This clearly shows the snow that blocked our path a few miles up the Alpine Loop. Hence the thumb pointed downward.
Matt and his bike.
A little Utah Valley view action below us at the Squaw Peak Overlook.
Behold the 90's!
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Pictures from yesterday
Here are the pictures from yesterday's ride. The other dude is my buddy Matt Schroeder, and the red Honda Super Hawk is his. The orange bike is another friend's (Adam), and it is the Kawasaki ZX-7R he is letting me borrow for a while. Enjoy!
This clearly shows the snow that blocked our path a few miles up the Alpine Loop. Hence the thumb pointed downward.
Matt and his bike.
A little Utah Valley view action below us at the Squaw Peak Overlook.
Behold the 90's!
This clearly shows the snow that blocked our path a few miles up the Alpine Loop. Hence the thumb pointed downward.
Matt and his bike.
A little Utah Valley view action below us at the Squaw Peak Overlook.
Behold the 90's!
Saturday, May 9, 2009
I love t-shirts
So I always have ideas for T-shirts. If anyone has any feedback, I would love it. Here are two - unless I think of any others:
I'm not from Utah
Miltantly Moderate
Here is one of my favorite T-shirts of all time. Enjoy!
I'm not from Utah
Miltantly Moderate
Here is one of my favorite T-shirts of all time. Enjoy!
Lots of milk before today's entree
This morning I went for the most awesome ride of my short riding career. Riding my foolish buddy's Kawasaki ZX-7R 750cc bullet bike, I met up with a friend at a local gas station and headed out for some brisk canyon air.
First stop was Squaw Peak Road - and by "stop" I mean dashing up the mountain. It was some kinda crazy because there was the occasional gravel, and I haven't actually been all the way up the road in at least a year and a half. I took it easy on every turn because a) I am new to this thing, b) there could be gravel, c) there could be people or suicidal longboarders and d) I am new.
I got to lean over good and far - and that is awesome. I was deluded into thinking that I was over far enough to be able to scrape my knee if I were to stick it out. My friend, Matt, told me, "no." The air was crisp enough to keep the engine very cool even without the fan - I would have to stop for a while to get the engine anywhere beyond warm. At the top of the mountain - well, at the overlook parking lot - the bikes looked glorious together. Well, they looked like relics from the mid-90's in their bright orange and red paint. My wrists were already aching, but I had a ways to go.
I followed Matt down the mountain, and it was mildly frightening. It was so much steeper going down the mountain on a bike than ever before - except that time in a Jeep with bad brakes. For those who don't know, Squaw Peak Road twists up the side of a mountain just East of North Provo. The road has no guardrail, and it has lots of what rally drivers call "exposures." This means cliffs next to the road that mean certain levels of dismemberment at least - but more likely death. This is where the fear and the carefulness came from. People ride and drive and skate it all the time, and I never hear of people getting hurt. That said, I have considered killing some brazenly stupid skaters with a well-timed smack. Actually, just a really hard smack at any time. But I digress.
From the bottom of Squaw Peak Road, we zipped farther into the canyon to the road that leads up to the Alpine Loop and past Sundance. Heading down Provo Canyon was intense. The road was very bumpy, and sitting down through all that was a little unnerving at the speeds we were going. So I stood up just a little bit, and suddenly the bike settles down, I stopped bouncing, and the game got less interesting - which was good at this juncture.
At last we past the tunnel and turned on the road we were aiming for. Matt was still leading, so he was setting a pace that was both comfortable and challenging. It was pretty cool. I left the bike in third at about 60 mph or so when I slowed enough to check. The scenery was beautiful, but the stream was off the opposite side of the road, so I didn't get a glimpse until on the way down. We slowed slightly as we passed the resorts and camping areas and stuff, and we got up to the gate to the famed Alpine Loop. Which was closed save for a small opening for hikers and bikers. And us.
