it?

This is my favorite shirt. My wife said it was too wrinkly but I wore it anyway. What a rebel.

 So after a day of flea markets, garage sales, antique malls and truck shopping, the evening ended on a farm in Wautoma and a good time was had by all.

Later.

Day Off Photo Dump

 Day off in the middle of the week. What to do. I may wander off and search the used car lots for a replacement pickem up truck. The problem is that every truck that catches my eye is triple my potential budget. Oh well, it doesn't hurt to look.

Todays mini photo dump includes this hole in the roof of an enclosed trailer. Of course the driver has no idea how this could have happened. What we know for sure is that the trailer was moving and the door was all the way open when that cable broke, whipped around and bitch slapped the roof.

 I got a notice on my phone that the automower at the shop had a problem. "No drive" was the error message. When I investigated the problem the mower looked fine until I lifted it up and discovered it was dummy hung on this weird little piece of wood. These mowers are wonderful little machines but you really need to make sure the crap is picked up in your yard.

 And speaking of automowers, I was participating in what will become Americas new favorite pastime...tipping back a cool one and watching a machine manicure the lawn. As it came to the driveway edge a few clippings shot out onto the blacktop. I couldn't help but notice how clean of a cut this thing was making, even on this weedy grass. You don't always see this with a conventional mower.

 And finally a bit of bike related content. I may have mentioned that I had ordered a new "up" valve for the air ride on my Ultra. I installed it the other day and also removed the air tank to check it for moisture but found none. I know some dirt was getting in that valve so I also have a filter to install. I'll need to get some fittings before that can happen. Until then we'll just keep riding the beast and stop to clean the valve if it plugs up again.

Later.

Farewell Old Blue...

...you barbaric hunk of junk. Gone are the little piles of rust that you shit on the driveway every time I close the door. Gone is the need to put you in drive for a moment before you'll even think about moving in reverse. Gone is the need for a 1200 watt sound system just to overcome the road noise from the street mudders and air leaks around the doors. You are gone and out of my life. Lets just leave it at that.

 So moving forward the search is on for a replacement. We've been putting money into a profit sharing investment that will end in a few weeks. I don't even know what my budget will be yet but I do know it will be at least ten grand. I'll find something in that range because we have no interest in a loan payment. My needs are quite simple. I need to be able to get to work even if the roads are snow covered at 2am. I need to be able to pull my 6 x 12 enclosed trailer on a limited basis. Anything else like heated seats or nicer trim levels are just wants and the budget will decide how far we can go with those. Half ton short bed pickups, Tahoe/Yukons and Grand Cherokees are the ones I've been eyeballin at the used car lots. Let me know if you see any deals out there.

Later.