Saturday, April 26, 2008

Wax On, Whacks Off

The first wash and wax. yo. Two pints of water; one slightly soapy, one not at all soapy. Eagle One Nanowax. Microfiber cloth. Zorbeez. Shiny Happy People.

Ooh! Ahh!

BOHICA!
.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Maybe Not So Uglee

The ride feels like... precision. It knows where it needs to go, and does so, effortlessly.

This is an excellent bike, folx.
.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Saturday, April 19, 2008

The Last 100 Minutes On The Map

... of the trip, that is. I got here about four hours ago, actually. However, the Mologogo/Motorola i425t combo works like a charm.

Now, if I could only find a 2500mAh battery for it... :) Maybe I can make one!
.

Friday, April 18, 2008

Tha Shizznizzle!



Hats off.
.

A Quick Stop By East Side Scooters

Just wanted to see if James was around. He wasn't, but his lovely bride, Josephine, was there. Always nice to see her. Remind me to pay her for an Agility 125 key blank... she didn't have the price in the 'puter, so she let me take it, anyway. I have to go in soon and have those new tires put on the Vino, y'know. And I'll probably order a new front tire for BRU, while I'm at it. The plug is holding fine, but I'm wary of any kind of front-end blow-out.

I reckon I'll write up my consumer jihad against Enterprise Rent-A-Car, tomorrow or Sunday. Depends on what they wanna do for me.

UPDATE: Oh! Forgot the important thang! ESS now carries Sym! That's in addition to Genuine and Kymco -- all fine, Taiwanese machinery. Go, Taiwan!

They presently stock a Fiddle, and a couple or three Mios. The Mio is super-cute... sweeter lookin' than the Honda Metropolitan, IMO. The Fiddle is 2-stroke, so it ought to torque up, nicely.
.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Fresh Earl. Synthetic Earl.


Yep. I drained Big Red Ugly's crankcase tonight, and put 0.9L of Pennzoil Platinum® Full Synthetic w/Superior Active Cleansing Agents in there, instead. 5W30, as Kwang Yang recommends, of course!

That ought to hold me for about 1600 miles.
.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Jeffraham The Giant Has A Posse

... or if he did, none would walk!
.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Where's Captain Kirk?


Step up, Enterprise. Step up.
.

The Agility Comes Home

As always, a day late and a dollar short. And, depending on the willingness of Enterprise Rent-A-Car to be reasonable, I will either be declaring absolute consumer jihad on them on the intarwebbs, or not.

See, they rented me a truck, understanding that I was going to load a scooter in it, and haul it home. Problem? They just got this truck days ago. It wasn't prepped to be rented. It had a temp tag, taped behind dark tinted glass (a TN violation); it had tags on the tires. Worst yet, it had a cheap Chinese plastic bedliner in it, with no fuckin' holes for access to the tie-down loops in the truck's bed...! Now, the manager said I could cut the holes, but is this marked on the liner? No. And why am I doing their fucking job for them? I'm not comfortable with cutting on a bedliner that ain't mine. I'm pretty sure the Full Monty insurance I bought would NOT cover that modification.

Four plastic clips are all that held the liner in, so I said "fuck it," and took it out. Left it at sittenpretty's, called Enterprise Rent-A-Car to give them the address where it could be retrieved, which they didn't take down. Enterprise employee said the liner HAD to come back, or I'd be dinged. I told 'em I'd let our attorneys work it out. "buh-BYE!" :)

Loaded the scooter, and on my way.

This shows not only where I was, but where I was born, and a lot of other places I've both been, and not been. :) I've lived my entire almost-45 years inside this map!

Thang is, Mologogo can only track like the last 100 minutes of a trip at any given time, unless you reset the polling interval (which I haven't looked into doing yet).
.

Friday, April 11, 2008

Administrivia


Under the terms of ICANN 1702.07(a), spammers may now suck my balls.

Comment moderation is ON, and will remain on.

Please feel free to comment. Your comments should normally be visible in an hour or two.

Sorry for the inconvenience, but there are some real assholes out there.
.

OHB Twists

Made a li'l trip to the NE sector, this early evening.

