| Author | Message | ||
     Pwnzor |
You'll like the house, but you will LOVE the bike. | ||
| Hughlysses |
It sucks trying to be a responsible adult sometimes, doesn't it? | ||
| Tootal |
In order to become old and wise you must survive being young and STUPID! Well, we all survived our younger years but sometimes, as we think about our mortality, we get in a hurry for one last thrill! You're right Hugh, it is tough being an adult sometimes! Growing old is not an option, but growing up is! Crusty, I feel your indecision! | ||
| Ourdee |
Put a side car on the Sportster. A long enough side car that you can sleep in it. You will be able to sleep at the service door of any HD shop overnight. Stealth camping, who needs a house? | ||
| Mnscrounger |
Yet to be said... I hope your okay from the crash. | ||
| Crusty |
Is It Fate, Or Just Wishful Thinking? I was talking with David (my brother) this morning and he brought up an aspect to things that hadn’t occurred to me. He pointed out that maybe Fate was pointing out that it’s time to get a new bike. The Roadster ate its engine last summer, and now I crashed, then discovered the problem with the rear brake while looking the bike over. Now, I have this opportunity to get an SX with many of the more expensive modifications I’d been planning already done and for a cheap price. He said, in effect, “Just buy the damned bike. You’ve been wanting one for a while and Fate is telling you here it is. If the right house comes along, I’ll handle the financial parts and you can square up with me later on.” So I called the Credit Union and got some pertinent information about getting a loan, then sent an e-mail to Ron in Maryland (the owner of the SX). I’m just trying to do the Next Right Thing. If it’s supposed to happen, it will all come together. I’m thinking that if Ron is willing to take a small deposit and wait until my Tax Refund comes in, I’ll rent a econobox and drive down this weekend to give him some money and check out the bike. If everything goes the way I hope, I’ll be on an EBR within a month. If it’s not supposed to happen, I’ll just have to accept that and move on. I’m hoping it all comes together and I’m scared that it will. Ambivalent is the word that comes to mind. Well, the next right thing is to wait for Ron to call me; hopefully, this evening. Then I’ll see where things are going. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Alright, since I pointed that bike out to you, does this mean I get a test ride at Glitch Badness (assuming I make it)?  Fingers crossed- I hope everything works out for you! | ||
| Crusty |
Well, I just talked to Ron. he's got two people who are coming out this weekend who are ahead of me. One from Indiana and one from I forget where. So, rather than rent a car and drive down, I'm going to wait. If, for some reason they don't buy it, then he'll call me and I'll go down to the Baltimore area and check it out. If it's supposed to happen, it will. I ain't holding my breath, though. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Rats! Fingers still crossed. | ||
| Crusty |
Short And Sweet I’ve been working on the rear brake of the Roadster. It is my honest and sincere wish that the engineers who designed the rear wheel and brake of the 2005 XL1200R should spend Eternity changing flat tires on these bikes on the side of the Dalton Highway in the rain with the absolute minimum assortment of tools. | ||
| Crusty |
Life Goes On Well, I got scooped on the 1190 SX. I guess it wasn’t meant to happen at this time. That’s OK, it will happen when the time is right. For now, I’m focusing on getting a house in Cincinnati. I think that’s supposed to happen first. I’ve been in frequent communication with David, who just checked out a few possibilities. Two of them became pending before he could get to check them out. The third is in a neighborhood that appeals to me, but there’s enough things that are wrong that I get a feeling we should pass on it. David went over with the realtor and did a pretty serious inspection. He likes it. Like I said, though, it doesn’t feel right to me. I think we should keep looking. I saw a new listing this morning on Realtor.com. It looked really good, and the price was within the limits I set, so I sent the address to David. He sent back a reply that said, in part, (The house) is 1/4 mile from the corner of McHenry and Harrison, home to the most frequent gun battles in the city over the last 20 or 25 years, so no, I will not even venture over there even in daylight hours. Before I moved (to my present location) I lived about 3/4 miles up the street on Harrison from there, and I would drive 2 miles out of my way to avoid that intersection. So another possibility bites the dust. The right house is out there, I just have to just keep doing the next right thing and it will appear. I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to make it to Glitch Badness, so long as I don’t do anything stupid, like lowside my bike. What’s running through my mind right now is if there’s any way I could head out a week early and catch the