The first few hundred yards were littered with pine cones - thickly. Pine cones are in the same neighborhood as wet leaves, but a few blocks away from ball bearings. Then we came to our first large branch across the road followed by a big patch of snow blocking progress for the weak. We slowed down and slipped through a narrow gap in the snow. The road was narrow and smattered with branches and pine cones and the occasional snow patch, but as we continued on, the snow became more prevalent. And the snow invovled us tiptoeing across an 8" strip of wet pavement between thick snow and plunging canyon depths. After several of these we came to a portion that was blocked off for at least a hundred feet to the next turn and presumably beyond. We stopped there for a while before we headed back.
I led on the way back, and I kept things tame - going back to the newness and fear stuff. As we headed down the larger road, the first 2 or three cars either moved to the side to let us pass ot turned somewhere else. But then we came up to the back of a BMW X5 SUV. We came up to his tailpipe quickly, and then instead of moving over, he took off. Impressively, following behind this person saw us turning up the pace from what we were doing before, but it also lowered the stakes because I knew that whatever it could do, I could, too. This relaxing feature of the chase gave me time enough to see the rushing stream next to me - and it was stunning. Then I looked back to the road.
The guy must have lived on the road somewhere, because he only hit his brakes once while I chased him, and it was quite the road with even a few blind turns. At the bottom, I pulled right behond him as he turned down the road, and I blasted behind him, passing him on the left. Matt and I never saw him again as we zipped out, but we both decide the Bimmer dude was awesome. I guess Matt has ridden that road a lot, and he said he had never seen anybody on 4 wheels take that road that fast before. So props to the Bimmer.
It is really incredible to take 85 mph turns leaning a ways, and it sticks with you. The endorphins chased away a lot of stress. The only real downside is the noise - I should have brought earplugs because that was stinkin loud.
Matt and I stopped where we started - at the gas station by the stadium. After reliving the better parts of the ride, and celebrating the X5 some more, we discussed fun issues with having babies - his wife is due for their first next month, and went home. And it was awesome.
First stop was Squaw Peak Road - and by "stop" I mean dashing up the mountain. It was some kinda crazy because there was the occasional gravel, and I haven't actually been all the way up the road in at least a year and a half. I took it easy on every turn because a) I am new to this thing, b) there could be gravel, c) there could be people or suicidal longboarders and d) I am new.
I got to lean over good and far - and that is awesome. I was deluded into thinking that I was over far enough to be able to scrape my knee if I were to stick it out. My friend, Matt, told me, "no." The air was crisp enough to keep the engine very cool even without the fan - I would have to stop for a while to get the engine anywhere beyond warm. At the top of the mountain - well, at the overlook parking lot - the bikes looked glorious together. Well, they looked like relics from the mid-90's in their bright orange and red paint. My wrists were already aching, but I had a ways to go.
I followed Matt down the mountain, and it was mildly frightening. It was so much steeper going down the mountain on a bike than ever before - except that time in a Jeep with bad brakes. For those who don't know, Squaw Peak Road twists up the side of a mountain just East of North Provo. The road has no guardrail, and it has lots of what rally drivers call "exposures." This means cliffs next to the road that mean certain levels of dismemberment at least - but more likely death. This is where the fear and the carefulness came from. People ride and drive and skate it all the time, and I never hear of people getting hurt. That said, I have considered killing some brazenly stupid skaters with a well-timed smack. Actually, just a really hard smack at any time. But I digress.
From the bottom of Squaw Peak Road, we zipped farther into the canyon to the road that leads up to the Alpine Loop and past Sundance. Heading down Provo Canyon was intense. The road was very bumpy, and sitting down through all that was a little unnerving at the speeds we were going. So I stood up just a little bit, and suddenly the bike settles down, I stopped bouncing, and the game got less interesting - which was good at this juncture.
At last we past the tunnel and turned on the road we were aiming for. Matt was still leading, so he was setting a pace that was both comfortable and challenging. It was pretty cool. I left the bike in third at about 60 mph or so when I slowed enough to check. The scenery was beautiful, but the stream was off the opposite side of the road, so I didn't get a glimpse until on the way down. We slowed slightly as we passed the resorts and camping areas and stuff, and we got up to the gate to the famed Alpine Loop. Which was closed save for a small opening for hikers and bikers. And us.