On a scooter, getting there is way more than half the fun. This isn't as scenic as the Trace, but from Germantown to Scottsboro, I had entire road to myself, almost. So peaceful.
.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Best Speedo

Isn't that the most kick'emass speedo, EVAR?
.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Natchez Trace

Yep. Been here about 14 years, and I've never been on the Trace, before today.

I've never eaten here, but driven by it many times. Stopped to get the photo, and to get that last smoke for the next 1:24.

Yes, there were motorcycles, galore, on the Trace. Lots of waving. Lots.

Motorcycles and convertibles. Ayup. I was the only scooter, though.

Redbuds over a split rail fence.

Scenic.

This here's the bridge that the former tenant of my condo unfortunately decided to take a header off of, to end his life.

Peoples walking across that mother. Dang.

A rewarding end to a rewarding ride. I only went as far as just southwest of Leiper's Fork, but that was enough. It was a little nervy, continually coming up on bicycles and/or oncoming cars in my lane, trying to avoid bicycles. Beautiful ride, though. I'll do more of it when it gets warmer.
.

Does Anyone Remember Milkmen?

I saw one of these, yesterday, while I was in midtown. It was white, obviously old, and obviously running well enough for someone to go shopping with it. It had one of the old milkman's home delivery boxes attached to the rack... am I giving away my age, here? Anyone remember those boxes? Thin, pebbled-finish aluminum skin, thin styrofoam lining?

UPDATE: Har!


.

Saturday, April 5, 2008

Corrupted Youth



.

Tryin' Out Big Brother II


View Larger Map

See the dusty blur? That's where the prison (a location of many recent prison flicks) be. The cheap gas is over there where you see semi-trailers (in front of the bus). There's a new Pilot station, there.

UPDATE: HOLEE CRAP! I found me! I'm about to pass the Google car; it's heading SW NW, coming off Louisiana (pan down to see the front of the car); me, NE. See me? That's me, on the Agility!


View Larger Map

UPDATE, 3/10/2012: The bastiges have re-photographed in Nashville, apparently! I'm no longer there in the new photos, of course.
.

Vino Friday

I got a pair of 12-LED 1157 bulbs -- one each for the respective taillights of the Vino and the P250 -- and installed them, Wednesday or Thursday evening. In the case of the Vino, it was "must have" if I were going to ride it, as the lens replacement for the taillight won't be in until later this coming week, 'cause I ordered an oil-filler lid as well, and that was backordered. Yes, Tennessee, like all wise states, does not allow white light to issue from the rear of any vehicle on the road, unless it is IN REVERSE, in which case, it's required (except for motorcycles and scooters). It's a safety/confusion thang. :)

For the P250, I figure everything I can do to lessen the current draw, the better and longer my evil GPS system can operate, unattended.

Anywhoo... where was I? Oh, yeah! Riding the Vino!

I rode it to work, Friday, in a frog-stranglin' rain. I even wore aquasox (Nike; they don't seem to make them, anymore), knowing I'd be splashing through some puddles. It wasn't the rain, I swear... but the Vino just felt... twitchy. It's like I could think of moving my hip, and switch lanes.

Yeah, these two bikes are very different, indeed.

This all still works, btw... but... for how long? Dunno. I wonder if I can glue a Petri dish to the top of it.
.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Nuke It From Orbit

It's the only way to be sure.

Look at all the nature I have nearby. The terrain west of me reminds me of home.
.

She's Dead, Jim

Those idjit lights on the panel? They have a function.

Not so much the lit one -- the one to the right of it.

Yep. Left the seat latch open, and the battery died.

Luckily, the VU police are on top of their game, and gave me a boost. So, I was an hour late getting home. So what? I didn't have to walk!
.

Um... WTF?

I've seen some wack translations before, but this one at Yamaha Taiwan takes the cake. I wonder if that's Google's fault... and what does Kyrgyzstan have to do with it?

h/t The Scooter Scoop.
.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Google Street View Freakout

Click it, then go back or forward on 31st, there.

Whoa. It's like a tear in the time-space continuum, innit?

Found this looking for me on my scooter. I know I passed that sucker, either right frickin' here, or somewhere on this street, or this street, but danged if I can find me.
.