Atlanta Short Track. I’ll have to give that some serious thought. I could ride over to Fayetteville and see my sister and brother in law and visit for a couple of days after the race, then ride up to TWoS for the rally. I think I could keep expenses down to affordable. I’ll have to take a long hard look and do some honest number crunching. Hopefully, it will all fall into place. I need to get on the bike and put on some miles. I’ve been stationary for way too long and it’s starting to affect my sanity (not that I’m the most sane individual to begin with). That’ll give me something to focus on tomorrow. It’s supposed to get bitterly cold tonight, and tomorrow’s high is supposed to only get up to 17º F (-8.3º C). But on Tuesday, the high is supposed to hit 52º F (11º C). Crazy weather. Well, I did something kinda foolish today. while I was at the supermarket, I got another one of those 2” thick pork chops and I’m going to have that for dinner. Later. | ||
| Ourdee |
I get the pork butt and slice it into steaks. | ||
| Buellish |
John,there is absolutely nothing wrong with a 2" thick pork chop! | ||
| 86129squids |
Next Thursday, I'm planning to do pork chops about that thick, sous vide, with roasted cauliflower and broccoli au gratin, some kind of potatoes, and... maybe a salad.  | ||
| Crusty |
A Ride With Friends In 1980, I went to Kenya for five months to visit with my best friends. While there, along with having some memorable adventures, we made plans to take a long motorcycle trip the following year. I returned to the Boston area in October and went back to work as a Miner. I was on a Graveyard shift, which meant that I didn’t get to socialize very much. I also didn’t have many opportunities to spend money. I only had one motorcycle at the time, and I had to come up with two more bikes. While the Guzzi 850 that I had was a good bike, it didn’t have the mojo for me that it once had. Ron liked Guzzis, so I figured I’d give that to him. Melia knew how to ride; she’d ridden dirt bikes at her home in the Idaho panhandle, but she’d never had a street bike. Eventually, I found a Honda 550/4 that I felt would be a good bike for her. Big enough to travel on, but not so big it would overwhelm her. I had decided that I wanted a Harley Big Twin. Eventually, Guy had a '78 Superglide come into the shop that turned out to be an ideal bike at a good price. Ron and Melia arrived at my place at the end of May, and we prepared for the trip. I intentionally left things for them to do to the bikes. Ron had to put a new tire on the Guzzi and Melia had to put a new clutch in the Honda. I left them with the tools and parts to do the job and I went to work, then slept the next day while they got things done. My logic was that if they had to work on the bikes, they’d get to know them a bit better and would bond with their rides. It worked. We set out and at the last minute, Bill decided to join us. Our first destination was Louisville, Kentucky to see the 1/2 Mile race and to introduce Ron and Melia to my friends there. Bill went back to Massachusetts after the race and the three of us aimed south toward New Orleans. Ron had lived in Lafayette, Louisiana for a while when he worked for Petroleum Helicopters and wanted to show Melia the south coast. We rode through some really heavy rain on our way south, and we put up in a motel to dry out. When I got up the next morning, my boots still had about a cup of water in each, and it took days before they dried out. So we hit the Big Easy, then started westward. When we got to Lafayette, we were sitting at a traffic light, and when the light changed, my clutch cable broke. I called around and found a small repair shop that had a cable, so I took the Guzzi while Ron and Melia stayed and watched the bikes. One thing I noticed was how strange the Guzzi felt after riding the Harley for a few thousand miles. Anyway, I got the cable and put it on and was ready to go again. Ron had called an old friend who was still in Lafayette, and we stayed at his place that night. The next day, we hit the Texas border, and that’s when the magic hit me. I felt like I was home. I still remember the feeling. I don’t know why it hit me so hard, I’d never spent any appreciable amount of time in Texas, but it was at that point that the trip became so “Right”. It took us a couple of days to go from Houston to Amarillo and up the panhandle towards Colorado. We stopped in Colorado Springs for a couple of days and visited with friends there. Both Ron and I had lived there and had mutual friends there. While there, Jim Callan and I went out to do some bar hopping, and we wound up stumbling across a bar that had the Drifters performing. They had the bar’s band doing backup, but the group had the harmonies down. It was a great show. We went up to Fort Collins and visited with Ron’s Ex wife and her new S.O. We then rode up through the mountains, eventually making our way towards Utah. While heading west from Grand Junction, I started seeing these flattened dirt clods on the highway, and some in the breakdown lane that weren’t