The first few hundred yards were littered with pine cones - thickly. Pine cones are in the same neighborhood as wet leaves, but a few blocks away from ball bearings. Then we came to our first large branch across the road followed by a big patch of snow blocking progress for the weak. We slowed down and slipped through a narrow gap in the snow. The road was narrow and smattered with branches and pine cones and the occasional snow patch, but as we continued on, the snow became more prevalent. And the snow invovled us tiptoeing across an 8" strip of wet pavement between thick snow and plunging canyon depths. After several of these we came to a portion that was blocked off for at least a hundred feet to the next turn and presumably beyond. We stopped there for a while before we headed back.
I led on the way back, and I kept things tame - going back to the newness and fear stuff. As we headed down the larger road, the first 2 or three cars either moved to the side to let us pass ot turned somewhere else. But then we came up to the back of a BMW X5 SUV. We came up to his tailpipe quickly, and then instead of moving over, he took off. Impressively, following behind this person saw us turning up the pace from what we were doing before, but it also lowered the stakes because I knew that whatever it could do, I could, too. This relaxing feature of the chase gave me time enough to see the rushing stream next to me - and it was stunning. Then I looked back to the road.
The guy must have lived on the road somewhere, because he only hit his brakes once while I chased him, and it was quite the road with even a few blind turns. At the bottom, I pulled right behond him as he turned down the road, and I blasted behind him, passing him on the left. Matt and I never saw him again as we zipped out, but we both decide the Bimmer dude was awesome. I guess Matt has ridden that road a lot, and he said he had never seen anybody on 4 wheels take that road that fast before. So props to the Bimmer.
It is really incredible to take 85 mph turns leaning a ways, and it sticks with you. The endorphins chased away a lot of stress. The only real downside is the noise - I should have brought earplugs because that was stinkin loud.
Matt and I stopped where we started - at the gas station by the stadium. After reliving the better parts of the ride, and celebrating the X5 some more, we discussed fun issues with having babies - his wife is due for their first next month, and went home. And it was awesome.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Motostatus
So I sold my motorcycle a couple of weeks ago for considerably less than I could have a year ago. I would miss it more, except a friend let me borrow his bike for a month while he is in Jersey for a month.
I am currently riding a 2002 Kawasaki ZX-7R 750cc bullet bike. The thing is capable of being a monster, but it can also be quite benign. Theoretically, it is capable of 171 mph, but I have not yet topped 100. It was once a bright, iridescent orange with tinges of yellow from certain angles. Now it largely still is the same, but with some sun-faded salmony-pink spots.
I will be posting pictures at some point, but I will just share some impressions now. The thing is fast. It flat scoots. I don't exactly know how to launch a bike properly, and I don't want to do that to my friend's bike he is so generously lending to me, so I just take off slowly from a standstill and roll on the throttle once underway. And then the magic happens.
Riding the Zx-7R down the street is rather like how I would imagine puttering a full-blown racing car around town. It handles plenty sweetly at normal, sane speeds, and the engine works great at low revs and small throttle openings. The on-off throttle transition, sometimes snatchy on fuel-injected bikes, is smooth as silk thanks to the old, tried and tested carburetion. This of course means that mornings after chilly nights requiring pulling the choke lever, but it gets warm enough for low-speed operation quickly.
With the bike in a relatively high gear and with relatively low revs, the engine pulls hard when the time comes to pass someone. It accelerates in exactly the same way I would ideally want a car to do in normal traffic. If I want to get around someone, I just get past them with no shifting - regardless of whether some ego trip sees them wanting me to not pass them. If I let the revs climb, acceleration goes from quick to manic.
A few times, I have let the revs zoom past 10,000, and it gets scary. My vision goes tunnel-ly, adrenaline pumps, and I split my vision between the road and making sure the revs don't pass the 12,500 rpm redline. The engine peaks at 126 hp somewhere in the upper reaches there, and I can feel every one of them ponies. The chassis is solid and comfortable, but it is rather heavy by today's standards which all but disappears at speed.
