TimsBlog

The Chinese tires I bought my bike with are cheap. China makes great toilet brushes and plastic cups. Not so much on tires. I have locked the rear tire up 3 times now. Thats no excuse for a brand new tire to lose all the tread on the center tread. Its almost gone in the rear. Call me picky, but I only have two tires so if they start going bald I’m getting new ones. I’m not sacrificing grip in the rain to save $20 on a tire.

I have limited options. the chinese ones I have bow are in stock and cheap, but suck. Michilin sells one but its back ordered. IRC (someone I never heard of) sells one, but it also is out of stock.

So I called the Local Honda dealer. I figured if I pay an extra $5 a tire to get them now then thats ok. I was on hold thinking about how they never remark over my bike. Its almost 28 years old and you’d think they would have a little Honda pride working there. They never seem enthused about my bike. I was proved wrong. I asked for the tire size at parts on the phone. He said, “hmm 2.50X17? Thats an odd size. What bike may I ask?” They were out of stock it turns out. As soon as I told him what I had he started asking me questions about my bike. Then took my number and said he would dig thru his parts books and take a look for me.

I really don’t mind waiting for a backorder. That means fresher tires. The ones I need are so rare that some of them have sat on shelves for too long. Making hte rubber brittle. Even the Michilins are made in Thailand. SE Asia is the only place I think a currently produce motorbike uses those sizes. The Uk had a pretty long run too, but not currently.

I have not had a nose bleed every unless I had snorted a bunch of drugs or had my nose busted. Even in those cases I never had it running out. I would have to stick something up there to see blood or just put my finger to the nostril opening and see a dab on my finger.

So after I started coffee and was waking up this morning I noticed a long streak of red on my index finger. about a half inch wild and 5 inched long. I thought shit another pen leaked. Then I thought I don’t have red pens.So I look for cuts I might have scratched open in my sleep and look for blood on my sheets, nothing. Then I go get some tissue and check my nose. One blow and its was covered in blood. Not fresh wet blood, but in between fresh and dried blood.

I do feel a little more sluggish and light headed this morning.I’m not going to sweet it unless this happens again.

So I’m riding back from the grocery store. I pasted the park and noticed they were having a concert in the park. SO On my way home I’m riding far slower than I normally do. I’m expecting people wanting to cross the street. Slow as in the speed limit of 30 mph instead of 40. So someone must have been peeking out or jumped out in front of the car ahead of me. Now I’m a good distance away from the sudden brakes they threw on, but I have drum brakes. Most bikes brake faster than cars. I don’t. I need some space. Another down side to riding a vintage bike. So I lock them up and my rear wheel starts to slide out to the right. Putting me in cross traffic when I get it unlocked and straight upright. So I lean to the other side and slide the rear tire to the left. I’m not going to make it to a stop before rear ending this car so I squeeze thru the parked car and the “suddenly stopped” car. Mind you I had a good 6 car lengths between me and this car to start with. They had to have almost locked them up. I’m guessing I didn’t hear tires from the car because it was anti lock brakes. As I’m straightening out and passing everything someone yells “Look Out Hes Crazy!” For one why am I crazy for trying to dodge a collision? Should I have just smashed into the car instead? Maybe it was just the first thing that popped out of this guys mouth.

So I’m glad of two things. One I had Bangkok driving experience that came in handy for the tight evasive maneuvering. It really came in to play here. It was something I had to do daily over there. Two I’m glad I skateboarded all those years. I really think it had something to do with me staying on the bike and drawing the line to avoid the collision. There are forces that could have came into play with the rear lock up. With the wheel sliding out to one side if you suddenly try to adjust it back upright you can get flown off. Sort of like changing the momentum and hitting a wall. The bike just throws you. I’m not saying I want to do it again by any means.

Strings and horns in Soul music will never be the same.

Isaac Hayes Music

Sadly Last FM has him listed as “on tour”

Favorite Rap sample of “Walk on By”

Ok my entire wardrobe consists of one very pack load of wash. 5 pants, 6 or 7 shirts and 2 towels. I do it once a week. I thought it was a rather efficient system until tonight. I had a pen in my pocket from work the other night. I forgot it was in my pants pocket and washed it with my weekly load. I even thought about the pen half way thru the wash. I pulled it out in the middle of the drying them. I sort of sighed when I opened the cap and it was full of ink. I thought man I ruined a good pen. I later went to take a shower and pulled out a pair of pants. Yeah I don’t fold them it was in a pile. Lack of ironing and folding is another part of my efficient system. I noticed there was black spots all over them. So I proceeded to check the rest of my cloths. Yep they were all spotted with black ink. Good thing I have about 30% of my cloths in black and you can’t tell. Also good that my work cloths are all black.

