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Rant Archive - December 2006

December 30, 2006 - NOW GET OUT THERE AND EAT SOME DIRT!

WOW... the next to last day of the year and temps in the mid sixties. This is my kind of winter weather and I took full advantage by getting up early and heading out for a little off-road action. I had such a good time that I ended up staying most of the day... in fact it was dark by the time I got back home, got everything unloaded, the bike washed off and the chain lubed. You know, the more I ride the CR, the more I am enjoying it. I can't believe I stopped riding off-road for so many years and some of you are apparently feeling the same. I recently got an email from one of my readers in Texas who after seeing some of my posts decided that he was going to get back into it as well. Glad I was able to send some encouragement your way James. Now get out there and eat some dirt!

PS... maybe one day I'll figure out how to carry a camera when I'm riding so I can get some more interesting pictures. Until then you'll just have to settle for my stupid after-ride closeups! It was muddy today.

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December 26, 2006 - I GUESS I WASN'T AS BAD THIS YEAR AS I THOUGHT

Christmas was awesome this year. I had a great time with friends and family, consumed entirely way too much delicious food and Santa actually left a few things under the tree with my name on them... I guess I wasn't as bad this year as I thought!

On Christmas Eve, we hung out with several of our friends at our annual Christmas Eve bash. My buddy Jim and his wife started this tradition 15 years ago because none of us at the time had family in the Nashville area. Well, over the years our little Christmas Eve group has become like family… sharing in each others good and bad times, watching our kids grow up together and generally being tangible evidence that friendship is indeed a priceless gift. Of course this event would not be complete without the much anticipated "Dirty-Santa, White Elephant" gift exchange. Each year brings new and exciting (read: disgusting) gifts as well as some dirty stealing but this year I finally lucked out! No 1970's disco cassette or hand carved wooden squirrel for me! This time I scored a well-used but way-cool, full-face Bell Tourstar helmet circa 1973 that nobody else wanted or could figure out why on earth I did. I tried to explain the whole Evel Knievel connection but since none of these people are remotely interested in motorcycles, all they saw was a nasty looking old useless helmet. Ha… their loss is my gain! Check it out above. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it though since my wife shot down the idea of using it for a dining room table center piece. I guess I'll just have to mount it on the garage wall so I can draw daily inspiration from it. Long live Evel!

Of course the most fun came on Christmas day with my real family. I feel pretty fortunate to have the family I have and to be honest with you, I don't think I would survive in this mostly "sucky" world if it weren't for them. I have great parents, I married way over my head, I have good kids and just thinking about my grandkids makes me lose any tough guy biker façade I might have in the twinkling of a tear-filled eye. Sappy stuff to some, but the lucky ones out there know exactly what I mean. Surprisingly, they only got me a couple of motorcycle related things this year… which is completely fine with me. Honestly, I'd rather buy my own accessories and if you frequent this site at all you know that I'm not the least bit interested in the latest Harley-Davidson branded clothes that every mindless follower who has a low-mileage Harley sitting in their garage will be wearing in January. What I did get was way cool though. The coffee-table-book pictured left and opened up below is the "100 Years of Magnificent Machines: Motorcycle Chronicle Collectors Edition" and is filled with nice photography of some very rare motorcycles.

I also got a pretty cool new game for the PS2. It's to the right in the picture below and is called "Suzuki Super-Bikes Riding Challenge". I'm not sure why it's named that because there are tons of different brands of bikes to choose from including Honda, Ducati, Triumph and more. But despite a strange name, it's a lot of fun, let's you experience pretty realistic road racing and is highly addictive! So far I am still in my rookie season (I crash a lot) but hope to move up in the ranks soon. My favorite bike so far? Without a doubt it's the Triumph Sprint ST. It's 1050cc engine with 125hp can pretty much take anything I've competed with so far.

I hope Santa was good to you too!

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December 23, 2006 - THE NASHVILLE NATIONAL MILITARY CEMETERY

Not far from where I live is the Nashville National Military Cemetery. I have driven by it several times and always wanted to stop but never seemed to have the time. Well, today I decided to make it my riding destination and I have to say that it is a pretty humbling experience to walk through and read the headstones of countless men and women who have served our country. Words of thanks and appreciation cannot even begin to express my gratitude for our soldiers but with Christmas just two days away, I know there are a lot of men and women far from home doing thier duty and to them I say thank you!