Shifting gears is beautiful on the Kawi. The gearbox feels accurate and positive, although when it warms up, I sometimes shift into neutral instead of 1st or 2nd. I haven't done much fun turning, but I hope to hit up Squaw Peak Road this weekend with some buddies. What I have done has shown me that the bike likes to turn and likes leaning. If I was more of a rider with real riding pants on my own bike, the width of the bike would probably prove a liability. This is easily the widest bike I have ridden yet. That said, I don't expect to scratch the peg feelers anytime too soon.
It has an almost bizarre feeling in the turns; it feels comfortable and yet unstable at the same time. It feels good to turn, but it always feels ready for something different like it doesn't want to do steady-state cornering. The steering is a little heavy, but so am I, and I don't mind applying a little heft to the bars to get the machine cranked over.
It is fun to put some work into a little ride and get some adrenaline pumping, and then come back down to earth. I like to get a little scared at the intimidating acceleration, and come home and have a neighbor casually ask how things are going. In my mind, I am thinking about the intensity of the experience I just had, but it can't be related. I say, "I'm good," kind of chuckling to myself about how excited I feel or felt. I didn't really have any idea what kind of performance was actually available for any old punk with the jonesing to go fast.
I know some gullible, trusting people who let me ride some intense machinery. The irony is that the bikes people don't let me ride are generally far tamer than the ones I can borrow for an extended time. I can't fault anybody for not wanting a still relatively inexperienced yahoo on their baby, but the paradox is startling. That said, having friends who let me ride extreme near-race bikes for a month at a time more than makes up for it.
I am currently riding a 2002 Kawasaki ZX-7R 750cc bullet bike. The thing is capable of being a monster, but it can also be quite benign. Theoretically, it is capable of 171 mph, but I have not yet topped 100. It was once a bright, iridescent orange with tinges of yellow from certain angles. Now it largely still is the same, but with some sun-faded salmony-pink spots.
I will be posting pictures at some point, but I will just share some impressions now. The thing is fast. It flat scoots. I don't exactly know how to launch a bike properly, and I don't want to do that to my friend's bike he is so generously lending to me, so I just take off slowly from a standstill and roll on the throttle once underway. And then the magic happens.
Riding the Zx-7R down the street is rather like how I would imagine puttering a full-blown racing car around town. It handles plenty sweetly at normal, sane speeds, and the engine works great at low revs and small throttle openings. The on-off throttle transition, sometimes snatchy on fuel-injected bikes, is smooth as silk thanks to the old, tried and tested carburetion. This of course means that mornings after chilly nights requiring pulling the choke lever, but it gets warm enough for low-speed operation quickly.
With the bike in a relatively high gear and with relatively low revs, the engine pulls hard when the time comes to pass someone. It accelerates in exactly the same way I would ideally want a car to do in normal traffic. If I want to get around someone, I just get past them with no shifting - regardless of whether some ego trip sees them wanting me to not pass them. If I let the revs climb, acceleration goes from quick to manic.
A few times, I have let the revs zoom past 10,000, and it gets scary. My vision goes tunnel-ly, adrenaline pumps, and I split my vision between the road and making sure the revs don't pass the 12,500 rpm redline. The engine peaks at 126 hp somewhere in the upper reaches there, and I can feel every one of them ponies. The chassis is solid and comfortable, but it is rather heavy by today's standards which all but disappears at speed.
Shifting gears is beautiful on the Kawi. The gearbox feels accurate and positive, although when it warms up, I sometimes shift into neutral instead of 1st or 2nd. I haven't done much fun turning, but I hope to hit up Squaw Peak Road this weekend with some buddies. What I have done has shown me that the bike likes to turn and likes leaning. If I was more of a rider with real riding pants on my own bike, the width of the bike would probably prove a liability. This is easily the widest bike I have ridden yet. That said, I don't expect to scratch the peg feelers anytime too soon.
It has an almost bizarre feeling in the turns; it feels comfortable and yet unstable at the same time. It feels good to turn, but it always feels ready for something different like it doesn't want to do steady-state cornering. The steering is a little heavy, but so am I, and I don't mind applying a little heft to the bars to get the machine cranked over.