So now I need to get some damn cloths. I had been meaning to hit the goodwill and get shirts anyways. Its ashamed I can’t find pants there. I wear 34 34 and those are hard to find at goodwill. I was wanting to stop in and pick of a handful of short sleeve and long sleeve button up dress shirts. They always have plenty of those.

Also I have a pen fetish of sorts. I have had its since I was a kid. I’m the person the little pad of paper is for next to the pen display at office supply stores. Half of it is that I hate writing anything by hand for any length of time. So a good flowing and conformable pen is nice. Not always expensive either.I can spend 20 minutes just looking at pens. So that sigh comment when I found the ruined pen was real not just for a laugh.

I couldn’t find a good pen to save my life in Thailand and in Brazil it was almost as bad. In Thailand the pens are so bad they almost always cut the paper. Funny story. Andrew and me were at an arts supply store in Sao Paulo looking for some some decorative paper or something to use as a back drop on the apartment walls for shoots. I excused myself to go look at the pen selection while he ended up chatting up the store worker that later became his girlfriend. Its all about priorities.

Current Weapon of choice is a Bic Grip Roller Fine Black. Always fine and black. Just like I like my … um … coffee.

20 MPG Or there abouts. I don’t track my gas mileage on my scooter. Its rather pointless. I measured it twice and it was in the 90 mpg range. I have a 8 mile round trip to work. I had a full tank and went to work twice and ran to the gas station once (1 mile round trip). I was on my way to work the third night and noticed it was sputtering and I had to switch to the reserve. I sometimes smelled gas from my scooter, but didn’t pay it much attention. Its old and it just might smell from time to time.

I knew my fuel line was under my seat and the knee shield. I was being lazy and waited till I had a day off to check it out. Sure enough there was a leak. It was at the seam of the top of the inline fuel filter on the main line. Basically I have two lines off the tank to the carb. Main and reserve. The reserve if just lower in the tank. They lead into the petcock,(thats what she said) So I was being lazy again and just figured I’d switch it to the reserve line and worry about it later. Then I was watching a movie and thought wait a minute its still going to leak. Its still has gas from the tank leading to the filter where it was cracked. Since the petcock is after the leak and before the carb. So I ran out and got one this afternoon.

I was hesitant to do anything to my bike. I even promised myself not to work on it unless I absolutely had to since its my main form of transportation. I’m not screwing my self for another 2 months. Then I got to thinking it is gas and a lot of it that I’m “losing”. It is flammable and I do park it out front at work. So I’m now wondering if the front of my work smelled like gas or not. Would have been sort of funny if someone had thrown a cigarette out on the sidewalk and whoosh my bike and maybe the store up in flames.

Now the old filter only had a few specks of what I’m guessing was rust in it. I did noticed a huge increase in throttle response with the new filter. Its amazing that the smallest things can improve these small bikes so much. This makes tinkering with them so appealing. Also means the smallest thing can make the bike kaput. Anyone thats spend a full day with a chainsaw knows exactly what I mean. They always need cleaning and tuning. Gas weed wackers are almost as bad.

Off topic, if I hear can you pop a wheelie one more time I might just lose it. I don’t understand the fascination. Then again I’ve always lacked that show off drive.

In Cars (Cruising for a Bruising Numan Remix)

Our House (This Old Remix)

Safety Dance (Fever Remix)

I have to warn you the Psychedelic Hockey Organ sneaks up on you halfway thru.

You Spin Me Right Round (Psychedelic Hockey Organ Mix)

Tainted Love (glowstick remix)

Love My Way (subtle Heartbeat Remix)

Sort of had a secret project going on in my downtime over the last few months. I was wanting to remix 80s songs. I was going for that old midi sound with a heavy dance beat. So I ended up using an 808 for the drum tracks and trying my best to do everything else in a not so cheese midi sound. I can’t read music and punching out this shit on keyboard 5 notes at a time was a pain. I also can’t play songs on keyboard straight thru. So it was a lot of 5 notes here then layer a chord over it and rinse and repeat. They are not in the final mix down stage. Some levels need tweaking and some more stereo separate would help. PC or Notebook speakers are not going to do these justice so a sub woofer or some bass capable speakers will be needed. I mentioned the 808 drum tracks right.

Don’t you Want Me (can we be friends instead mix)

Tell Me Why I Hate Blue Mondays (not another remix remix)

I should also explain the title “I Hate Blue Mondays” is a a nod to the Boomtown Rats “I hate Mondays and the fact that Blue Monday has been covered and remixed to death