CLICK HERE to check out pictures of my trip to the Nashville National Military Cemetery.

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December 21, 2006 - WISHING YOU AND YOURS A HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON

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December 18, 2006 - ONE OF MY FAVORITE ROADS IN MIDDLE TENNESSEE

One of my favorite roads in Middle Tennessee is the stretch of Route 53 between Liberty and Woodbury. I ride the 15 mile route several times a year and on Sunday I headed in that direction once again. It took a while to get to Liberty from where I live but as always it was well worth the time invested. Route 53 is filled with sweeping curves and hills and some of the best Tennessee scenery you will find. It's just a great road to ride with signs like the one in the picture above posted every 2 to 3 miles. I had such a good time Sunday that I actually rode the route three times. From Liberty to Woodbury, back to Liberty and then back to Woodbury again before heading back home. If you are ever traveling through Middle Tennessee and looking for a nice road to ride, check out route 53. The map below will give you an idea where it is in relation to Nashville.

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December 18, 2006 - TWO DAYS OF OFF ROADIN' IT

I'm really loving the CR250R. Lot's of power and pretty forgiving suspension.

This past weekend was awesome. We had sunshine and temperatures in the low 70's... and to celebrate I hit the motocross track and trails on both Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. Not sure how I got out of so many Honey-do's in one weekend but who's to question a good thing! I'm really loving the CR these days and I'm slowly getting better at riding it. I did take a spill on the Hare Scramble course on Saturday though. I was going pretty fast through a turning down-hill section and clipped a tree with my my left grip. I low sided and I'm happy to report that all the protective gear worked great! No damage to me or the bike! On a more positive note, I did pretty OK on the motocross track, even clearing a small double several times that not long ago had me totally freaked out. (Translation: Scared!)

Adjusting the CR's choke on initial start-up.

Lunch of champions... Aquafina and Power Bar! (Yuk)

Here is the dreaded double that typically kicks my butt.

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December 18, 2006 - MY NEW QUICK STRAP GOGGLE SET-UP

The awesome Quick Strap for quick and easy goggle removal.

I got a new piece of gear this week that I want to mention. If you ride off-road you know what a pain it usually is to pull your goggles off either over or below your helmet. It's rather frustrating when you just want to rest for a minute and have to spend a ton of time removing and then putting your goggles back on. Well, I discovered something called a Quick Strap which eliminates the hassle. Quick Strap works with any brand goggle and replaces the normal strap with two, non-connected shorter ones. The right side attaches to an anchor and the left side attaches with industrial strength velcro. I can have my goggles on or off in about one second now. I love this product... you should check it out. And... BTW, you don't have to permanently alter your helmet to install the Quick Strap.

Closeup of the left side. The strap attaches with industrial strength velcro.

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December 12, 2006 - MEMORIES OF THE OLD SUZUKI RM-100

I found this scan of an old Suzuki RM-100 brochure the other day. I had one of these bikes just after my famed Honda CL100 (see RANT from 01/17/06) and I can remember the day I brought it home like it was yesterday. I guess I was about 14 at the time and the first time I got on it I couldn't believe how tall it was. Once I got riding, I couldn't believe how much power it had either, especially compared to the tame little Honda I had grown accustomed to in the months prior. No doubt about it, that bright yellow dirt bike drastically changed my riding life forever... suddenly there was lot's of torque and lot's of speed to be enjoyed... and enjoy it I did!

The bike shown in this brochure is not the same year as the one I had but it is nearly identical and seeing it immediately brought back a couple of pretty humorous memories. Check them out below:

GET THAT BROKEN MOTORCYCLE FIXED OR ELSE: I used to ride in a vacant field near my house but to get to it I had to ride the RM about 2 blocks down the street. One day when I returned home from riding my mom sent me to the mailbox to grab the mail. There was nothing there but a hand written note from an anonymous woman stating that if I didn't get my noisy motorcycle fixed she was going to call the police. It seemed that she thought that my motorcycle must be broken to be making that much noise (gotta love the 2-stroke) and she wasn't going to put up with it any longer. We later found out who the woman was and discovered that I had been waking up her new baby every afternoon when I would fly by her house on the RM. I started walking the bike past her house after that.