It is fun to put some work into a little ride and get some adrenaline pumping, and then come back down to earth. I like to get a little scared at the intimidating acceleration, and come home and have a neighbor casually ask how things are going. In my mind, I am thinking about the intensity of the experience I just had, but it can't be related. I say, "I'm good," kind of chuckling to myself about how excited I feel or felt. I didn't really have any idea what kind of performance was actually available for any old punk with the jonesing to go fast.
I know some gullible, trusting people who let me ride some intense machinery. The irony is that the bikes people don't let me ride are generally far tamer than the ones I can borrow for an extended time. I can't fault anybody for not wanting a still relatively inexperienced yahoo on their baby, but the paradox is startling. That said, having friends who let me ride extreme near-race bikes for a month at a time more than makes up for it.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
New Title
So I just changed the name of my blog to "Rants about whatever." This will be among the first to illustrate the reduction in focus.
Can I get some feedback on how socialist our country is going so quickly? We just had the first 100 days of Obama. People keep pointing to how incredible it is that we have a black president. So what?!?! Who cares about his skin color and ethnicity? If you like it or not, you have some bigotry issues. I see only red when he speaks. With a gold hammer and sickle.
100 days has brought huge amounts of banking control under the oligarchy's control. 100 days saw the start of the process of our country's leaders taking control of on of the biggest segments within. Good for the American people? What do they know? These people have a history of politicking and lobbying and compromising and embellishing and sneaking. They don't know engineering. They don't know design. They sure don't know chemistry and physics and apparently economics. They don't even know geography and agriculture. Why are they sticking their grubby hands in all of it?
America became great through some laissez faire thinking with some small amount of regulation. Communist Russia and the Eastern Bloc fell through government totalitarianism and micromanagement. Emulating those great icons of self-serviance will get us nowhere good.
How is it that so many young people in America who are so interested, supposedly, in individual freedom, choice, and individuality jumped so eagerly on the bandwagon? Obama, when he wanted kids to listen, spoke constantly of "change" with little specifics. When he spoke specifically, he spoke of government hands-on. Our budget deficit was bad before, but look what the Obamination has provided ALREADY!
Why is not more of the country fearing for every last liberty when Obamadministration steamrolls ideals and rights they claim inhibit the "greater good?" We believe in a privatized economy for some very real reasons. We believe in the 1st and 2nd Amendments for even more easily understandable reasons. We need to protect all of our rights from invasive government. The Constitution was not ratified until those first 10 were included. Why remove guns from the hands and practice of law-abiding citizens? Because non-gun-enthusiasts think it is ridiculous? How do they think that disarming good people will protect good people? Bad people are already getting guns.
And Janet Napolitano? Really?!?! This is the woman who, as governor of Arizona, faced a $90 Million deficit. Did she consider how to cut spending? No! She brought in tons of traffic cameras to violate the basic rights of her constituents to have them bankroll her overspending. Now she runs Homeland Security. She is busy telling law enforcement agencies to beware veterans because of their supposed higher risk of joining terrorist groups. Then, she can't bring herself to say that Islamic Jihadists are the ones we are fighting in Asia right now. And, this just in, she is apparently on the shortlist for the soon-to-be-vacant Supreme Court Justice position. Oh yeah, and she released and retracted her very awesome Domestic Extremism Lexicon. Lou Dobbs was something south of shy in demanding she be fired along with all others involved with the lexicon this evening on his show. I tend to agree - she seems to be one of a long list of nutcases placed in positions of dangerous power by a "leader" obsessed with changing things that haven't been changed yet.
I am fine with change when it needs changing. Well, I am fine with it provided it is changed properly. A sick person ought to have his status changed - but not by killing him. That is change, all right, but rather extreme. Yes, the auto industry needs change. What American businesses do not need, however, is high-level meddling. Their own corporate structure had too much meddling with too little front-line empowerment. As a trained manufacturing engineer, I have leaned about how to improve organizations quite a lot, and mighty Toyota effected great change on a micro scale by empowering every Toyota employee to change. All those micro changes netted the most powerful automotive company today. A certain one of the Big 3 incorporated some of that philosophy with a healthy dose of Dr. Deming, and Ford is the healthiest of the American automakers.