flattened. Then I saw one of the clods moving and I realized that they were spiders the size of my fist. Tarantulas! They were colored the same shade of tan as the desert in the area. We stayed in a motel in Green River, Utah that night. We made our way up and over to Darby, Montana,and spent a few days with Ron’s parents, then made our way to Priest Lake in the Idaho panhandle and stayed with Melia’s folks. I remember we were there for the fourth of July. Ron had bought an “Auto Fooler” at a fireworks stand (It whistles like a falling bomb and smokes like hell), and wired it to Melia’s bike. When she started the bike, it went off and startled the bejeezus out of her. I’ve never seen anyone jump off a bike any faster. She also used an extensive amount of unprintable language in describing her displeasure at Ron and I who were laughing our asses off. Ron and Melia got married again (they’d gotten married while in Kenya, but Melia’s folks wanted to be at the ceremony) and I got to be the best man. After that, it was time to part ways for a while. Ron and Melia went back to Nairobi and I rode back to Massachusetts. There are a lot of things I’ve left out of this account; I got stung by bees five times during the trip (once, the venom went into my sinuses and was agonizing), to when we got separated coming into Grand Junction, and had a hell of a time reconnecting, or the places we camped (we camped in Frazier, Colorado, one night and when we woke up, it was 27º F), or riding across Kansas on I-70 with my hands off the bars for over 20 miles, or a lot of other details. I still have photos from the trip. They’re in an album that’s in a sealed plastic bin that’s in storage. However, it’s the memories of a Great Time in my life with my Best Friends that I cherish the most. (Message edited by Crusty on March 04, 2017) | ||
| Pwnzor |
Excellent snippet. Thanks for taking the time to share it. | ||
| Zane |
Crusty, It's snippets like this that make all of us follow you. Story telling at it's finest. | ||
| Zac4mac |
Just discovered a useful trait of TKC80s. At least the front is run-flat. This morning I thought the front end was heavy and the bike was hard to push. Checked the pressure and it was 0psi... Sure rides better now!!! Z | ||
| Ourdee |
https://baltimore.craigslist.org/mcy/6020736719.ht ml http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/21/ 802528.html?1488504283 Looky not mine | ||
| Ourdee |
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| 86129squids |
One must remember that Erik also makes his own geeetars. That motor just sings, and growls. OK, it's ON. Rush17: Neil Peart, Alex Lifeson, Getty Lee, and... Red Barchetta all over again. | ||
| Crusty |
Ourdee; That's the SX I got scooped on. | ||
| Court |
I see Cycletrader has 50 or 60 for sale that have been sitting for a while . . . I suspect that it would be little problem to find one. | ||
| Crusty |
It's going to happen. I will own an SX. Right now though , I'm focusing on a house in Cincinnati. I think there's hope on that horizon, but I don't want to speak prematurely. | ||
| Crusty |
Five Years Ago Today On March 6, 2012, my daughter and son in law drove me down to the U Mass Medical Center in Worcester, Massachusetts. I was clean shaven as the anesthesiologist had requested and had washed my entire body with the special disinfectant soap that the hospital had provided. After I waited for what seemed like hours in the Pre-op area, The staff let Megan and Rocco in so we could talk. A short time later, I said good bye to the kids and was wheeled into the O.R., then moved to the table and positioned optimally. Then I was given some extremely potent anesthetic, and that was all I knew for a long time. While I was unconscious, they cut me open like a baked stuffed lobster, lowered my body temperature, connected me to a heart and lung machine and cut the Aortic valve out of my heart, replacing it with a 21mm Stainless and Carbon valve. Then they warmed my blood back up and put me back together. It’s a day I won’t forget. I honestly thought I was never going to wake up from the surgery; yet I not only recovered, but my heart’s in the best shape it’s been in for my entire adult life. At my request, Megan took a picture of me in the ICU with her phone after many of the tubes were removed from my body.  (Message edited by Crusty on March 06, 2017) | ||
| Tootal |
Dude! You gotta carbon fiber heart valve!? That's COOOOOOL!  Total high performance induced! | ||
| Doz |
Crusty, check out craigs list in Saratoga | ||
| Crusty |
Doz; I looked, but I can't find it. That's OK; I'm not going to buy until after I get a house. A house is more of a priority at the present. Then I'll get the SX. | ||
| Crusty |
Greg; supposedly, the valve I got has shown 100% reliability over a 15 year span. The only reason the span is limited to 15 years is because it's only been produced for that long. Then again, it's been five years since I got my valve. That statistic might now be 100% over a 20 year span. I hope so. | ||
| Tootal |
Amazing technology! Certainly glad it's working! |