MOTOCROSS RACE ON THE STREET WITH THE COPS: One day a friend and I went riding and we ended up on some property we weren't supposed to be on. This particular piece of land had some good sized hills to climb and the temptation to scale them was just to much for us to bear. We were having a good ole time... not bothering anybody... when I made my final climb of the day. As I peaked the top of the hill I came face to face with an officer of the law in full Dianna Ross and the Supreme's STOP pose. It's seems that Mr. Policeman thought he would be cute and climb up the other side of the hill to surprise us. Well, he did indeed surprise us, so much so that my first instinct was to take off. I immediately gunned it back down the hill and my buddy followed as we made our way towards the street and right past the squad car with his partner sitting inside. Well, by the time Barney Fife rolled back down the hill and to his car we were well down the road and headed straight for my buddies house where we quickly garaged the bikes, locked the doors and peeked out the window blinds. Sure enough, the familiar squad car passed the house three times and I have to tell you I was sweatin' bullets! But the most terrifying part was still ahead... I still had to get my bike back home and the only way to do so was to ride it about four miles down the street illegally. After a couple of hours I figured the coast was clear but I can still feel the nervousness I felt coming around every corner on the way back to my house, wondering if I would run into officer friendly who would probably haul me off to jail. I finally made it home and I bet I didn't ride for three weeks out of fear that they were still out there looking for me. In retrospect, running from the cops, down the street on a really loud bike that was not street legal at the age of 14 was probably a pretty stupid thing to do... young and dumb I guess! My buddy and I swore secrecy over this and until now I haven't talked about it much... in fact, I'm pretty sure this will be the first time my dad hears about it... some 30+ years later. Hahaha!

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December 5, 2006 - TODAY I BOUGHT A BRAND NEW HONDA CRF450R

Well, I did it... I went out today and bought a brand new Honda CRF450R motocross bike. I really didn't plan to buy another dirt bike this soon but I saw it in the store today, fell in love and the the next thing I knew I was telling the salesman I would take it. I was so overcome by the urge to own it that I didn't even consult the wife before making the purchase. Hopefully I won't be in too much trouble when she finds out!

CLICK HERE to see pictures of my new CRF450R.

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December 2, 2006 - WINTER SUCKS, FUEL INJECTION ROCKS

This weekend brought with it the coldest temperatures of the year... so far. Winter sucks! I really dislike it and each year I dread it's coming and rejoice in it's departure but I made up my mind a couple of years ago that for sanity's sake, it wasn't going to stop me from riding. I've been out on some pretty cold days since then and Saturday was one of them. You can see from the picture of my deck thermometer that it was well below freezing but you can also see from the picture below that the sun was out and shining bright, helping to lessen the arctic blow. If you can't tell, that's a reflection in my gas cap cover which I thought was interesting. There were lots of white clouds everywhere but thankfully they didn't seem to block the much appreciated sun rays.

Oh... and BTW, I do have to say that Fuel Injection rocks! Even at 22 degrees you just turn the ignition on, wait for the FI light to go out, push the start button and it starts right up. No messing with a choke, no spending 10 minutes to get it started and no riding for 15 minutes before it finally starts running right. It's awesome and I would be hard pressed to go back to a bike without FI now that I've had one with it.

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December 1, 2006 - EBAY, IT'S LIKE THE WORLDS BIGGEST GARAGE SALE

By now, I'm sure everyone on the planet has heard of Ebay but in case you have been under a rock for the past few years... Ebay is an on-line auction that was started by a guy in California back in 1995 and has since grown into the worlds largest e-commerce site. It's quite the American success story and has grown to the point that if you are looking to purchase just about anything used or new, chances are you will find it for sale on Ebay.

To tell you the truth, I'm not that big a fan of Ebay but many others apparently feel differently as literally millions of items are sold every day on the site. I have however found a few items that I couldn't pass up. Back when I was working on the MadKaw it came in quite handy and just this week I won the bid on an AXO motocross jersey. (See picture above.) These jerseys sell in the local stores for around $29.99 + tax and I got this one in "brand new condition" for $5.00 plus $5.16 shipping... less than one-third what I would have paid locally.

No doubt, some good deals can be had, and some hard to find items can be found (like cool retro red grips) but like any other on-line transaction, you have to watch for fraud signals and use common sense. If you do, Ebay can be a lot of fun and turn up some good deals. It's like the worlds biggest garage sale!

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