We want change? We need every available American on-board to make it happen. It needs to happen from the bottom-up, and we need to stop trying to do it the other way around before we cause irreparable damage. Or better yet, we need to change our perspective and see America as a group of individuals who are held up by organizations below and then go top-down. President Obama has an important position at the bottom of that teetering triangle, and he needs to assist the rest of us to be what we need to. He doesn't need to play puppet-master.
Check out Dr. Deming - he is very impressive.
Can I get some feedback on how socialist our country is going so quickly? We just had the first 100 days of Obama. People keep pointing to how incredible it is that we have a black president. So what?!?! Who cares about his skin color and ethnicity? If you like it or not, you have some bigotry issues. I see only red when he speaks. With a gold hammer and sickle.
100 days has brought huge amounts of banking control under the oligarchy's control. 100 days saw the start of the process of our country's leaders taking control of on of the biggest segments within. Good for the American people? What do they know? These people have a history of politicking and lobbying and compromising and embellishing and sneaking. They don't know engineering. They don't know design. They sure don't know chemistry and physics and apparently economics. They don't even know geography and agriculture. Why are they sticking their grubby hands in all of it?
America became great through some laissez faire thinking with some small amount of regulation. Communist Russia and the Eastern Bloc fell through government totalitarianism and micromanagement. Emulating those great icons of self-serviance will get us nowhere good.
How is it that so many young people in America who are so interested, supposedly, in individual freedom, choice, and individuality jumped so eagerly on the bandwagon? Obama, when he wanted kids to listen, spoke constantly of "change" with little specifics. When he spoke specifically, he spoke of government hands-on. Our budget deficit was bad before, but look what the Obamination has provided ALREADY!
Why is not more of the country fearing for every last liberty when Obamadministration steamrolls ideals and rights they claim inhibit the "greater good?" We believe in a privatized economy for some very real reasons. We believe in the 1st and 2nd Amendments for even more easily understandable reasons. We need to protect all of our rights from invasive government. The Constitution was not ratified until those first 10 were included. Why remove guns from the hands and practice of law-abiding citizens? Because non-gun-enthusiasts think it is ridiculous? How do they think that disarming good people will protect good people? Bad people are already getting guns.
And Janet Napolitano? Really?!?! This is the woman who, as governor of Arizona, faced a $90 Million deficit. Did she consider how to cut spending? No! She brought in tons of traffic cameras to violate the basic rights of her constituents to have them bankroll her overspending. Now she runs Homeland Security. She is busy telling law enforcement agencies to beware veterans because of their supposed higher risk of joining terrorist groups. Then, she can't bring herself to say that Islamic Jihadists are the ones we are fighting in Asia right now. And, this just in, she is apparently on the shortlist for the soon-to-be-vacant Supreme Court Justice position. Oh yeah, and she released and retracted her very awesome Domestic Extremism Lexicon. Lou Dobbs was something south of shy in demanding she be fired along with all others involved with the lexicon this evening on his show. I tend to agree - she seems to be one of a long list of nutcases placed in positions of dangerous power by a "leader" obsessed with changing things that haven't been changed yet.
I am fine with change when it needs changing. Well, I am fine with it provided it is changed properly. A sick person ought to have his status changed - but not by killing him. That is change, all right, but rather extreme. Yes, the auto industry needs change. What American businesses do not need, however, is high-level meddling. Their own corporate structure had too much meddling with too little front-line empowerment. As a trained manufacturing engineer, I have leaned about how to improve organizations quite a lot, and mighty Toyota effected great change on a micro scale by empowering every Toyota employee to change. All those micro changes netted the most powerful automotive company today. A certain one of the Big 3 incorporated some of that philosophy with a healthy dose of Dr. Deming, and Ford is the healthiest of the American automakers.
We want change? We need every available American on-board to make it happen. It needs to happen from the bottom-up, and we need to stop trying to do it the other way around before we cause irreparable damage. Or better yet, we need to change our perspective and see America as a group of individuals who are held up by organizations below and then go top-down. President Obama has an important position at the bottom of that teetering triangle, and he needs to assist the rest of us to be what we need to. He doesn't need to play puppet-master.
Check out Dr. Deming - he is very impressive.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
